I think the primary purpose of a parking brake is to set it long enough to put chocks in place. Most people don't recommend keeping the on for long periods. Grove aircraft is now making a nice parking brake valve. Just like the Cleveland or Matco, but it has an indexable arm. Gives you a lot more op...

[quote="flytoboat"]I don't think the vents care what angle the bank is as long as it is a coordinated turn... (Check Bob Hoover's YouTube video where he pours a glass of tea while doing a roll) I don't think that applies in this case. As long as the outboard end of the vent line (inside the tank) is...

I plan on using the rocket style venting in the wing root. I don't think it will vent much more fuel than Van's method. If the plane is level, the tank end of the vents are above the fuel level due to the dihedral of the wings. In this case no fuel will enter the vent line unless the tanks are extre...

I'd probably opt for a 50 cal. or maybe a 20mm. I think 30mm would be a little heavy for an RV

Putting the engine on is easy. I did it by myself. First I drilled the mount to the fuselage and test fit it. Then I removed the mount and installed it on the engine. This is actually the hardest part and I needed a little help for that as you have to pry the mount a little to get the last bolt in. ...

I didn't find the avionics wiring to be too difficult. There are enough different ways to connect the same devices that I think a system like Approach Systems may limit you. Or else you would need to know exactly how you want to wire things up front. I found that I changed from my original plans in ...

Darwin strikes again.

The issue isn't the gear itself, it is the gear towers. There have been a couple of cases where the gear towers have colapsed due to side loading. That is why Grove came up with the one piece gear. In a normal landing, you get compression on the outside of the gear tower and tension on the inside of...

You mean like it normally sits on it gear. Supported at only 2 points. I wouldn't worry too much.

I find that my 14" band saw and 12" disk sander are some of my most used tools. I use the band saw for just about all metal cutting for anything thicker than .032 and do most of my shaping with the sander. I consider it close to indispensable.

A lot of people have changed the standard rods to the hex rods, using the ones Vans sells for the 9. This is not uncommon as a number of people have felt that the original ones are marginal. I'm not sure if this was due to any failure, but Van's did change it on the 9. By the way, the price from Ave...

I have a set. What's it worth to you?

Spike,

The canopy is from Todd's Canopies. He has several different tints. I think this is the darkest one. I don't think he makes them for the side by side RVs though.

I've been moving ahead steadily and have made some fairly major progress. My electrical is almost complete so I moved on to bigger things. Today I hung the engine to see how everything would fit. Putting the engine on was not too hard. First I installed the engine mount to the firewall, then removed...

I have been using the QC chuck on my drill for several years and would not use anything else. It is so lightweight and takes up a lot less space when you need to get your drill into a tight corner. It is also very fast to change bits. I have found QC drill bits and countersink cages on Ebay and only...

I'm just about done with my wiring and I thought I would throw the panel in and see what happens. Everything powered up fine. Nothing is configured yet so the displays don't show much, but at least there was no smoke:-)

I might have another person along as well as well.

Cute Dave:-)

Now you get a full week to catch up.

Excellent, 7pm at the Otter.

Dave, That looks good. I'm working on mine as well. Have you adjusted the back of the frame yet. Van's says it should be about 5/8"-3/4" above the track. Mine is about 2" right now. That is a lot of adjustment and I wonder how to do it so that it makes a smooth curve rather than a sharp bend in one ...