Construction log of my RV-9A fuselage
RV-9A Fuselage Construction
Friday, November 05, 2004
On to finish kit....
From here out.. most entries will be over in the Finish Kit Blog. I do have a few items that may land here..
Finish Kit Blog
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Finished panel attach / brake line fittings installed
I have no real interest in politics but I exercised my right to vote.... and then headed to the workshop.
I finished attaching the panel by drilling and riveting on the 721D angles. There is no good way of attaching these since the panel is in the way and you have no good way of clamping them in place. I just held them in place and drew a line on the 721a deck where they needed to be, pulled the panel off and drilled/riveted them on. (Don't rivet on the 721A fwd canopy decks until these angles are in place.. much easier to rivet with them off the fuse.)
721-C/D's in place.
Next I installed the brake line fittings where they exit the fuselage at the gear leg. Simple enough. I used one of those thick donut spacers you get to fill in the space between the skin and gear leg weldment. I did have to cut off an edge of the space to it wouldn't rub on the weldment. Next stop will be running the brake lines from the fitting up to the parking brake valve. I was able to use 3 AN822-4D fittings on the brake valve... but I need a 45 degree AN823-4D for one of the holes since a 90 degree won't turn with the other fitting in place. I ordered one from Van's along with a couple of other fittings are a replacement part I need.
(Time: 2 hrs; Total Fuse Time: 404 hours)
Reply from Van's RE: panel position
I must have caught the tech support guys at a slow time.. only took them 1.5 hrs to reply to my email. Normally takes a day or two.
====
The hole in the panel should be about 7/16 from the bottom edge.
With the 5/16 dim on the angle (721C) that = 12/16 or 3/4, ie the width of the angle, so the clearance between the panel and the 721A should be minimal, but .020 would be OK. I'm not sure why the math isn't working out for you if the panel is punched correctly, unless the angle is 1"? (Guss)
====
Monday, November 01, 2004
Panel attachment with 721-C/D's
I need to get this panel area finished up so I can start on the canopy stuff soon. One thing I didn't do earlier (and should have) was to drill the 721-C/D angles that attach the panel to the 721A fwd canopy deck. Sunday I modified one the F-745-L rib by removing the forward portion of it so I could offset it. This made it a bit more difficult to attach the panel since it had no support on the left side. So if you plan on modifying the 745 ribs, do it after you get the 721-C/D angles attached.
The other thing I'm not so sure about was how high the panel should sit off of the 721 canopy decks. The 721C angle has a reference on the plans for the screw hole but it says to use hole in panel to locate the hole. If I put the hole where the plans call, the panel would sit quite a bit above the deck. So I just put a .020 shim under it, just enough so the panel won't rub on the deck. Hopefully this won't be an issue later on. Also, make sure you center the panel from side-to-side. There is enough flex in the ribs to allow movement. (TIP: Rivet angle to deck before riveting on the nutplate.)
F-721C Attach angle riveted in place.
Next I need to figure out how to drill the 721D angles. It's pretty tight in there and they are bent to 72 degrees.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Parking brake, parts storage
(Back from Tampa...)
I managed to get in a little time in the shop tonight.
-- I went through all the finish kit bags and stored the parts-n-pieces away.
-- Bolted on the canopy frame backets to the fuselage.
-- Modified the F-745-L rib by cutting off the forward portion that runs from the sub-panel to the main panel. Several builders are doing this so you can offset the forward portion to the left/right to allow your AH instrument to be in the center of your line of vision. Make sense? Here are some pictures.
F-745-R passenger side rib before modification.
F-745-L pilot side rib after being cut. - The angles will attach the new short rib to the center sub-panel. I plan to move the rib inboard instead of outboard as most people are. Seems to make more sense to me.
-- Started playing with the parking brake valve. I think I've figured out a way to mount it on the firewall using the existing brake line bracket. I drilled out the bracket which I had previously installed, cut the flange off with the two holes in it and drill 3/16" holes in the bracket that match the holes in the valve. I installed 3 90 degree fittings in the valve. I need a 45 degree fitting for one hole since a 90 won't turn with the other fitting in place. (Pictures later.)
Brake mounting on inside of firewall
Mounting view from outside - It probably isn't ideal to have bolt heads sticking out on the firewall. I don't think this will cause any interference later on. They could come in handy for something though.. like a bracket or shelf. Who knows...
(I finished parking brake install over in the finish kit blog: http://www.n523rv.com/finishing/2004/11/canopy-release-brake-lines.html)
(Time: 2 hrs)
Saturday, October 30, 2004
From Tampa, FL
Been on the road this week in Tampa, FL. Back home on Sunday. Visited Neil, local RV-9A builder. (http://www.neilsplane.com/)
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Cleaning, deburring and priming
It's amazing how quickly the workshop turns into a disaster area, with every tool out of the toolbox. I spent some time cleaning things up and putting everything away.
Real work consisted of deburring/scuffing/priming the gascolator doubler bracket, the rudder bar center bracket, the two outboard sub-panel pieces and the seal support strips.
I also deburred and dimpled the gascolator doubler holes in the firewall and toyed around with the parking brake valve trying to determine a good way to mount it.
(Time: 2.5 hrs)
Monday, October 25, 2004
Finish kit arrival
I picked up the finish kit today. The lines start blurring between finish kit and fuselage work, so I'll be updating both logs as necessary. So if you monitor this site, you will need to check both.
Finisk kit build log.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Interior painting
Weather was good this weekend except for the wind. I skipped painting on Saturday hoping it would be less windy on Sunday... nope. I spent most of Sunday morning prepping parts. Edge deburring and scuffing. Should have done this a long time ago.
Since it was too windy outside, I setup a paint space inside. I used a plastic sheet to block off a section of the shop to paint all the small covers and such. I then relocated the sheet around the fuselage and painted the interior.
The small parts were nice and easy to paint.. the interior painting wore me out. My hand was cramping from holding the spray gun at the goofy angles. Keeping track of where the air hose was.. hanging over the side... all added up to being wore out.
I think everything came out pretty good. I lost track of the air hose at one point and it rubbed the baggage floor all over. I painted over the rub marks and will see if I can sand it down a bit. Doesn't matter much anyway... it will be covered with carpet. The paint is a little whiter than I was hoping.. but we'll see how it looks when it dries and in the sunlight.
I am using the water-based Sherwin Williams JetFlex product. I don't know much about painting or paint but this stuff seems pretty good to me. I just dumped it in the spray pot and went to town. It is thick stuff, so you need a gun with a large tip. I used an CH siphon gun from Home Depot.. had the psi on the compressor set at 60 and the liquid knob wide open.
Product Info Sheet for SW JetFlex WR (You don't get one when you order it.)
Interior #1
Interior #2
Various cover pieces
Paint table
(Time: 6 hrs)
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
F-775 Top Skin
I recruited Emiel to come out and help me rivet on the F-775 rear top fuse skin. I crawled inside the tailcone and drive the rivets with the back-rivet set and Emiel bucked from the outside. It actually went very well.... 3 of the rivets need replaced... two of mine and one of his. As usual, Emiel is a great help. TIP: Make sure the bulkhead flange is bent to be parrallel with the skin.. I noticed that in a couple of places the skin was sucked in to the flange where it wasn't exactly bent well. I hoped the skin would pull the flange out... not so.
F-775 skin on!
While back in the tail cone, I went ahead and bolted on the should harness cable and bracket.
F-636 Should harness bracket.
Since I had the subpanel structure cleco'd on, I wanted to start playing with the center post setup to see how it would work. I'm going to run a post from the fuel selector plate up to the sub-panel. I plan on mounting my fuel gauges right above the fuel selector along with the low fuel warning lights, manual trim cable. Probably a few other things I can stick on that post as well, like ELT button, cabin heat, maybe flap switch. A couple of people have indicated that the post will rub on my leg or just be a nuisance. So I put the panel in and dropped the seats in to do some shop flying. In my estimation, it won't be a problem. (FYI, I enjoyed a good 10 minutes just sitting in the plane.... )
(Time: 1.5 hrs)
Still kicking.... and destinations list.
Yea.. I'm still around... went to auction on Monday night (bought some trees) and carved pumpkins with the family on Tuesday night. I really don't have a whole lot I can be doing. I'm waiting for my finish kit which should be shipping this week but I haven't heard anything yet.
To make this a somewhat RV related post... I've been keeping track of places to visit someday when the RV is finished. I have a "Destinations" favorites folder in my web browser. I saw a post this morning on the Matronics RV-List about the Keene Pumpkin Festival... so it's now on my favorites list.
Places to visit someday.
- AirNav Dog Island Airport
- AirNav Sulphur Creek Ranch Airport
- Arkansas's First State Park for camping, hiking, lodging Petit Jean
- Cuero Turkeyfest, Cuero, Texas
- FLYGUIDES.COM
- FlyIdaho.ORG
- Fun Places to Fly, Aviation Events, Aircraft Classifieds, Aircraft Sales, Aircraft Photos from OpenAirNet
- Gaston's Restaurant
- Glacier National Park
- Jambalaya Festival
- John Galban's Flying Site
- Keene Pumpkin Festival
- Kenosha
- Maine Lobster Festival
- Nancy's Airfield Cafe - Boston
- National Peanut Festival
- Palisade Peach Fest
- Smiley Creek Airport
- Western VA Camping
- Wurstfest
- AirNav Sulphur Creek Ranch Airport
If you know of any cool places to fly, let me know!
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Panel area work
Match drilled the seal support to the center sub-panel piece.
Made the F-793 angle which holds the fresh air vent to the side of the fuse. The plastic vents that come with the kit are very hokey! After fussing with them a bit, I think I'm going to buy some nice aluminum vents. B&B Aircraft Supplies in Gardner, KS has them for $90/pair. (Or at least did...)
Cleco'd in the panel structure to the fuse and started fitting the F-771 forward top skin. I had to do some fluting of the subpanel to get holes to line up. The 768B Outboard panels required a serious amount of fluting to get the holes to line up. The bottom tab holes I really couldn't get lined up, so I drilled it as close as I could.
Once I fluted the subpanel, I noticed that this top skin was going to be a serious test of my patience. The holes where it overlaps the side skins weren't even close to lining up. I could get the rear hole cleco'd in .. but those forward #30 holes were going to be a challenge. I honestly thought I wouldn't get it lined up. Here is what I did... but be carefull.
I started on one side by cleco'ng the holes to the side skin and then laid it over the top. I was able to get some cleco's through the skin and into the panel ribs with some coaxing. It still didn't appear I was going to get things to line up.. the front edge of the skin wasn't coming down far enough. I took a mallet and tapped along the front edge of the skin where it sits on the flange of the firewall. This worked and I was able to get the skin cleco'd on with some tugging BUT I later discovered that my tapping with the mallet was a bit excessive and kinda of bowed the firewall at the top. It is slightly noticable from the outside but became really apparent later when I pulled the skin off. Too late for me to do anything since I already drilled the skin/firewall flange holes. If you try this, I would suggest lightly tapping on BOTH sides of the firewall.. not just one.
Hole alignment before fluting sub-panel.
Hole alignment where top skin overlaps side skin.
F-771 skin cleco'd on!
Shot of the panel in place. Those ribs just happen to be centered right in line of vision of the pilot/passenger. A lot of builders are modifying the ribs and offsetting them to the left or right. I'll be doing the same.
(Time: 4 hrs)
Thursday, October 14, 2004
TV Night
It was TV night at the Brandes household, so no work got done in the workshop.
So I'll send you over to Mike's RV-9A website. Mike is another IT professional/RV builder, which seems to be a common theme in the RV community. Mike is making quick progress on his RV-9A and has a great website documenting the progress. So for those of you not yet on your fuselage or are just getting started, his site is a great resource.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
This-n-that
- Primed the rivet lines on the aft top fuse skin and cleco'd it back on. Will rivet it on this weekend. Leaving off the forward skin since it appears to be easier when fitting the canopy with it off.
- Match drilled the gascolator reinforcement bracket to the firewall. This is a FWF kit item but I ordered it so I could put it on while I had easy access. I also added the contactors and battery box to my finish kit order so I could mount those to the FW as well before getting the panel area in place.
Gascolator bracket view from outside.
Gascolator bracket view from inside.
- Match drilled the 704K cap strips to the 904 arms.
F-704K Cap strips
- Spent about 30 minutes correcting a mistake I made on the 705 seat back bulkhead. I installed the 705K plates on backwards. The slight bend should be aft, inside the angle, I had it forward, which made it very difficult to slide the seat back brace into. I almost left it was it was since the seat back will rarely get adjusted but decided to do it right. Once you guys might point out my mistake some day!
(Time: 2 hrs)
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Fuel line / static line / Deskinning
Tonight was filled with miscellaneous stuff.
I started by taking off the top fuselage skins and the roll bar. I peeled the blue vinyl off the inside of the tail cone. I'm going to rivet on the aft top skin this week... and maybe the forward skin as well. I think many builders leave it off for access but I'll only have the manual trim cable and the wiring for the strobe light. I can crawl back there if I need to.
While I was at Ray's the other day, he pointed out that the static line runs through the baggage area somewhat unprotected and out in the open. It doesn't look very good and runs the risk of getting snagged by baggage. So I've decided to reroute the static line under the left side of the baggage floor, through the aft half of the center section and then up the side skin behind the 704K cap strip and forward to the panel. This will keep it completely out of view and won't get caught by any of Sandi's shopping bags. (FYI, I previously added two wiring runs underneath the baggage floor on the outboard sides and installed some conduit.)
Next I decided to tackle that fuel line again that runs from the facet pump to the fuel selector. I ordered 12' of tubing from Van's which would give me about 4 more tries to get it right. I got it right... twice.
This time I put the fittings on, flared the end, clamped the fitting in the vise gently and bent the tubing as close as I could to the end. The tubing collapses a small bit but not too bad. Once I got the bend about 45 degree's, I bent the rest of the way by hand off the vise. I got it right the first time... but when I bent the aft end up to mate with the fuel selector, I forgot to slide the other fittings aft to be past the bend... so I had a nut and sleeve trapped. So I had to make a second one. Glad I'm done with that. Once my finish kit arrives with the parking brake valve, I'll finish the brake line runs and be done!
(Time: 2.5 hrs)
Monday, October 11, 2004
768D Seal Support angles
I made up the two 768D seal support angles which rivet to the front of the subpanel parts. These are super flimsy but a little easier to make than the panel support angle. Once made, I drilled them to the 768B parts.
768D seal angles
768D's Drilled in place.
Next I drilled the 644 channels to the 768A subpanel and for the first time since I've started the project, drilled into my finger! Now I've drawn blood a dozen times doing various other things.. but I kinda prided myself on not drilling my finger. Guess it had to happen some time. For you builders who haven't done it yet.. just grab the drill and do it.. get it over with! :-)
F-644 Drilled to subpanel. (Pay attention to the position of the 644. I almost drilled it on the other side.)
FWIW, I'm leaving off the F-697 channel and associated components. This is the hat channel that holds the canopy release mechanism. As many others have pointed out.. I ain't jumping out of my airplane, so I don't need a canopy release mechanism. Even if I did release the canopy, it wouldn't come off anyway since it's attached in a couple of other places. So the only real purpose for the canopy release would be to make it easier to take the canopy on and off. The positioning of the release mechanism could cause problems with the position of the radio stack... so I'm not putting it in. (I'll just use bolts instead of pins.)
I also drilled the F-746 engine control bracket to the subpanel.
F-746
(Time: 2.5 hrs)
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Panel support angles & project visits
Spent the morning finishing the other half of the panel support angle... cutting and filing.. I think I spent at least 4 hours making this single part.
Angle complete
On a seperate topic.. my seat backs were hitting the rollbar. I started to replace the hinge on the bottom of the seat back so I could shift it inboard... but then decided to swap seatbacks to see if that made a difference. I had them labeled as pilot/pass. but at some point switched them. Switching them back made them fit perfect!
About that time, Lonnie, a future RV builder came out for a visit... and he brought a gift! He's an instructor at an A&P school in KC... he brought a hard copy of the AC43.13 book! Will be nice reference material. Thanks Lonnie!
So back to work on the panel... I started drilling the support angle to the panel when our EAA chapter VP showed up with a guest in tow. He wanted to show 'Red' my project... so we chatted for awhile.
Finished drilling the support angle to the panel and also made the two small angles and drilled them.
Panel angle drilled in place.
(Time: 5 hrs)
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Fuel vent line & panel area components
Spent a couple hours in the morning running the fuel vent lines inside the cabin area. This was MUCH easier than the fuel lines since the tubing is 1/4" and very flexible.
Vent line routing
Next stop is the panel area. I started in on making all the little angles required, modifying a few parts and I finished about half of the 768D angle that supports the panel itself. Lots of cutting and filing!
First half of the angle complete.
(Time: 6 hrs)
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Push rods & forward canopy decks
I finished up the elevator push rods by putting on the ends. No biggie there. (I put the short one in the tunnel first, then riveted on the end.)
Most of the evening I spent match drilling/countersinking the triangular shaped forward 721 canopy decks. These sit on top of the longeron and eventually the panel will attach here.
TIP: When working with the canopy decks and these pieces, leave the ends as square as possible as they butt up against each other. The 3M scotch brite wheel has a tendency to round the corners off. Just a cosmetic thing to take into consideration.
721 Forward canopy deck.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Manual aileron trim control
Pulled out the manual aileron trim bag and assembled it. Pretty straight forward. Had to drill out a couple of nuplates on the seat ribs... and also the nutplate on the seat pan, as it was orientated in a way that interfered with the trim bracket.
Parts to make trim control
Nuplate on seat pan that needs rotated 90 degrees.
Top view after assembly.
Bottom view after assembly.
Installed - no springs yet.
PS - Inventory your parts bag when you get the kit.. I'm missing a VA-116 spring.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Fighting the fuel line
Spent another hour and half and wasted 6 ft of tubing trying to get the tube bent for the short run from the selector to fuel pump. Van's design is amazing sometimes.. but others you have to wonder what the engineers were thinking! The fuel pump sits at a 45 degree angle... down next to the floor on the firewall. There just isn't enough clearance to get a tube bent without it hitting the floor. Paul had the same problem, so I don't feel to stupid.. but geezzz is it frustrating. Not sure how I'm going to get it bent. I think I'll move on to something else for now.
(Time: 1.5 hrs; Total Fuse Time: 362 hours)
Monday, October 04, 2004
Elevator push tubes
I want to work on some of the small items remaining. So tonight I pulled out the tubes for the elevator. I cut them to length and drilled the rod ends to the smaller tube. I need some primer to slosh in them before I close them out.
TIP: I've read that it can be difficult to insert the shorter push tube in the tunnel when both rod ends are installed. Some builders are having to enlarge the holes in the tunnel to get it to fit. I tested this last night and confirmed that it's true. :-) The solution is to leave off one of the rod ends, insert the tube in the tunnel, then rivet on the rod end. (Of course it won't come out after that!)
Wasn't exactly in the building groove, so I called it a night and watched the Chiefs beat the Ravens. (Barely!)
(Time: 1 hrs)
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Rollbar mounted!
I managed to get some time in on the project this weekend after a visit to my mom's and working on the 'honey-do' list.
With the rollbar riveted, it was time to get it mounted on the fuselage. I clamped the 631C/D angles to the frame and drilled holes for the keeper rivets. Pull them off and riveted them together. Next step is to mount them to the fuselage. The plans really don't help you out a lot in this area. I found one measurement on DWG 40 that calls for a 19/32" inch center line. I marked that point just as a reference. In the end, I cleco'd on the F-774 skin and used it as a point of reference. The angles set just about up against the aft end of the canopy deck. I did have to trim the passenger side a little to get it slide far enough forward. Once I was happy with the position, I clamped and drilled.
Pilot side 631C/D drilled.
With those mounted I started the test fitting of the frame. I marked where the frame ends need to be trimmed to wrap around the angle. A couple of times off/on and I had it pretty good.
Where frame end wraps around angle.
I pulled off the 631C/D angles and filed off the outboard edge to match the contour of the fuselage sides. This was by far the hardest part of the whole process. I just couldn't figure out a good way file the material off. I managed to get it done using about every power tool and file I had.
I modified the 632A channel to help hold the frame. (Tip: The channel is 19 5/16 long, so it needs 5/16" trimmed off the end AND THEN the 5/16" angle cut made.)
Frame in position with channel.
I also made the 732B angle. TIP: The plans call for the 3 holes that mount the angle to the 706 bulkhead to be 1/2" (exact center). Don't do this! As Paul discovered, these leaves the angle positioned to high and it rests against the flange of the 706 bulkhead, which would not provide clearance for the rivets that attach the skin to the bulkhead. I drilled mine about 3/16" higher than called for to allow some clearance.
As your can see.. the holes in the 706 bulkhead are exactly 1/2" from the flange.
Here it is positioned lower to allow clearance for the rivets that go above.
Oh yea... TIP #3 for today. As you can see in the picture, one of the 3 holes in the 706 bulkhead that is used to attach the 732B angle is part of the vertical bellcrank channel. In an earlier tip I mentioned to leave this angle off so you could back drill some of the holes.. where here is another place you can't get too if you drill that angle on too soon. I had to measure over and just kinda guess where the hole was.
View from rear.
With the frame in place, I drilled and tapped the holes in the angle for the screws that mount the frame. (Only the two forward screw holes get tapped.)
Finished and skins attached.
View from front.
Now that things were securely in place, I match drilled the little 732E and 732C's in place.
F-732C angle
F-732E angle
That completed the mounting of the rollbar. Things need to come off for a little deburring and then it can get painted.
The electric facet fuel pump came a week or so ago and I had bolted it in place. I wanted to run the fuel line from the selector up to the pump. Paul seemed to have a lot of trouble with the bends in the line at the pump end, so I focused on that end first. I managed to get the bends right after some work but then screwed up the fuel selector end. I need to pick up some more tubing for try #2.
Felt good to make some progress and get the roll bar complete!
(Time: 6 hrs)
Friday, October 01, 2004
Roll bar riveting complete.. a second time
I finished riveting the two halves of the roll bar together. It came out well and was even the correct width this time! Now it's time to get it mounted on the fuse.
Complete!
Correct width!
(Time: 2 hrs)
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Rollbar riveting
I primed the roll bar parts and riveted the halves together with the splice plate and then riveted on the strips. I fitted the front half to the back and a few of the holes wouldn't quite line up, so I pulled it apart and did some filing in one area on the strip to allow it to sit lower. Primed where I filed and called it a night.
Tip: I think it is a good idea to cleco on the splice plate for the two channel pieces, then check the width and adjust. Set a couple of rivets to hold things together and then check the measurement again. I think there is enough wiggle room with cleco's and rivets to allow a incorrect width.
Top strip riveted on.. starting on bottom.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Roll bar countersinking.. complete
I finished countersinking the roll bar components and scuffed them all for priming. It was a bit too cold to prime so I'll do it tomorrow and start riveting it together.
(Time: 1.5 hrs)
Self-portrait.. figured I better take one for FAA purposes. Where is all my hair going? :-)
PS - Happy Birthday Melissa! (My sister turned 32 today.)
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Rollbar #2 started
My replacement rollbar pieces came on Friday, so this weekend I started making roll bar #2. Found it a bit hard to get motivated, so I didn't finish it like I had hoped. I have it all drilled and deburred. I've countersunk the aft pieces. Need to countersink the forward pieces and it will be ready for prep and assembly.
I've been thinking about what went wrong on the first one. One thought is that when I riveted the two aft pieces together with the splice plate, I didn't check the width... I just riveted them together. I'm thinking that there was enough play in the splice plate rivets to allow it to be off. This time I'll clamp it to the table with the correct width and then rivet the splice plate on. My only other thought is that I just completely mis-measured the first time.
(Time: 6 hrs)
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
On the road....
On the road in Viva Las Vegas. Will be back on Wednesday afternoon.
On Saturday I finished riveting the rollbar only to discover that it is 3/16" too narrow! I measured at least a dozen times but missed something somewhere, somehow. It's not something I can 'make' work, so I've ordered replacement parts. Oh welll...
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Rollbar riveting
Started riveting the rollbar together. Riveted the two forward halves and then the two splice strips. I riveted the strips with the halves clamped to the table to keep it as flat as possible.
I riveted the aft halves together. I need to drill the 631D angle to it then I can complete the rollbar assembly. (Will do on Saturday)
(Time: 2 hrs)
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Rollbar countersinking complete, 631C angles
I finished countersinking the other half of the roll bar, scuffed, cleand and primed all the parts.
Then I started making the 631C angles.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Rollbar countersinking
I managed to countersink the forward half of the roll bar. Not hard at all, just a bit time consuming to adjust the countersink as you move around the curves.
(Time: 1.5 hrs)
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Roll bar drilled & deburred
We had our big housewarming party this weekend, so I only got in a little time today. I fitted and drilled the forward halves of the roll bar to the assembly. Took it all apart and deburred everything. Time for countersinking, which will probably take awhile given the # of holes and the need to adjust the CS for nearly each hole.
(Time: 5 hrs)
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Drilling the F-631 roll bar
I drilled the 631B straps to the aft half of the roll bar. The first one went pretty good. The top strip really wanted to not sit down in the channel once it started going around the curve. I did what I could to keep it down. I shaved of some of the edge so the top half would sit far enough down to get the 1.5" thickness.
Bottom strip drilled and cleco'd
Top strip drilled in place.
Next I need to put the forward halfs of the roll bar on and drill them.
(Time: 2.5 hrs)
Monday, September 06, 2004
Fuel lines, misc, started roll bar.
I bolted on the right side gear weldment and then drilled the holes for the forward running arm of it. You can back drill one of the holes from inside the fuse out. The second hold is tucked behind vertical bulkhead, preventing access to drill. The holes are exactly 1" apart, so after drilling the first hole, on the outside, I measured a level line over exactly 1" and drilled. I managed to hit the hole on both sides. TIP: Drill to #30 first, countersink, then enlarge to 3/16". I forgot to do this on the pilot side and did a poor job of countersinking a 3/16" hole.
Holes drlled, one CS'd.
Next I moved on to flaring the tubing ends inside. There isn't a lot of room but I left a little extra.
Flaring tool
Ends flared.. but...
What is missing?
After fixing what was missing above, I bent the ends up to attach to the fuel selector. I didn't have ANY extra length to play with since I had to cut of the flares to install the fittings. I think I have it bent well enough to work. One tube just start collapsing.
Fuel lines in place.
While I was moving things around, I remembered I need to install a nutplate on the seat pan for the tunnel cover to attach to.
Nutplate on seat pan
Next stop... I initially waited to install the cross piece on the 705 bulkhead because Paul ran into an issue with the 705G angles interfering with the side skin rivets. Unfortunatly, there ain't a whole lot you can do about it. So I went ahead and riveted it on. TIP: Don't wait to do this. Since the canopy bulkhead (armrest) is already in place, it was a pain to drive the rivets.
705 cross member in place.
Time to start on the roll bar. (Sandi wants to call it the canopy support brace... doesn't want to entertain the idea of actually NEEDING a roll bar!) So I started making all of the little angle pieces.
732C's
732E's
631E plates
631D angles
I enlarged the holes in the end of the 631 pieces.
1.5" holes in 631.
Time to start assembling things. In order to create a flat, unwarped roll bar, you need to get it clamped to a flat surface. So I made up a little table out of 3/4" plywood and cut out some holes for clamps.
Wide shot
Close up
The other thing you need to do is get the correct width and height, cross-checking with the fuselage width. I drew a line on the plywood for the correct height and aligned the bottom ends of the 631 channels with this line. Then I trimmed the upper ends of the channels until I had the correct width. (Trimed about 3/16" total)
I drilled the 631E plates to the channels. TIP: Position the plate lower in the channel. Of course, I always read about things AFTER I do them. Look at Section A-A on DWG 39. The plate needs to sit lower in the channel so when the 732D angle gets riveted on the rivets to fall so close to the vertex of the angle. I just centered the plate horizontally and vertically.
P9050043.jpg
(Time: 7 hrs)
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Fuel selector plate, gear weldments & fuel lines.
Time to start on the gear leg weldments but before I can do that, I need to figure out the fuel lines.. and before I can do that, I need to make my fuel selector plate.
Here I go again, deviating a bit. I want to put a center console in, similar to what the RV-6's had but it will run to the sub-panel instead of the panel. I also need to make it a bit wider, as I want to put the fuel gauges on it. Here is a perfect example of what I'm going to do.. almost identical to this.
I picked up some .065 last week to make this. Here is my new piece next to the standard piece. I need to bend the forward edge up. I'll put a couple of nutplates on the back side so I can screw the post to it.
New fuel selector plate.
I also pulled out the fuel selector itself and mounted it to the plate. (You have to move the plug in the selector to the other port.)
Assembled fuel selector.
Time for some fuel lines! Everything I've read says to run the fuel lines while the gear leg weldments are still off. (Nosewheel only... tail draggers don't have to deal with this stuff.) So I took some ball park measurements and studied the plans trying to figure out the best way to do all this. Here is a condensed version off all this:
1) Cut a 35" piece of tubing. Mark 6" from one end and put a 90 degree bend in. Mark over 3 3/8" and put another 90 bend. This forms the S-bend.
S-bend in fue line.
2) Take off the outboard cover support rib from the center section.
3) Insert the fuel line from the outside through the fuel line hole, thread it through the gear leg weldment. Slip on the cover support rib. Continue threading the tube through the inner cover support rib.
Threading the tubing through weldment.
4) At this point you have to get the s-bend through the hole, which requires some bending of the tubing. Just bend it enough so you can kinda joggle the tubing through. You also need to bend the end on the inside forward a bit to clear the oppopsite side cover suport rib. Then you can kinda drop the gear leg weldment in place.
Weldment in place with tubing.
Wide angle shot showing end-to-end.
With that all in place, I went ahead and bolted on the gear leg weldment. (I'd suggest not doing this until after you flare/bend the selector end of tubing in case you mess it up and need to pull it out.)
The AN-12A bolts called out are a bit short as others have noted. I used -13A's. The bolts on the bottom of the bulkhead are difficult to reach at best. I didn't have a long wrench, so I had to improvise.
Trick tools - The tape I used to put the washers on with, just stick the washer to the tape, drop it down, use a long screw driver to push it on the bolt. The wrench I taped to the end of a metal clamp. Worked pretty good.
Tool in use - You can kinda see how far down it is inside.
I bent the right side fuel line and got it routed through the weldment on in place then called it quits for the night.
Right side weldment in place.
(Time: 7 hrs)
Friday, September 03, 2004
982C Center cover
I finished work on the cabin floor center cover. Positioned and drilled it to the floor stiffeners and firewall recess. Installed the various nutplates and riveted on the heat baffle. I also bent out the little vent tabs.
982C cover drilled in place
Vent tabs.
I installed the nutplates on the seat pans around the stick opening and also on the fuel selector shroud.
Nutplates on seat pans.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Finished baggage panels, started cabin covers
I started out the evening by installing the seat belt cable wear blocks on to the baggage panels. The notch didn't appear to be big enough for the cable to pass through, so I made it a bit longer.
Notch before enlarging.
I started to think about mounting the gear leg attachments but decided against it for now. I think I want to tackle the fuel line routing before I attach things, hoping to do it all at once.
So I moved on to the forward cabin covers. I dug out all the 982 cover related parts. Drilled the holes in the 982E access plate for the throttle/mixture/carb heat cables. Drilled the 982D heat baffle to the 982C cabin cover. Did some dimpling and some priming of the parts... about as far as I got.
982E Cover
982C Center cabin cover.
I noted earlier (and to Paul) that I installed the 972B-L/R floor stiffeners backwards. Instead of facing out, mine are facing in. I thought this worked to my advantage because it allowed one of the arms in the gear leg attach bracket to not interfere. Now it has come back to nibble on me. Thee 782A cover plates cover the center section and have a notch cut out for the floor stiffener. Since mine are on wrong, the plate doesn't fit. Not a big deal, as I'll just cut a new notch to fit around the floor stiffener. Oh well.. :-)
(Time: 2.5 hrs)
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Shin Dents
# of Times I've Whacked My Shins on the Steps: 2
I'm going to keep a running total! Of course, I managed to bump into the step right where the rag wasn't covering it.. and of course right next to the spot that was just healing over from the LAST time I whacked it.
Shin damage - Warning.. hairy leg involved.
Baggage panel / nutplates
(Picture disk still hasn't arrived...)
I worked on drilling the screw holes in the upper baggage panel and then screwed/clamped it all in place in the fuse and match drill the holes to the 706 bulkhead. Once that was done, I spent the rest of the time drilling and riveting on nutplates. They sure can take awhile.
Two tips for builders: The two upper/center nutplates for the upper baggage panel are not symetrical around the center line. The right one (pass. side) is offset a little more to clear the vertical bellcrank rib. I failed to notice this. Fortunatly the hole landed right in the center of that rib and I was able to use a single lug nutplate there. The second tip is to orientate the nutplates so that the rivets holding them will be behind the baggage panel. I'm sure the plans show this but I wasn't paying attention.
Upper/center nutplates.
I'll work on the seat belt harness wear blocks tonight and that should do it for the baggage compartment.
(Time: 3 hrs)
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Elevators drilled, disassembly and misc.
Long story short, I drilled the elevator control horns with the counterbalance arms in alignment with the HS. Once that was done, I dismantled the tail feathers. I considered remounting the VS and attaching the rudder but decided not to. I stowed all the tail pieces up in the rafters. (Did I mention I had a pack rat taking up residence in my HS a couple of weeks ago!)
With that done, it was time to finish up some little projects.
- I took the forward top skin off to get it out of the way. I took out the flap mechanism parts. I drilled and attached the nutplates to the back rest support.
- My replacement baggage compartment tunnel cover came in last week, so I notched it on the correct side this time and fitted it in place.
- The replacement upper baggage panel also came in last week, so I started working on it. I made the notches for the seat belt cables and drilled the various screw holes in assembly with the lower baggage panel. I need to cut the corners off the upper panel and then start on installing nutplates.
(Looking forward to the upcoming 3 day weekend of airplane building!)
(Time: 3 hrs)
Monday, August 30, 2004
Mounting elevators
First thing to do was to drill the holes in the elevator control horns at the top where the bolt goes through the VA-146 bushing. I was reading on Brian's site yesterday and noted how he just stuck a 1/4" bolt through the bushing and drilled it that way very carefully. Van's wants you to find something to insert it into the bushing to protect it, drill a pilot hole and then enlarge it to 1/4". I did it Brian's way and it seems to have worked just fine.
I do have a small issue though. The hole in the right elevevator comes very close to the tube of the control horn. (Bill... I noticed this after we talked). It is so close in fact that while I can put a nut on the end of the bolt, I can't turn it, as the tube blocks it. If I reverse the bolt and put the head on this side, it fits but causes the bolt to not be perfectly straight. I think I'll be shaving about 1/16" off the bolt head so it sits straight. The one thing I didn't do before drilling was check the measurements of the rod end bearings on the elevator. After my hole problem I pulled the elevator off to check. They are just under the 7/8" max distance, so they are correctly positioned.
Next I pulled off the left elevator as it's control horn was the most aft. I drilled the #30 pilot hole and then realized I drilled it in the wrong place. The picture on the plans confused me. I drilled it 1/2" from the aft end forward, instead of 1/2" from the forward edge back. I drilled a new pilot hole in the correct place. Shouldn't be any issues as I have plenty of edge clearance between the holes, even when the correct hole gets enlarged to 3/16".
I couldn't find anything to clamp between the control horns. Mine are about 27/32" apart. I'll swing by my new favorite store (Airparts) and see if they have a piece of aluminum that is 7/8" thick.
On the subject of elevator alignment. I clamped my counterweight arms in place so they were aligned with the HS. After measuring, I have exactly 1 degree difference between the elevators. (Same as Brian I might add.) I plan to call Van's and ask if I should make the elevators be in the same position, throwing the counterbalance arms about 3/32" out of whack or position the arms in perfect alignment with the HS leaving the elevators 1 degree off.
PS - new camera disk hasn't arrived yet. I'll catch up on photo's when it does.
(Time: 2 hrs)
Elevator alignment
I was just reading on Brian Mayette's site about his elevator misalignment. The response from Van's was..
"If the misalignment is only 1/16" I would leave it as is. Don't elongate the pushrod bolt hole or misalign the bearings. You could rivet a doubler to the horn or weld up the hole and redrill but it's not necessary for flight safety. I presume you are not relying on the c'weight arms to align the elevators. They may well be off slightly even though the elevator surfaces are correctly aligned."
That last sentence is interesting because the instructions tell you to clamp the elevator counterweight arms in place and drill... this is contrary to what Gus is saying above. Hmmm.... glad I read this before I went to work on the plane tonight.
Also, Brian pointed out that the -10 bolt to attach the push rod to the elevator horns was way to short. Gus said: "The distance between the horns does vary a bit, probably it should say "use appropriate bolt length" rather than specify it. Use a spacer if you need more than 3 washers per side. A stack of washers can shift against one another so a spacer is better."
Sunday, August 29, 2004
More VS work / EAA meeting
(continued from Saturday)
I clamped the VS in place with the F-981 Attach bracket the mounts to the front VS spar. This bracket has an offset built into it that shifts the nose of the VS to the left. I marked a centerline on the forward spar of the VS and used the hole in the center of the 981 bracket to position it. You also need to make sure that the hinge holes all line up as you can bend the spar a bit with clamping it in place. I ended up putting the VS spar behind (aft) of the bracket. Once it was all clamped together, I drilled the holes.
Next you need to drill the holes on the lower end of the rear VS spar. On nosewheels, the holes run through the tail tie-down. I'm not sure I understood what the instructions wanted you to do but I already had holes in my tie-down and have also already riveted it in place. Since the holes were in the tie-down already, I had to back drill from inside the tail cone out through the VS spar. My angle drill is more like 120 degree instead of 90, so I put a call into builder buddy Bill. He was headed to the airport for a lesson, so I had him take his 90 degree attachment with him and ran to the airport to get it. His worked perfect. It was pretty hard to tell if I was drilling the hole straight or not but seems like I did. I enlarged them to 3/16" from the outside after drilling the pilot holes. If you haven't made your tail tie-down yet.. you might wait and then try and follow the instructions.
I called it quits and cleaned up for the meeting.
The EAA meeting went well.. had about 8-10 people show up. (Small chapter, small town, about half the normal attendance) I babbled for about an hour about my RV and RV's in general. It seemed well received and I had a good time yakking about RV's. I had a lot of comments about my workmanship... all good... was kinda nice to hear. You always think you can be doing better. One member just started his RV-7 tail kit. Another is building a workshop and is going to start an RV... model undecided at this point.
I decided not to drag the plane out of the shop and just made room for everyone to walk around it. It looked pretty nice sitting there with the top skins cleco'd on, the HS/VS in place, panel cleco'd in place. All that was missing were the wings.
(Time: 3 hrs)
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Flap side covers / HS mounted!
I remounted the flap motor unit back in the fuse and match drilled the side covers to the vertical seat back brace.
Since the EAA meeting is tommorow at my place, I kinda want to attach all the parts to make it look like a real airplane. I've been considering dragging the whole thing out of the shop and mounting the wings, etc.
I pulled out the horizontal stabilizer (HS) and plopped it in place on the tail. I really didn't start with the intention to mount it.. mostly just to see how it fit and maybe clamp it in place. Once I set it in place I looked at the instructions.. geez.. not much to do. So I decided to actually drill it in place!
I spent 30 min taking every possible meausrement I could think of to make sure it was positioned correctly. Initially I didn't have it centered left/right but I discovered that and repositioned it. Once I had it positioned left/right, I started fussing with the fore/aft position. I just hooked my tape measure to the back corner of the HS and measured to a hole on the firewall. Once I had it equal on both sides I took a couple of other measurements somewhere along the fuse just to check. I clamped it in place and drill it to the longerons through the little H-908 angles. I was only able to drill the two inboard holes, I need a longer 3/16" to drill the outboard holes.
How I measured: For the left/right position, I measure from the side of the fuselage skins to the center of the little bearing bracket thing mounted on the rear spar of the HS. I also measure from the outboard edge of the skin to one of the rivet heads on the aft deck. This measurement may not be accurate though depending on how accurate your aft deck positioning is, in my case it turned out perfect on the aft side but the same measurement on the front side was off 1/16". I also confirmed the side-to-side positioning visually by looking at the gap between the HS skins and fuse skins. For the fore/aft positiong, I just hooked my tape measure on the outside back corners and measure to a hole on the firewall. I took a second measurement to a rivet hole about mid fuse just as a double-check.
I made the F-798 shims that go under the 908's and drilled them. I used the 11/32" drill bit to raise the back end of the HS as specified.
I pulled out the vertical stabilizer (VS) and stared playing with it. First I trimmed the end of the forward spar according to plans. (If your just starting the build process.. no reason not to do this now instead of waiting.) I made the 912D Up Elevator stop the VS bolts to. I positioned the VS in the right place and clamped it in place. Clamping can be a bit of trick in this area.. you may have to get creative if you don't have the right clamps. Also, make sure the bottom end of the VS gets pushed up against the bulkhead. The aft bulkhead rivets interfered with this and I had to tap it in place with a hammer. I need to squeeze those rivets a little more to provide some clearance.
So I have the VS clamped on, got the 912D angle clamped on. I took the measurements to make sure it was perfectly vertical. I drilled the 912D-to-VS spar holes and also the outboard 912D-to-longeron holes. I took the VS off, leaving the 912D clamped in place and drilled the 3 center holes in the angle to aft deck holes. In hindsight (and what Dan did) you could clamp this angle in place and drill it to the fuse first, then put the VS on and drill the two bolt holes.
(Time: 6 hrs)
Friday, August 27, 2004
Safetying
Since I've never safety wired anything and also wanted to know the correct method for installing a cotter pin, I looked it up in the "AC 43.13-1B ACCEPTABLE METHODS, TECHNIQUES, AND PRACTICES - AIRCRAFT INSPECTION AND REPAIR" manual.
Section 7. Safetying
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Yet more flap mechanism work
I started off by making a new F-767 part to replace the one I incorrectly installed earlier. Turns out if you turn it around, the side covers won't fit. I also drilled out the reinforcement plate in the 766 channel and enlarged the hole to 5/8" in the channel. Riveted the plate back on. Noticed that the 5/8" hole wasn't centered on the hole in the plate. I don't think the unibit does a good job of staying centered when enlarging holes.
F-767 correct orientation
So after fixing those things, I started the process of mounting the flap motor. What a PITA! Instructions say to mount the 766 channel in the fuse, then bolt in the motor, then bolt the motor to the actuator arm. Well... it's pretty tight in the channel so mounting the motor wasn't easy.. but doable. What I couldn't do was bolt the motor arm to the flap actuator! They want the arm extended half way through it's travel. When you mate the arm with the actuator, that puts the connection inside the channel, which makes it _impossible_ to bolt the two together. So I ended up taking out the bolts that hold the actuator arms so I could slide it back to give myself room to bolt things together. Ugghhh.. of course your doing all this while leaning in over the side of plane. Eventually I got it all bolted together and drilled the little mounting bracket, only to take it all apart again.
I think the better way to do this is mount the motor in the channel on the bench, then take it to the plane and make the connection to the actuator arm, THEN screw the 766 unit to the fuse. We'll see.. I have to mount it one last time. I need to get some safety wire and pliers too.
Earlier while I was waiting for the primer to dry on the new 767 part, I started playing with the gear leg mounts. First I cleaned out the gear leg holes on both ends. Then I used my dremel to notch out the corner to clear one of the rivets on the side wall. (Check Paul's site for pictures.. I still don't have a disk for the camera.) I also went ahead and drilled out the outboard nutplates on the forward half of the 904 center section. They interfere when taking the weldments in and out. I figure I'll be putting them in and out numerous times and don't need a reason to get upset at a nutplate every time. Prevemtive strike. It appears that the fit is pretty good. The hole in the bottom skin is shaped just about perfect, I might need to trim a little off one edge. What I did notice is that the hole for the brake line fitting isn't centered with the hole in skin for the fitting. Again, I think this is because of the unibit not centering on the hole. I'll probably have to enlarge it so the fitting will clear. I think this area gets hidden by a fairing so nobody should notice.
I'm hosting the EAA 1329 chapter meeting this Sunday. I plan on pulling out the plane and putting all the parts on it to make it look like a real airplane. Should be cool!
(Time: 3 hrs)
F-767 wrong
I was just on Brian Mayette's RV-7 site and noticed I made the same mistake he did by turning the F-767 around, which explains why normal nutplates wouldn't fit. It seems this mistake then causes problems with the side covers fitting correctly. I'll check on it tonight but I'm guessing I'll be remaking the 767.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
More flap mechanism stuff
(I've lost my camera disk, so no pictures.)
I woke up at 5:00 am and realized that I had positioned the flap actuator weldment (WD-623-EF) backwards. Guess I'll need to fix that. :-)
I flipped the weldment to it's correct position and drilled the center bushing block to the rib. Then I started in on all the other flap mechanism parts. Several pieces you have to fabricate. There is nothing hard about all this BUT look VERY closely at the plans before you start and make notes, highlight, write on parts.. whatever.
GOTCHA'S:
- The F-785A back rest brace needs to sit 1/8" up from the floor. If you don't do this, you risk not having enough edge clearance for the screw holes and at the least won't have enough material to rivet the nuplates on. I didn't notice this until after I drilled. I just used L08 single lug nutplates in this area. No problemo.
785A brace positioning
- The 766A flap channel that the motor gets mounted in. There is a reinforcement piece that gets a 1/4" hole match drilled. Before you rivet that piece to the channel, enlarge the hole in the channel to 5/8" for "bolt head clearance". Again, I didn't notice this on the plans until after I riveted it on. I'll take it off and enlarge the hole.
766A with hole drilled.
Sad thing about all this is that Paul had already documented these on his site.. I just failed to remember them! So I suggest that if your are reading this.. go make notes on the parts themselves.. you may forget to look at the plans. :-)
I'm at the point where I'm ready to mount the flap motor in the channel and finish up the installation.
(Time: 7 hrs)
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
741 Tunnel cover
I picked up some .040 on the way home and finished making the forward tunnel cover. The new piece was about 1/8" wider than the 741B stock piece. It looks much better.
Completed tunnel cover.
Next I started in on the flap mechanism stuff. Drilled the holes in the UMHW block and cut it in half. Positioned the flap weldment in the fuse. (Be careful.. there is an orientation to this.)
(Time: 2 hrs)
Monday, August 23, 2004
F-741 Forward tunnel cover brackets
I made the 741A forward tunnel cover brackets from the z-angle. Mounted them in place. Unfortunately, the positioning is wider than the 741B plate that gets mounted on top. Not a big deal but annoying, so I'll swing by the parts place over lunch and pick up some replacement .040 and make a piece the fits correctly.
PS - We have a new member to our household... Adriana from Mexico, which is in addition to Emiel from Holland. If Sandi gets one more and I'm moving into the shop!
(Time: 1 hrs)
Sunday, August 22, 2004
More cabin work.
It was a long day in the shop.. wore myself out.
Started the day by prepping and riveting riveting the F-750-L/R aft baggage sidewall panels. I couldn't easily rivet the nutplates that go along with these, so I used the CCR-264SS-3-2 pop rivets to put them on. After I put the side walls on, I realized I hadn't run the rudder cables yet. Wasn't a big deal, I just used a fish tape to pull them through behind the wall.
(While I was working, Emiel was busy devinyling and deburring the top fuse skins.)
I pulled out the static port/tubing kit and tried to figure out how it went together. I didn't have any RTV so I ran up to Ray's to get some and also borrow back the edge roller for the top skins. I put in the pop rivet static ports, run the clear tubing and made the connections to the plastic T fitting. (FYI, I put the 1/4" tubing in boiling water to soften it up so I could get it to fit on the T-fitting.) I RTV'd all the connections/joints. I need some -4 snap bushings to run the tube to the panel. Also need to paint cabin before I finalize the run.
Static tubing
With the baggage floors in, the next step is the seat pans. They need hinges attached for the seat backs to attach to. I pulled out the hinge material and went to town. I managed to forget to take out the two center eyelets on the passenger side before riveting them to the seat pan. No big deal really, one long hinge works just fine instead of the two short pieces the plans call for. Once I had it all riveted, I riveted the seat pans in.
Pilot side seat in place.
Hinge loop - I saw another builder do this. It has NO value whatsoever other than _maybe_ looking better than the L bend the plans call for. 
Next I needed to finish up the seat back brace. I drilled the hinge material to the brace and riveted in on. Simple.
With the seats done, I had Sandi come out and sit in it again to see if things improved with the seats in the final position. With the seat in the most forward position, she able to reach the rudder and brake pedals. I'll still need to make a custom control stick to offset it forward some.
While she was test flying, JiBa started her "chase-the-tail, chew-on-the-leg" routine. It cracks us up every time she does this. Gueess it comes from being an only child. When she starts in on her leg, it reminds us of that scene in the Lion King when the hyena is chewing on his leg. Gut busting!
Round and round she goes.
(Time: 9 hrs)
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Steps and Baggage floors
Emiel helped me finish installing the steps. I did manage to whack my shin on one before I got it padded.
Steps in place.
Ray came down to take back his edge roller and we got to yacking about wiring runs and such. Suggested I put some additional wire runs to the aft fuse. So I drilled some holes in the 706 and 705 bulkhead and ran some conduit. Once the baggage floors go on, you won't have access anymore.
705 Bulkhead routing
706 Bulkhead routing
Once those were installed, I riveted the baggage floors in and riveted all the nutplates on for the tunnel cover and baggage wall.
Drilled the lower baggage wall in place and started working on the upper one. Managed to misdrill 4 holes. I drilled them 5/8" from the edge instead of 5/16". So I'll be ordering a replacement part on Monday. I need a few other things as well.
(Time: 5 hrs)
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Steps
My goal was to get the steps finished tonight. I had Sandi come out and help hold the steps in place, while I drilled from the inside using the holes in the vertical bulkhead. Once that was done, I pulled them off and drilled the rest of the holes in the flange on the step, cleco'd it back in place, match drilled to the fuse skin.
Next step is to fit the plastic blocks that hold the step tube in place. Your supposed to drill (3) 3/16" holes, two are used to attach the block to the baggage rib, the other is for a long bolt that holds the tube to the block. I drilled these in one of the blocks and got it positioned. Uhhhhh... how'm i gunna dril that? You need to use an angle drill... I have one of those... but since I drilled the holes full size 3/16", I don't have a bit for the angle drill in that size. Damn. So I just rotated the block 180 degree's, drilled two #19 holes and used my angle drill with a short #19 bit. For the side holes for the long bolt, once I drilled the two holes in the rib, I un-cleco'd the step and slid it out a couple of inches so I could use a standard drill bit to just start the hole using the block as a guide. Then I pulled the block off and finished drilling the holes on the bench.
One step is ready to mount, the other I need to drill the hole in the tube and it will be ready to mount. Probably won't finish tomorrow as I have an airport task force meeting.
(Time: 3 hrs)
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Baggage floors & airplane noises
Ray loaned me his RV-9A seats. I wanted them to see how much, if any, mods I would have to make to accomodate Sandi. Of course... I couldn't stop there, so I cleco'd the whole panel area together. Sandi promptly started making airplane noises and flying us around the shop.
Good news is that I don't think I'll have to do anything major. Sandi has to scoot forward quite a bit to reach the pedals but I think I can accomodate that with some booster cushions. I will make up a new passenger side control stick that incorporates two bends to position the stick about 3" forward. Control movement is fine in all directions except when pulling back.
Figuring I better do some real work, I pulled out the baggage floors, devinyled, deburred, dimpled and primed the bottom sides. Decided to just go ahead and put the steps on so I can finish the baggage area up.
(Time: 1 hrs)
Project Status
No work last night... so a status report.
When you get to this point in the fuselage, you _feel_ like you might actually be see'ng the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, the most common question builders get is "when will it be done". I've never really set a hard target date and probably won't. But it's always in the back of your mind.
I have about 850 hours of total build time to date. If I figure 1,600 total hours to completion, that puts me half way through building. My current goal is to average 20 hours of build time per week. If I can meet that goal, that makes it 40 more weeks of build time... which would be end of May 2005. That also assumes that the cash flow can support that. :-) The closer you get to the end, the more $$$ starts leaving your wallet.
Arbitrary Goal Dates:
May 23rd, 2005 - Our wedding anniversary, hence the 523RV tail number. To ME, this would be the earliest possible completion date. (Sandi says/wants sooner!)
July 12th, 2005 - This will be the 3 year anniversary of receiving the tail kit. A more realistic goal.
TeamRV Alaska Trip - TeamRV is considering organizing a trip to Alaska in late summer 2005. I would love to be able to take that trip if it came to be.
Notice what isn't listed? Oshkosh. For some unkown reason I have no strong desire to go. I know many people use that as a target date. Besides not having a strong desire to go, I wouldn't want to be flying my brand new airplane at the busiest airport in the world. I'll make the trip in 2006... maybe.
Of course, all of this is speculation. It is very likely I will be spending a lot of time traveling after the first of the year for my job. That could put a major dent in my ability to average 20 hours per week. On the flip side, I rarely take vacation, nor use what I have each year. I'll probably start taking more time off work to build.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Fuselage work
It's been a few days since I posted. I have been working on the plane but real life has intruded. :-)
Friday night I drilled the upper firewall/longeron gussets. I riveted them on Saturday.
Firewall gusset
On Saturday, my replacement canopy deck came in from Van's. I modified it as necessary, taking into account the 1/4" goof I made.
Sunday.... I primed the seat back brace parts and riveted them together. I had Emiel help me rivet on the canopy decks. Sure is nice to have a rivet partner whenever I need one.
Canopy deck riveted on.
I cleco'd on the top skins and started match drilling them. I'm not sure what was up with the j-stringers. The plans say they should be 50 3/16" long. You have to notch the forward end to nest in the bulkhead. I left the aft end as is but I'm thinking they probably want that notched too because I had to trim quite a bit off the front end to allow the 706 bulkhead to came back far enough.
Top skins cleco'd on.
I took Monday off from work since Sandi also had the day off. I finished drilling the top skins. I drilled the baggage floors and seat pans.
I was hoping to leave off the steps as long as possible to reduce the number of bruises on my shins, but I have to put them in before I can rivet the baggage floor on. I'd leave out the baggage floor but I can't have cleco's sticking up everywhere either. So I spent some time shaping the flange of the steps to sit flush with the fuselage skin. I was a bit worried about this process since everything I read has said they don't fit worth a darn initially and can be hard to get to fit. I spent at most 15 min on each side getting them to fit. It was easy compared to some other things I've had to do. I used the hand seamers to make adjustments. The bottom aft corner required the most bending but even it wraps nicely around the curve. I will say that the bottom side of the step has a pretty good sized gap but I don't think there is anything you can do about that.
(Time: 12 hrs; Fuselage Total: 262.5 hrs)
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Gussets/canopy decks
I took the day off to attend a Chamber of Commerce meeting regarding our local airport. Developing an adhoc committee to get the city to build hangars or allow someone else to.
Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the plane. I riveted on the tail tie-down bracket and then the aft fuselage deck.
Aft fuse deck riveted in place.
Next I started playing with some bulkhead gussets. Little brackets that attach to the longeron and bulkheads to reinforce them. Note: the forward gussets get dimpled for flush rivets.
Bulkhead gusset.
I riveted the baggage ribs to the 706 bulkhead.. didn't do this while it was upside down.
Next I worked on the vertical bellcrank channel. This was already prepped and just needed to be riveted on. I riveted the reinforcement angle to the channel and then rivited to the fuse/bulkhead. Then I discovered why the instructions say to leave the angle off earlier in the instructions. There are four holes at the top the get riveted to the 706 bulkhead. With the angle in place, you can't match drill these holes!! TIP - Cleco the channel in place without the angle, match drill the four holes, then put the angle on and rivet it. Not sure how I'm going to drill those four holes.
Top of channel showing four holes to drill.
I want to add the TruTrak Altitude hold servo at some point, so earlier this year I ordered the bracket to mount it. Figure installing the bracket now makes it easier to install later. I drilled the necessary holes in the rib and bottom skin and riveted in place.
Altrak bracket drilled and cleco'd
Next up was the canopy deck area. I had already modified the right side canopy deck for the tip-up canopy, so I cut the hole in the 757 gusset and got it all positioned and drilled. (Sounds easy... but it took awhile to kinda figure out how all the parts go together.)
So I finish the right side and started on the left. I quickly modified the canopy deck as necessary. (Amazing how quick the 2nd part gets made vs. the first one.) I had it in position and noticed that it seemed to sit farther back on the longeron that the first one did. Long story short, I positioned the right side canopy deck 1/4" too far forward when I drilled it to the longerons. It is supposed to be 28 1/4" from the forward end of the longeron, mine is 28". This discovery prompted a bit of foul language and a small bit of depression as I'm thinking "here we go again". I stewed on it a bit and called Van's. Bruce said no big deal, just trim 1/4" off the front edge so the 721A deck is positioned correctly. After seeing some pictures of how this area goes together, I decided to order a replacement part. It won't fix the problem since the holes in the longeron are all misdrilled but it will allow me to trim the aft edge so it fits with the roll bar area instead of leaving a 1/4" gap. I may do something at the front end as well to make if fit better. If I trim off the 1/4" at the front, that leaves the edge right on a rivet hole. I may leave out that rivet and fill the hole with something. It would only be visible when the canopy is up.. but still... I know how I sometimes look at other airplanes and think, "I did a better job than he did".. I don't need Bill, Paul and Don poking fun at my plane! :-)
Right side canopy deck area clamped for drilling.
757 Gusset drilled/primed.
(Time: 8 hrs)
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Longeron riveting, aft deck drilling
I riveted the longerons where needed at this point. Finished riveting the rear bulkheads to the aft side skin.
Clamped the aft deck onto the fuse and measured for level. Van's kits are amazing. With no adjustment, it came out dead on. I drilled the deck, deburred it and the fuse. Scuffed up the parts for priming.
Aft deck, clamped and drilled.
(Time: 3 hrs)
Sunday, August 08, 2004
We have a canoe!!
Row, row, row your boat..err.. RV. Yep... after a serious day of riveting we rolled the fuselage over tonight.
Ya know.. all we did was rivet.. all day long. I don't think there were any surprises. I back-riveted everywhere I could. Emiel drove the rest while I bucked.
Here's Emiel doing his thing while I'm trapped inside bucking.
Here's a boo-boo. - I was squeezing these rivets with the squeezer and forgot the nutplates were in the way. I crinkled the flange of the outboard seat rib and dinged the outside skin. Fortunatly, it will be hidden by the wing.
Just before rolling it over. - Sandi couldn't help it.. had to pretend to be an airplane and make airplane noises!
(Time: 8 hours x 2 people = 12 hrs)
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Firewall gusset
Friday night I drilled the holes in the upper firewall/longeron gussets and drilled them in place. Deburred and primed them.
Today I riveted them on.
My replacement canopy deck arrived from Van's today.
TIP: When ordering from Van's, call the order in, don't do it on the website. They process website orders around 2:00 (CST) each day. If you call it in, it will usually ship the same day. Web orders can take a day or two to ship depending on when you place the order.
I made the necessary changes to the canopy deck, taking into account my 1/4" boo-boo.
(Pictures to come.)
(Time: 4 hrs)