{"id":7975,"date":"2021-02-13T10:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T16:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/?page_id=7975"},"modified":"2021-02-13T10:35:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T16:35:47","slug":"builder-report-jon-sullivan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/builder-report-jon-sullivan","title":{"rendered":"Builder Report — Jon Sullivan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click on any of the photos to enlarge<\/I><\/font><\/p>\n

The RV-4 Project<\/b> 2-9-21<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI have been an A&P mechanic for around 40 years but never had the time to own a plane until five years ago when I bought and restored a 1969 Cessna 150J.\u00a0 I enjoyed the work and flying has been fun and relatively inexpensive.\u00a0 Things change and have \u201ca need for more speed\u201d and perhaps learn some light aerobatics.\u00a0 I looked around for over a year and found a partially completed RV-4 with a factory new engine and a new Dynon glass panel.\u00a0 The second owner\/builder was selling it.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> The first builder made the wings most of the fuselage and control surfaces. The second owner added the engine, avionics, interior and started attaching the control surfaces.\u00a0 I inspected the plane and found the structure to be ok but everything else needed attention.\u00a0 I made an appropriate offer and he accepted it. \u00a0 His wife was extremely happy to see it go.<\/span><\/p>\n

The re-build,<\/b><\/p>\n

I have been working on the fuselage in my home shop all winter.\u00a0 I removed most everything bolted down and now putting it all back.\u00a0 I am very happy that I did this because I have found many items that would have caused minor issues and some that could have been catastrophic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, the engine section is 90% complete, Avionics are done, Interior is 90%, the wings a complete. Currently, I have the tail section torn apart replacing the rear bulkheads and elevator and rudder mounts.\u00a0 The landing gear is next.\u00a0 Unless I find new issues, I will be ready for the next step in April.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

The next step,<\/b><\/p>\n

I am trying to decide whether to paint first then do the final assemble or final assemble, test fly, then paint.\u00a0 Any advice would be welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lessons Learned so far:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

-Building a plane is much different than fixing an airplane.\u00a0 I am learning a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Small tasks can take a very long time.\u00a0 Be patient, take your time and do it right.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Be ready to start over on things that didn\u2019t turn out right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

-Much can be learned from others. The VAF Forum and Facebook group has been a lot of help.<\/span><\/p>\n

-When in doubt, change it. \u00a0 I have found and replaced many untraceable components like fuel hoses, coaxial connectors etc.. It is not that expensive to install quality, traceable materials.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

More to come\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click on any of the photos to enlarge The RV-4 Project 2-9-21 I have been an A&P mechanic for around 40 years but never had the time to own a plane until five years ago when I bought and restored a 1969 Cessna 150J.\u00a0 I enjoyed the work and flying has been fun and relatively […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7975","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"new_scheduled_revision":null,"save_as_revision":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7975"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8011,"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7975\/revisions\/8011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa569.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}