Fuselage

Over the last several days, I finished up a few miscellaneous things. First, I finished riveting the nutplates on the aft baggage side panels. Those were not finished the other day when I riveted these panels in place. Then, I went on to fit, cut, and install more of the soundproofing foam. This stuff is amazing. I'm very impressed with how easy it is to work with, how lightweight it is, and how nice it turns out. I'm keeping a detailed record of how much weight I'm adding to the aircraft. I'm weighing each and every piece before installing it. I'll report when I'm finished how much it all weighs. I can tell you I'm measuring in fractions of an ounce. I have a digital scale that measures down to 100th of an ounce.

Next, I've been contemplating future tasks like wiring. I've seen some other builders take into consideration the need for some additional conduit runs for wiring. As I added up in my mind the things I know for certain I will need wires for in the aft part of the fuselage, the list includes the electric elevator trim servo, tail light/strobe, an ELT transmitter, power supply unit for the strobe lights, and possibly antennas for radios or avionics. And what if I ever wanted to mount one of those wide-angle tail cameras, or something even unknown right now? I might have a need for more wiring capacity. The stock Vans plans don't allow for much. So I decided to follow the example of my friend Mike Bullock. He installed some additional conduit in his RV-7. What a great idea!

So once I had a plan in mind, I got busy and fabricated 8 of these little brackets from some .020 sheet. Then I drilled 3/4" holes in them and rivet holes.

Here they are, all finished, primed, and ready to install. I drilled and pop-riveted them to the seat brackets and baggage area brackets.

Next, I drilled and deburred holes in the F-705 and F-706 bulkheads.

Here's a short length of conduit installed. These little brackets hold it very nicely. It's an elegant and simple solution.

The picture above shows the completed conduit runs, along with the rest of the soundproofing foam panels. I will have easy access to these conduits by taking off the removeable forward seat floor panels.

By the way, the total weight I've added from all the floor and side panel pieces of this foam is only 43.35 ounces. Not bad. I can always pull them out if I ever decide to.

Next, I finished painting the Jet-Flex topcoat on the baggage floor panels:

These will be installed shortly.

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