Van's SB-00134 bolt check for the RV-4, -6, -7 and -8; Lycoming piston pin AD; preheat

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Hangar Debrief

Issue 2 · October 29, 2026

Van's SB-00134 asks for a check of the RV-4, -6, -7 and -8 horizontal stabilizer attach bolts by November 20

Van's Aircraft Service Bulletin SB-00134 asks owners of the RV-4, RV-6/6A, RV-7/7A and RV-8/8A to check where the bolts holding the horizontal stabilizer's forward spar to the fuselage were drilled, within 10 flying hours or 90 days of August 22, 2026, whichever comes first. Ninety days ends November 20. Some airplanes were built with the holes well away from the plans location, and the bulletin's limits lead to a logbook entry, a recurring inspection, a washer plate, or a call to Van's. Revision 2.2 is dated September 18, and an owner who printed an earlier revision should work from the current one.

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Design & Build

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Photo: Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

14 CFR part 22: light-sport category certification rules in effect since July 24, 2026

Since July 24, 2026, a new light-sport category aircraft or kit is certificated under 14 CFR part 22, which sets no weight limit and allows an airplane up to four seats and a stalling speed of 61 knots CAS. Aircraft certificated before that date keep their original limits, and a kit follows the standards in place when its statement of compliance was signed. The 61-knot figure is flaps extended, while the sport pilot limit in 61.316 is 59 knots flaps retracted, so a light-sport category airplane can be outside sport pilot privileges.

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Photo: ZLEA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

AC 43.13-1B, paragraph 4-57: rivet identification, edge distance, spacing and blind rivets

The FAA's AC 43.13-1B puts the minimum edge distance for a single row of rivets at two rivet diameters and the spacing at three, and explains how to read a part number such as MS20470AD3-5 and the alloy mark on a rivet's head. It lists the places blind rivets are not to be used, among them control surfaces, hinges, wing attach fittings and fluid-tight areas. On a kit, the kit maker's drawings decide what rivet goes where.

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Avionics & Electrical

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Photo: Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

AC 43.13-1B, paragraphs 11-115 to 11-126: routing, clamping and protecting wire bundles

The FAA's AC 43.13-1B puts numbers on routing a wire bundle: a bend radius of at least 10 times the largest wire's diameter, no more than 1/2 inch of sag between supports, 3/8 inch of clearance at grommets and 1/2 inch from movable controls. Wire runs above fuel, oil and hydraulic lines, 6 inches away where possible and never closer than 2 inches unless clamped or connected to the line. The airframe or equipment maker's instructions come first where they exist.

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Slim VHF com radios compared: Garmin GTR 205X, GTR 200 and GTR 225A, Trig TY96 and TY91, Dynon SV-COM

A second com radio is usually a slimline box 1.3 to 1.65 inches tall. Garmin lists the GTR 205X at $2,400 with 10 watts, 8.33 and 25 kHz spacing and a two-place intercom; the GTR 200 is $1,695, and Aircraft Spruce lists Trig's TY96 at $2,378.20. Trig's TY91 and Dynon's SV-COM put only a small controller in the panel and mount the radio elsewhere, and the article counts how often each radio appears in Hangar Flying's 2026 panel designs.

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Also in avionics: Garmin adds Class A and Coflyt to flyGarmin.com flight log sharing, now twelve services.

Upgrade & Maintain

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Photo: Clangenf, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Preheating a piston engine in cold weather: Lycoming's 10°F line, hot air and installed heaters

Lycoming Service Instruction 1505 requires preheat when a Lycoming engine has cooled below 10°F, or 20°F for -76 series engines such as the O-320-H and O/LO-360-E. The instruction describes preheat with a high-volume hot-air heater in 5- to 10-minute intervals and rules out a heated dipstick by name. Installed electric systems, such as Hartzell Preheat's Tanis and Reiff heaters, stay on the engine and warm the cylinders and the case or sump.

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Photo: Mdarcangelo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

14 CFR part 91: the inspections and checks that come due by the calendar

Part 91 sets five recurring items by the calendar: the annual inspection and the ELT inspection every 12 calendar months, the transponder test and the IFR altimeter and static system test every 24, and the VOR check for IFR every 30 days. An experimental amateur-built aircraft's condition inspection is set by its operating limitations, not by section 91.409.

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Tips & Tools

Panel Designer: a numbered panel figure for the POH, made from your design

A pilot's operating handbook for an amateur-built airplane needs a picture of the instrument panel with every instrument and switch identified. The Panel Designer's POH figure tool makes that page from the design: a numbered balloon with an arrow to every instrument, switch and circuit breaker, and a numbered list beneath with each name and what it does. Type over any name, so a toggle switch reads AVIONICS MASTER, uncheck what should not be listed, drag a balloon clear of another, then download it as a one-page PDF, print it, or send it to the Builders Log as a draft entry.

How to make the page

Directives & Bulletins

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Photo: Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

AD 2026-17-10: oil check and new piston pins for certain Lycoming O-235, O-540 and IO-540 engines

AD 2026-17-10, effective September 14, 2026, covers O-235, O-540 and IO-540 engines listed by serial number in Lycoming MSB 667A that have P/N LW-13445 piston pins produced from January 7, 2021, to December 15, 2025; the FAA counts 957 engines on U.S.-registered airplanes. It requires an oil change and a filter and screen inspection for metal, then new pins on a schedule set by what the inspection finds. As written it does not bind an engine on an amateur-built aircraft, but the pins are the same parts.

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Also in directives: AD 2026-19-06, an aileron hinge and cotter pin inspection on the Tecnam P2006T, 102 airplanes in the U.S., and AD 2026-21-01, which grounds the Elixir Aircraft Model Elixir, three on the U.S. registry.

From Hangar Flying

The Panel Designer at Hangar Flying

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Featured design: an American Champion Citabria panel, N822V, with its placards, colored and labeled toggle switches, labeled breakers, two uAvionix AV-30s and an engine monitor, all laid out in the Panel Designer.

Hangar Flying's Panel Designer lets a builder or owner arrange a panel with the instruments they mean to install. More than 28,000 panel designs have been started there.

See the featured panel designs

For information only. Not approved data. Follow the manufacturer's instructions and the regulations.

Hangar Debrief is published by Whiskey Victor LLC, 790 E Kiowa Ave #314, Elizabeth, CO 80107.

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