Prop and Spinner

April 10, 2020 – I continued with the spinner.

I made the cutouts for the prop blades using the template I got from Hartzell.

I laid out the screw holes and drilled them through the backplate.

The holes in the front plate are already piloted. I could faintly see them through the fiberglass, so I carefully drilled to match.

I installed the nutplates.

I temporarily installed the spinner onto the prop so I could make the filler plates that go behind the blades.

Using the template as a guide, I trimmed the fillers to more or less fit the spinner cutouts., then made the attach plates.

I riveted the fillers in place. This came out really nice.

It was time to install the prop, potentially for good. I had to install the nutplates in the inlets.

We came to realize that we needed the cowl off to install the prop.

A couple of good friends at Aerocountry came by and we wrestled the prop into place. Not a bad job, but tedious. We lubed the o-ring and the crankshaft attach point, then lifted the prop up and slowly tightened the bolts.

Once the prop was installed (not safetied), I took a look around. Probably the biggest problem I found was that the flywheel was hitting the right inlet ramp baffle. In fact as we tightened the prop bolts, it pressed the flywheel into the ramp.

The only other obvious issue I found was that the bolt for the alternator could not be fully removed. It hits the flywheel. So I will turn that bolt around when I take the prop back off.

I came back the next day to try to install the cowls. Kind of a pain, but I did get the lower cowl on. With the seals and the inlet ramps, I have to put the front of the cowl up first, kind of hook it into place, then swing the aft edge up and fasten it. Well, the baffle seal attached to the right inlet would not go up above the ramp. The seal lies under the ramp. I really don’t see a problem with this. In fact, a friend’s RV-8 has the inlet seals under the ramps. So I’ll live with it.

This was a moment I’d been waiting for ever since I installed the Skybolt fasteners. I was afraid maybe the cowl moved as I was installing the fasteners. Well, it all looks good. I like the gap between the prop and the cowl, and it is fairly well centered on the cowl.

Here it is with the spinner on. Pretty awesome…

I’m planning now to finish up all the tail fairings, then I’ll come back, remove the cowls and the prop, fix the issues I’ve found, then probably install the prop for good.

Time: 10:15