22 Jul 2006 Upgrading brake o-rings
There have been many brake fires on RVs and other aircraft. These are usually caused by the type of brake fluid used in many aircraft. The most common fluid is MIL 5056, which has a...
Fuselage
17 Jul 2006 RV4 relief tube setup
Here are some pictures of a relief tube setup on a local RV4. This aircraft was flown from Texas to Switzerland, and this configuration got a lot of use for both a male and female pilot....
26 Jun 2006 Cowling exit ramp
Update 20210918: I didn't install the Eggenfellner Subaru engine, so any post that references that can be ignored or used as a cautionary tale about how to avoid wasting many years and $50k. I replaced...
22 Feb 2006 Stainless Steel firewall penetration
Update 20210918: I didn't install the Eggenfellner Subaru engine, so any post that references that can be ignored or used as a cautionary tale about how to avoid wasting many years and $50k. I use...
04 Feb 2006 Glareshield Edging
Got this from Kevin Horton, originally posted by RV-6 builder Mark Nielsen: ============================== For my glareshield, I mounted a piece of 3/8" soft aluminum tubing (same as fuel line) along the aft edge of the glareshield. I cut...
20 Jan 2006 Difficult rivets on F821PP skin
I've got to find a solution to getting rivets in these two places. The problem is that the engine mount is almost touching the hole. I can't even get a pop rivet in there. I'm...
04 Jan 2006 Flap fairings
These are just some pictures of my flap fairings. There have been some questions about them, and I realized I didn't have any photos of them at all. I didn't have too much trouble putting them...
15 Dec 2005 Holes for getting wire from wings to fuselage
I drilled the holes to allow the conduit in the wings to come into the fuselage. This was tricky since I had to measure pretty precisely the location. Of course, if I'm off a bit...
10 Dec 2005 Fairings-ETC RV8 Grove gear fairings
I got a set of gear intersection fairings for my RV8 with Grove airfoil gear. They are really nice. Only one small problem, the right upper fairing does not quite fit. The left fits perfectly. Here's...
08 Dec 2005 Rear Stick Cover Part 1
Here I describe the rear stick cover. I bought the cover from GeoBeck, Inc., a.k.a. George and Becki Orndorff (no longer active, apparently) with my seats. The cover comes with a diagram of how to...
08 Dec 2005 Rear Stick Cover Part 2
Continued from Rear Stick Cover Part 1 Here's what the cover looks like with the leather on there. Notice the super-cool aluminum air vent, acquired in a pair for 30 USD at SNF'04. Nice view from the...
29 Sep 2005 Tailwheel Steering link
I installed the tailwheel steering link from Terry Jantzi. http://www.iwantarocket.com/ It took about 5 minutes, including drilling and reaming the hole on the rudder horn to 3/16" for the AN3 bolt. ...
21 Sep 2005 Canopy Stop – Rear
To keep the canopy from going too far back, some kind of stop is needed. I installed a scrap piece of delrin and installed it with a couple of screws. Turned out ok, and it's...
20 Sep 2005 Hooker Harness
Got a small problem with the hooker harness I bought. I've got the 5-point attachment with a Schroth rotary buckle. Very nice stuff. I bought them from Mark Frederick of Team Rocket for a good...
15 Sep 2005 starting on the cowl
I'm just now starting on the cowl. I got some serious hints from J. Daniels on how to do it. He's got a great site. The first thing I've decided to do is to try to...
14 Sep 2005 Cowl gap near spinner
Just starting on the cowl, and there is a nasty gap between the cowl and the spinner. Here is the right side with the pretty large gap. Here is the left which shows the spinner and the...
20 Aug 2005 Skybolt Fasteners for the Cowl
I bought the skybolt fastener kit for the cowling. It was kind of expensive (about 250 USD). I got only the firewall part - I plan to use hinges for the horizontal top to bottom...
08 Aug 2005 Canopy stop
I had been using a plunger type canopy stop, but I recently saw something cool on a few RV8s - a kind of cam shaped canopy stop. The advantage of the cam shaped canopy stop is...
19 Jul 2005 Brake lines for the Grove gear
This is a continuation of the original article on Wheels and Brakes. I was not too comfortable with the short aluminium tubes that hooked up the brakes to the Grove gear. You can see photos of...
05 Jul 2005 Canopy Skirt 1 – initial fitting
The canopy skirt is supposed to be one of the more difficult parts of the project. Now that the canopy is glued on, it's time to bite the bullet and start on the skirt. One...
27 Jun 2005 Canopy, final touch ups, page 6
Continued from Canopy, page 5 My first attempt at gluing turned out to be cosmetically a bit of a mess. Structurally, it is sound, but I didn't want to look at black boogers every time I...
16 Jun 2005 Canopy, final trim, Page 4
Canopy, the big cut, Page 3 Here I'm doing the final trim on the canopy, and I've make my first mistake (on the canopy, that is). Here you can see that I am cutting out the...
16 Jun 2005 Canopy, priming and gluing, Page 5
This article is continued from Canopy, final trim, Page 4 Once the canopy is trimmed, the surfaces to be glued need to be prepared. To prepare the canopy frame, I scuffed it up with a maroon...
14 Jun 2005 Canopy, the big cut, page 3
This article is continued from Canopy, Page 2 I read on another builder's site that you should make the big cut (split the canopy from the windscreen) a bit earlier than Van's recommends. This turned out...
14 Jun 2005 Canopy Frame
The canopy frame needs a few things done to it before it is ready for the canopy. These are fairly well described in the instructions. Here is the rear slider block. The instructions say to drill...