RV-14 Build – Page 7 – Building a Vans RV-14

Panel Wiring

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Neal

Tonight I started on the daunting task of trying to tidy up the wiring under and behind the panel. It’s a giant, heavy, ball of spaghetti right now, and I’m not sure if I have enough length to position things where I need them.

I decided I needed some kind of frame behind the subpanel to support the main wiring harness. Using some spare channel, I mocked up a frame and started trying to figure out a solution. I eventually settled on two channels running from the sub panel to the firewall, and a cross beam made from another length of channel. I should be able to rivet the fore/aft channels on the sub-panel end, but not sure I’ll be able to get rivets in on the firewall end.

OAT Wiring

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Neal

Quick job tonight, shortening up the wiring for the outside air temperature probe. Because I installed the probe in the air vent instead of the wing, I was able to shorten up the wiring considerably.

The wiring is a 3-conductor braided cable, and the braided portion of the cable needs to be grounded. I used a solder sleeve with attached wire to quickly solder a ground wire into position. I had plenty of spare pins and connectors, so I was able to install pins on the wires and wrap it up quickly.

The OAT wiring with heat shrink removed, before shortening up the wires

Aft Fuse Wiring

Posted on July 13, 2024 by Neal

I wasn’t happy with the way the wiring was running through the bottom of the aft fuselage, specifically, the chance of wires chafing on the ship heads of the rivets on the bottom skin.

To fix the issue I wrapped the wiring bundles in a protective layer of braided sleeving. This required removing some zip ties, installing the sleeve and the redoing the zip ties. It came out looking good.

Braided sleeve covering the wiring bundle

Cowl Fitting

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Neal

Last night I attempted to address an alignment issue on the right hand air intake. The outside edge was not lined up, so I added several layers of glass on the inside of the top cowl in the area near the prop. Tonight I test-fit the cowl. The good news is that I fixed the alignment issue, the bad news is that I introduced an equivalent alignment issue on the other side. I’m going to leave this for now and come back to the cowling at a later date.

The area on the right side of the pic shows where the layers of glass were added.

The outside edge now aligns well on the right side

The left hand side now has an alignment problem that is approximately the same as what was on the right

Cowl Fitting

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Neal

Today I cleaned up the excess filler by using a small chisel to gently scrape it away.

With that done I was able to fit both pieces of the cowling in position and confirm everything lined up as expected. It looks good!

Bottom Cowl Hinges

Posted on July 7, 2024 by Neal

Today I riveted on the bottom cowl hinges. The boe-lube worked well as a release agent, and the clecos came out easily. With the hinges glued in place, I cleaned out the excess resin by running a drill through each hole. Before glueing I inserted the hinge pins, just to help avoid any deformation, and I left them in while riveting.

Progress was swift, and I had the hinges done within half an hour. I went to test fit the cowl, but found I couldn’t get the aft edge hinges to line up with the firewall-mounted hinges. Pushing the cowling back caused the cowling to bend outboard instead of seating into position. I took the cowling off, and realized that I had some excess glue between the hinge eyelets on the left hinge. This happened because I used filler to build up a bed of glue behind the hinge where it interferes with the foam section. I’ll try to clean it up tomorrow somehow.

Clecos with blue colored boe-lube as a release agent

Bottom Cowl Hinges

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Neal

After clearing the excess resin, I started riveting the hinges on the bottom cowl. Immediately I realized I needed to first glue the hinges on, not just rivet these. On the aft edges, the interference between the hinge flange and the honeycomb meant that riveting the hinge could cause the rivets to tip, and leave a cavity between hinge flange and cowling. I mixed up some resin and glued all of the hinges into place. As a release agent, I used some Boe-lube on the ends of the clecos holding the hinges.

Riveted Top Cowl Hinges

Posted on July 4, 2024July 30, 2024 by Neal

Tonight I riveted the top cowling hinges on. I first cleared excess resin from the holes by running the drill through the holes. Then I clecoed and riveted the hinges on.

One thing I didn’t do on the top cowl was glue the hinges before riveting. The plans didn’t call for using any epoxy, and I decided it wasn’t really necessary.

It didn’t take too long to knock out the riveting. Once done, I mixed up more resin and coated the inside of the bottom cowl.

Left side hinge during the riveting process

Cowling Work

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Neal

Today I coated the interior of the top cowling with a layer of resin. This helps seal the cowling and makes cleaning oil and grime easier. I mixed up the resin and brushed it on.

Garmin Roll Servo

Posted on June 22, 2024 by Neal

Tonight I switched out the Dynon roll servo and replaced it with a Garmin unit. Originally I had thought I would install a Dynon panel and system, but decided to switch to Garmin. Replacing the roll servo was a job that had been on the to-do list for a long time.

Aside from a couple of different bits of hardware, the units use the same parts. It was fairly easy to do, after finding the right way to get tools on nuts and bolts in the confined space.

The two servos side by side. Dynon on the left, Garmin on the right.

The countersunk bolt head has about 1/8 clearance from the baseplate. If this bolt backed off and jammed against the servo, the controls would jam.

Pushrod arm installed. The pushrod is the same for both Dynon and Garmin

View looking down (forward) from inside the wing. The wiring run is so short I decided it didn’t need any bracing.