1095- Main Spar- p.13-2 step 7-8 & p.13-3 step 1

Section 13: Main Spar- 4 hrs 31 mins (Main Spar 13:38, Wings 16:38, Empennage 265:24, Total 301:58)

Rivet count: 0 (Total 5,409)

Today was one of those days when you do SO much work and have little to nothing to show for it. The day consisted of taking the j-channel stiffeners from the last build session and using the cleco clamps to secure them 1/16" above the top edge of the main spar flanges. Then we match drilled the stiffeners to the hole spacing from the main spar. We remove the j-channels and set them aside for use in sections 16 and 20 a few months from now.

Since the spars are laying side-by-side, I was only able to work on the outside edges at first. It's not on the timelapse, but I swapped the spars with the help of L to work on sides 3 and 4. The last thing after removing the J-channels was to drill to size the rest of the holes on the main spar flanges with the #40 drill. This is in preparation for countersinking in order to accomodate 426-type rivets for nutplate attachment, as well as accomodating the dimpled skins to fit flush.

One interesting thing is that the plans do not call for deburring the main spar flanges. Part of me thinks that it is obvious to deburr and the plans shouldn't have to tell me to do so anymore, but part of me wonders if it is purposely omitted to not mess with the beautifully anodized surface of the spars. I will have to do more research.

Four and a half hours later, I have 8 sections of J-channel with a bunch of holes in them, and two main spars that pretty much look the same as when we started. Yep, it's one of those days... -M

1094- Main Spar- p.13-2 step 4-6

Section 13: Main Spar- 3 hrs 8 mins (Main Spar 9:07, Wings 12:07, Empennage 265:24, Total 297:27)

Rivet count: 72 (Total 5,409)

I was going to start work again yesterday, but just as I was getting ready to go out to the garage, the washing machine was making a horrible noise. Five hours later after troubleshooting everything and becoming familiar with how a washer is constructed from youtube videos, I diagnosed a $40 part. Sure beats a new washer.

So today I finally got to work on the plane again! (with a slight interruption to go fix the washer after the part arrived in the mail. Two years ago to the day was the last time I touched it. Go figure. Surprisingly, riveting was pretty comfortable. May have overdriven a few of them, but not grossly errant. 

We unpacked the main spars, and then riveted the main spar web extensions in place. Then we dug out the old J-stiffeners and fabricated eight pieces. Between measuring, cutting, and deburring all the edges, that took up all of my time. It's am uphill battle to familiarize myself with the shop layout and reacquire proficiency. I also ended up cutting about two feet off the end of the kit provided pieces to make the short lengths. My bandsaw only cuts about a foot at a time, so I ended up making two cuts. Hopefully I didn't need two foot sections of J-channel later! Otherwise, I'll be ordering fresh stock due to my error. At the end of the video, I'm propping up the main spars so the flanges are straight since the next step requires them to do so, and since I didn't want to leave the spars out there to get warped under their own weight. I doubt that would actually happen, but better safe than sorry. -M

1093.1 The Third Workshop

Workshop - 2 hrs 0 min (Workshop 19:56, Total 294:19)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 5,337)

Yesterday was supposed to be the first full day of working on the plane in a very long time. Instead, I spent it working on the wife's car. We popped a check engine light, and the coolant flow control valve was at fault. $90 part, a full coolant flush, and six hours later, the car is back in working order. The plane however, is not.

A big thanks to T. for lending me some tools to get the job done! I met T. a few months back. Some pretty unique circumstances leading up to it. He's a couple miles down the road and also building an RV-10. He is significantly further along than we are. Leaps and bounds further... It's great to have someone around to pick their brain about the project as well as seeing what we are working towards.

However, I did take some time to organize things in the garage and the third workshop in this project is in working order. (Hopefully the last workshop until the eventual move to a hangar)

Making lemonade from lemons, I was able to use the car work to try out a new time lapse program. Up to now, I had been using Webcam Timelapse and taking a frame every 4 secs. At 15 frames per second on the videos, it meant a minute of video equaled an hour of work. I will now be using Video Velocity 3. It's compatible with a better camera than what I had been using. I will now be taking a frame every 2 secs and output a video at 30 frames per second. It is still the same ratio, but a smoother and more detailed product. Stay tuned for the first build video soon! -M

1093- Main Spar- p.13-2 step 1-3 & p.13-4 step 6-11

Section 13: Main Spar- 5 hrs 59 mins (Main Spar 5:59, Wings 8:59, Empennage 265:24, Total 292:19)

Rivet count: 16 (Total 5,337)

This post covers three days of work between 4-6 September 2015 and two hours of priming not seen in the video. These were the last days in MS as was discussed in the last post. It marks the official start of work on the Wing Kit. I had shipped the Wing Kit to MS not knowing if there would be lots of free time to build or not. It turned out that I could have saved myself some trouble by not doing so, since it took a year to finish up the empennage and only 6 hours of work were done on the wings. However, I'm sure that this happened only because I had shipped the kit early. I'm sure if I hadn't, I would have had ample time and be wishing I HAD ordered it. Murphy's law!

We started by pulling the plastic off of lots of parts, labeling them, and deburring lots of edges. Then we got the main spar web extension in place to include match drilling and deburring the holes. The last bit consists of fabricating the wing tie downs (cutting and tapping threads), match drilling them to the main spar, and machine countersinking them to allow nutplate installation. This is one of those depressing moments where 4 hrs of work are spent to tidy up a lot of pieces and four pieces to the assembly. I get the impression that the wing kit will have plenty more of this in the coming months. Onwards we go!

1092- Tailcone- p.10-23 step 3-5 & p.10-24 step 1-3

Tailcone- 2 hrs 19 mins (Tailcone 89:52, Empennage 265:24, Total 286:20)

Rivet count: 0 (Total 5,321)

WOW! It's been over two years since my last post. So much has changed on blogger and youtube, and even more has changed in my own life. This post and the next one will actually be old videos and work that were done LESS than two years ago when I was still in MS. 

The last few weeks there were hectic with the move and I obviously never posted anything. We moved our household to NC, then spent 6 months in OK. We moved back to NC but lived in an apartment for a year and there was no chance of arranging space for a build. Then I deployed for 2 months, only to come back home and have a career change (a good kind, and one I was hoping for). That created 3 more months of living away from home for training. In the middle of that training, we had our second daughter which extended training by another month. So there is two years time accounted for in a single paragraph. 

I don't regret a single moment of it, as the past two years were spent ensuring a career path that will allow for the continued build of this project as well as growing a family to fly around in it! There's going to be a lot of technique and procedure that I will have to relearn as I move forward, but I'm sure it will be well worth it.

Anyways, on to the video! This represents the last steps in the construction of the tailcone. All assembly took place with bolts and clecos. There really isn't much to say about it. The video speaks for itself, and of course, I can't really remember much of the detail to be able to tell you about it anyways. 

TAILCONE COMPLETE!! (in just a hair under 90 hours of work...)

1091- Tailcone- p.10-22 step 1-3 & p.10-23 step 1-2

Tailcone- 4 hrs 48 mins (Tailcone 87:33, Empennage 263:05, Total 284:01)

Rivet count: 230 (Total 5,321)

This post is actually three days worth of work done a few weeks ago. I'm finally complete with pilot training!!!!!! so I'm catching up on administrative things such as updating this blog!!

In total, the top skin was attached and riveted to the stiffeners, longerons, and frames/bulkheads. That really sums it up! Some of the hardware was attached where the plans called for it. I noticed that I forgot to prime two pieces a few weeks back, so I am going to work ahead to chapter 13 of the wing spars and prime the two pieces along with those from the next chapter before jumping back and finishing up the tailcone with about an hour more of work. -M

This image is here for a question asked on vansairforce.com. Please ignore.

1090- Tailcone- p.10-21 step 1-5

Tailcone- 3 hrs 56 mins (Tailcone 82:45, Empennage 258:17, Total 279:13)
Rivet count: 203 (Total 5,091)

Famous last words indeed! Barely did anything this weekend since we spent Saturday in Huntsville, AL checking out space vehicles and rockets! We've actually got 3 nights worth of work here (Fri-Sun-Mon), even though last night barely counted with less than 30 minutes of work. We continue with assembly by riveting the nutplates to the bellcrank rib angles and then the angles to the bellcrank ribs. Then the ribs get cleco'd and riveted to the bottom skin and 1007 frame. 
We continue by riveting part of the longerons to the aft part of the side skins where they don't match with a skin. The aft deck gets cleco'd to the longerons as well as to the bulkheads and bracket/spacers. All of this is of course much easier said than done, particularly when some of the rivets have to be drilled out and re-done. We finished by riveting the 1009 frame (small piece) to the aft deck. We managed to place our 5,000th rivet today!!!
We'll continue tomorrow with the doubler. Lots of different sized rivets which means lots of adjustments and time consumption. However, once that is complete, we attach the aft top skin in place and start to rivet that! Then just a few more pieces in the forward part of the tailcone, and the tailcone is complete. -M