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John (Jack) Clark's Web Site
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Date: 5-29-2015
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Number of Hours: 1.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Mid Cabin Fuselage Flooding
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Recent inspection of the aft mid cabin, through the floor opening for the aft stick, revealed a surprising ammount of water accumulation at the F-806-1 Rear Spar Attachment Bulkhead Assembly. The aircraft had just been washed. I drilled three drain holes in the area to drain the water and to ensure that an unnoticed water accumulation does occur again. The weight issue could be significant.
Today, after removing all of the floor panels, I ran water over both of the wings. I suspected that the water was travelling under the wing/fuselage fairings, down into the gap, onto the lower wing skin that extends under the fuselage to be screwed in place and the water on this skin flows under the F-815-1 R&L outboard seat ribs into the mid cabin. Sure enough, the water was flowing through the outboard ribs wherever there was a slit from where each tab was formed.
Inspecting the wing fairings, the right fairing has obvious gaps between the faining and the top wing skin. The left fairing is better but theer is a gap where the front and aft fairing meet. I did not rol the outboard edge od the fairings. This might have helped push the outboard edge down against the wing skin but I really don't think it would be all that effective. The screw holes are near the edges and are dimpled. Dimpling can deform the edges.
I believe the water accumulation in the mid cabin may be an issue specific to the RV-8A. The tail wheel RV-8, sitting tail low, promotes water drainage from the wing/fuselage interface. The RV-8A sitting much morre level can promote water accumulation in the interface. For this reason, I will be applying a bead of chalk along all of the outboard edges that I can reach of the F-815 outboard ribs and to the inboard edges of the rib that are not reachable outboard. I will also try running a bead od RTV just inboard of the screw holes of the wing/fuselage fairings to try to stop the water from entering the gap.
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Water Accumulation
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Left Fairing Fit
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Right Faing Fit
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