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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  3-25-2017
Number of Hours:  3.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Prop safety wire & tail light installation

Today was one of those days where the amount of time spent did not equal the tasks completed towards first flight. As frustrating as they are, it’s all part of the process so you take the good with the bad and hopefully learn something as you go. The start of the session was promising enough; I had purchased a new torque wrench and prop bolt adapter since I needed to torque the nuts to 65 ft lbs and my other torque wrenches only read up to 25. Once the nuts were torqued properly, the fun began. There are six bolts that secure the Hartzell prop onto the crankshaft. These six bolts are built into the prop hub, so even if they began to back out, there is no possible way for them to fall out. The challenge starts when you safety wire them in pairs, as invariably at least one of the holes is at a totally inconvenient angle and the access from the backside is impossible due to the fact that the nut is recessed in the hub.

Probably the biggest challenge came from the fact that I had chosen to use .041 safety wire, due in part to some fairly heated discussions on the forums about the proper size wire to use on propellers. As these debates go, the “if you don’t do it this way, your airplane will fall out of the sky” side usually has the more compelling argument (wrong in this case) and therefore, I decided to use the larger wire. For the uninitiated, .041 safety wire could almost be used for making coat hangers…

After 3 ½ hours, and multiple do overs, I finally got it finished, but two of the three were simply substandard in my opinion, but I elected to move on and work on something else. More on safety wire in a later post.
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The only good one after three hours...

The only good one after three hours...

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