It just isn't hard enough

I decided early on that my airplane had to be able to carry my daughter Emma. Emma, now age 8, is disabled, and uses a wheelchair or a large stroller to get around. Stuffing her wheelchair into a little two-seat airplane seemed unreasonable, but her stroller seemed like a reasonable requirement.

So, I decided to build an extended baggage compartment into my RV-7. The stroller is not too heavy, but it is long. I looked around the web, and didn't like the existing adaptations that other builders have made to their RVs. So, I invented my own...and thereby hangs a tale. This took about a month of building time. It could've been simpler, of course, but hey, I'm an engineer...if it's simple, a history major could've done it!

This, like every other "improvement" I've attempted so far, adds a lot of time and effort. It's a reminder of how lucky I am to be building a QuickBuild, pre-punched, well-designed kit. To think people used to build entire airplanes the way I'm building this simple aluminum box...talk about dedication!

This is a view looking forward, from the aft edge of the new extended baggage box. I cut two pieces of aluminum angle to act as edge reinforcements.	And two more to be the forward and aft edges of the floor pan (the aft one not yet fitted in this photo.) As you can see, the box is close to the elevator pushrod on the inboard side, and the rudder cable on the outboard side. It's important, therefore, that the sides not push out and interfere with the controls.
I added the floor pan and the aft edge, and drilled all around. I probably needed half this many rivets but (stand by for lame excuse) I just bought a rivet fan and wanted to use it!	This shows how it's attached. There are two bolts at the aft end, going into brackets I riveted onto the bulkhead back there. The left forward edge has sheet metal tabs screwed into the bulkhead. The nutplates on that bulkhead are the ones that normally attach the stock baggage compartment bulkhead. I hate nutplates, so I used the existing ones where I could. I also bolted the forward lower edge to new nutplates installed near the floor of the (existing) baggage compartment. This sucker is attached! I probably didn't need to add diagonal stiffeners to the floor either...if the baggage is heavy enough to collapse the floor, it's probably too heavy for my CG envelope...but it's all about "education and recreation." And tools. And feelings. Feelings are very important.
Here I've framed the whole thing with aluminum angle (1/16" x 3/4" x 3/4", 6061).	Now for the diagonal stiffeners on the sides, to keep the sides from denting outward and interfering with the controls. I was at this stage for several work sessions because there was a great deal of drilling, deburring, and riveting.
Now it's all sheeted, just the painting and riveting remains. The top has no stiffener...I figure if I hit negative g's and the baggage hits the top, it's no big deal...it'll dent but not break with any reasonable load. (Of course if the engineers who work for me waved their hands and made such a statement I'd say "Show me the math!")	Yay! It fits!
	As a reward for finishing this little diversion, I bought Van's seat cushions. They're pretty comfortable. I'll have them upholstered locally. I always suspected that I had guessed wrong about where my butt sits relative to the panel...I was using scrap chunks of foam as cushions. I was too low and too far aft. The reason that matters is that I'm about to start placing switches, knobs, etc. and I want them to be in the right place for me, if no one else. My passengers will have no patience with me if I bitch about where the parking brake is (or whatever.)
Since I'm on a roll with self-inflicted, project-prolonging, cut-grind-drill-complain turd-polishing modifications, I fiddled some more with my center console idea. Why do I want one? I don't know...it's a nice place to put electrical switches, heat push/pull knobs, parking brake etc. without requiring a reach across the cockpit, but more than that...I just like it. Everybody says it makes access to the forward part of the cabin impossible. There's lots of stuff up there. I can make it removable (more nutplates!) if the connections are just electrical, but if they're mechanical (heat, parking brake) that'll suck. We'll see.