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Build Diary 11/17/18-June-06

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THE RV is in the hanger with the wings fitted, all the fuel lines are fitted and wiring has been run out to the wings. Flaps are fitted, Ailerons are fitted and the EZ-Pilot servio is fitted in the wings. I have been keeping quiet for the past few weeks so I could concentrate on getting the RV to the hanger, the plane was actually moved to the hanger on 11-Jun-06 and I have been selective with the pictures I posted to not give the game away that the RV has moved and is in the next stage of building.

Getting it to the hanger.......
I had kept very quiet about taking the RV to a hanger, in fact only a few people know where it is! The move happened on the weekend of 10/11-June I hired a 7.5T truck and put the RV in the back with wings. I left the horizontal stabalizer at home as I was going to work on the end caps. However that was a mistake as it was too big to go in my LandRover or trailer. So I ended up having to tie it to the roof rack - not something I enjoyed very much!. The tail wheel was fitted but I removed the prop.
I rolled the front wheel onto the truck tail lift. There was sufficient space to raise it with the tail wheel still on the ground. At exactly this time my office called with some system problems - what timing! I had my RV hanging out of the back of a lorry and I had to go and dial into the office to fix problems. Luckily they were not too bad and I was back outside not too much later. The RV fitted in - JUST - there was about 1 mm gap (that's about 1/32" for my American readers), if that. In fact I had to give it a little shove and in she went with about 1ft to spare.
One wing lay under the fuse and the over was strapped to the side still on the jig I had. With everything strapped down I drove carefully to the hanger with Jo following with my LandRover full of loose parts and tools - I didn't want loose parts or tools moving about in the back of the lorry.


Sunday I am back in the hanger at 8am.
Now I know the wings can stay on - as I have checked the wiring etc - I fit all the wing bolts. They are not easy to get in, it's hard work on a hot day. I have also fitted both aileron's and connected the controls.
Fitted the horizontal and vertical stabalizer's. I trial fitted the wing tips, and removed them again to do work on them at home as I need to add the reinforcement, nutplates, strobe nav light units and wing tip lense. Jo is great, she came down again today - brought me some lunch - and helped tighten some bolts I could not get to both sides. Jo also helped me tip the aircraft forward so I could retreive my hole cutter that I had dropped into the right wing and take some stack up in the AOA/pitot probe - it needed two people. One to feed the piping and one to pull. Fitted the front engine baffles, as I was feeling very exhausted and it was just a light job. Left hanger at 6.30pm.
If you are reading this as a builder - Make your wing fitting easier and ensure you have plenty of grommets and they are larger in the wings before you close them. It's really hard work enlarging them. Ensure the cables you plan to run pass freely through them otherwise you will really struggle.
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