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Pilot builds own wings
Miller found what he was looking for in the Van RV-8, a low-wing monoplane with a cruising speed of about 200 mph. The plane is featured on the cover of the October 2007 issue of Kitplanes with the caption, “Looks like a fighter, flies like a tiger.”
Miller had never flown an RV-8. It was like he was buying a new car without test driving it – only, in this case, he was going to build the car.
The kit arrived Sept. 2, 2001. Miller shaped the aluminum sheets into the body and wings and fastened the pieces together with 18,000 rivets with help from friends.
[in-forum.com] (More)
Build an in-ear headset
Wanting an in-ear headset without the extravagant prices commanded by commercial vendors, I decided to roll my own. Total cost was $70 ($50 for the Comply headset, $10 for the Shure inline volume controller, $10 for heatshrink, Radio Shack project box. I contributed the mic and plugs from a gutted AvComm PNR cupped headset). I tested the set yesterday in the air, and it worked well. ATC said sound quality was fine (with a tone to stop bugging them after the third radio check). Noise attenuation of the Comply foam tips was a little better than my PNR cupped sets (QFC) - I'll try to borrow an ANR set to compare. Comfort was far better - flew 1.5 hours, didn't notice set or earpieces. I roughly followed the links below, but as with Pete Howell, I just used the Shure volume controller and did not use any transformers, pots. Made things real easy. (More)
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Rivetbangers thread
RV-8 Prepunch kit
Saturday I visited RV-8 builder Ken Tattersal in Metcalfe. Ken started his kit about eight months ago, so he has what is known as the pre-punched kit. This means that both the skins and the underlying structure are punched with pilot holes. You can cleco the parts together, then use a drill to enlarge the holes to the final size. Earlier kits, like mine, had pilot holes in the skins, but no holes in the underlying structure. You had to draw centre lines on all the flanges on the structure, get every thing clamped in place in a jig, ensure you could see the centre lines on the flanges through the holes in the skins, then drill the rivet holes. [kilohotel.com] (More)RV Airplane paint scheme software
I was asked by quite a few RV owners last month to create an RV-7/7A model with both the tip-up canopy and the current model’s slider canopy. There’s not too much difference between the RV-7 and the RV-9 so I agreed to make it, although the tip-up canopy will be done at a later time. I’m working on the RV-7/7A model now and it should be finished in about a week.
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Screen shots
Induction filter no-no
Do not for any reason attempt to seal the air filter area with RTV or any other dissimilar material. Fuel will get under and cause it to come loose. Also, once the area is contaminated it would be nearly impossible to get it clean enough to insure that material would adhere.
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The Isles of Scilly
As well as three in G-ARRI, and myself and Derek in HotelUniform two other aircraft were coming along as well. Steve from Pembrey in his recently completed Europa and a Haverfordwest-based Vans RV-7, a smashing aeroplane in bright yellow, and one of those which looks fast even sat on the grass. After arriving at Swansea we discovered that several people from the G-AWXS group had also decided to head down that way.
[Leia Airoborne] (More)
TIPS/Q&A
How to run wires through conduit
You've got the conduit installed in your wings and now you want to run wires through it. But getting the wires through is a pain in the neck, especially as the number of wires grows. Dave Nellis suggests using a "cotton mouse" technique. " Make a small balloon in one corner and tie the balloon off with a piece of string. Leave long tails on the string and tie the wires to the tails. Poke a small hole in the plastic bag near the tie. Suck it through with a vacuum. The suction pressure differential and the small hole inflate the bag creating a seal. Don't wrap your fingers around the wire, because that baggie balloon will fly though the conduit like a shot and take your fingers with it."[RV List] (More)
As they say, change is the only constant! I've had an interesting and invigorating 2 weeks. Currently I am in between jobs (unemployed). This comes at a time where my wife and I are preparing for our third child's arrival next month. We also have just purchased a new car (because you can't fit 3 car seats in a Jeep Wranger!) and we need some interior home renovations to accomodate the growing family. So I can think of worse situations to be in but this one is sure to take a few months off of my life span. To anyone out there with a flying RV... can you add years back on to your life through flying your homebuilt aircraft?
Yesterday I finished -- I think -- doing any more cutting of plexiglass or drilling of canopies. I finished the final cut on the aft window (I left a little more on than the plans suggest) to parallel the cutout in the top skin.