Saturday, November 13, 2021

 Section:

Hours: 6

I borrowed / rented electronic scales from the Placerville EAA Chapter. The scales come in a solid shipping box and include a couple of ramps for rolling the wheels up onto the scales.

I assembled all the access covers, put in all the interior (seats, carpeting, side panels), topped off the engine oil and added the wheel pants so the weight would reflect the actual flying condition of the airplane. 

I enlisted some friends from the airport to help lift the tail onto some saw horses to put the airframe in flying attitude. After carefully adjusting the tail height to level the canopy rails, we and rolled the airplane onto the scales. Unfortunately, on the first try I forgot to push the tare button before we rolled the wheels onto the scales so we had to roll the airplane off the scales and start over. Lesson learned...
And here is the result:

Combining the information from the Vans weight and balance worksheet, here are the numbers for my RV-14



Wednesday, November 10, 2021

 Section:

Hours: 8

I had a local sign shop prepare registration number decals and I applied them to the vertical stab. I used masking tape on the top edge of the decal to position and hold it in place. Then I removed the back carrier layer and rubbed the letters down and finally I peeled off the top carrier film.



Today I also finished sanding the canopy fillet and spayed on a couple of primer coats. The fiberglass is now completed on the rebuild.

I recently got the replacement foam seals from Van's. They had been back ordered for some time. Today I installed the foam seals and installed the canopy back on the airplane.



Saturday, November 6, 2021

Section:

Hours: 2

Today I hooked up the static lines to the Garmin ADAHRS and G5



Friday, November 5, 2021

Section: 38

Hours: 6

I sanded and profiled the canopy skirt to final shape and applied a top coat of clear epoxy to seal the micro balloon filler.




Thursday, November 4, 2021

Section:

Hours: 4

When I looked at the cockpit this morning I noticed there was brake fluid on the floor. I had left the parking brake on for several days and it looks like pressure caused the line to disconnect at the firewall connection. It appears the line was not inserted far enough into the ferrel before I tightened the nut. I replaced the existing ferrel with a new one, inserted the line more securely and re torqued the nut. For good measure, I replaced the ferrel on the other firewall connection also. After refilling the brake lines it appears to be holding the pressure with the parking brake on.



Monday, November 1, 2021

Section:

Hours: 6

I added the control linkages to the tail wheel. The chains as supplied were too long so I removed a couple links from both sides.




I also installed the scat tubing from the plenum to the oil cooler.

The aileron servo is not working. I believe the mini molex connector has some bad wiring so cut off the connector and crimped on a set of pins to the exiting wires and plugged them together and applied shrink tubing over the pins to ensure they don't pull apart. The servo now works.