I’m working on the Radio Antenna and the Transponder Antenna, while my dad is finishing the Empennage. With the Antenna’s installed we can start working on the Canopy.

The installation is simple, just insert the two Canopy rollers on the front and attach the rear to the slider block. The hard part is the seal block that slides after the slider block.

Removel af the paint paper needs to be done with care, since it could rip the paint.

The painters-tape is everywhere, to prevent the inside of the cockpit being painted. But now we have to remove all the painters-tape.

Done, the Canopy is installed. Here’s a nice top view. Next up is the Airmaster Propeller.

Ok, this one could have been done after the Wings, but the bottom side of the left Wing requires a registration number and that is easier to install while in the cradle.

There are 6 bolts with Drive Lugs that connect the Propeller to the Flange. Airmaster does NOT use Bolts that require safety wiring, but NordLock Washers instead. You have to be careful, it turns out NordLock washers can only be used twice, before you have to buy new ones.

When everything is installed, I can install the Spinner.

The Propeller Pitch Control brushes needs to be close to the Slipring on the Prop.

Now we can prepare the Wings. First thing is installing the Aileron Pushrods. Once the Aileron Pushrods are installed, we can install the connecting Pushrod to the Aileron.

The default setting of the Pushrods can be set with the Aileron template in the Van’s kit. This piece of Aluminum is easily overlooked as useful, because it is not a piece of the Aircraft, but a measuring template.

Yes, here is Cees, who did the paint job on the Plane. He also created the decals for all plackards and registration signs.

I still think the registration is too big and useless considering the Transponder, but it’s regulation so ….

Damn, I’m really proud and it feels we are getting there.

This is why we didn’t install the Wings yet. This is the bottom of the left Wing and it’s much easier to stick the registration decals on it while standing up than laying on the ground.

Check it out, PH-MNX, it looks great.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-09-15)

Video

One solution is installing Cowl Louvers and I ordered them with the kit, just in case (this case!). I drilled big holes at both ends of the slits.

I use the Dremel to open up the slits by cutting between the holes. I don’t wear a respirator that much and I’m not a Covid-nut, but trimming Carbon is probably a great time to wear one.

Maybe I also should wear one during filing Carbon, but I really don’t think they are very comfortable, so … there’s that.
Anyway, filing the slits as close as straight as possible.

The final step is using sandpaper an a stick of wood to finish of the edges of the slits. As you can see I already picked up some Carbon dust on my cheeks.

The Cowl Louvers are riveted to the carbon cowl with flush rivets. So besides drilling the rivet holes, they also need to be counter sunk.

Apart from the Cowl Louvers, I was also measuring the optional mufflers. However, the sound of the engine is great and the mufflers too big, so I dropped that option.

My face starts to look like a miner, but instead of soot it is carbon dust (probably just as bad). Finishing of the oil cooler air duct, the trick is too keep some distance between the air duct and the oil cooler. The last half inch is filled with a silicone strip that is also used for the baffles. This provides a flexible fitting.

I’m checking the distance between the air cooler and the air duct, to see if the clearance is big enough.

Time to continue with the Cowl Louvers. We attach them to the cowl with Cleco’s to prepare them for the riveting.

Because of the ‘flaps’ on the inside you can only use the cleco’s on the outside.

Since the edge distance is too big, we can’t use the squeezer. So we use the rivet gun and bucking bar. Careful around the bend ‘flaps’. Maybe it was better to bend them after riveting.

Yip it looks great.

I installed the silicone strips with small Aluminum strips that hold plate nuts. You can’t directly rivet silicone, it will tear easily. Also you don’t want to use nuts here close to the propeller. So plate nuts is the best solution. It also provides some maintainability advantages.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-19)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-22)

Video

I want to have a close fit between the spinner and the cowl. However I found out later, that I was missing a part in the Engine package, which is the Reducer Flange.

This screwed up my tight fit as the thickness of the Reducer Flange is 3 mm, so the gap between the Cowl and Spinner is now 3 mm larger than I planned. Not a big problem, but still something I don’t like.

To prevent the spinner from being scratched, I only use it to measure and create a MDF template that I can use to attache the Cowl for trimming. Fortunately the spinner was transported to me from New Zealand on a ‘plate’ that can be transformed to a template.

Here you can see the template up close. On the Van’s RV models, the cowl are not screwed together and to the fuselage, but they are attached with piano-hinges, to create an ‘invisible’ connection. The piano-hinges are riveted together with the firewall to the fuselage.

Now I can shift the Top Cowl all the way forward against the template. And you can see the cowl sticks a few inches over the firewall. Also there is no hole in the front of the cowl, hence the forward part is still too high.

I’m cutting the forward part of the cowl to make a ‘hole’ where the crank-shaft flange ca stick to. Turns out the hole must be much bigger, but with cutting, I’m always conservative. Especially with an expensive part as the Cowl, you can’t afford a mistake.

Now the front part of the Cowl can ‘sink’ over the axle to the correct position. We fasten the cowl to the template and fix it with clamps.

We trim the cowl in two stages. First we trim it to approximately one inch from the firewall. This is still ‘save’, but gives us the opportunity to mark it for final trimming.

We mark the forward fuselage skin exactly 2 inches from the front. This way we can attach the cowl and still see the markings.

Now we mark the same 2 inch on the cowl and ‘in theory’ that would make it flush with the fuselage. Again I keep a millimetre margin on the save side.

Turns out that carbon is hard on the Dremel disks and they wear really fast. But using sandpaper for the last inch works great. You have to be careful, because the sandpaper cuts into the carbon.

With the cowl fixed to the piano-hinges, I installed the spinner and the distance between the spinner and cowl is a tight fit.

I’m really proud on the result. Too bad I was missing a part, so this tight fit is not here to stay.

We use the same strategy with the bottom cowl. However we can’t fit it, because the sump is in the way. I have to cut a hole in the bottom of the cowl so we can fit it.

Also the gear legs ‘stick’ out forward of the firewall. I have to cut holes in the bottom edges to fit around the gear legs.

These don’t have to be very precise, there are Intersection Fairings that cover the area between the gear leg fairing and the bottom cowl.

Here you can see we made a cutout for the sump in the bottom. This hole needs to be enlarged and covered with the air-duct for the oil cooler.

Here is the result with both the Cowl and the Spinner (including the extra Flange). Also the Sump and oil cooler are sticking out and I’ve marked the oil door with tape.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-03-06)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-03-10)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 40/0  (2021-03-14)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 30/0  (2021-03-17)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 12/0  (2021-03-21)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 41/6  (2021-03-24)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-03-28)

Video

The Wind Screen is the part that is left after cutting the ‘bubble’ in two parts. The aft part is for the Canopy, while the front part is the basis for the Wind Screen.

These two parts should almost touch when the Canopy closes. To make this work, some care must be taken to make it fit. I thought cutting it in two parts would make a perfect fit.

Turns out you still need to make small adjustments. This probably is due to the fact that the Canopy and Wind Screen bases are not level. Maybe you can do that with trimming the Wind Screen on the forward bottom side.

But I found this hard and giving an unpredictable result, so I decided to trim the top aft side (the part that connects to the canopy).

To clean the edges I tried the air grinder and although it works, it usese way too much air (or my compressor tank is too small). Almost all tools that have an air pressure motor are unfit for my compressor. The squeezer and rivet gun are fine, but the grinder, drill and also the paint gun use a lot of air.

Just as with the Canopy, I’m going to use SikaFlex to bond the Wind Screen to the Fuselage and Cockpit bar. To prevent the nasty SikaFlex primer to touch anything else than the parts that should bond, we tape the metal and the Plexi-Glass.

First we apply one layer of fine tape to make the edges sharp. Than we use painters tape to protect the rest of the part. We use a second layer of fine tape, that will be removed after applying the primer.

The function is that if you slightly touch the tape with primer it will stick to the SikaFlex kit and makes it hard to remove later.

With all the parts prepared we can now start with the three SikaFlex components. The first part is the Aktivator 205, which is Isopropanol and it really ‘bites’ into the plexi-glass. So We have to be careful not to touch any unprotected Wind Screen surface.

After a few minutes we can start applying the Primer 207, which is very fluid, but dries really fast and it ‘eats’ your brushes.

You have 20 – 30 minutes after applying the primer before using the final SikaFlex 295 UV, kit.

As soon as the primer is a little dry, we remove the second layer of tape, This reveals the first layer of tape that is no clean and won’t stick to the kit.

I apply the kit in a (reverse) V shape. On several points on the bar we have spacers to compensate for different expansion behaviors of the bar and wind screen.

We decided to apply the kit on the bar and top skin instead of the wind screen. You can probably also do it the other way around, but we thought this to be easier.

So now we can place the wind screen on the SikaFlex. We have marked the wind screen and top skin, to enable lining it up correctly.

If all the preparations are done correctly it will fit. During preparations we had to bent the corners of the Wind Screen a little to make it fit better. This is done by heating them up with a heat gun (BE CAREFUL).

Use some clamps to make the corners stick in place. According to the plans of Van’s, we have created several small brackets to ‘clamp’ the Wind Screen to the skin.

Nice and now we have to wait a few days until the SikaFlex has fully cured.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-02-24)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 40/0  (2021-02-28)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-03-03)

Video

This must be done very carefully, as small misalignment of the Gear Leg Fairings will result in more drag and even worse if it’s done asymmetrically, it will result in a yaw.

The Gear Leg fairing itself consists of a piece of glass-fiber, with a piano hige riveted in the back. This way you can detach the Fairing by removing the hinge pin.

With just the piano hinge it can still move around the gear leg, so on the top there is also a hose clamp fastening the Fairing into a fixed position, relative to the Gear Leg.

We need to remove the Wheel Pants, so we can insert the piano hinge pin from the bottom up.

We probably made the piano hinge too tight, because it took some effort to get the hinge pin in. I wanted a tight fit, but maybe I’ve overdone it.

We used the Endoscope to check where the pin was going, so we could apply local pressure on the Fairing to align the piano hinge segments.
With some oil and pressure we succeeded in inserting the pin all the way to the top.

Now we can align the marks we made earlier during measurements, position the Fairing and fasten the hose clamp to fix the Fairing to the Gear Leg.

With the experience we gained on the right Gear Leg Fairing, the left one went much easier. We used the endoscope, some oil and voila, Fairing is in place.

Positioning it with the marks and clamping the Fairing to the Gear Leg.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-06)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-12)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 60/0  (2020-12-16)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-19)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 74/0  (2020-12-23)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-27)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-03)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-10)

Video

A small steel flange attaches the brake to the Landing Gear (axle). The flange has a weld seam which, in my opinion, results in a small deformation when installing the brakes. This makes it hard to insert the bolts.

Check the drawings carefully on which flange should go where.

The Wheel Pants (wheel fairing) are attached to the Landing Gear with two brackets. One on the outside of the axle and one on the inside.

The inside brackets require some trimming, to make it fit properly.

It took a while, but in the end we fitted the brakes to the landing gear including the fairing brackets. The Left side went much easier, once we struggled on the right side and found the correct way.

Turns out the Brake discs actually consists of two separate parts that can easily be detached (when no wheel is attached). I figured that out while installing the brakes to the right axle.

This picture was actually taken a few days later, when I already installed the Brake Lines.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 61/0  (2020-09-16)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  2/0  (2020-09-17)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-09-18)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-09-19)

Video

However, I was ecstatic when my propeller arrived from New Zealand, hence I did take a picture from that.

I started transforming my card-board Center Console mock-up to a real Center Console.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:   0/0  (2020-08-26)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 149/0  (2020-08-27)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:   0/0  (2020-08-28)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:   0/0  (2020-08-31)

This modification can be installed on a finished RV, however if you install it while building it is less work. Also, since the track spine needs to be extended (there is an extension track in the Flyboys kit), I decided to ask Van’s for a longer track spine. Turns out they have one, which is actually for the RV-8.

The alignment between the original Van’s canopy track and the Supertrack must be precise to enable a fluent transition between both tracks. In the end you need some shims to even the ‘gaps’ (the shims are also provided in the Supertracks kit).

The rollers of the original canopy are modified with a second roller, which slide through the Supertrack. Again, because I install the Supertrack while building, I only have to build the final roller.

Just like the original rollers, the modified rollers are attached to the Canopy with a bolt through the front frame bar.

The Supertrack itself is attached to the fuselage just aft of the standard rail. Since there is no room besides the Supertrack, the attachment bolts are flush inside the track itself. That means you have to drill bigger holes through the track to be able to reach in with a screwdriver. You can see the ‘big hole’ here on the right side.

The aft side of the Supertrack is fastened to the baggage auxiliary bulkhead, with a small strip.

I’m hesitating to cut a piece of the top skin to enable the canopy to slide even further aft. The proposed trimmed area is mark red on the painters tape. In a later session I did trim this part, but it turns out the bolt that connects the Supertrack with the strip prevents the canopy sliding further than 1 extra inch.

So you can see here the canopy slid all the way back on the Supertrack, without trimming the top skin. Trimming did enable it to go back further, but don’t cut is aft the attachment bolt.

After installing the Supertrack, I continued on the canopy anchor blocks. These secure the aft side of the canopy when it is closed by the latch.

The hardest part is to drill the arresting hole in the block. I decided to incrementally drill it and then test the result by sliding it.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 16/0  (2020-08-04)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-08-05)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-08-06)

Video

Continuing on the previous session, we are going to mark the exact location of where to make the Big Cut.

Today this we insert the Canopy frame that we fitted in the previous session and use a piece of aluminum strip on the inside to mark the place of the cut on the outside.

I like to use painters tape to mark the cut line, because for me it’s easier to follow tape than a Sharpie line.

Because it’s the middle of Summer and the sun is really nice the temperatures are high enough to cut plexiglass without extra heating.

Armed with an angle grinder, glasses, sound barrier and a respirator, we can now finally start cutting.

I was a little tensed because of the severity people discuss “The Big Cut”, but I must say it’s actually pretty easy (with the correct preparations).

Done, and really nice, so minimal post cutting work is required.

Just sanding the cut edges, to prevent tension spots that can grow into cracks.

With the canopy frame into the bubble, we can now mark the rear side of the Canopy bubble. We leave some overlap, because it’s our intention to bond the Frame and bubble as well as the aluminum rear skirts with SikaFlex, instead of screwing them together.

I’m getting better in cutting plexiglass by the minute.

Last step is the sides. I found out later that I did these too conservatively, but than again, better save than sorry.

Wauw, that really looks great. Unfortunately still a lot of work to do, before it will look like this.

The Canopy frame with bubble looks very promising.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-07-18)

Video

The special version of the Track Spine is actually a longer RV-8 Track Spine that makes the separate extension kit obsolete.
In order to determine the exact position of the Track Spine, we first need to install the Roll-bar again and temporarily attach the Canopy frame.

On the forward side of the Canopy frame there are two ‘rollers’ that enable the canopy to slide.

With the Canopy frame in place, we can now start determining the location of the Track Spine.

The Track Spine needs to be in the middle of the Fuselage, so that part is simple. However the forward – aft position is determined by the ‘bend’, which pushes the Canopy down when closing.

I use tape to temporarily attach the Track Spine to the Fuselage. This way I can still move it forward or aft.

The sliding rails of the Canopy also need to be (temporarily) fixed to the Fuselage, in order to be able to measure the position of the Canopy frame in relation to the Fuselage.

When the Canopy frame is in the forward position (Closed), the aft top part of the Canopy frame should be so low, that the Rear Skirts that are attached later, meet the top skin of the Fuselage.

The rest of the day I spent measuring and adjusting the Track Spine position, so it meets the specifications of the Van’s manual.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-07-05)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-07-07)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-07-09)

Video