BowenAero.com

Here is a video from 2005 when Edi was nine years old.  Strong, spry, goofy…  We miss you little buddy.

Edi: 12/05/1994 – 03/04/2010

I reached the point in the canopy construction where it says to start cutting the actual plexiglass.  Given that it’s the middle of winter and the temps in the basement are only in the 50′s, I decided to postpone further canopy work and move on to the fitting on the empennage.  Everything fit with no surprises.  The digital level and tape measure assured everything was lined up properly and had the proper travel.

Instead of the exterior rudder stops made from AL angle, I installed this internal stop made from Delrin.  I bought it quite a while ago from Jeff Bordelon.  I’m not sure if he still sells them.  Right is a view of the rudder stop from the bottom, looking up.  In the background you can see the front spar of the rudder and the three extra rivets I added to account for the minimum edge distance after the front spar was shortened by 5/8“, per the plans.

While fitting the fiberglass tips to the elevators, I had to dimple the outboard edges.  The dimples at the trailing edge are tough because its so narrow in that area.  I was able to do a decent job by using a normal dimple die, paired with a pop-rivet die, a hardwood wedge & small sledge hammer.  This worked well enough, but when it came time to pull the rivets in those same holes, it was too crowed to even insert the rivet after the opposite one had been set.  So I ended up just filling that hole with proseal.

I used an epoxy soaked cardboard rib to hold the shape of forward fiberglass tips.  The vertical stabilizer tip didn’t really match the profile of the rudder until I shimmed it a little and let the rib cure in place.

Then I thought I would be fancy and add some carbon fiber over the end to dress it up.  I would leave the  end unpainted and it would just be cool to look at — just like any else carbon fiber!  The tips are shown here curing with a layer of fiberglass and a layer of carbon fiber.  They didn’t turn out exactly perfect and I ended up filling the imperfections with microballons and gray primer.  If I were to do it again, I would get some samples from DragonPlate and use those.

Finally, while fitting the enpennage control surfaces, I had to adjust the rod end bearings to the correct depth.  I still had a modified socket from  the RV-8 that I could use on the one larger REB on on the bottom of the rudder, but it didn’t work on the remaining smaller REB’s.  So following Sam’s lead, I made another one from some spare PVC.  Works great!

I received my Whirlwind 200RV prop on schedule.  I got it as part of the VAF group buy last spring.  Very nice looking.  I had a non-blended airfoil Hartzell on the RV-8 and it was fine, but I’m expecting to like this one even more.

I’ve been using LogShare as a pilot logbook for a couple years now.  It’s a nice, basic, logbook and until recently free.  But now it’s use has been rolled into a Weathermeister subscription, which I have, but I don’t maintain a paid status since my flights are few and far between while I’m building the RV-7.  So without paying for Weathermeister again, I can’t log additional flights to LogShare.  I can’t blame the owner of LogShare for doing this.  He has no obligation to give LogShare away free forever.  But, the fact that this change was made without warning to LogShare users seems a little “impolite”.  Without a current backup, or help from another paying WeatherMeister user, LogShare users are not even able to export existing data.  It doesn’t seem right.

Anyway, I had a recent backup, and another user captured a complete export for me, so after a bit of scrambling I had all my log entries.  Where to now?  I searched the tubes and found several possible options.  I was looking for a free web-based logbook with currency reminders.  Those specs narrowed the field considerably.  I ended up going with Zululog.  It has four different levels of service, the basic one being free.  This level doesn’t provide data import though which was a potential show-stopper.  Then I saw a coupon code on their web site for a free 3-month trial of the Platinum level, which does allow imports.  Perfect.

I had to manipulate the format of my LogShare data a little to be compatible with the ZuluLog import, but after a little tweaking, one false start (user error), and some prompt email support from Roger at ZuluLog, all my data was in, including the most recent flight that prompted the change to begin with.  So far, so good.  Thanks ZuluLog!

I liked the Infinity grip in our RV-8, so I am going to do the same in the RV-7.  I fit it to the stick after cutting off 3.75″, so the overall length of the stick is unchanged.  The switches behind the blue and green buttons were swapped to match what I had on the RV-8 (on/off vs momentary).  I put a 5/16″ socket in the vertical lathe (drill press) and machined down to .41″ diameter to get to the nut on each switch.  Later, I’ll consolidate all ground wires inside the grip to minimize size of wire bundle exiting the grip.