Rollover Structure & F-1207 Bulkhead

The entire roll bar is reinforced with an inner and outer narrow sheet of aluminum which spans the thickness of the assembly.  These reinforcements are completely internal to the roll bar.  Below is a shot of the deburring process of the numerous holes along the length that matches the holes in the outer roll bar structure itself.

The roll bar assembly continues by cleco-ing both halves of the roll bar with the internal reinforcements which span the thickness of the assembly. 

Another straight-on view of one side of the structure.

Lots of match drilling between the #40 holes of the roll bar exterior and internal reinforcements.

The outer holes on the roll bar are machine countersunk as the canopy will fit flush against it when closed.

Close up of the countersink cage tool.

The almost finished roll bar assembly prior to fuselage mating.

As the internal reinforcements were sprayed with a rattle can self etching primer, I chose to spray another touch-up coat of finish color to promote uniformity of finish.  The was the "before" picture.

Initial fitting of the roll bar and support frames during fit up, prior to installation.  Also, note the mottled finish of the roll bar.  This was the result after some vigorous scrubbing with maroon scotchbrite prior to the aforementioned coat of touch-up finish paint.

 

And, the final installation of the freshly touched-up roll bar assembly.

Next, the F-1207 bulkhead was fitted with the vertical supports, held together with numerous nutplates and fitted into place with cleco's to the baggage floor, side skins and longerons.

Finally, the roll bar brace was prepped with it's brackets and made ready to attach to the back of the roll bar and the F-1207 bulkhead.

Final shots of roll structure riveted into final position.

A good shot of the canopy latch, found on the back face of the roll bar.

 

Rudder Pedals & Brake System

First mockup of the rudder pedals with the brake master cylinders attached on the right side.  Note the single WD-1211 tube on the far right side of the picture inserted through both rudder pedals, to lock the entire assembly into position.  The square is for setting the drilling position of the brake pedal.  First hole is to match drill with #30 then #12 and finally a .25" bit.

Close up view of right pedals only.

Same view as above, but from the side.

Of further note is the pair of clamps holding the entire assembly flat on the work bench prior to drilling the brake pedal holes.

After prepping the nyaflow plastic brake line with the inserts and compression fittings/nuts, the long brake lines (from the master cylinders to the manifold) are ready to route into the fuselage.  Below, I am installing the terminus of the line from an access hole to my helper (see next photo) on the other side.

Helper shown receiving line and routing forward through the system blocks and to their final destination, the brake master cylinders.

Well, this is embarrasing, I guess I do not know how to rotate an image from portrait to landscape.  Just tilt your head sideways and you can see all of the brake lines installed into the master cylinders as well as the pair that will reside in the firewall-mounted reservoir.  As with the fuel valve (NPT) fittings, I used Locktite 567 for the thread sealer, as recommended by Matco, the manufacturer of the brakes.

Powerplant - Viking!

Since well before I began my RV-12 project I have followed Jan Eggenfellner's progress in his development of  the 100 HP Honda Fit engine, which he has dubbed the Viking.  I actually saw it in person at the 2010 Sun 'n Fun flyin where it was mated to a flying Zenith 601 and was relatively impressed with it back then.  The refinements have continued and since then he's sold quite a few to builders of the Sonex, Waiex, Highlander, SeaRay and a plethora of other aircraft including some gyros, and of course, a few RV-12's.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Rotax 912S...with the exception of the price!  I even flew behind one for 14 years and almost 500 hours in my previous sport aircraft, an Ultravia Pelican, shown below.  It was a fine engine and served me well.

But I just can't bring myself to justify a $30,000 expense for the powerplant, especially when the Viking is looking to be about half that price.  I have never had any issue with building the RV as experimental amateur built in lieu of ELSA.  The use of the Viking engine will facilitate a lot of experimental aviation and what I hope to be a bit light engineering  to incorporate it into an already excellent airframe kit.

Yesterday, I placed a deposit with Viking Aircraft Engines for an August 2013 delivery engine.