Weight and Balance and Finishing Up

 Nov 2020

Once I had all the wiring taken care of through the main tunnel, I had my EAA Tech Counselor (Ron Smith) come out for his final sign off. This was his third "formal" visit with a write up, but he's also got his airplane at the same airport, so he stopped by a few times in the last month or so to check up on me.

He was happy with his final inspection (only one cotter pin needed to be bent) and got me in contact with the DAR that will do my Airworthiness certification.

My DAR got me working on the FAA's Airworthiness Certification Process, which is a newer almost completely digital approach to gaining the airworthiness certificate. Take a look at the FAA's website, which includes a PDF that outlines the process.

I fit the interior side panels that were delivered from Flightline Interiors. Abby was very helpful along the way and I'm happy with the result. I'll include some more pictures of the final install later on after I start flying this bird.

Data plate installed on the right fuselage under the horizontal stab with a few pop rivets. It's mine now!

My local EAA chapter 538 has a member that owns scales. He came out to the hangar and we went through the process of getting her weighed. We actually had a few discrepancies with the displayed weight, so we moved the airplane on and off the scales a few times and switched the scales to get the average from each attempt. In the end, she came in at 1,266 pounds, which was right in the range I was expecting from watching others final weights (1250-1325).

I watched all the EAA videos on proper weight and balance calculations to make sure that my final document was accurate. E's RV-14 site was once again very useful to provide an excel template with functional formulas and reference numbers. I was able to plug in my numbers which auto populated throughout the document and helped me a lot through the process of getting most-forward and most-aft CGs, which are required per the FAA.

Here she is without the wheel pants installed. Everything is pretty much ready, minus a test fit of said wheel pants. 

Glamour shots for the FAA "3-view" pictures or drawings. Man, I'm glad I waited for paint, although it's been stressful doing the final assembly keeping close mind of not scratching the paint.