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Fly-in season underway... sort of Somewhere in this land the sky is sunny, the grass is green, the temperatures warm, and the RV airplanes plentiful. Last weekend, it was in Lakeland for the annual RV fly-in on the Sun-n-Fun grounds. A number of pictures were posted by Rob Dobbins on the VAF site. (VAF pictures | Yahoogroup write-up) Related links: RV fly-in at LAL (Bowen Aero) Pictures of the fly-in (unknown source) DFW RVers fly-out (VAF)

Students reach for a higher plane
MacDill Air Force Base and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration paid about $18,000 for a Van RV-9A two-seater plane kit. Some Tampa area students hope to build the experimental plane. (Tampa Tribune)

Organizing your shop
One of the most valuable threads on Planet RV occurred this week on the RV-10 List: how to set up your workshop and all the parts required to build an RV. Some had ideas on trays to organize things (and the downside). Solutions included contraptions peanut butter jars, hoses, and Mason jars.(Read)

Project profile: Ed Banks' RV-7
Every now and again an EAA chapter will visit a members project. According to the January newsletter for EAA 1401 (Merced, CA.), they visited Ed Banks' RV project. A few words and a couple of pix. (More)

HID lighting review
This article has been around for about a year, but the subject came up on one of the RV lists this week and it seems like quite a few people missed it. (More)

Adapting IR alternators to aircraft
Electrical guru Bob Nuckolls reports on the Aeroelectric list, "Over the past week or so I've become aware of two more incidents of uncontrolled OV conditions arising from the failure of internally regulated alternators. So he prepared this and has posted it on his Aeroelectric.com Web site. (PDF File)

New ELTs: How much is your life worth?
The U.S. Air Force Reserve and NOAA has put out a brochure on the new ELTs, which operate at the 406 MHz level. (View brochure)
Related links:
Thread: 406 elts (VAF)
Regulatory briefs: ELT (AOPA)
Archive: Installing the Van's strobe/elt mount

Install the modified heat muff
Most you probably know that Kevin Horton RV-8 Web site is must-see computer TV. This week, Kevin is installing a modified heat muff, and he also modified parts of the baffle around the cylinders to be sure that safety wire doesn't cut through (he installed some doublers). Like I said: must see. (Blog entry)
Related links:
Improved cabin heat system (romeolima.com)
Product: Robbins heat muff

Do-it yourself Adel clamps
A tip posted by Rick Galati: "I needed a way to secure electrical conduit through the wings. Since the ribs already have lightening holes galore, I really didn't want to risk weakening the structure by adding yet another hole that would approach 1" in diameter to accept the conduit. Thinking back on my production days, I remembered that military aircraft make extensive use of clamp brackets and are used to help secure wire bundles, conduit, ducting, hydraulic lines....you name it. Such brackets are made in an astounding number of sizes and shapes. Brackets can be generic and multi-use, others may be designed for a single application." (More on VAF)

Punching through the firewall
Neal George sent this to me a few weeks ago and I forgot to put it in a previous edition. " I have an assortment of old Greenlee conduit punches (from eBay, of course) that have served me well for several years. I've been putting off (avoiding?) punching the engine control cable holes in the firewall for many weeks. One day this week, I decided it was time to make some holes, right or wrong, and went to the hardware store to procure a new punch with nice sharp, close die edges to attack the thin stainless of the firewall. With uncapped Sharpie in hand, I approached the front of the hulk, closed my eyes and stabbed at the firewall (not really, but it sounds cool). Center punched, pilot drilled, and stepped it up to 3/4" to clear the Greenlee mandrel and screwed the dies together thru the new gaping hole in my firewall. And applied the wrench. No slipping, good so far. A slight pop indicated that half of the die had sheared thru the stainless. I expected the other half to pop off in the next half-turn or so of the mandrel.

Didn't happen. The die stretched and tore the remaining chunk of stainless but never cut it loose from the firewall. And the twisted stainless jammed between the halves of the die had the whole mess hanging in the hole. After a fair number of ugly thoughts, a few muttered threats that involved projectiles and flammables, I got the dies apart and cleaned up the hole. Ok, I'll be more careful and pay better attention to die alignment and not twisting the parts with the wrench next time. Didn't help. Two buggered holes, and at least two more need to be made, just for mechanical control of the engine - more for electric stuff.

Time to try again. Mark, center punch, pilot drill and make it bigger. I dug a chunk of scrap 0.100 aluminum out of the junk pile, drilled it to 3/4" and stuck it between the stainless firewall and the female die. Threaded the mandrel thru the dies and tightened it down. And kept tightening, and the sheets sheared and the tool got loose in the hole and came out in my hand, just like it's supposed to. I still have a burr to clean up, but overall, a much better result. Harder scrap, either steel or thicker aluminum, will probably give even better results. So, (FINALLY) the moral - sacrifice a little of that precious scrap when it comes time to punch big holes in your firewall.

Fit those ribs in the fuel tank!
Bret Smith writes, "I found when initially trying to cleco the ribs in the wing leading edge (and tanks) that it was nearly impossible. I fought with the alignment for at least an hour before I found a system that was simple.  I used a block of wood (a 2x6 at least 14" would do) on top of the ribs and clamped both sides to draw the rib into position.  The holes lined up perfectly.  A tip is to place a spare rib back to back to the rib being clamped to provide additional support." (Picture | flightinnovations.com)

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

PICTURE OF THE WEEK RVers must've had some cabin fever building up because everyone who could, seemed to have gotten out for a little stretching this week. Andy Karmy of Karmy's Flying Adventures took a gorgeous hop around the Puget Sound region.