Jeffrey Rosson, RV-9A, Merritt Island, Florida

January 12, 2009:  I stopped to see Jeffrey and his RV-9A project which he started about 18 months ago as of this visit.

The canopy work has begun and I explained the shaping of the canopy bow and its clearance from the aft fuselage skin.  He was not sure about the placement of the center slide rail on the aft fuselage skin until I made my talk and referred to my web site on my lap top computer.

He has one COM antenna placed on the aft deck and one underneath the fuselage as seen in the photo above.  I showed him where I put my ELT antenna.  My black computer bag is open on the chair at the bottom right of this photo.

We also talked about how I made my panel modular for future service issues, and a hinged panel I had seen on another builder project.

His engine is a Lycoming IO-320 with fuel-injection and two slick magnetos.   He has a new style baffle kit from Vans.  We discussed the routing of the fuel lines for this system through the baffles and avoiding the exhaust header pipes, which are also different from my installation.  I showed him where the firewall insulation went on my airplane.

When the canopy frame has been properly fitted to the fuselage, the cutting of the canopy will come after that.  For now, it is still covered in the protective plastic from Van's shipping.  Notice the pink color of the upper cowl seen in the background.  It really is from Van's.  It was trimmed just a bit too short for his fixed-pitch prop, and had some other issues with uneven spacing from the prop back plate.  He is considering a Sam James cowl and cooling plenum as a solution to the fuel line routing and the overall fit to the fuselage.

Here is another view of the fuselage.  As you can see, many builders write notes to themselves regarding special rivet areas of the kit.

The wings and horizontal stabilizer are stored out of the way above the work area in his garage.

When the project is completed, he will base the airplane at the Merritt Island Airport (KCOI).