Month: December 2016

August 3, 2016

Our engine was ordered after returning from Airventure ’16.  It was delivered to the Dalton Airport on the 18th.

I had expected a wooden crate.  Instead it was in a foam filled cardboard box strapped to a pallet.  The box was opened that day to check for any damage. The engine was in a large plastic bag that also held four silica desiccant pouches and a color changing humidity indicator card.  We did not open the big bag.  Apparently Lycoming squirts some foam into the cardboard box and lets it harden before setting the engine.  Then, the space around the big bag is filled with liquid foam and the box closed.  It was well protected.

October 20, 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The engine was picked by Dan Willoughby’s Engine hoist for unpacking.

It arrived with two Slick magnetos, a prop governor oil pump, and a horizontal oil filter mount.  Before mounting the engine to the airframe, these appliances were replaced with two electronic pMags and a 90deg. B&C oil filter mount.  The prop governor oil pump was removed to save weight as we will install our Catto fixed pitch prop.  I also installed a 40 amp backup alternator on the vacuum pump pad in the rear accessory case.  Dessicator plugs were installed in the top of each cylinder.  All changes were detail documented in the engine logbook.

Dan Willoughby and Mike Goulet helped with installing the bottom two engine mount bolts.

November 7, 2016
Weather was getting colder.  The project area was cleaned up, tools put away, and we prepared for our relocation to Florida for the winter.

October 11,2016

The big day!  Dolly and I have been building this RV-7 for almost two years. Each has had a significant milepost.  In 2015 it was the test fitting of the wings to the fuselage.  This year it’s the airport move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dalton Airport (3DA) is a small private/public airport located on one of the main streets in Flushing, Michigan. Pole barn hangars with electric doors line the sides of both the sod and the 3500′ hard surface runway. EAA Chapter 77 owns a cavernous main hangar and one of the smaller hangars where I rent space.  That’s where we are going.
The move was blissfully uneventful. I had arranged for a tilt-bed automobile hauler from Norm’s Towing in Montrose.  Norm showed up on time; the plane was winched up the ramp and strapped down.  It was threatening rain, but we were prepared with a tarp.  Twelve miles and $100 later we were ensconced in our new home.

October 5, 2016

Please forgive the misleading headline of this post.  “Installing a motor mount and adding landing gear legs, wheels and brakes” just doesn’t work as a title.

Master and starter solenoids, the battery box and cabin heat valve were installed on the firewall. Then the motor mount was added.

Four ratchet straps were hung over a pole barn truss to lift the fuselage.

Notice the recessed cover had been riveted into the center of the firewall.

After a little excess powder coating was removed from the gear legs they slipped nicely into the mount tubes.  The retainer holes were reamed to 0.3115 inches for the close fit bolts which slid in with taps from a plastic hammer. Nuts were torqued to 190 in-lb, including 50 in-lb turning drag.

 

Beringer brake caliper mount holes were drilled to the axles and reamed to 0.3115″.  Hubs/tires were mounted with brake discs safetied on the hubs with 0.40″ wire.

Baby’s got legs!