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N56AG First Flight!

algrajek

Well Known Member
Finally, after 2 1/2 years of building, RV8 81813 took to the skies!
The first take off was a bit interesting! The oil door popped open in the climb. It appears as though there is too much flex and with the pressure inside the cowl, the door bowed out and the latch let go.
Back to the hangar, Gorilla taped the door, and tried again.
The plane flew great. No squaks, other than a bit of a heavy wing, but we know how to FIX that!
Now we wait for the weather to clear so we can do it again!!!
Thanks to ALL the builders on this forum and Doug!
AL "Nordo" Grajek
 
Congratulations on your first flight!

I think I'm gonna add "Open Oil Door" to my pre first flight checklist.:rolleyes:

Actually I glassed a good portion of the oil door cutout to the oil door itself as a doubler of sorts. I'm hoping it will help.
 
Congratulations on the first flgiht

Congratulations! It is a great feeling isn't it?
I had the same problem with my oil door. I ended up making one out of aluminum and it has never come open since.
Enjoy the new airplane!
 
Congrats, Al. Well done.

I tried three different combinations of oil door latches until I was happy. I first installed the Mickey Mouse ear latch screws that came with the kit. Thought they looked silly, so I replaced them with phillips head retainers, but they stuck up a tiny bit and I didn't like that.

So, I bought some push-button latches at Oshkosh and installed them. When I tried pushing lightly on the underside of the oil door, the door would flex and pop open. Not good. I went back to the Mickey Mouse ear latches.

Finally, taking a cue from Danny King's hidden cowling hinge pins, I used the same principle and epoxied a length of brass tubing on the inside of the oil door and ran a hinge pin from the baggage compartment, through the firewall and through the brass tubing. That sucker CAN'T pop open and there are no visible screws or retainers on the outside.

The only downside to that arrangement is that, in order to open the oil door, I need to open the baggage compartment door first. No big deal, since I always check there anyway to see if I've left something there that might bang around while flying.

Just a thought for those of you still working on the oil door.
 
On the new RV14's the oil door is solid aluminum. Now I know why.
Thanks Vans.
Larry


I made mine out of aluminum years ago. Also designed and fabbed a much better (or better than what was available at the time) hidden hinge. It has been solid as a rock, never popped open. Have had no issues so far.

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Congratulations!

Listen to your plane carefully, especially in early phase 1. If anything else is abnormal, aggressively resolve it before further flight, as I learned the hard way.
 
Congratulations on your first flight!



Actually I glassed a good portion of the oil door cutout to the oil door itself as a doubler of sorts. I'm hoping it will help.

That is what I did on my -8 door and it has worked well.
 
Congratulations of your flight!

Van's sells a bit of foam core so that you can make the oil door into a sandwich construction, making it a lot stiffer. It's very inexpensive, I think last year it was $2.50. Its part number is COWL-10-01B.

Dave
 
Congratulations of your flight!

Van's sells a bit of foam core so that you can make the oil door into a sandwich construction, making it a lot stiffer. It's very inexpensive, I think last year it was $2.50. Its part number is COWL-10-01B.

Dave

I just take the piece that is cut out from the cowl top and epoxy it to the back side of the door. Nice and stiff and fits perfectly without effort. It can also be used to get the door shape to perfectly match the cowl contour.
 
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