The Mission:

I am building an airplane. I really can't tell you how weird it sounds to me to hear those words in my head as I type. I am keeping this blog as an adjunct to my written log, which is required to comply with FAA requirements for Experimental Aircraft construction. My son Doug is my partner in this project. There are two goals: to build the best, safest, and yes, COOLEST, airplane we can, and to allow Doug to acquire some truly awesome experiences, not to mention building skills. Thanks for viewing.



How to use this blog

The most current post is displayed on this opening page. To access the older posts, click on the "Blog Archive" on the right hand side. The drop down menu is arranged by the month and lists the posts, by title and by date posted, in reverse chronological order.

I will arrange the hypertext links to other websites I find interesting better some day, but they are at the bottom.

If you navigate to my first post, there is a link to my luthiery pages. I miss working with wood. Aluminum is nice, but it's boring. Give me a highly figured maple any day!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

I remembered to bring the good camera!

I am in the phase of building where I spend a great deal of time each day I go to the hangar, but when I close the door to leave, very little seems to have changed.  Wiring the engine sensors, wiring power to the main buss, and countless other necessary small assemblies are going to be the norm for a while...

Mike and Doug went to the Portland auto show.  The first picture is of Doug in the pilot seat of a Mercedes SLK.  He and his older brother Mike are plotting how to talk me into buying this car:






Inspired by the Shelby Cobra, here is a mock up of louvers for the RV 7.  These are guaranteed to drop our top speed 5mph, but what we lose in speed, we gain in sheer "cool".




Putting Doug to work under the panel.  I can't get in to certain places (like the tail cone).  Doug can.





A quick tour of our progress up to this point:

Alternator and battery cables in to main buss

VOR/Loc antenna mounted under tail

The panel with power on.  No smoke!

The panel has a carbon fiber finish.  The center console does too, but it's not finished.

Aux alternator with current sensor wired in.

P Mag wiring all done.

My solution to the vexing issue of plumbing the p-mag and manifold pressure sensor

Avionics cooling fan, wired and blast tubes attached

A close up of the transition from center console to panel, showing flaps switch

The flap sensor unit with clevises I stole from an RC plane (!)

One of three GPS antennae.  This one mounted on a platform under the cowl.

Planning position of headset jacks, on armrest shelf, behind pad

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