RV-9A Fuselage Construction

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

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

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

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

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

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/)

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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)

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

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.)

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

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...

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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".

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

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

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

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

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Forward fuselage riveting

Despite not starting to work on the project until 1:30 this afternoon, Emiel and I made some pretty major progress on riveting the fuselage.

-- I riveted the clips to the middle longeron and then riveted it to the firewall.
Riveted clip.

-- I riveted the 2 center floor angles in place, following Pauls lead of doing before putting the floor in, as you have much better access this way. (Tip, wait to do this until right before putting the floor in, I banged my head 3 times on them, and they kinda get in the way.)

Center floor stiffeners riveted on.

-- Riveted the 684 gusset. Photo of 684 gusset.
-- Riveted the 902 vertical bulkhead to the 9101, riveted the 902's to the skin.
-- Riveted the baggage area bulkheads.
-- Riveted the arm rests.

With some luck, I think it will get rolled over tomorrow!

(Time: 5 hrs x 2 people = 7.5 hrs)

Bulkhead painting

I had a little bit of daylight left after Sandi's parents went home, so I decided to try my hand at painting again. The parts were all cleaned up so I mixed up a small batch and went at it.

This time I probably got too much paint on. :-) The SW Jetflex is pretty thick stuff, so I turned up the air compressor to 60psi. (I had it on 40 the first time). I think this is probably the best setting, I just sprayed too much. I covered one side of all the parts, I'll paint the other side next.

Once things are painted I hope I can bang away at getting the fuse riveted.

(Time: 1 hrs)

Fuse going back together.

Note to self: never paint in the evening when you can't see the parts your painting.

My paint job from last night wasn't as good as I thought. Coverage was very thin. Probably good that I didn't continue. It's supposed to cool off, so maybe I'll get a chance to try again during the daylight hours.

I put the side skins back on the fuse. How many rivets should one drill out in order to fix a cosmetic issue? The center section skin that overlaps the curved piece of the side skin wasn't sitting very flat. The curve in the side skin was kinda holding it up. I didn't think that it would be fixed after riveting. I forgot to bend the edge of the center section skin in this area to get a better fit. I had also already dimpled the holes AND riveted that corner rib in place. The fit was bad enough that I decided to drill out the corner rib and do my best to roll the edge. Of course you can only do this in a limited way since the dimples interfere with the edge roller. I also fussed with the bend in the side skin a little more to get a better fit. Consider this your notice: don't forget to edge roll the center section skin and make sure you make the bend in the side skin fit well during the initial fit. After fussing with it the fit was better.

The area I'm referring to above.

I riveted the 684 gussets to the firewall angle and cleco'd the firewall in place. I countersunk the angled longeron for the #10 dimple of the side skin.

I need to make a plan of attack on how to rivet things together. It seems there are some places that could be tricky to set rivets if you don't do it in the right order.

(Time: 2 hrs)

Scuffing and painting

Note to self: Ensure paint cup is securly attached to sprayer before attempting to paint.

That kinda sums up how the evening ended... :-) Since I'm determined to do some interior painting prior to reassemly, I had Emiel ("a-mule") our new exchange student from Holland scuff up the bulkheads. I also scuffed up on the side skins as well. I don't think I'll paint them until later but thought it would be easier to prep them now.

While Emiel was scuffing parts, I pulled out the paint sprayer and started fussing around. I wanted to try this Sherwin Williams JetFlex stuff to see if I could get it on and looking half way decent. I pulled out a scrap piece of aluminum and mixed up a small batch of paint. (It's water based!) I fussed with the gun a little and sprayed my scrap piece. It came out OK and I was impressed with myself so I sprayed the aluminum angle pieces. Things seemed to be going well, so I cleaned up the pieces Emiel had done and was going to paint them. It took me 10 min to clean them up which was enough time for the paint gun to dry just a little. I pulled the cup off and shot some water through it, then put the cup back on and was about ready to starting painting when the cup fell off! Of course as soon as it hit the ground the paint went everywhere... more on me than anywhere else. I figure that's a sign to stop. It was getting late anyway.

I looked at my test piece this morning after having dried overnight. It looks OK, paint seems to be a bit thin.. coverage wasn't great, which I'm sure is operator error. I just don't have a clue what I'm doing with the paint gun. :-) I'll look at the aluminum angle pieces tonight and see if they are any better.

(Time: 2.5 hrs)

Starting to go back together

Back in the shop after watching a DVD and letting things cool off outside. I riveted the side plates to the side skins and had Sandi help me set the center section back in place with the tail cone. (Took just a couple of minutes. I really like the fuse stand!) I put the keeper rivets in the longerons. After the center section was cleco'd in place, I riveted most of the rivets in one of the corner ribs. Access is very good without the side skin on yet. I left out enough rivets so that I could still slide the bend in the side skin into place.

I really want to paint the smaller bulkheads before putting them in place.. but it is so damn hot and humid here.. it might be tough. I can't wait to "roll over the canoe"! Finish kit will get ordered in a couple of weeks.. chances are I'll run out of things to do. I ordered the heated pitot from Dynon a couple of weeks ago but I think they are about 2-3 months out.

(Time: 1 hrs)

Prepping and priming

Dimpled the other side skin.. I discovered something earlier in the week that I'm just now getting too and it is worth noting.

On the side skins where the nose of the fuel tank attaches via an angle that gets bolted to the 9101 there are four bolt holes. The top and bottom holes tie the skin/9101/longeron together. The two center holes are what you bolt the angle to. The top and bottom holes get countersunk bolts! This could be easily overlooked. What you should do is countersink the flange of the bottom skin with the associated longeron in place and then dimple the side skin with a #10 dimple die to fit in the countersink. I point this out for two reasons... first is just so you know. The second is that before you drill out the holes to #12, drill them to a size that fits on of our countersinks. I had a #20 CS but the pilot is too small for the #12 hole. I did manage to get the pieces CS by being creative but it might be easier if you do it ahead of time.

Side skin showing the dimpled holes and screws in place.

Countersink in bottom skin/longeron for #10 dimple.

Another thing that Paul pointed out that I confirmed is the not-necessary double flush rivets on the center section. Instructions say you need these to clear the gear leg mount. Seems to me there is plent of room.

Clearance for rivets under gear leg mount.

Again referring to Paul's site.... he thought he made a mistake by dimpling the firewall flange, which will make it harder to drill the hinges to the cowl later on. I don't see how you could postpone dimpling this until later. Once the side skins are riveted on, I don't think you'd be able to peel back and dimple the skin and flange. I suppose you could dimple them as one piece but not sure how well that would work. (It JUST dawned on me that you could do it that way. You'd want to test to see how well dimpling the skin and flange together would work. The dimple may not be deep enough.) Anyway.. I dimpled mine.

It's 95 degree's in the shop...almost too hot to work.

(Time: 5 hrs)

More prep work

Weekends are bad because I forget what I did when. Suffice it to say that the prep work continues.

- Both longerons countersunk and primed.
- Finished prepping the center section by dimpling/cs where necessary.
- One side skin dimpled
- Bottom forward skin is dimpled. (Thick... hit hard with mallet... i mean hard.)
- Primed a few places on the tail cone where skins overlap.

I'm getting closer to being done with all the prep work and getting it back together!

(Time: 5 hrs)

Buzzzed by MCB!

Matt Burch flys a Subie powered RV-9A (N119TJ)and lives about 30 miles north of our house. He knows I work in the shop every evening and is buzzing the house when he goes flying. It's a form of torture but also great motivation! He buzzed us again last evening and Sandi and I both happened to be out in the yard when he did a couple of LOW passes.

Thanks Matt!

Air-to-Air shot of Matt.

D&D

- Deburred and dimpled the tailcone.
- Dimpled all the bulkheads/ribs.
- Drilled holes in 706 bulkhead for wiring/trim cable.
- Dimpled 706 bulkhead
- Deburred center section
- Deburred longerons.

(Time: 3 hrs)

Told you entries would be boring for the next week...

Told you entries would be boring for the next week or so..

More deburring. I worked on the various ribs/bulkheads tonight. Finished deburring the firewall and dimpled the brake line bracket holes and also the panel rib holes at the top. (Cleco'd them on and match drilled first, easier to dimple now than later.) I tweaked the 684 gussets to fit a little better and also drilled the holes for the nutplate that goes on them.

I need to deburr the longerons and get the holes countersunk.

I ordered a gallon of Sherwin Williams JetFlex(tm) in Subtle White from Aero Performance in St. Louis. This is a water-reducible polyurethane interior paint. I probably only need two quarts but a gallon is cheaper to order than 2 quarts. I'm waffling on whether to paint parts before I reassemble them or wait until it's all back together and then paint the interior. If I wait, there are lots of corners, nooks and crannies to get into. If I do it now, I can avoid all that. At this moment (and subject to change often) I think I'll paint the ribs/bulkheads and small pieces that go in. I can came back later and paint all the flat spots after it's all riveted together.

(Time: 3 hrs)

More fuse deburring/countersinking

Finished edge prepping the last side skin. Countersunk the holes in all the aluminum angle pieces. Devinyled and deburred the forward bottom skin. Countersunk angle on firewall.

FWIW, I decided to countersink the 972 bottom skin along with the lower longeron angle. The bottom skin is .040, which is a bit thick to dimple and too thin to countersink by itself. The side skins sit on top of the bottom skin flange and angle, so countersinking works well here.

Countersink on bottom skin.

Shot of me doing the countersinking.

(Time: 2.75 hrs)

Devinyl and deburr

The next week of postings it going to be pretty boring...

I peeled blue stuff (vinyl) off both side skins and deburred them. I prepped the edges on one, will do the other tomorrow.

I also took all the aluminum angle pieces in the house and deburred those while watching the tube with Sandi.

Things not to forget to do before taking the fuse apart:

- The vertical 902 ribs in the baggage compartment get a hole put in the top for the static tube. While I'm at it.. the 705G angles also need a hole drilled in them for the static tube. This isn't on the plans and would be much easier to drill before assembly. (The 705G's are the huge hunks of angle that the roll bar attaches to, you should have made it when doing the center section. Here is a picture from Walter's website.)

- The 9101 gear leg web gets a hole drilled in the flange for a bulkhead fitting. (I need to do this.)

- While the fuse is cleco'd together, don't forget to match drill the screw holes in the outboard ribs where the seat pans attach. I forgot to do this.

- Don't forget to drill the holes in the floor stiffeners that tie them the cover support ribs and the big angles on the firewall. (Almost forgot this)

- The 706 bulkhead needs two holes drilled on either side of center line for cable routing. Somehow I missed this.. but I can't find any reference in the manual/plans that this needs done. Easier for me to do now than later.

- There are 4 holes on the side skins where a large piece of angle gets bolted for the fuel tank to attach to. I'd drill those now instead of later so you don' get shavings behind the 9101. (I mentioned this previously I think.)

- There are three holes near the wing root on the side skins that need drilled for the fuel line, pitot line and wiring runs. Should drill those now.. including the holes in the 9101 that match.

That's all I can think of now. FYI, for those non-builder readers.. the manual is pretty detailed in the beginning and gets progressivly less detailed as you get farther into it. I hear by the time you get to the end it's pretty worthless. :-)

(Time: 3 hrs)

Cleanup work before diassembly

I wanted to get to the point where I could disassemble the fuse today.

- Attached and drilled floor stiffeners.
- Attached and drilled the 4 bolt holes through each of the the 9101/side skin.
- Attached and drilled baggage compartment ribs and cover plates.
- Disassembled everything and started to devinyl a side skin.

(Time: 7 hrs)

Rudder bar/pedals

I spent the entire 6 hours working on the rudder bar/pedals. Can't believe I spent that much time on them.

The pedals were pretty much prepped from back in January, all I had to do was rivet them together. I setup the bars on the workbench and worked on mounting the pedals. I attached the brake cylinders and noticed that the left and right cylinders once attached didn't seem level with each other. I read the instructions and looked at the plans a dozen times. The instructions say something like "Note the right pedal bar goes in front of the left pedal bar". Well.. that's how I had it. I checked Dan and Paul's websites to see how they had it.. and both had theirs backwards.. or so I thought. I called Ray to see if he remembered and in the middle of the converstaion it dawned on me that when they said 'front' they meant from the plane's point of view.. as in closer to the firewall.. DUH! I had it in 'front' from my point of view. Oh well.. an hour killed figuring that out.

Got the pedals mounted and then mounted the whole unit in the plane. I wanted the most aft position for the pedals so Sandi would have a better chance of reaching the pedals without having to make any modifications. (I'm 5' 11" and Sandi is 4' 10.5") I did make some adjustments in the pedal mounting.. I set my pedals to tilt away from my feet and Sandi's side to tilt towards her. We'll see how it works outs.

Pilot side pedals mounted.

Mounted in fuselage. (Picture is rotated 180 degree's so it looks normal.)

(PS - Working on the fuse when it is upside down is a real brain teaser. I wrote PILOT SIDE and PASSENGER SIDE on the side skins so I wouldn't forget.)

(Time: 6 hrs)