Empennage Complete

After neglecting the RV for almost a year since moving to Texas, I found a new head of steam a couple months ago. A little over seventy-five hours later, my empennage is essentially complete. The timing is working out great as my wings are scheduled to ship in just over a week. That gives me plenty of time to prep the shop and get my wing stand built.

Elevators Making Great Progress

Something has really litten a fire under me these last couple of weeks. I’ve spent over 18 hours in the workshop this month. That’s a huge improvement over the past year since I moved to Texas.

The left and right elevators are moving along very well. I’ve drilled the left elevator skin to the understructure, and the right elevator is all clecoed together and ready for drilling.

Back in the Saddle Again

It's been far too long since my last update. Unfortunately, I have severely neglected my RV since I relocated to Texas back in September of 2010. I spent a few bucks and hours revamping the garage, and getting a shop setup, but the actual work on the RV has been very lacking.

A couple weekends ago, a colleague from work asked if he could come over to check out the RV project. He is thinking of starting an airplane himself. I figured I had better spend an hour or two on the plane before he got there, so it looked like there was actually some work going on. The funny thing is, even though he ended up not being able to make it, that little bit of motivation has re-ignited my passion for building. Since that weekend I have spent many hours working on the RV.

I moved some of my tools and equipment into the spare bedroom downstairs. That way when the blistering heat of the Texas summer arrives, which is just around the corner, I can work in the comfort of the air conditioning.

I’ve been so inspired by the amount of work I have done lately that I felt it was time to order my wings!

Elevator Dimpling Disaster

So I headed down to the garage this afternoon for the first work session in a while. I had been working for about an hour and 45 minutes, and everything was going great. I dimpled the stiffeners for both the left and right elevator skins. I then moved onto dimpling the skins themselves using my trusty C-frame. I was only ten holes or so away from finishing both skins, when disaster struck.

I lined up the dimple dies on the hole took a swing with the hammer, reaered back for a second shot, but when it landed something just didn't feel right. Sure enough I pulled the skin away from the C-frame and found that my dimple dies had created a new hole just a fraction of an inch from the original. The spring loaded ram on top of the C-frame must have come up off the skin between my first and second blow just enought to allow the skin to shift.

I decided that was a good place to stop for the day, and to give myself some time to consider my next move. The perfectionist in me says, "Just order a new skin and get back to work." However, the lazy guy, who seems to win out most weekends, wants to figure out any way possible to save this skin. I've put a lot of effort into it and it would be a shame to have to waste all that, and start over.

I guess I'll take the next few days to do some research, and figure out the best way to get this build back on the fast track.

Elevator Construction Continues

I had a lunch time appointment to have my problematic refridgerator looked at again today. I decided not to go back to work afterwards. I just couldn't bring myself to climb back into the car and return to the office. It doesn't help that today was B-E-A-utiful. I know the extreme summer heat is just around the corner, so I took advantage of the cooler weather to spend some quality time in the shop.

I finished up the deburring on the right eleveator skin. The right elevator is now ready for some light sanding followed by primer, so I moved on to the left elevator skin and stiffeners. I finished all the drilling and about 85% of the deburring for the left elevator stiffeners. I plan on finishing up the deburring in preparation for a long priming session over the weekend.

All in all a great day in the shop. Just a little over five and a half hours. I think things are really starting to roll.

Deburring the Left Elevator Skin


Drilling the Left Elevator Stiffeners

Rudder Trailing Edge Work

So, I could procrastinate no longer, and started work on the rudder trailing edge. This operation was just the mess I thought it would be. Those of you who have built your tanks, or have used the firewall sealant, know what I'm talking about. Thanks to my Mom and my brother for their help, I couldn't have done it without them.

I ended up just drilling the trailing edge of the rudder directly to my work bench. I had bought a long steel angle that I was intent on using, but I couldn't get it even and level with the rest of the work bench.

I bought four, ten pound bags of shot at the local outdoors store. That stuff is surprisingly expensive. I used the shot to weight the rudder down, and hopefully hold everything nice and square while the trailing edge "glue" sets up.

Mixing the two part firewall sealant was easy, but tiring. At my work, we use a similar product and have the nice electric mixer for this chore. My hands were quite sore after the mixing. I think I did a pretty thorough job of it. Mom and brother held the AEX wedge while I slathered sealant on both sides. Then they helped hold the trailing edge apart as I slid the wedge into place.


My brother helped Cleco the trailing edge down to the bench, and I started to "cleanup" some of the oozing sealant. I quickly discovered that it would be far easier to allow the sealant to cure and then trim the oozing with a razor. So now, I'm just waited for the sealant to cure, and then I will begin the double flush riveting.

Elevator Construction Begins

With there being so little work to do on the rudder, and waiting for various parts and tools, I decided to go ahead and start work on the elevators. The elevators (right and left) are the final components of the empennage kit. The last couple sessions in the work shop have been spent on trimming the stiffeners, of which there are many. I also finished the edges of the stiffeners and the right elevator skin.



Then I set about match drilling the stiffeners to the right elevator skin. The manual from Van's states that the construction of the elevators is similar to the rudder. This is very true, although I'm glad that the trailing edge of the elevators are a folded edge, rather than a riveted edge.

Putting Off Rudder Trailing Edge

So I'm almost to the point on the rudder where I'm going to be forced to start the messy ordeal of riveting the trailing edge. The trailing edge requires me to smear all the pieces that meet at the trailing edge with tank sealant. This is not a task I am looking forward to.

So, I reached a point today where I needed, and did not have a 7/64" reamer or drill bit. All that remains of the skin to skeleton riveting is four locations where I have decided to use a "pop rivet" (MK-319-BS) in lieu of the standard solid rivet. These locations just can't be reached with a squeezer or bucking bar for a variety of reasons and need to be pilot drilled to the larger 7/64".

I jumped online to the McMaster-Carr website and promptly ordered two 7/64" reamers. Due to the great service and convenient location (only 213 miles north of Indianapolis, in Chicago), those will be here tomorrow. Unfortunately, that means I'll probably need to start on the trailing edge tomorrow.

Picture of the nearly completed rudder...

Back to Work

Greetings fans! Yes, I took the liberty of assuming that I have fans despite my prolonged absence from cyberspace. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Allow me to explain.

My last trip home was pretty hectic. My Jeep broke down amongst a myriad of other home chores to complete, and so I only got about 4 hours of work on the RV done during that trip. The silver lining in that cloud, those 3-4 hours were spent working with Troy Grover over at Grov Air. He really helped me out a lot on my rudder, and it looks great.



My work session at Grov Air was back in February, and I'm just now getting back into the factory here at home. I spent another four hours today continuing the work we started a couple months ago.

The rudder is well on its way to being completed now. I would estimate it to be about 70-80% complete. I clecoed the left and right skins (R-901-R and R-901-L) to the rudder skeleton and riveted the counterbalance rib (R-912) and nose rib (R-903) to the skeleton. Of course the biggest challenge of the rudder construction is still ahead. I'm referring to the riveting of trailing edge. It requires tank sealant and double flush riveting. I hope I am up to the challenge.

I think I'll finish riveting the skins to the rudder main spar and bottom rib and start on the elevators while I wait for the tank sealant to cure on the rudder trailing edge.

Until next time...

Michael

Rudder Construction Continues

The last several hours in the work shop have been dedicated to rudder construction. Everything is going well so far, but then drilling, edge finishing de-burring and dimpling haven't been problems for me. That's why I'm scheduling some time to go over to Grov-Air to get some help on riveting the rudder. My goal is to make my rudder the absolutely best component to date.

Riveting the stiffeners onto the left and right rudder skins was a breeze. I really like back-riveting. It's easy and makes great looking rivets. I then set about assembling the remainder of the rudder.

Down at the base of the rudder are some interesting features. The instructions from Van's are somewhat lacking in this area. For example they omit the drilling of the spar reinforcement plates, as well as the rudder horn (R-710). Other builder's have made note of this, I'm surprised that the instructions are still neglecting these features. I also found my self wondering why the bottom rib (R-904), skin (R-901-R, R-901-L) and bottom attachment strips (R-918) aren't drilled all together. The skin and rib can be drilled while clamped with Clecos, but with clamps all three could be placed carefully and drilled together. As it is I ended up drilling the rib and skin with a reamer and then all three a second time with a drill bit. I think this may have slightly elongated some of the holes in the rib and or skin, but all look satisfactory to proceed on to riveting.

So I think the rudder is going really well. The last bit of preparation for riveting is to counter sink the extruded trailing edge (R-916). The hardest part of countersinking is setting up the countersink cage for the correct depth. Once that's done I should be able to knockout all 40 to 50 counter sinks in about an hour or two.

Rudder Construction Begins

I spent the first few minutes tonight drilling out the rivets connecting the damaged HS-707 nose rib to the HS skin. I then quickly realized that the replacement HS-707 rib I had ordered from Van's was in fact an HS-404 nose rib. Grrrr! Jumped online and put in an order for the correct part and decided to start on the rudder.

Cutting and trimming the rudder stiffeners is not difficult. However, it is definitely one of those times where you need to measure twice (or three times) and cut only once. I got all 16 stiffeners cut, and half of them trimmed and edges prepped.

A Little Help from My Friends

My day started off with a bit of frustration, but by the end of the day was very happy with our progress. This project, of late, has been an emotional roller coaster of sorts.

I had planned on taking Friday off from airplane construction, but a visit from potential RV-10 builder Jeremy motivated me to convert the garage back into factory mode for one more day before flying back to Alaska. I had been having a tough time with the HS nose ribs (HS-404). I thought a second pair of hands might help matters along. I got everything all set up in anticipation of Jeremy's arrival. A brief lesson on riveting and away we went. The last five or six rivets attaching the nose rib to the HS skin were done, and looked great.

Several hours later my cousin, Craig, stopped by and helped me rivet the front spar to the HS skin. This constituted major, visible progress on the HS which really made me feel good about the work sessions over the past weeks.

Thank you very much Jeremy and Craig! I'll definitely be calling on you guys again.

Renewed Faith

I have to be completely honest here. After the fiasco that was trying to rivet the horizontal stabilizer over the last two days, I was seriously beginning to doubt my ability to complete this project. However, today I am a changed man. I just finished riveting together the vertical stabilizer (VS) rear spar, and it went much better.

While trying to rivet the horizontal stabilizer rear spar and ribs, I had to drill out at least five or six rivets. The HS707 nose rib to skin rivets were particularly trying, and are as of right now still not complete. While drilling out one bad rivet on the nose rib, I completely slotted the hole in the rib. It's so bad that the rib will need to be replaced. My first replacement part, yeah!

I've been continuing work on the vertical stabilizer as a distraction from the HS woes, and also since I have come to the conclusion that I should not attempt to hand buck rivets by myself. I was able to pneumatically squeeze and\or back rivet all the rivets in the VS rear spar.

My mother's boss may be stopping by the factory tomorrow. I understand he's interested in building an RV-10. That may be a good opportunity to get some riveting done on the HS, and get him some exposure to the building process. Two birds, one stone, etc.

A Frustrating Day

Today was a frustrating day at the factory. I got an early start and worked almost ten hours, but it feels like I didn't accomplish much. I started off the day by completing the edge finishing and fluting of the vertical stabilizer ribs and spars. I had started prepping them for assembly while horizontal stabilizer construction was on hold for priming supplies.

Then I set out to begin riveting the HS together. That's where the trouble began. I struggled all day with my riveting. I scratched up my newly primed parts in a few places. One where the rivet gun slipped off the rivet and put a nice gash in the bar stock. That needed to be smoothed out with a Scotchbrite wheel.

I proceeded to continue riveting the HS skeleton together. At one point I found a decent rhythm. Most of the rivets attaching the 603PP and 609PP went well, however at the end of the day I put the forward and rear spars on the workbench for a quick picture (see below). As it turns out, I incorrectly identified the the rivet holes attaching the HS405 ribs to the rear spar. So tomorrow those will need to be drilled out. The HS405 Ribs are hiding the offending rivets in the picture below, but they're there.


The final straw was trying to rivet the HS707 nose rib to the HS skin. The first rivet went well. I was surprised at how much easier it was to set the smaller 3/32" rivets compared to the 1/8" rivets I had been working with. The next two rivets put an end to my night in the workshop. On the second rivet, my bucking bar apparently slid off the rivet and put a dent in the rib and skin. A nice impression of the side of the bucking bar on my pristine skin! The third and final rivet, appeared to set okay, but upon closer inspection, it must not have been tight against the skin. After bucking it was sitting just a little proud. That was it, I was done. I'll deal with the aftermath tomorrow. The silver lining is I'll get lots of practice drilling out rivets tomorrow. Ugh!

First Rivet a Bust

So, I set my first rivet of the project today, and sadly it will need to be removed and redone. I've been waiting for the last several days to get the lacquer thinner I needed to clean up after shooting my primer. I finally found a Sherwin Williams this morning that had the required thinner, and proceeded to assemble my spray booth for the garage. I would much rather spray outside, but it's too cold, and was in fact snowing this morning. After assembling the spray booth and priming the VA-145, I was ready for the first rivets.

I have read of many builders who have used AN470AD4-6 rivets, as opposed to the AN470AD4-5 rivets called out in the plans, to rivet the HS-411 assembly. I checked the pre-set length of the -5 rivet using my rivet gauge and sure enough the -6 does appear to be the correct length. So I moved up to the longer rivets.

I set up my pneumatic squeezer for the 1/8" standard rivet. As soon as pressed the lever the rivet proceeded to fold over, a sure sign of a rivet that's too long. I'm not sure if I had the squeezer perfectly aligned for the rivet or not. That may or may not be the cause of the poor set. After I drill out the faulty -6 rivet, I think I'll another -6 rivet, but use a rivet gun and bucking bar as opposed to the pneumatic squeezer.

A Day of Learning

According to the FAA (FAR Part 21.191) experimental amateur built certificates are issued for "education and recreation". Well, the education part of that intent hit me hard today. I tried to educate myself as best as possible before beginning this project, but I have discovered the learning will not stop any time soon.

I spent the better part of today attempting to dimple the skeleton and skins of the horizontal stabilizer. The skeleton was fairly routine. I used my pneumatic squeezer and dimple dies exclusively. The skins is where I was taught a lesson or two. The holes around the edges were quickly dimpled again with the pneumatic squeezer. The holes for the forward spar were done fairly easily with the trusty C-frame dimpler. The place I took a few lumps was trying to get the last few dimples for the middle nose rib.

The C-frame dimpler could reach all but the last one or two holes for the nose rib. I made it work on one of the forward most holes, but with a nice little "smiley" on the outside of the skin. I was none to happy.

After struggling with these last few holes for nearly an hour I discovered, or better yet, re-discovered, my "tight fit dimpling fixture" from Cleaveland Aircraft Tools. This simple tool made quick work of these forward most dimples.

After today, I really appreciate and understand when builders talk about how much easier or quicker their second plane is to build. So many lessons to learn so few parts.

HS Nearing Completion

Today was a long day in the shop; about ten hours. However, as sometimes happens, in building I didn't have much to show for it. Don't misunderstand, I got a lot of work done. It's just that the "before" and "after" photos don't look much different.

I finished drilling the HS601PP skin to the under-structure of the left hand half of the HS, and moved on to the right hand side. At the end of the day, both halves of the HS are drilled, deburred, with edges finished and ready for dimpling.

The cleaning lacquer for the Sherwin Williams primer is scheduled to arrive at my local paint store tomorrow. That means a trip to the local hardware store as well to pick up some spraying equipment. Hard on the pocketbook, but I always enjoy spending money on new tools.

Really looking forward to dimpling and getting into riveting. With any luck, the horizontal stabilizer will be complete by the end of the weekend.

Setting up the right half of the HS for drilling.

HS Construction Continued

The last couple of sessions in the factory have seen some real progress. Parts are starting to take shape, and I seem to be finding my rhythm. I drilled most of the holes for the rear spar, and cleaned up all the edges. Deburring and edge finishing is tedious work, and not all that enjoyable. However, it must be done and it's not so bad if you have some good music to keep you going (thanks Pandora!).

I'm at the point with the rear spar that I am ready to prime the VA-146 bearing. A trip to Sherwin Williams produced a one gallon can of P60G2 primer and catalyst, but they didn't have the recommended thinner\cleaner. I had them order a couple gallons of the cleaner and until it arrives, I'm going to skip ahead a bit and continue with as much of the construction as possible. With any luck, by the time the cleaner arrives, I'll have a stack of parts ready to prime. I could have used a different thinner, but I'd be pretty upset if my brand new HPLV spray gun was ruined after the first use. Below is a picture of one half of the rear spar with the doublers clecoed in place.


The construction of the front spar is well underway. The bends in the HS-710 and HS-714 were pretty straight forward. I cut a six degree template out of cardboard and stuck the parts in the vise, and bent them by hand. Bending the front spar tabs (HS-702) was a little more difficult, but they turned out well.

The last half of today's work session was devoted to edge finishing and deburring of the HS ribs. This picture shows the temporarily assembled front spar in the middle of the bench and in the lower right corner you can see all of the HS ribs prepped and ready to begin the skeleton construction.

Horizontal Stabilizer Rear Spar

Construction has begun. Tonight I started with the horizontal stabilizer (HS) rear spar, which just happens to be step one of the construction manual.

They say that everything takes longer than you think it will, and I can see that is going to be very true. I spent six hours in the shop tonight and only managed to get through the inventory on the empennage kit and the shaping\fitting of the rear spar reinforcing bars (HS-609PP) into the rear spar channels (HS-603PP).

The instructions say to use a vixen file on the reinforcing bars if they interfere with the inside radius of the spar channel. You need to be real careful with those vixen files. They'll remove a lot of material in short order. I probably removed more from the edges of the reinforcing bars than was necessary to clear the sides of the spar channel, but they look good. Lastly, I rounded the ends of the reinforcing bars. Looking forward to getting back into the shop.

I took some photos while I was working, but apparently I don't know how to use a camera. They are all out of focus and therefore not worthy of posting.

Empennage Kit Arrives

Today was the big day! My empennage kit arrived and I began the inventory process. As it turns out, everything was exactly were it should be and in the correct quantities. I expected nothing less from Van's. There are a few items that even exceeded the quantities listed on the pick sheet.


I've become very aware that I just do not have enough storage space. Of course, I'll make do like most builders, but I sure could use more space. I may swing by the hardware store today and pick up a few storage bins for some of the larger parts. I'm also considering some desiccant to protect against corrosion during storage.