January 22, 2008
I ordered the fuselage today! Expected delivery date is the week of 17 March.
March 30, 2008
The wing kit arrived two days ago, and it's taken me that long to unpack everything and get parts squirreled away in my limited shop space. I lined up some unloading help from my friend and colleague Sam Seagle, but the ABF driver was a whiz with his hydraulic hand lift and was able to get the crate into our garage with no help. Like a lot of delivery folks who stop by the house when the garage door is open, he couldn't believe that someone would actually build an airplane in their house. Here's the crate, fortunately no damage on arrival.
Everything is so neatly packed, it's a shame that it has to be taken out...
...but I did anyway, and managed to store everything but the skins. Got everything checked off the inventory list except the hardware bag.
Now the fun part...inventorying the hardware bag. Ugh.
April 20, 2008
Finished inventorying the hardware bag...only one bag 'o hardware missing, a replacement is on the way from Van's.
May 24, 2009
I'm making slow progress on getting the lower wing skins riveted on; I've chosen to do that work with a partner, even though it slows me down. So while I've had no riveting help, I decided to get started on the fuselage - specifically, on the firewall.
It's a relatively easy place to start, all that's necessary is a bit of plans study and some time to identify all the stiffeners, brackets and gussets that are required. The fit on some of these parts leaves a little to be desired, however.
Here's one example where diagonal stiffeners nest into gusset at the upper firewall corners, all of which rest under steel brackets. Unfortunately, that little cutout in the gusset isn't deep enough to allow that stiffener to fit correctly with prepunched holes in the firewall - so some adjustment is required. Vans' plans say to tweak the end of the stiffener to fit but that would be too easy, wouldn't it? To preserve edge distance on that part, I pulled out my trust Dremel tool and routed out the cutouts in the gusset. Problem solved, and I've kept an extra 0.0001 percent margin in the structure. I feel much better.
There are also a couple of 0.025" shims that ride on top of those stiffeners. They took a few extra minutes to fabricate, no big deal. There's also an extra stiffener that must be fabricated from 6061 angle. The stiffener itself is easy...finding the stock you're supposed to cut it from is the challenge. There are three pieces of angle stock that could be used, just don't choose the one that's already cut to length for another part!
After getting the minutia squared away, I clecoed the firewall together - a nice bit of visual progress!
June 11, 2009
Over the last two weeks I've been match-drilling the firewall components and fabricating a couple of additional brackets that bridge the firewall and fuselage floor stiffeners. There isn't a lot of margin for error on these, and it's easy to wind up with insufficient edge distance when match-drilling them to the existing stiffeners and gussets you see in the picture. I wasn't happy with the first attempt, so I fabricated and re-drilled another pair of brackets - they turned out much better.
One other bit of fun is fitting this small doubler that reinforces brake line penetrations through the firewall.
Match-drilling the plate isn't the problem, but drilling through stainless steel is. Follow Van's guidance in the plans book and you'll be fine, j ust remember to use slow drill speeds, and use boelube or some other cutting fluid when you drill. Also, use a Unibit for any hole larger than #30 - works like a champ and is less likely to leave burrs on the stainless. I also made sure to use the doubler as a backing plate, drilling through the stainless first and then the doubler - that also helped avoid burrs.
June 13, 2009
The next task for the firewall is fitting the recess that accomodates stuff hanging off the back. To put it bluntly, the fit of this part sucks - especially around the top. Apparently this is a common problem, some builders use a little "manual adjustment" with hammers and wood to improve the fit, others just do the best they can and accept a couple of sloppy holes at the top of the recess. I tried the manual adjustment route and had no success so I just drilled it in assembly with the firewall, making sure to drill from the side with the stiffeners so that those structural stiffener holes would remain unmolested. The result is a couple of slightly-egged holes in the recess, but it's not structural - so I'm not gonna worry about it.
That finishes up, for now, the match-drilling required on the firewall.
June 22, 2009
The firewall is disassembled and I'm deburring parts. I've said it before...if you have a Dremel tool, you gotta have a #500 abrasive wheel for it. It's a 1" Scotchbrite 7A Medium wheel, and is the absolute berries for deburring in close quarters. Can't always find 'em in the big box hardware stores, I find mine in the local neighborhood hardware stores. I'm sure you can order them online, too.
July 15, 2009
More random parts prep on the firewall...dimpling the brake doubler and firewall itself. For some reason, I take a lot of satisfaction in a simple thing like fitting that little plate.
Dimpling the firewall...gotta make sure that the dimples go the right direction. I wouldn't be the first builder to screw this up.
Dimpling done...looks good!
I also finished countersinking all the stiffeners on the firewall's back side. No problems, but no pictures.
August 10, 2009
No updates for the last three weeks, I was at Oshkosh for the entire week of the show. Lots of fun and very motivational, as always. I came back and started working on the F-704 center fuselage bulkhead assembly. There are a lot of small things that must be done to these bulkheads for them to be ready for installation. First step was drilling holes for the electrical conduits; not a hard task, but I double-checked the measurements before starting in with the Unibit. Came out fine!
The next step was to fit the left and right center section side angles to the bulkheads for match-drilling. Here they're clecoed in place, but the close-tolerance bolts that will eventually hold the wing spars, muts be inserted so that the corresponding holes in the side angles are closely aligned.
August 16, 2009
Now the close-tolerance bolts are installed - a couple of them took a little persuasion with a small hammer, but that's why they're close-tolerance bolts, right? With the bolts and clecos installed, I match-drilled all four of these assemblies with no problems.
The next step is fitting the control column mounts. These beefy angles come with bearings already press-fitted into them, and the only prep required is to measure and drill one mounting hole. That mounting hole is used to bolt the column to the bulkhead, and the existing bulkhead hole is used to match drill the other hole in the mount.
No problems, everything worked well. There are some optional cutouts on the mounts to lighten them a bit, they'll require a little filing and sanding.
August 24, 2009
Here are the control column mounts bolted in place after the lightening cutouts have been made. The prefabricated control column weldment is bolted in place. I had a few issues with the control column, some of the predrilled holes didn't line up quite right.
I had a few issues with the control column, some of the predrilled holes didn't line up quite right. I called Vans, they assured me that there's enough play in the column mount bearings that I won't have problems when permanently installing the column.
This is starting to look like an airplane!
August 29, 2009
There are some additional cover support ribs and web stiffeners that require fabrication and/or match-drilling to the wing bulkhead. No problems here, but no pictures either...sorry!
September 6, 2009
One more task to accomplish before declaring success on the wing bulkheads...drilling two holes out to 0.25" to accomodate bolts and spacers that hold the bulkhead halves exactly 1.438" apart. Why does it have to be exactly 1.438"? I don't know...ask Vans. Here's one bolt and spacer in place.
Here are the bulkhead halves fitted in place around the previously-mentioned spacers and four aluminum blocks that simulate the wing spar root attach points. These were precision machined by friend and fellow RV builder Rich, who just happens to own his own machning company. That's a handy business to have whem you're building an airplane!
Some of those close-tolerance bolts took some persuading and liberal application of Boelube, but in the end they went in. This is an extremely beefy assembly...which you would hope it would be, since it keeps the wings attached to the airplane!
December 6, 2009
No, I haven't been doing nothing since August. Surf on over to the Wings page and you'll see that we've been working on the wings when I've had someone to help with riveting.
Meanwhile, I've been doing final deburring, priming and assembly of the wing bulkheads. Nothing too stressful here.
December 13, 2009
One gotcha when doing final assembly on the bulkheads...I found that when I drilled the spacer bolt holes out to 0.25", there must have been some chips generated by the drill that scored the sides of the hole. This is in the heavy bar that forms part of the rear wing carrythrough bulkhead, so I was somewhat concerned - don't want any crack initiators in a part of primary structure.
I spoke with my Tech Counselor, and sent pictures to Vans tech support and engineeirng (note from the future - I also talked with Ken Kruger, Vans Chief Engineer, at Oshkosh 2010) - all said that there are no issues because there are essentially no loads on these spacer bolts. They're there only to hold the spacer in place.
See the larger picture here
January 15, 2010
I haven't made much progress on the fuselage recently due to work on the wings, but now it's back to work on the bulkheads - specifically the F-705 rear spar carrythrough bulkhead. Here's the 2024-T4 strap that forms the primary carrythrough load path. It gets match-drilled to the lower bulkhead channel...
...and here's the doubler that forms the other half of a clevis with the strap (above) that retains the wing rear spar ends. This part was match-drilled in assembly with the strap and lower bulkhead channel. Nothing particularly tough here.
Here's the entire lower channel and spar carrythrough structure clecoed together after match-drilling.
January 18, 2010
The next task on the F-705 was to fabricate the seat back stops that get riveted to the bulkhead's top channel. The stops provide a stop (duh) for the hinged plates on the back of each seat back that allow the backs to be reclined a little. There are two stops for each seat; an angle that's simply riveted to the back of the channel, and a piece of aluminum stock that sits on top of a small spacer that lifts the stock away from the bulkhead.
Here's the aluminum stock receiving a slght bend so that its aft end nests under the yet-to-be fabricated angle. I bought a cheapo bending brake from Harbor Freight...seems to work ok if the part being bent isn't too thick.
After bending, the front stop and its associated spacer get match-drilled to the channel.
...and here's the aluminum angle rear stop being fitted and match-drilled. The only trick here is to make sure the angle rides 1/8" above the channel; that leaves some room for the front stop and the seat back support.
And so...the seat back stops are done!
January 24, 2010
The rear spar bulkhead also serves as an attach point for the seatbelt anchors. The anchors come pre-fabricated, but they need to be match-drilled to the spar carrythrough/bulkhead channel assembly. This gets done by laying out a mounting hole on one bracket, bolting it to the spar carrythrough, then bolting on the mating seat belt bracket clamped around a 3/16" spacer. The entire assembly gets aligned at right angles to the carrythrough and clamped in place. The mating bracket then gets match-drilled to the bulkhead.
One picture is worth a thousand words...
Here are all the seatbelt anchors in place.
January 30, 2010
With all the subcomponent fabrication complete, today I clecoed the entire bulkhead assembly together and started match-drilling.
In addition to everything else it does, the rear spar carrythrough bulkhead suppors the flap actuator arm. This is a weldment that transfers the motion of the flap motor (or hand-actuated bar) to the flaps. The arm rides in two delrin blocks that are drilled to accomodate the arm ends.
Not too much work is required to mount these blocks, just a little effort to lay out one hole and drill it on the drill press. The block is then bolted in place through that hole, aligned to the bulkhead, and the other hole is match-drilled in assembly.
Done and done!
February 7, 2010
One last bit of fabrication...these heavy angles nest into the intersection of the F-705 bulkhead side and top channels. For RV-7s/9s with tip-up canopies, these angles also provide an attach point for the cockpit rollover structure.
It's not difficult to fabricate the angles themselves, but getting them properly clamped in place is important to ensure proper edge distance for all the rivets.
February 13, 2010
Fortunately everything came out well when match-drilling the angles...good edge distance all around. Bonus!
Looks good here, too...
February 20, 2010
One minor challenge on the F-705 is cutting that big mambo hole (that's a technical term) in the middle of the angle. That required a lot of filing, sanding and finishing. I think it has something to do with the tip-up canopy latch...
With the angles done, it's time to prep and prime all those F-705 and firewall parts.
February 25, 2010
A little bit of frustration over the last couple of days. When I started cleaning and prepping the F-705 parts fabricated from 2024-T4 bar stock, I noticed a lot of "mill marks" - gouges and scratches - that appear to be left over from the rolling process at the foundry. The stock was somewhat oxidized and dirty, and the marks weren't apparent when I was fabricating bulkhead parts from it.
One example of the "mill marks" - longitudinal gouges on an F-605C spar carrythrough doubler -
...and a gouge on the edge of the spar carrythrough strap itself -
I had some phone and email conversations with Vans, who said that milling marks are normal. Nevertheless, I'm not really happy with using them for what I think would be a pretty structurally important part - maybe it's just an attack of OCD on my part. I talked again with Scott Risan at Vans, and he offered to hand-pick good bar stock from their inventory and send me new material for free. Very cool!
March 15, 2010
Not much work going on the last couple of weeks, partially due to work travel and family time. The new 2024-T4 material arrived from Vans, so I started fabricating all those parts that you see in the pictures above. I didn't take any new pictures, so use your imagination!
March 23, 2010
Got all the fabrication done on the rear spar carrythrough parts for rear spar carrythrough bulkhead, including the F-705B spar strap, F-605C doublers, and seatbelt anchors. The new bar stock still had some milling marks, so I buffed them out with scotchbrite. Only had to take off 0.002" or so - around 1 percent - of the material to get the marks out. Vans says that you can go up to 10 percent without issues, so I'm good with the replacement parts.
March 25, 2010
Moved on to the F-706 bulkhead today, including a rib and a channel that will eventually hold the elevator bellcrank. The rib annd channel are match-drilled to pieces of 6061-T6 angle that are fabricated from stock. Here's the F-729 bellcrank rib match-drlled to its corresponding angle...
For some unknown reason, I didn't take any pictures of the F-728 - but it looks pretty much the same. One minor screwup...both of these assemblies have a 1/4" hole for the bellcrank attach bolt. When match-drilling that hole in the F-729 angle and channel, I managed to let the drill bit drift a little and wound up egging out the hole - not something you really want to happen when dealing with a primary flight control system. Fortunately, I have a lot of spare angle stock, and Vans delivered a nice new F-729A to my door. Problem solved!
I have three weeks of work travel and then a family trip to France, so no more updates for a month or so...
April 29, 2010
We're back from our trip to France...during which we didn't actually go to France! My daughter's figure-skating team was supposed to participate in competition in Toulouse, but due to the eruption of Iceland's Mount Hafnafjordsigginastimoosebite...or whatever it's called (Eyjafjallajökull, I think), we got refunds for our France tickets (thanks, Air France!) and bought tickets to St Thomas.
Needless to say, it was a little warmer in the Virgin Islands. We also had to put up with views like this every evening...
April 30, 2010
Back from vacation and time for more airplane work. I had one remaining day off before work, and got the replacement F-729 parts drilled and then clecoed the whole F-706 assembly together.
May 8, 2010
No pictures from the last week and a half, so you'll have to imagine me match-drilling and fluting the F-706, -707 and -708 bulkheads. Nothing difficult here, just cleco them together and drill. I also opened up larger holes in the bulkheads for wiring conduits, static lines and rudder cables, easy enough with a unibit.
May 18, 2010
During the last few days I did some fluting and deburring on the F-709, -710 and -712 bulkheads, then fabricated and match-drilled the angle that's attached to the F-710 bulkhead.
I also started fabricating the horizontal stabilizer attach bars for the F-711 bulkhead. These bars are made from 2024-T4 stock, and the rivet holes that attach them to the F-711 bulkhead halves are match-drilled through pre-punched holes in the bulkhead halves. Turns out that hand-drilling those holes isn't such a good idea, as the bar stock is a lot harder than the bulkhead material and it's easy for the drill bit to wander - and that's what happened. I wasn't completely happy with the way these parts were turning out, so I ordered new ones. Sorry, no pictures - there will be plenty when I fabricate the replacement bulkhead.
May 23, 2010
Been doing a lot of deburring on the bulkhead halves - what a pain in the ass. There are a lot of tabs and crevices on every bulkhead that have to be "flossed" with strips of emery cloth to get the burrs off. This takes a *lot* of time.
May 31, 2010
Not a huge amount of progress, still deburring bulkheads. Did I mention that it's a pain in the ass?
June 11, 2010
I've been pretty busy around the house doing non-airplane stuff, and when I've had time to do airplane stuff I've been working on deburring more bulkhead parts. Yes, it was still a pain in the ass but now it's done.
To break the monotony, I've been working on adapting a possible paint scheme to my Flight Factory (sadly now out of business) RV-7 model for Microsoft FSX. My buddy Jim used this technique very successfully for building his paint scheme. Here's my attempt...
I must say that the paint scheme doesn't look as good in 3D as it did as a side view...
June 19, 2010
Over the last week I finished fabricating and match-drilling the F-711 bulkhead. As I mentioned a couple of entries ago, I wasn't happy with how the first -711 came out so I ordered new parts. This time I made sure to clamp everything down nice and tight to the drill press when drilling the 2024-T4 bar stock to the bulkheads themselves.
The bar stock came out much better this time...since these parts help hold the horizontal stab on the airplane, they should probably be done right, huh?
A little more work fabricating an angle for the top of the assembly, and the bulkhead was done...and there was much rejoicing - yaaay!
June 20, 2010
Prepped and primed all the bulkhead parts today. A crap-load of work, and I'm bushed. Nothing different here in terms of priming and prep, so only one picture to document progress.
We're headed off to Troy, Ohio for one of Whitney's skating competitions so no updates for the next couple of days.
July 2, 2010
We arrived back from Troy despite the best efforts of the driver of our chartered bus. This gentleman was obviously the bus company owner as well, because he spent half of his time behind the wheel working on his schedule and making phone calls - while we were screaming down the Massachusetts Turnpike at 75 mph. Some of the other parents were pretty nervous...I guess years of flight instructing have numbed me to crappy driving or flying skills.
After returning, I launched right into riveting the previously-primed bulkheads. Nothing too difficult, and after a morning's work I had a nice bit of visual progress to show for all that deburring and drilling.
The F-711 bulkhead was such a learning experience, it deserves a picture of its own...
July 10, 2010
And now it's time for the longerons. This is one of those parts of the project that seems to generate a lot of angst and hair-pulling among RV builders. I spent a lot of time looking at a variety of methods for bending the longerons to match the curve of the fuselage, specifically the technique used in the Orndorff videos - clamp the longerons together, and bend them both at the same time. This saves time over the Vans approach which calls for bending the longerons individually.
The longerons must be trimmed to a specific length - slightly over 173 inches - and since you won't know if you made a mistake until the fuselage goes together, it's pretty important to get that measurement right the first time. I rearranged the shop to lay the longerons out across both benches, with the longerons clamped together for stability. I laid out the tape measure blade along them, and clamped it down to the longerons so that there was no slack. Just to make sure there was no error due to that wiggly little hook/tab on the end of the blade, I started the measurement at 1". The trick is to make sure that you add that 1" to the cut end so you don't accidentally wind up an inch short.
I had both Ellen and Whitney double-check my measurements just to make sure there were no errors, and trimmed the longeron ends. First longeron challenge complete, next step is bending them to the right curve!
July 11, 2010
Today I hit a new low in the project.
If you look at the picture above, you'll see that my vise has oak jaws. I removed the vise's original steel jaws and replaced them with the oak ones I fabricated to protect the longerons during the bending process, during which the longeron is clamped in place and bent using a dead-blow hammer.
Well, it turns out that oak compresses more than I thought, and about halfway through the bending process oak jaws compressed sufficiently to expose the steel screws that hold them in place. I didn't notice this was happening, and as I tightened down the vise, those screws left these nasty gouges on the longerons...
This was a real demoralizer. I'm gonna have to figure out what to do next.
July 12, 2010
After a little bit of irritation, I realized once again that just about any mistake on the project can be fixed with a call to Vans for new parts. No, new longerons aren't cheap - shipping alone is more than the cost of the parts. They should be here in a couple of weeks.
July 18, 2010
I purchased a new, extremely heavy vise from Sears with jaws that are designed to be removed. I fabricated a new set of oak jaws, this time a lot thicker so that they can't possibly hurt the yet-to-be delivered longerons. Since I now have a lot of spare longeron material, I cut off a piece and made some trial bends with no damage to the longeron.
I also re-evaluated my bending technique and decided to abandon the Orndorff method and go back to Vans' instructions. When in doubt, RTFM!
July 20, 2010
Started measuring and trimming the J-channel material that's used for auxiliary longerons in the fuselage tailcone. There are three sets of two J-channels that must be made from stock. I measured them using the same method I used on the longerons, and double-checked the measurements before cutting. Came out great! The ends need to be shaped to accomodate the bulkheads, but that will come later. Sorry, no pictures...
July 23, 2010
The new longerons arrived today, shipped in a long piece of PVC pipe. Thanks to careful handling by UPS (NOT!), one end of the pipe was pretty badly damaged - but fortunately the longeron material only had a few minor scuffs on one end - and that can be trimmed away. Cool!
I'm off to Oskhosh next week to get my RV building batteries recharged...
August 1, 2010
I'm back from Oshkosh and my batteries are definitley recharged. One big boost came from seeing my friend Mike fly his RV-7 to Oshkosh for the first time. Mike overcame more than his share of hurdles to get to this point, so it's really motivational to me to see his airplane at the Big Show.
August 4, 2010
Got the new longerons clamped, measured and trimmed. Looks just like they did the last time I did this, so look back a couple of entries to see what it looks like.
I also continued trimming the J-channel ends...sorry, no pictures.
August 13, 2010
Finished the J-channels today...woohoo!
The next step in the plans was to start bending the longerons. I really didn't feel like messing with that yet, so I clecoed the F-711 and F-712 bulkheads in place on the F-779 lower tailcone skin.
The fit of these parts is notoriously bad, and I'd read a lot of gripes about this area on the usual websites. Those tabs on the bulkheads have to be bent correctly to match the angle of the F-779 skin, and the skin itself is very thick (0.040") so it requires some wrestling to get several of those clecoes in place.
Once I started looking at this area and how the tailwheel mount fits between the F-711 and F-712, I realized that there are a couple of rivets in the F-712 that shoudln't have been done yet...so I get to drill them out.
August 14, 2010
Today was the day to start bending the longerons. To RV builders, particularly those of us building the side-by-side airplanes (RV-6, -7, -9 and -10) where the fuselage side curve is more pronounced, this is one of those sort-of-dreaded tasks that we really don't want to screw up. It's kinda like the elevator trim tab and the fuel tanks. Fortunately, by this point I'm pretty much over the mental hurdle of working with the longerons...
Making the bend isn't terribly difficult...it's just "fiddly", meaning that it takes a lot of tweaks and adjustment to get the longerons to fit the template that's included in the plans. The basic process is to clamp the longeron at a spot just behind where the bend should occur, preload it by pulling the free end in the direction of the bend, and finally apply a moderate whack with a dead-blow hammer right next to the vise to "set" the bend. Do that a couple dozen times, moving the longeron an inch or so in the clamp before each whack, and the bend gets done.
Making the bend isn't terribly difficult...it's just "fiddly", meaning that it takes a lot of tweaks and adjustment to get the longerons to fit the template that's included in the plans. The basic process is to clamp the longeron at a spot just behind where the bend should occur, preload it by pulling the free end in the direction of the bend, and finally apply a moderate whack with a dead-blow hammer right next to the vise to "set" the bend. Do that a couple dozen times, moving the longeron an inch or so in the clamp before each whack, and the bend gets done - and at some point you end up with something like this...
But like many other things in this project, it's not quite as simple as it looks. Whacking the longeron to bake the big bend tends to give it some unwanted twist...
...and that takes a bit of twist with a wrench to remove. But removing that twist also takes out some of the bend you wanted to make in the first place, and you gotta keep the bend where you want it. Like I said...it's "fiddly".
I found some good advice on the web, and that's to not try to do the entire bend in one session. An hour or so a day for the next few days... I don't want to be ordering any more longeron material!
August 29, 2010
Work and family stuff have been getting first priority over the last few days, but I've continued on the slow and steady path to getting the right longeron bent.
How do you know that the longeron is bent correctly? By comparing it to the template included in the plans. I cut out the template and glued it to some cardboard...easy enough. Just gotta continue the bend-and-compare process...
September 2, 2010
A good day today...got the big bend done on the right longeron! Vans says that you can consider the longeron done when it matches the template within 1/16"...which this one does.
September 3, 2010
As often happens on any project, the second part takes less time than the first...and that's what happened with the left longeron. Trying to follow my own don't-do-it-all-at-once gudance, I was working very slowly over the course of a Saturday. But everything was working out, and before I knew it I had a correctly-bent left longeron.
Just to make sure I wasn't imagining things, I clamped the left longeron to the right. They match each other within 1/16", so I think I'm in good shape here.
With both "big bends" made, I flipped the clamped longerons around and measured/marked their aft ends for some trimming that needs to be done so they fit in and around the tail bulkheads. These cuts made me a little nervous since they're being made on parts that I just spent a lot of time on while bending.
September 4, 2010
Another big day of progress, I finished trimming the aft ends of the longerons. There are two cuts to be made on each longeron - one to allow the VS vertical spar to fit flush against the F-712, and one to accomodate the F-711's HS attach bars. First step is to trim the longeron aft end to accomodate the VS spar. Here's one cut completed on the right longeorn
I used the F-714 aft deck to make sure that the side cutouts were properly aligned.
Here are the HS bar cutouts marked, and drilling/cutting is in progress on the left longeron.
After a lot of cutting, filing and sanding, the cuts are complete...
September 17, 2010
I've been laid up with a cold for the last week or so, but managed to get the canopy decks match-drilled to the longerons. This is a nice little test of whether the longerons are bent correctly, as the curves cut into the decks have to match the longerons to fit correctly. Here's one deck fitted to the longeron...the bend matches nicely!
The decks actually overhang the longeron by 0.032", so I clamped a piece of 0.032" sheet stock to the longeron as a reference. Where necessary, I also clamped some scrap angle to hold the longeron flush to the deck during drilling.
Here's one longeron and deck match-drilled...the other one looks the same.
September 19, 2010
One last hurdle to tackle on the longerons. Each one has to have a slight downward bend forward of the canopy deck in order to mate correctly with steel attach angles on the firewall. Compared to the "big bends", these are easy - just a single downard bend to put the forward end of the longeron a specified distance below the canopy deck. Got 'em both done, and the longerons are complete - for now...
September 25, 2010
With all the longeron hassle behind me, I got back to finishing up prep and priming of the firewall angles and F-705 rear spar attach bulkhead parts. I decided to try a new primer on these parts, since they'll be top-coated with interior paint. The new primer is chromate-free, which makes it a little easier to handle. It's also available locally, which is a bonus. It's not as durable as the fluid-resistant primer I've used, but it's a lot safer.
September 30, 2010
Got the firewall clecoed together for riveting. Sorry, no pictures.
October 8, 2010
Over the last few days I did just about all the riveting on the firewall. As is sometimes the case, some of Vans rivet callouts were quite short - especially on the steel gussets at the firewall corners. Rivets of the correct length were easy enough to squeeze, but I wasn't always able to maneuver the squeezer to get every rivet. That left me with back-riveting some of the tough-to-reach rivets. Sometimes a little "english" was required with the back-riveting set, but everything turned out ok.
Here's the completed firewall, with all rivets done except a couple I'll have to buck by hand with Ellen's help.
October 10, 2010
With the firewall riveted, I started in yesterday on the F-705 rear spar carrythrough bulkhead. First order of bidness was to hit some of the previously-primed parts with a coat of the interior color - Sherwin Willams JetFlex WR "Pepperdust". The only parts I painted were the bulkhead top and seat stops, since it'll be difficult to paint under some of those parts once they're assembled. JetFlex WR (water reducible) goes on kinda rough, but smooths out nicely when dry. And it's a whiz to clean up after painting - just use water!
Here's the bulkhead top with seat stops riveted on after painting...
...and here's the whole bulkhead with most of the rest of the rivets set. I'll have a few rivets remaining to do, but I can get those in between other work.
October 25, 2010
Over the last few days I've started working again on fitting the F-711 and -712 bulkheads to the F-779 tailcone skin. It's still turning out to be a pain in the ass. I also pulled out the tailwheel mount weldment and spring, and cleaned a little rist off the weldment - nothing too serious.
After spending hours and hours trying to get the skin and bulkheads sufficiently lined up to get clecoes in holes, I did some research and found out that Vans is apparently shipping a new F-779 skin that fits better than the old ones that were shipped a couple of years ago.
So after evalating the monetary value of the time I was spending and the frustration I was experiencing, I ordered a new skin. Hey...I buy really expensive things for the Air Force, so I'm used to throwing money at problems. It's just not usually my money!
October 29, 2010
Success! Got the new F-779 skin today, and it fits significantly better than the old one. I was able to get the F-711 and -712 bulkheads clecoed in with little or no force. Very cool.
I was so pumped to be over yet another hurdle that I decided to cleco the whole aft fuselage together. This process really needs two sets of hands, since the first step is to cleco the bulkheads to the fuselage aft bottom skin, then lay the j-channels in their respective cutouts in the bulkheads...
...and once the bulkheads were in place, the side skins went on. For the most part, this was an easy process - very little work required to get holes lined up. It was a nice change from all the heartache with that lower tailcone skin.
This was a pretty motivational day, it's nice to see a big part of the airplane starting to come together.
November 4, 2010
With those PITA bulkheads and skin fitted, I was able to make some progress getting the tailwheel mount drilled and fitted to the F-775/711/712 assembly. I marked and pilot-drilled to #30 the holes that attach the mount's forward flange to the F-711 bulkhead. These are the holes I had inadvertently riveted on the -711, and subsequently had to drill out. They'll get enlarged to accomodate AN3 bolts before the tailcone goes together permanently.
I also marked pilot holes in the tailwheel mount's aft flange for two "keeper" rivets that will hold the mount in place until the mount, bulkhead and VS rear spar are drilled in assembly. Sorry, no pictures of this one.
November 5, 2010
Today I marked and cut trimmed the F-775 skin to accomodate the tailwheel skin. There's a template in the plans; I copied it, trimmed away the cutout area, taped it to the skin, and marked the skin to be removed. That's a lot of words for a simple task...it's probably easier just to look at the picture...
After a lot of cutting and filing, I clecoed the mount, bulkheads and skin together...
Getting that cutout right is an iterative process, as the skin curve changes a bit when a portion of the bend is removed and Vans template isn't 100 percent accurate. Anyway, it's done and looks good.
November 5, 2010
Did a little more tweaking of tabs and general fit on the aft bulkhead assmebly, and drilled the tailwheel mount's rear flange to accomodate those keeper rivets I mentioned before.
November 13, 2010
The next step is to match-drill the J-channels to the fuselage. But before that, the F-779/711/712 assembly must be clecoed in place, and that was a little challenging trying to maneuver the J-channels into place and get bulkhead holes lined up with the skin. As of now, the fit is close enough to get clecoes in all the holes. I can live with that, even if the fit isn't 100 percent perfect.
The last step before match-drilling the J-channels is to make sure there's no twist in the structure. I cut some shims out of oak and taped them in place on the sawhorses; I also taped the sawhorses themselves in place on the floor to prevent shifting. With the shims in place, I was able to get the whole assembly level...very cool
Forward measurement...
...and aft measurement.
While continuing to check the fuselage for twist, Ellen and I drilled the J-channels to the fuselage. I needed a spare pair of hands to keep the J-channel in place, and Ellen helped. Fortunately I didn't drill any holes in her fingers.
I still have a little more work to do before drilling the J-channels to the F-775 skin, I'm going to have to work slowly to take out some remaining bend from the F-775.
November 15, 2010
Did a little minor surgery on a J-channel to improve fit around the F-711 bulkhead.
The holidays are approaching, and we'll be traveling during Thanksgiving. When we return, the project will go on hold in December while I work on my CFI renewal course and do a massive website update.
December 13, 2010
The massive website update I promised is in progress. If you keep looking back through this page, you'll see stuff filling in from the past year and more. I didn't realize the website was so out of date...yikes! I'm using the time between now and New Years to get all those updates done, and also to finish my CFII/MEI renewal - so no more airplane fabricating until the New Years holiday.
Speaking of the New Year, Ellen and I have resolved to make the RV a primary non-family-time priority - steady work through the week and a day on the weekend. We want to have the fuselage out of the garage and into the hangar by this time next year. It's gonna hurt...I'm giving up what little flight instructing I was doing so it's going to be a challenge to stay proficient in the cockpit. So...if you have an RV and happen to be flying it near Boston, stop by - I'll buy you a really good lunch for a ride in your plane!
January 5, 2011
As promised, we jumped back into building during the last couple of days. First order of business was to finish riveting the firewall. I left a couple of rivets undone because none of my rivet sets was small enough to fit in between the firewall flange and the rivet head. I ordered a small 3/4" set from Brown Tool...and problem solved.
I had used some wooden wedges to keep the tailcone level during match-drilling, but it was too easy to move it out of alignment just by bumping it. So I devised this little clamping arrangement to keep things nice and level; the thin stiffener angle is drilled and clecoed at the top, and clamped to the aluminum angle on the bottom. There's one on either side, front and back. Worked great!
With the clamping issue solved, I went back to match-drilling the aft tailcone.
I also ordered some new parts for the F-705A/B rear spar carrythrough. I was never happy with the way the original parts came out, so I'm rebuilding them. Sorry, no pictures.
August 27, 2011
December 31, 2011
January 1, 2012
Happy New Year!
January 2, 2012
Armrests fitted, drilled.
January 5, 2012
January 13, 2012
January 15, 2012
