Delays, delays

Well it may seem that I haven't been posting as much recently, but we haven't been having the greatest of weather lately..

The day wasn't completely unproductive though, we were able to spend some time cleaning and getting things ready, we also paid a visit to Smitty's paint store to pick up some epoxy-based primer. We haven't used this yet, but we've heard it's a lot better at adhering and is easy to work with. Once some better weather comes along we'll put it to the test!

Finished Work on Z-Brackets

Today Dad and I picked up where we left off on the T-712 Z Brackets that attach the fuel tank baffle to the main spar. Since we finished priming and countersinking them, the next step was to rivet the K1000-3 platenuts to them in order for them to be bolted to the spar. We set all of the rivets and they turned out beautiful! 12 of the 14 had already been drilled to the spar and the remaining two were the inboard brackets, I'm not too sure why they have you hold out on these, but you're supposed to match drill these to the spar once the baffle is clecoed to the other brackets. After the spar was off of the wing jig and back on our work bench we clecoed the bracket to the baffle and got to drilling.

Well the first one didn't turn out too great, in fact it's unusable! A simple mistake led to a $2.50 replacement part. Our mistake? We held the bracket agains the spar too firmly which caused the baffle to flex, with it drilled in this position the hole is in the wrong location when the pressure is taken away. Oh well, our part should be here Thursday and we'll be back in business!


We also went over the wing ribs one last time and made some fine adjustments. After handling them so much getting the scratches out of them we realized they got a bit out of alignment, therefore we had to re-flute them. They're all straight once again though and hopefully we'll be able to prime them this week!

Z Brackets for Fuel Tank Baffle

Well after some breakfast with Dad and some friends at the cafe we decided to get to work, but we couldn't just yet. Just as we were leaving the cafe, a beautiful -8 pulled up and well, being RV builders we couldn't pass up the opportunity to chat about our similar tastes! The pilot's name was Barry and he was teaching a friend to fly, we talked about the aircraft a bit and became friends! After our chat Dad and I had to bring our trusty Cessna 150 over to the maintenance hangar for her annual today. The first few hours of our day was devoted to this task and found out what does and what doesn't need to be replaced this year. Oh the joy of airplanes, there's always something to fix on them!

After the maintenance hangar closed Dad and I headed on over to our hangar and decided to pick up from where I left off yesterday. Today we drilled the Z brackets to the main spar for the right wing today. Once we had these all match drilled we began drilling the platenuts to the Z brackets. A cleco here, a cleco clamp there, a drill press and some time was all we needed and we were able to get six of them drilled, we had to do some grocery shopping tonight so we had to leave time for that as well unfortunately.

Many reasons for the lack in posting lately, and I feel bad for that. Works been keeping us both busy and I've been spending some time at my mom's as well, dividing the time is hard when there's so much to do! Also, holidays always seem to delay something, whatever it may be. But we're still progressing on the project that's for sure!

Commercial Certificate

Well I know it doesn't have much to do with the RV, but today was the day I passed my Commercial Certificate checkride. Now on to the CFI certificate to find a flying job! Thank you Dad and family, for all of your help and support.

Flap Assemblies

Today was another productive day on the RV, we got started on the flap assemblies. After poring over the plans for a bit we began to get a picture of how they were constructed and what went where. We jumped to this because we're still waiting to buy more primer, and besides it hasn't been the nicest out for priming.

The construction of the flaps starts by clecoing the end and center ribs to the flap spar and match drilling all of it. The holes for the center ribs are punched a bit small, and they get drilled out to #30 to accept the LP 4-3 blind rivets that are supplied. These rivets hold all of the flap ribs to the spar. We also fabricated the small spacers that fit underneath the trailing end of the end ribs. Once this was done we clecoed the assembly to the bottom skin and match drilled it. It started to look like a flap!

The manual tells you to look out for small gaps that may occur between the "trailing edge" of the bottom skin and the center ribs, if there are any, you have to make small spacers to fit the gap. We only needed to make two of these and made them out of the ".025 T-3 sheet. This fit perfectly and made for a snug fit.

We began to work on the piano hinge for the flap and decided we would follow our friend Dwayne's idea and split the hinge pin into two pieces that secure to the flap brace on the wing towards the center of it. This requires a few of the links to be removed in order to be able to access the pins. We're going to save this for a later date though once we have our pile of parts primed and once we catch up!

Aileron Skin Work

Today Dad and I were able to get quite a bit of work done on the project. We started the day out with breakfast at Bambi's Hangar One cafe on the airport and chatted with our friends Jack and Dwayne. We saw a couple of regular RV's sitting outside; an -8 and a -6A, both beautiful aircraft. After a quick bite and a couple cups of coffee I made my way over to the flight school to speak with my flight instructor/good friend Ed Matthews while Dad opened up the hangar. Today we scheduled my checkride for the commercial license and figured how we were going to work it. It feels great to finally have this thing scheduled, and once it's over there'll be more time to think about the RV! Also it had been over a month since the last time I flew so I decided to knock some rust off and practice the commercial maneuvers. It felt awesome to be back in the air!

I had finished cutting and shaping the aileron stiffeners a couple of days ago so we decided we would finish match drilling them to their appropriate skins. Once that was done we moved on to dimpling the parts and cleaned up the edges. I used the hand squeezer to dimple the stiffeners and Dad and I continued to use our backdimpling method for the skins. Needless to say they turned out flawlessly! We're still having a blast working on the project and the progress keeps us motivated for sure.

Wing Jig Work

Jeez, it's been nine days since I've put a new post out for the RV, and that's way too long! For the past few days Dad and I have been preparing the rest of the ribs and have gotten them all ready to be primed. We're trying to build up a pretty good sized pile just so we can knock a lot of the priming out at once. Since this'll be the first time we use our spray gun (we've been using cans of self etching primer) we want to make sure we have enough parts to make it an efficient process. Dad banged out most of the rib preparation and I helped him when I could. I've been working quite a bit lately and going to school and I've been having a hard time to put into the project. But this semester is almost over and I'll have more time!

Also, we were able to construct the wing jig. The thing is as sturdy as a house, and it came out very straight. We used lumber to construct ours, and it's a shame that this won't have much use once the wing is done, but it'll serve it's purpose. We've been contemplating on how to do our conduit holes in the ribs and we've decided we're going to use 3/4" thin-walled PVC pipe. We picked up three 10' pieces at Lowe's yesterday, but they must have been marked wrong because they're 1"! Oh well, a quick return and we'll be back in business. Hopefully we'll be able to prime soon and get the wing set on the jig!

Match Drilled Wing Ribs

Well today dad and I were able to get the ribs all match drilled to the main and rear spar and we have something that resembles a wing! We only had enough time to do the left wing, but we also got all of the ribs prepared for priming. We're not too sure if we're being to picky on the scratches, but we're making sure we get all of the scratches out with either scotchbrite or sandpaper if the scratch is deep enough.


The ribs don't have an alclad layer on them, so they don't have a protective film on them when they are packed so we want to make sure we have them nice and buffed out before we spray them with primer. Tomorrow we should be able to get the right wing done as well.

Riveted Rear Spar Components, Continued Rib Prep.

Well today Dad and I woke up bright and early and decided to head over to the airport to get some breakfast, after an egg sandwich and a couple cups of coffee we headed on over to visit our friends Jack and Dick. They were at their hangar working on Dwayne's airplane and we got to fill our heads with some more good ideas, it's great being surrounded by RV people!

I only had a limited time at the airport this morning because I had to go to school, and wouldn't you know it, when I got there my first class was cancled.. perfect! I could've put those couple of hours in to working on the project! Oh well, I went to my moms for a while and took care of a few things at her house.

After school I made a B-line straight for the airport to meet up with Dad at the hangar. When I got there he had already been deburring the wing ribs and had primed the rear spar, awesome! With this finished we made sure to get straight to riveting the doublers to the rear spar. We attempted to use the pneumatic squeezer that our friend let us borrow, but we couldn't get it to squeeze the -4 rivets. We shimmed up the rivet sets and cranked up the pressure on the compressor but it still wasn't doing it's job. Instead we hooked up the rivet gun and bucked all of the rivets, definitely good practice for when the skins come. We taped off the holes in the rear spar that also get ribs and the flap brace so we don't accidently fill them early.

Once we had the rear spar components all riveted together we moved back to rib preparation. We already had 14 of the leading edge ribs done (fuel tank ribs) and moved on to the wing leading edge ribs. After about a couple of hours of work we had finished flanging and fluting the leading edge ribs, and once this was done we marked the rest of the ribs to get them ready for flanging and fluting.

All in all we had a great day and it was definitely productive. With two of us working together on this we feel like we have a pretty good pace going. Can't wait to get back to the hangar!

Rib Work

Wow, so it's been a while since I've put anything new up, but we're still making good strides on the RV! No pictures to post today but since the last post we've finished the rear spar components and began working on the many ribs. So far we've gotten all of the ribs deburred and now all they need is to have their flanges straightened, and to be fluted. Tomorrow we'll be priming the rear spars (all of the doublers and the tie downs have been primed) and we'll hopefully get the doublers all riveted on.

Today I was able to continue the work on the leading edge ribs and got 14 of them fluted and their flanges trued. This process proves to be pretty tedious but I've found a good system that I'll be using to finish the rest of the ribs. Can't wait to get back to the project and make more progress!

Finished Tie Downs, Began Rear Spar

Today right after work I went straight to the hangar to meet up with dad and get to work on the airplane. As soon as I got there we banged out that last tie down. We match drilled it to the spar once it was nice and square, then once that was done we drilled the spacers and prepared it all for the platenuts. All we have to do to finish them off is put some primer on them. Since the weather has been cloudy and cool we're waiting until a warm day to finish the tie downs.

We moved to the rear spar and we cut the doublers that attach to the rear spar, once we had a rough cut on the four pieces we dressed them up on the scotchbrite wheel and they're looking nice. That was all we were able to accomplish today, but for a couple hours of work we definitely satisfied. I have to be to work at 5 tomorrow morning but I'll be at the hangar right after to get back to work!

Also, the platenuts are all installed in the main spar. At least all of the platenuts that attach the fuel tanks, inspection plates, and the inboard ones.

Platenut Work for Fuel Tanks

What a great day today. Found out I got one of the three A's on the previous tests in my geography class, got to hang out with my girlfriend and my dad, and we had dinner together at the airport! Dad and I also got to finish the platenuts for the fuel tanks. As well as countersinking the screw holes. The process in which we secured the platenuts was as follows.





1) Drill all #40 holes.
2) Countersink all rivet holes.
3)Cleco platenuts on, then rivet.
4) Drill screw holes.
5) Countersink screw holes.



We countersunk the screw holes last because the plans suggest using a #30 countersink cutter in the hole, which is I believe a #12. If there's nothing to keep the cutter centered (platenut) then you will be left with a hole that's less than concentric. After a while of countersinking I finally found a method for countersinking that produces great results. Instead of using the air drill, we switched to our $15 corded drill and set it at a slow speed. Instead of obliterating the metal into dust producing somewhat nice results, it slowly cuts the metal and leaves great results. The only real tedious part of this job was getting the countersink cage set to the proper depth, but once it was set it was smooth sailing. After a few hours of work, the first step of the wing kit is complete. Tomorrow we'll be starting the nut plates for the access plates after we get out of work. Excited to be back in action!

Prework Post

Well just thought I'd do a quick check in, in the library at school right now excited to meet dad at the hangar to get back to work on the RV! Also, my girlfriends gonna stop by for a while to check out our progress and have dinner with us at the hangar, it should be a fun night!
Also, last night dad and I picked up some cheap pipe insulation to pad our fuel tank cradles for once the tanks are done. Gotta have a place to store these parts so they don't get damaged!

Fuel Tank Platenuts

Today we had a productive day and got some more work done on the main spar. After pondering over the plans for a while we finally got to drilling and countersinking for the platenuts that will hold the fuel tanks on. Once we had this done we began riveting them on. This was also the first time I got to use a pneumatic squeezer! Our friend is letting us borrow his and the thing is amazing, although it takes a bit of getting used to. But it's definitely easier than squeezing each rivet by hand! Today we were only able to finish the top platenuts but plan on finishing the bottom on Tuesday. It feels great to be back in the building zone again, can't wait to get back to the hangar!

Wing Inventory

Today once school was done I made my B-line straight for the airport to meet up with dad. Today we finally got to get back to work on the RV after about 13 weeks or so. We inventoried the kit and organized all of our rivets and fasteners, an astronomical amount compared to what comes in the empennage kit. Once all of the small parts were out we made room on the workbench for the main spars so we could inspect them. They looked flawless! Great job at Van's for sure, just a couple of buffing marks but nothing at all to worry about.

Though we did get one rib that was a bit bent up towards the end, we're thinking we'll be able to true it back to its original shape. We also got the spars clamped to the workbench so we can start the task of countersinking for the platenuts. Other than that there's not too much to report, but we're both stoked to get back to work!

Wings Arrived!

Well today was the day! Our wing kit has finally arrived. Though I was unable to witness it (school and work) Dad had the honors of accepting the order. Inventory shall start on Thursday right after school, and we can't wait!

Wing Kit Update

Well I guess I misunderstood the confirmation letter from Vans. The wing kit is supposed to ship tomorrow. I had figured that it would arrive the week of the 27th. But they actually meant that the kit would be shipped the week of the 27th. Therefore we are expecting the wing kit to arrive within the next 6-7 days! Not too far away!

Wing Kit Update

Just received a letter in the mail from Van's, telling us that our wing kit should arrive the week of 9/27! Can't wait to get back to work on the RV-7!

Hangar Update

So today after school I headed on over to the airport to meet Dad. We rented a Cessna 182 to taxi over to the hangar to use as a template in place of our friends Skylane (we didn't have access to his airplane today) to see if it would fit in with our 150. After a few minutes of trial and error, we found both airplanes fit perfectly! With both airplanes in we'll still have adequate room to work on the RV. What a great deal.. we have a perfect hangout, a house for our little workhorse 150, and prime working area for the RV project! all for a great price! Though it's still not officially our, it shall be ready for the no vacancy sign one week from today. Time to start thinking about moving stuff out of the storage garage and into the hangar! Today was productive, and we can't wait for the wing kit to arrrive, hopefully within the next 4-6 weeks it'll be arriving at Dad's work!

Update

I figured it's been a while since I've put a post up, but I just wanted to let everyone who follows this know that we're still alive and still in the process of building the RV! Currently we're just waiting for our wing kit though, and we're expecting it to arrive within the next 4-5 weeks. Also, we're still waiting to hear the progress of our future hangar we're expecting to move into. It's a 50' x 50' hangar that was used for a glider business that recently shut down on our local airport. We will be splitting it with our friend who will be keeping his Cessna 182 there and we'll have room for our Cessna 150 and our RV project, so it will be perfect! Being able to cancel the current tie down fee for our 150, and the storage space we rent justifies the price of the hangar, so it should work out just fine.

Fiberglass Work

Lately we've been doing some fiberglass work here and there on the tips of the empennage. We aren't in too much of a hurry to do this right now since we're waiting on moving all of our stuff into the new hangar! But this won't happen until the first of September. We also filled out the wing kit order form and are going to fax it in tomorrow! Here are a few pics of our progress on the fiberglass so far.

Drilled Control Horns

Tonight Dad and I tackled the job of drilling the control horns to the center bearing assembly. We accomplished this by using a brass tube that had an inside diameter of 3/16" and an outside diameter of 1/4". We put the tube in our drill motor and ran it with some sandpaper around it until it fit perfectly inside the bearing and then it created a perfect guide for our drill.We used a 3/16" drill initially to drill the holes and we finished them with a 1/4". Once both control horns were drilled we put both elevators back on and the bolt slipped right through! It couldn't have turned out any nicer, and we're happy with our results. Time to order the wing kit soon!

Mounted Elevators and Rudder

Today we finished rolling the leading edge of the left elevator, and this was a bear.. Initially we tried a 1" diameter pipe to roll the leading edge, but when we clecoed it together it didn't look correct at all, so we finished rolling it with our 3/4" pipe and this got it perfect! It only took 4 tries to get it right..

After we had the leading edge all riveted together we got to work on mounting the elevators and rudder. We trimmed the corners of the skin on the horizontal stabilzer enough to where we could have the elevators swing freely, we didn't get any pictures of this though. We then trimmed the inboard flange of the 603PP spars for down elevator clearance. Once the elevators were all mounted, we moved to the rudder. The vertical stab didn't need any trimming for clearance so this step was pretty easy! All we had to do was drill the hinge point holes to #12 and insert the bolts, which takes a little practice. We ended up using hemostats to be able to work in the tight quarters.

And of course once all the control surfaces we're mounted we had to set it all up and make it look like a tail section!

Finished Trim Tab

Tonight we were able to finish the trim tab and get the hinge riveted to the elevator and the tab itself. We started rolling the leading edge of the left elevator tonight but since we changed to a 1" pipe we think we need an edge rolling tool to complete the seam where the skins overlap. We'll have to finish this once we have the tool. But we're happy with the way the trim tab turned out.

More Trim Tab Work

Second post of the day! Dad and I decided to drill the forward hinge for the trim tab to the elevator, and we got it knocked out of the way. We used a straight edge to align the trailing edges of the elevator and the trim tab and it turned out quite right. Once it was clecoed together with the hinge in place, the straight edge was only about 1/32" off when compared, so we're happy!

Before we we're able to drill the trim tab hinge we realized that the trim tab spar had to be bent a bit in order for the skin of the tab to be flat on both sides. In other words, without bending the spar, the skin was curved on the top and bottom sides. Not acceptable. So we clamped the tab skin and spar to our work bench firmly, got our deadblow mallet and a piece of 1x3 and went at it. Sounds a bit medieval, but the finished product was nice and straight. Thank you Donovan, for carrying us through this last task of the night.

Trim Tab Work

Today started bright and early. I had a flight lesson in a Comanche 250 today to add to my complex time for my commercial rating but after that we went home and got straight to work on the RV. Since we finished the left elevator (except for the leading edge) we got to work on the trim tab. Everywhere, I read that the trim tab is difficult to get correct.. even the plans tell us this, great!

We already had the trailing edge bent and did this the same way as with the elevators, we also finished the tabs. So we continued by prepping all of the parts and getting them primed. With 110 degree heat we were pretty sure this would be a feasable task, eventhough the humidity was somewhat high. It was a good thing we primed when we did, lightning strikes started three fires today in our area and ash began to blow a couple hours after we had primed. The CDF tankers had their job cut out for them!

Once the parts were primed we worked on the hinge and got it trimmed to size, this took a bit of studying on the plans but we have it looking like it should. We then began riveting the spar to the trim tab skin as well as the control horns, this was a little tricky, since there's not much room for a bucking bar, but we only had to use one OOPS rivet, so we're happy! So far the trim tabs lookin' good.

We got back to work on the trim servo plate and got the brackets riveted on, and like many others, we too found that we will have to fabricate some shims so the servo motor clears the rivets that hold the brackets to the plate.

Left Elevator Skin

So it's been a while since I've been able to get cracking on the RV, but today we finally we're able to get back to work! In the last couple of weeks we had trouble bending the elevator tabs and ended up having to order a whole new left elevator skin.

Today we started by etching and priming the inside of the new elevator skin and a few stiffeners that we had to make. Once the priming was dry we continued and back dimpled all of the holes on the elevator skin and dimpled the holes in the stiffeners, this went by quite quickly, and we're starting to get a good rythm in dimpling. Once the dimpling was done we backriveted the stiffeners to the elevator skin and riveted the trim tab reinforcement plate in. Now we're back to where we started from! (Please note: New CD Player, garage sale special, $2.50. Gotta love garage sales.)

Once the stiffeners and trim plate were nice and secure we moved on to the daunting task of bending the elevator tabs. We've been dreading this ever since the last skin. But this time we were able to succesfully accomplish the task. We securely clamped the the skin to our workbench with carpet tape between it and a piece of wood on our bench. After a few attempts we figured that the tape was actually hurting us, for some reason it started to slip and caused problems. So we removed the tape, realigned the skin and clamped once more. Once it was secure again we used a 1x2 piece of wood and a hammer to initiate the bend. We started with the bottom tab and found that we had to grind about 1/16 off for it to properly bend all the way. Once the bottom was done we finished with the top and finally had the tabs bent! This felt great to get out of the way, and we're happy with the results.

Once the tabs were bent we were ready to rivet the understructure to the skin. We started with the end ribs and finished with sealing it all up around the perimeter. Leaving the top flange of the trailing edge spar unfastened for now until the trim tab hinge goes in. All in all, it was a good successful day.