Lindy
December 2010/January 2011 Annual
I decided that I wanted to set up future winter annuals for the RV-7 so I don't have major down-time in the prime summer flying season. My annual was set to be due in August 2011, and while it's hot then, there are also places to go, and beautiful evenings to bum around. So here's a running "blog" of the annual...
12/27/2010
Ran the engine to bring the oil temp up and get the engine hot to do a compression check. I have a spot in the hangar at work to do the annual in comfort, and the guys had a hangar shuffle planned today, and part of that included me being ready to put it inside when there were ready to shuffle. Once inside, I removed the cowl, and the bottom plugs (which took me a good 45 minutes!), and we did the compression test. All were good at 74+, except for #3. That's the cylinder that has been running hotter than the others, and it registered no more than 62 pounds. Still within limits, but oddly lower than the others. More investigating needed here. In the meantime, I had been draining the oil so I could install a sump heater. I had just changed my oil a month ago, so I used the shops "sterile" bucket so I can put the oil back in the engine after the plug is installed. Old plug out, new sump heater plug in (see pic below), and the oil went right back in the engine. Once that was done, I took the airplane outside again to run it once more with the cowl off so we could get a quicker look at the compression on #3 before it had a chance to cool. Still 62. More investigating needed. The first big squawk I have for this first annual, is a cracked baffle at the oil cooler. Seems most people are having trouble in this area, and I found the crack here about 20 hours ago...only a half inch long then. Well, it's longer than that now, and probably only an hour or two from failing completely.
The crack is now about an inch from the bottom of the baffle. Shouldn't be too bad to fix, but I'll have to drill out some rivets and fab up a new piece...preferably out of a bit thicker AL. The flange needs to be about an eighth longer to alleviate the stress there.
That's all I had time for today...
12/28/2010
Today I had a bunch of (real) work creep in to my day, which is fine, but it took time away from the inspection. I didn't get all that far today, but I do have the engine inspection almost done, and have only a couple of other minor squawks noted...the gascolator has a small leak, and there are two minor oil leaks at the oil return lines for #2 and #3. I also removed the rocker cover on #3 so we can do a 'dry tappet clearance' test on it tomorrow. I'm not sure what that is, but I'll learn something new tomorrow! All the experts in the shop have had a look thru the borescope in that cylinder, and all agree that there is no valve damage, and it's not burned. We are gonna do the clearance test just to check things out, and the diagnosis so far is to fly it 5-10 hours, and check it again.
I started removing the interior today, and also removed the empennage fairing. Tomorrow will hopefully be the entire airframe inspection.
12/29/2010
This morning I got started with the guys helping me further with the #3 cylinder. It's a slow week in the shop, so I'm keeping them busy with my airplane...anyway, we checked the clearance before bleeding the lifter, and the best we could get was .012. The tolerance is .028-.080, so either the pushrod was one size too long, or the lifter wasn't allowing the valve to fully seat. So what we did was remove the pushrod from the exhaust valve side in the cylinder in order to get to the hydraulic lifter. Here you can see the rocker is out, and the pushrod and tube are out.
The hydraulic lifter was then fished out of it's hole...
...and here are the parts we pulled out. The main lifter body isn't in the pic as Ray was busy bleeding it.
Ray found some "gunk" built up in the lifter, and cleaned it out. When it was all put back together, we had .033 of clearance, which is now within the tolerance range! So, we did a cold compression check to see if it would hold better pressure, and it did!! It's up to 68 pounds cold, and while it does still have some slight hissing from the exhaust, it's MUCH better. The diagnosis is now to fly it for 5-10 hours, and recheck the compression when hot...hopefully back in the 70's!
After that was all put back together, I finished out the inspection of the FWF. The gascolator has been seeping for some time now (as noted above), and I took that apart to fix it. There was some bits of sealant and AL drill shavings in the bottom of it that were keeping the quick drain from fully sealing. Easy fix.
Then I got back to the airframe inspection...the rest of the interior still had to come out, and I also removed panels from the tail, wings, and cabin. At the end of the day, I had the inspection complete, and have a few more minor squawks to address in the next day or two...the rudder trim springs are too loose, missing torque seal on the elevator counterweights, safety wire needs replaced on the gascolator...little stuff.
Below is a pic of the new sump heater that I installed. I'll finish this with a power plug installation before the annual is done.
The guys must have been doing some work up high on the Challenger today, and the ladder was in a perfect spot for an overhead photo op! This is where the annual is being done.
Tomorrow morning I'm getting started on the squawks, probably the baffle crack first, and later in the day I'm gonna get the airplane up on jacks to do the wheel bearings, and put the wheel pant brackets on.
12/30/2010
Today was a good day in the shop...didn't get interrupted by work mainly. I finished the airframe inspection today, and also fixed the cracked baffling at the oil cooler.
I decided to go with a piece of .125 angle, rather than remake the whole piece out of thicker AL. All the guys in the shop agreed with my work, and gave the seal of approval.
The other squawk I got to today was to shorten the rudder trim springs. The springs that came with that kit were simply too long, and didn't do anything to keep pressure on the rudder pedals.
After that, it was nearly quitting time for the others, and I wanted to get the airplane jacked up before they left. With it jacked, I removed the wheels and tires to repack the wheel bearings...though that would have to wait until tomorrow.
One thing I wanted to point out in that pic is the center jack stand. I REALLY don't like the jack point location on the RV-7. It's just too close to the cg, and once my airplane was jacked, with no weight on the tail...it began to tip forward!! I was standing a foot from the spinner when it did, but it got my heart racing!! The canopy was up, so that didn't help matters. So to ease my mind, we put 75 pounds of sand on the tail...
...and that was still not enough for me to be comfortable. We put this stand in front of the wing stands.
Now I can sleep tonight.
12/31/2010
New Year's Eve...with New Year's Day on a weekend, it was a holiday at work, and that meant I had the shop to myself. Ray did come in to help show me how to repack the wheel bearings again...it's been almost two years since I did it originally. He was also helping a buddy repaint his car fender, and then worked on his Sonex a bit.
So anyway, before I did the wheel bearings, I needed to get the wheel pant brackets installed. I had made these last spring sometime, so fitting them was a simple matter of fine tuning the shape with a file.
After both of those were installed, I did the wheel bearings, and then reinstalled the mains back on the airplane. Then it was time to go back to working on the wheel pants. I went ahead and fit the front half to the axles just so I could get enough clearance to put both halves on after I fit them to one another.
To end the day today, I drilled the front and back halves together.
The actual annual inspection is done, and I have just a couple of squawks to take care of, but I wanted to get the wheel pants done so I can take the airplane off the jacks.
1/1/2011
Didn't really do anything today other than rivet the nut plates to the rear half of the wheel pants. Ran out of time on this New Year's Day.
1/3/2011
Took the RV off the jacks today, and after work tonight I worked on the wheel pants some more...I got them fitted in to position on the airplane using a 2x4 to get the spacing from the ground right, and then I got them lined up laterally and vertically and drilled a #40 hole to cleco them in position.
More trimming was needed (actually on and off two more times), and then I 'glassed the aluminum washer to the front half of each pant, and 'glassed a strip of AL to the gear leg fairings to take the place of the fiberglass tab that the plans call for...I had one break.
I was hoping to get the nut plates riveted to the wheel pant brackets, but I didn't even get them drilled before hunger got the best of me, and it was time to head home.
1/4/2011
Not much time to work on the annual/wheel pants today, but I did get the gear leg fairings installed...
...and I safetied the gascolator bowl. That's it!
1/5/2011
Short on time again today...all I got done was a bit more on the wheel pants and I put the plenum and spark plugs back in. I filled in the gaps between the halves with some micro. I masked off the rear half with packing tape and masking tape first.
Then I piled on the filler. Sanding tomorrow...
1/6/2011
I got up early this morning and went in to the shop at around 6:20am to get the annual part of this down time finished. I put the emp fairing back on, and reinstalled the interior completely. Throughout the day, I fiddled around with a few things...started sanding the filler on the wheel pants, but didn't get very far as some of the thicker spots are still tacky under the outer layer. I did go out and buy a lock for the canopy today, so I drilled that hole, and put that on...something I've been meaning to do for a while now, and Mike Bullock did it a few weeks ago, and it reminded me.
I put some heat shrink around the case to keep it from scratching the fuselage.
Then after work I wired up the plug that I bought for the sump heater. Didn't do anything beyond the plug, but I have an inline fuse to put in, and then connect the probe.
1/8/2011
After cooking breakfast at the Chapter this morning, I went to the shop to get a good days work in on getting the airplane out of the shop. Doesn't seem like much, but this stuff, as usual, takes MUCH longer than one anticipates! Case in point...still working on the wheel pants. The filler that I put on the other day didn't take, so I'm gonna skip that for now, and get these things back on the airplane. The last thing I needed to do was make a mud shield for the rear half. I used some polystyrene foam rather than plywood (as called in the instructions from SJ), and a layer of cloth.
The runs are on the inside, of course, and won't be a problem after some primer is applied.
The other thing I got done today was wiring the sump heater. I installed an in line fuse holder on the hot wire, ran the neutral and ground, wrapped it all up to make it look halfway decent, and it's ready to be tested! Just need a fuse...
1/9/2011
Well I'm officially calling the annual complete as of today (still need to put the cowl back on, but it's ready to fly again)...tho I didn't get to the smoke system install, that isn't an annual item anyway. I finished up installing the wheel pants today. Here's a better pic of how the front half attaches to the brackets-
After an hour of work, I had them installed...
These wheel pants were a royal PITA, and they aren't really "done" yet...still need to lay up a few layers of reinforcement cloth at the wheel cutout, but I'm gonna go fly this thing for a bit and come back to that. Still no intersection fairings yet, but I did order those today.
Annual Condition Inspection complete!
1/10/2011
We have a snow storm on the way, and I had a choice of getting the airplane back to my hangar today, and free up room for Pat and Image to hangar more airplanes, or wait until Wednesday or Thursday when Airport Authority has finally cleared enough snow to move it. I chose today, so I cowled up the airplane, and taxied it back to the hangar...
Looks pretty sweet with the pants on!! I'll fly it a few hours and see if I need to make any adjustments, then get 'em primed to match the cowl. No rubs or problems on the taxi were noted.