FEATURE STORY

The 16-month RV-7 I first met Mark Chamberlain at the 2005 RV builders BBQ at Oshkosh. He was part of the "Arizona connection" chilled by Wisconsin's 70-degree night-time temperatures. It turns out, though, that Mark was burning it up with speed on his project. In just 16 months, Mark is flying. "When I looked at most of the builders out there finishing up in 5 to 6 years I really hoped it was possible to build a plane faster than that as I really wanted to fly but couldn't find any evidence of it, so I created my own," he says.(Link)

In many ways the instrument panel is the most fun part of your whole project. Here you are able to "do your own thing" until you run out of space and/or money. In my case, some of the RV-10 panel decisions were real easy, like glass vs. round dials. (Doug Stone in the Ozark Flyer)

What's left to explore when you're the project manager for the Infrared Space Telescope? The world from an RV-6 according to an article I found in the archives of Pilot Journal. (More)

How to do wiring
I'm planning on attending a wiring workshop in Oshkosh in April. Shoot, by the time I get there, there won't be anything new to write about it. John Tatro of Chapter 153 is the latest to discuss what he learned at one. See the article on hangar tools too. (More)

SteinAir offering DVDs
According to the company's Web site, SteinAir has been unable to accompany all of the people who signed up for electrical classes (I never got in!), so the company is preparing an instructional DVD of once such class. Should be available in early 2007, the company says. (More)

Builder profile: Joe Raphael
He started building his RV-6A in 2000 and flew it for the first time in 2003. Joe learned to fly at 17 in a 65 HP Aeronca in Reedley. (EAA 403 - Nevada - Newsletter)

Who needs a sleigh?
You can do some pretty cool things with a flying RV. Sometimes you can do some pretty good things for others. (VAF)

How to install the parking brake in an RV airplane
If you follow the Matronics lists via the Web page, you'll have a hard time finding all the pieces of this thread (people erased subjects or something). A builder posted: "I installed the catalog parking brake valve on my RV-8 but never figured out how to use it. At first I thought that I could use the little handle by itself. Unfortunately this dream resulted in an almost serious accident when the tiny mass of the tiny handle caused it to jiggle into the closed position. When this happens the next brake application locks the brake. Surprise! At the moment the handle is tie-wrapped into the open position. My post is to ask how others have fabricated a linkage to operate it properly. Simply putting a control cable on it results in reversed operation, IE pulled out would be off. Any ideas?

Well, of course, the RV community had some. Richard Dudley wrote, "I'll describe the installation. It is mounted on the firewall inside the cockpit to the left of center and near the floor. This seemed to me to be optimal for plumbing. It is in a position so that when the lever is moved upward, it is activated. So, when I pull out the knob of the pull cable, the valve is in th ON position. So, the knob is pushed all the way in for OFF and all the way out for ON. Indeed, in the ON position, the brakes lock with the first press of the brake pedals. It is released by merely pushing the knob in. Your description sounds as though you are working the lever in reverse. I have had only a few occasions to use the parking brake, but it works well."

Meanwhile, Chad Jensen had a suggested modification on the installation, based on his experience. "When the brake module is installed in a normal configuration, pulling on a directly connected wire cable would release the brake, but that's undesirable. If you accidentally hit it with your knee and push it in, you'll block hydraulic flow to the brake. The solution: turn it around to just about fully upside down. That reverses the lever action. Now, to set the brake, pull on the cable, to release, push...just the way it should be. The parking brake doesn't care that its upside down," Chad said.

Wire up
There's not a lot of traffic on the RV7 List, but a query on how much wire to buy brought a very useful posting by our favorite wire guy -- Stein Bruch. "Use AWG22 for most all of your avionics and sensor wire interconnects. I would also get AWG18, AWG16, AWG14 and a little bit of AWG20. Get plenty of AWG18 and plenty AWG22 as they will be the most prevalent. The electric trim takes shielded multi-conductor wire, as do the audio components (use 3 conductor shielded wire for both headset & mic jacks). Depending on the rest of your panel goodies there are a lot of variable. For example some pitot tubes come with wire, but others need the AWG14. Some landing lights like HID's only need AWG20, whilst 100W halogens will need at least AWG16. The Autopilot is best just to buy the "servo wire" that is pre-bundled because it needs 5 or 6 AWG22 wires and 2 AWG20 wires. Nav lights can vary depending on whether they are LED or Incandescent."

"I know that's not a lot of help, but honestly wire is cheap so just buy a bunch of it..you'll most likely need more than 300' for the whole airplane, especially in combined sizes. Heck if you're wiring your AP from scratch, a typical AP servo run of 18' (x 7 wires) uses up 125' right there!"

Adel clamp tip
Tonight while installing my brake lines I had an epiphany. Recently Ronnie Brown told me how Dennis Hallman used safety wire and a piece of aluminum as a piston ring and spring compressor. For some reason I was thinking about that conversation while installing my brake lines. Like most builders I have learned to loath installing Adel clamps and as I was preparing to do so a light went off. Twisting safety wire around the tabs of the Adel clamp might just hold them closed while I install the bolt. Sure enough, it worked like a charm. Once the nut is started I cut the safety wire and finish tightening them. (EAA 309 Newsletter - N. Carolina)

ARCHIVES See a list of previous RV Builder Hotlines organized by date and subject. (Go)

PICTURE OF THE WEEK There's still a few of us in Minnesota who think this -- not the Mall of America -- is the state icon. It's the Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior. Photographed by Ken Beene. (See travel story).