Rotax Engine Ordered!

Ouch!!!
Do I need to say more?
The good news: It's the last sub-kit order for this RV-12 (note "this").
As a preview, here is a picture of the Rotax 912 ULS engine:

The 100 hp four-stroke Rotax 912 ULS has become the most widely used engine in the world in Light Sport class aircraft. And for good reason — it’s proven itself in all kinds of conditions, all over the world. It’s designed to operate on unleaded auto fuel. Altitude compensating carburetors automatically adjust mixture and a gearbox reduction drive keeps the prop in the most efficient rpm range.

Little Blog = Beaucoup built!

I cannot believe I have not blogged since September. Here is what took place since my last post in September:

I worked on my rudder and vertical stabiliser fairings:

Bad surprise, the fairing on the top of the VS did not align with the fairing of the rudder:

I sent the faulty fairing back to VANs who shipped me a new one that was correct, it just took one month and I just finished today the VS with the new fairing.
This did not prevent me to march on. Next activity was to finish the installation of the ADAHRS which had been pending waiting for Anne to come and do it because my flexibility did not allow me to crawl into the tailcone where the ADAHRS is located.
Here is Anne at work for President Day:

While Anne was here we also finish the installation of the Auto Pilot roll servo which was an opportunity to install the flapperon control tubes which were waiting since they had been drilled.
I got a good news early October, a fellow EAA builder Dennis Robert was willing to sublet his hangar at Louisburg airport for at least one year, waiting for his next plane to be built. Louisburg also called "Triangle North Executive Airport" is the best option I had for testing my plane as it is just 30 minutes from home, non towered and has low traffic. Soon my wings were on the way:

Once my wings were gone I had enough room in my workshop to install the Stabilator (which combines in the RV-12 horizontal stabiliser and elevator). The stabilator is 8 feet wide and does not fit throught the door of my workshop!
The installation was not easy to do alone but I managed, with the help of two polystyrene boxes!

Once the stabilator in place I was able to proceed with the tailcone fairing installation, another cumbersome task requiring lots of fiberglass grinding, fitting, nutplates riveting both on the fairing and on the tailcone.

In the last week we started painting in the paint booth of  fellow EAA1114, Terry Gardner. I benefitted of the research made by another EAA1114 fellow, Noel Fallwell, about which paint system to chose and what process to follow. We are both using PPG's DCC Concept system which is Acrylic Urethane one stage. PPG is a World leader in automotive finishes.
Here is a video showing Terry shooting a flapperon with primer:
http://youtu.be/uyiWPkJ66xY
More on the painstaking (but rewarding) job of painting an airplane in the coming weeks...

With the painting in process, I will again have little time to blog in November, but I will try to keep good records as I am entering the final stage of the building. Still gotta order my engine...

A Nice Nose Job...

After a few days of making dust from fiber glass, I finally took her new face out of the shop for the first time:

More work is still needed as everything is holding with Clecos. Now on to riveting the hinges to the fiber glass after a heavy countersinking session on the fiberglass, another first for me!
Note to builders:
I found the VANs instructions lacking on the fiber work needed to adjust the cowls. The shapes are complex and when you cut and/or trim to fit the cowls to the fuselage, it would help to have more precise instructions. You have to infer a lot and in hindsight, I would do things better now but ... too late. Some are minor annoyances, for example instructions tell you to mark the holes to be drilled on the hinges which I did. What they don't tell you is that these marks will be used when drilling with the fiberglass on top of them, well to be seen these marks have to be well drawn with contrast and... on the right side of the hinge (in my case they were on the wrong side!).
My overall rating on my cowl job: not bad for a first, will do better next time!

ELT installed and wired...

... but not tested! (who wants to test his ELT anyway?)
Here is my Emergency Locator Transmiter in its new home:

While I was working on the instructions from VANs, I kept thinking of Steve Fossett, go figure!

I also didsome work on my plane's paint scheme, thanks to a nice template provided by Bill Hollifield, a fellow builder. Here is how it looks so far (click on the picture to enlarge):

Restarting after long break!

From the Chesapeake Bay to the Appalachian mountains this break took almost a month. The good thing is that the summer heat is over and the temperature in the workshop more comfortable.
Aiming at painting the plane among other things, I took care of the modification of the flapperon's rivet obstruction mentioned earlier in this blog. Here is the result:
Before modification you can see the rivet on the wing attachment that is slightly ground:

After replacing the LP3-4 with a CS4-4 there should be enough clearance for the Flapperon:

This operation was repeated for the left wing.

I then started working on the ELT installation, just behind the passenger seat.

A Beautiful Control Panel

I am very proud of my control panel, could you imagine a full glass panel on an experimental LSA just a few years ago?

Here we are, not one steam gauge, all flight, engine, navigation information will appear on the 10" Dynon Skyview display.
And behind the control panel it's not bad either:

Everything is connectorized as explained in this presentation by VANs:
http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/FaceBook/RV-12ElectricalSystem-Skyview.pdf

Next big step will be the power on, but we will need the engine before that, just a few more months before we smoke these nice cables!
A good, gratifying step but still a lot to do as several of the harness seen fully connected in the control panel need to have their other end connected to some gismos that are not all installed.

A few tips for the builders:
- Retrofit harness or new harness?
If you already installed the previous version (D-180) harness, you will have the choice of undoing your wiring and use new harness or use the retrofit harness. This latter solution that I choose  creates some burden in the wiring and requires to think deeply, beyond just following the instructions that are not that detailed. You can see the result in the picture above: there are two additional connectors corresponding to the adaptation harness (you see them on the picture as they are the only connectors that are not plugged into a box). The few wires/harness that had to be passed into the tunnel to the tailcone were not that hard to route, thanks to the wise step Vans took to remove the static line to make room through the several bushings involved. I was concerned about routing back the static tube (which is now a pitot tube) but it worked well (I used a fishing steel line to go under the instrument panel as everything is very tight aroung the guide which collects all wires going to the tunnel).
Conclusion: if you already wired the old harness, do the retrofit

- Intercom: there are contradictiong instructions between Vans and Softcom and Softcom is right. It's about the fastening of the box to the panel. However once you install the two rotating buttons, they interfer with the screws. I had to trim the base of the buttons (put the button in your drill press chuck and use a file to grind the extra plastic off)

- Panel fasteners: with the previous avionics, the screws of choice were round heads with optional flat heads requiring countersinking. For the new avionics, Vans chose the flat heads but does not tell you to countersink the holes (there is a lot of them, all around the panel!). I think that the flat heads are a better choice for the look anyway so I went for them. I did the countersinking after the panels were painted (powder coated is best, I chose a black semi gloss with texture) and had no problem as this kind of paint is harder once cooked.

A letter from Richard Vangrunsven!

Just received a letter of congratulation from Van, authored (but unfortunately not hand signed) by Richard Vangrunsven for winning a finder's fee (check included!!!), the result of Paul Harding's nominating me as contributor to his decision to order an RV-12 kit. It's good to have at last a fellow RV-12 builder in the Research Triangle, I have been waiting this moment for two years!
You made my day, thank  you Paul and Dick!