Rudder, Continued

As I said  I was going to do earlier, I pulled the rudder counterbalance (CB) skin off and tried to tweak a few things, mainly the ribs, to get the holes to line up a little better than they were. I finally succeeded with that.

Working with the CB Skin Ribs to Get a Better Fit

So, once I had things back together, I match drilled the skin to the rib holes with a #40. Next up was to cleco the rudder skins to the ribs and spar assembly. Also, make sure you file the area of the split of the rudder skin to fit around the rudder horn. This isn't called out anywhere but just assumed. I made sure to have at least a 1/32"-1/16" gap on either side.

Rudder Skins Attached, Ready for #40 Drilling

Fitting the Skin to Fit Around the Rudder Horn

After that, I inserted the AEX R-916 rudder trailing edge between the skins and cleco'd in place then drilled all the holes in the rudder to size. Make sure you have your AEX piece in place the correct way. I've seen where builders have put it in place with the "V" facing AFT, only to realize it's in backward after drilling. Next, I marked, cut and trimmed the R-710 rudder brace. You have to cut off a bit on both sides of the piece for it to fit in the bottom spar.

Rudder Brace - Cut, Cleaned and Ready To Go!

Once cut and cleaned, I inserted it between the R-405 PD rudder horn and the R-904 bottom spar. Cleco it in place and then first match drill the aft holes to #30 then move to the forward holes and match drill.

Rudder Horn In Place, Ready for Match Drilling

I then took a 36" piece of  .032 aluminum from the parts inventory and cut it into 2 pieces and fabricated the R-918 rudder bottom attachment strips per the plans and drawing. They have you clamp the pieces in place and measure on your own as to where it should be attaced. I made sure mainly to keep the aft hole in from the end of the pieces by 1/4" so you have enough edge spacing for your rivets to set correctly. I also made sure to not run the strip into the bend of the rib flange. That said, my measurement came to be 9/16" from the bottom of the skin to the bottom of the strip and 1/4" from the aft end of the strip to the aft edge of the last hole in the skin. Confused? It's pretty easy. I can clarify in an e-mail if you'd like. The third picture better illustrates the discussion.

Rudder Bottom Attachment Strips

Attachment Strips After Clamping. Drill As You
Go, Inserting Clecos Along the Way.

Rudder Attachment Strip Marked 1/4" from end

Once the strips are in place, I match drilled to a #40 then disassembled the whole kit and kaboodle. Deburr all the holes then dimple the skin, spar and ribs. I haven't done any dimpling as I'm still deburring and cleaning edges. Oh, the plans don't mention anywhere to match drill the reinforcement plates. While disassemblilng, I realized this and took care of that with a #30 before removing the clecos.

Spar Reinforcement Plates - Don't Forget to
Match Drill Before Disassembly

Rudder Disassembled - Ready for Deburr,
Edging Breaking, ScotchBrite and Cleaning

Lather, Rinse Repeat.....

 Sunday, July 22 - 4.6 hrs

HOBBS Meter - 76.3 hrs

Tonight I finished deburring. Wednesday, July 25 - .5 hrs

Thursday, July 26 - Tonight, I started dimpling and edge cleaning all parts. I haven't dimpled the rudder skins yet, except for the CB skin. I stopped when I got to the tip rib where I don't have the correct tools to dimple the last few holes. I've read where most builders get stuck here. I ordered a set of 3/32" dimple dies from Avery on a set of Vice Grips. That seems to be the way to go after quite a bit of research. You'll have to bend the flanges out of the way a bit to get to them cleanly then bend them back. Only slightly so as not to create fatigue in that area. Their inventory shows "Out Of Stock". In the meantime, I'll finish dimpling the skins and maybe move on to the next sub-assembly. I do have some rearranging in the garage to tackle so I can get my wing parts out of their crates and up on shelving units. In addition, I need to get ready to build the wing jigs which will mount from the floor to the ceiling and extend from near the rollup door back to a little longer than the length of the wings. That'll be a fun little project. That's it for now. Take Care and Thanks For Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 77.4 hrs.

Skeletons

Today I primed an riveted the rudder stiffeners to the left and right rudder skins.

Stiffeners Being Riveted to the Rudder Skins

I finished riveting all the stiffeners to the left skin and when I was picking up the skin to switch it with the right skin, I realized I had reversed the smallest stiffener! AARRGGHH! Dang it! I had to drill out 11 rivets from R-915H. Ok, I'm pretty good at drilling rivets out now. So, I drilled them out, turned the piece around and riveted again! It runed out well. All rivets went in very well with none needing repair. Cool! I love to back rivet. If only it were possible to do it this way on the whole plane. But alas, it is not. Moving on.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Next is building the rudder skeleton. Start by clecoing the R-902 rudder spar and R-904 bottom rib together then enlarging the ⅛" hole in the bottom rib to ⅜". I used my step drill bit for this and made quick work of that task. Next I fabricated the R-917 shim per the plan drawing. Note here: just cut the shim to size and do not drill the holes yet. You don't have enough dimensional information anyway.

R-917 Shim Cut to 1⅛" x 3½" Per the Drawing

Next I bolted (using a ⅜" hinge bolt) the R-405D rudder horn on the rudder spar and match drilled the four holes through the upper edge of the rudder horn to #30.

Horn Bolted to Spar Ready for Match Drilling

Next I cleco'd the rudder horn to the bottom rib to check the fit. The radius of the top of the horn needs to be trimmed down a bit to fit with the rib flange. A few passes on the ScotchBrite wheel took care of that. Fits like a glove.

Taking a Little Off the Top!

Trim Just Enough to Allow a Tight Fit

I then cleco'd the bottom rib and the rudder horn to the rudder spar. Now is when you slide that R-917 shim into place. It goes between the rudder spar and the horn then once in place, you match drill it to #30 and cleco as you go. Now, cleco the reinforcement plates, R-606PP, R-607PP and R-608PP to the rudder spar. Note that the 606 plate attaches to the forward side of the spar while the 607 and 608 plates attach to the aft side.

R-606PP On the Forward Side of the Spar

R-607PP On the Aft Side of the Rudder Spar

R-608PP On the Aft Side of the Rudder Plate

Now comes fluting of the rudder tip rib and the counterbalance rib. They have you get this just right. All flanges need to be straight, both along the hole lines as well as being square to the rib web. Do this with your hand seemer if necessary. After that's done, cleco the counterbalance rib and the tip rib to the rudder spar. Match drill those holes to #30. Next, cleco the counterbalance skin to this whole assembly. It's a little tough here. The holes seem not to line up as well as I'd like. I will remove then check the straightness of the ribs again.

Tip & CB Ribs Cleco'd to the Rudder Spar
Without the CB Skin Attached

I'll hold off match drilling #40 holes to make sure I have all ribs straight and in better alignment. Stopping here for the evening. Take Care and Thanks For Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 71.7 hrs

Wings, Rudder & Birthday!

I spent the entire day Saturday (7/14) inventorying the wing kit. I didn't pay attention to time as it doesn't get added to the build time. I've read where some builders are a little concerned or intimidated by the amount of time spent doing inventory on the wing kit. Don't be. There are a huge amount of parts on this plane and you need to make sure that you have all the parts there. You don't just want to assume they are, then to realize you're short something later when it's crucial. Again, you have 30 days to check and verify and if parts are missing, Van's will gladly get them to you. As it turned out, I have 3 ribs back ordered which will be shipped later. I think as I build, I won't know they're missing so I can build on without waiting on parts. I also found that I'm short a few things in the hardware count. I know Van's is good about giving you extras on the larger count items but that doesn't make up for the shorts that occasionally happen. I still need to call them to report the shortages and get them shipped. It kind of slipped my mind until now. I'll give them a call tomorrow (7/20). There is a huge amount of paper when unwrapping all the parts. I had a mountain of paper going. When all was said and done, I put most of the parts back in their crates until I'm ready to start building. I don't have a lot or storage space for them right now. I still need to purge some things in the garage to create more storage space. I put all the hardware away in a storage organizer until they're called on. I would estimate that I spent around 8 hours on the inventory, but I took my time, making sure I had everything and I counted every last nut, bolt and washer. No, I did NOT count the rivets. Don't be silly!

First Crate Opened - Sea of Paper

Instructions & 6 Pages of Inventory!

Do As They Say - You'll Kick Yourself If You Don't

Monday, July 16 - Happy Birthday! Yep, today was my birthday. Just another day on the calendar, really. I went to work like normal and later had a nice dinner with wifey (I had the surf 'n' turf) at Claim Jumper. I love that place. It was a nice evening.

I didn't really do much tonight. Basically I spent time just figuring out the correct way to mark the rudder stiffeners so as not to set myself up for needing to order additional parts. I marked all my measurements on the blue film.

All Parts Marked, Ready for Trimming

After all the marking, I proceeded to do some trimming and came to the realization that I should have just stripped all the film off the parts THEN mark them. The reason for this is that when it comes to putting them on a bench sander to get them sanded to the marks you made, the blue film tends to either melt a bit, distorting the lines you made, or the film lifts from the metal and you can't really see where the marks are in conjunction with the metal. Tonight I cut half of them, cleaned and trimmed them. Now I'll pull the film on those and remark the parts R-915A-H right, then I'll take the left set of R-915A-H and remove the film then remark to make things easier.

HOBBS Meter - 60.8 hrs

Tuesday, July 17 - I finished marking, cutting, trimming, cleaning and breaking the edges for all the R-915A-H left and right stiffeners and rounding all the corners.

Ready for Dimpling & Priming

I didn't remove the film as I previously said I'd do for the trimming. Instead, I muddled through with the film on and things turned out well. I just didn't want to remove film and remark the remaining stiffeners. All parts look very good. After all the parts were sanded to the correct shapes, I then removed the blue film to prepare for clecoing and match drilling. I started clecoing them all to a board on the left skin. I got R-915A-D partly drilled and cleco'd.

R-915A-D Left Clecoed Ready for Match Drilling

You are to use a board or table that you don't mind drilling into (wood) then cleco the parts to the wood. The cleco will hold in the wood perfectly. This will keep the piece from elevating up from the tabel and allow you to match drill everthing cleanly. I stopped here for the evening for noise abatement. I'll pick up tomorrow to complete this task.

HOBBS Meter - 62.6 hrs

Wednesday, July 18 - I match drilled all the stiffeners to the skins, took the blue film from the outside of the left skin around the rivet holes on the outboard side using a soldering iron and a yard stick. I deburred all the holes in the stiffeners as well as the skin.

Deburring Stiffeners and Rudder Skin

I'm stopping here and will remove the film and debur the right skin tomorrow.

HOBBS Meter - 64.6 hrs

Thursday, July 19 - I finished match drilling all the stiffeners to the skins, removed the rivet hole film from the right skin and used a ScotchBrite pad to scuff all parts where priming will be applied.

Film Removal - Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy!

All Rudder Skins & Stiffeners Ready for Priming

Not much tonight but some tedius work taking a bit of time. I'll start priming tomorrow then riveting the parts after they have dried. I need to go by Aircraft Spruce to get some ProSeal or similar for applying to the stiffeners where they will come in very close proximity with one another as the rudder skins are brought together. I've not read this in the plans yet but have seen it on other builder sites and want to be prepared. There is a location about 90 minutes from me. I could order the stuff but I need it pretty soon and not sure if there are HazMat charges on that stuff. It'll be a nice drive anyway. Take Care and Thanks For Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 66.8 hrs

VS Complete!

Happy Birthday goes out to my wife who turned the Big Five Zero today! 50! It'll be my turn next year.

Today I finished riveting the VS ribs to the forward spar. I had stopped yesterday because I needed to drill out a couple rivets that I missed the head on with the rivet gun. I accomplished that with no issues. After completing all the riveting of the ribs, I took the forward spar assembly and cleco'd it to the VS skin. Next was riveting the skin to the VS-702 forward spar from the center to the tip then from the center to the root then back from the center along the VS-707 rib. Next, I cleco'd the rear spar to the skin then riveted it to the skin then riveted it along with the end ribs. When all is done, 3 blind rivets need to be pulled for the VS-707 rear spar attachement

Vertical Stabilizer - Complete!

Vertical Stab Along with Horizontal Stab

Tomorrow, before I start the rudder (which will be fun, I think), I will inventory the wing delivery. That ought to take most of the day. Take Care and Thanks For Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 59.3 hrs

Fanny Has Wings!

Tuesday, I ScotchBrited all of the components for the vertical stabilizer (VS). After that, I cleaned all the parts with acetone then primed everything. I then realized that I forgot to dimple the necessary parts BEFORE priming. It's ok though, the primer stuck very well. I'll get into a routine eventually. So far, I really am impressed with the SEM product. After the primer was dry, I set a few rivets into the VS-803PP and VS-808PP parts. I cleco'd on the VS-410PP, -411PP and -412PP and called it a night.

One Side of the Inside of VS Skin Scuffed

Ribs & Spars & Doubler, Scuffed,
Cleaned & Ready for Primer

HOBBS Meter - 52.7 hrs

Wednesday saw me arrive home at about 10am in anxious anticipation of the arrival of my wings! Fanny (the empannage) now has wings! While I was waiting, I dimpled the parts I had forgotten to dimple before priming. The delivery came and the driver backed into my driveway and helped me unload the two crates and move them into the garage. The heavier of the two (204lbs) was 15' in length so it takes up a little of the walking area in the back of my garage. No worries. Once I get the two crates inventoried, I'll be able to take the wing spar and relocated it for storage and clear up some needed work space. I went back to work after the extended lunch and in the evening, finished the rest of the dimpling with the pneumatic squeezer as they were not reachable with the DRDT-2. After all parts were dimpled and double-checked for any forgotten holes, it was on to clecoing and riveting. After I had set a few, I realized that a few of the flush rivets at the bottom of the rear spar had not been cleanly set, leaving a few sitting proud. I finished setting the rest of the flush rivets and called it a night after 2 hours for the day and decided to drill (too late now, noise abatement) about 5 out on Thursday.

W I N G S !!! !!! WAHOOOOO!!

Finishing the Dimpling I Missed Earlier

HOBBS Meter - 54.7 hrs

Today (Thursday, July 12) I drilled the few rivets that I wasn't pleased with and reset them with no further issues. Next I was on to finish riveting the rear spar of the VS. All went well with about 2 or 3 drill-outs. They are becoming fewer and less often as time goes on! :) I finished the rear spar and moved on to the forward spar and by clecoing the ribs on and riviteng as I went. Here, you are to rivet VS-704, -705, -706 and -707 to the forward spar.

Rear Spar Completed Awaiting Installation

As I'm working in the 88° heat in the garage (it's been over 100° the last few days here in the high desert of So. Cal.), I started getting bit by what appear to be these little flying ants. I got stung a couple times as well as bitten. I called it a night here as I was going nuts with the little irritants! Boy, I kept THAT clean! I'll pick up here Saturday. Tomorrow, Friday the 13th is my wife's birthday so I'm taking her out for the day to celebrate. I may get back into the garage in the evening, depending on the little dive-bomber's activity that I experienced. Either way, finishing the assembly of the VS should go relatively quickly. I need to get to inventorying the wings! You only have 30 days to inspect and inventory for correctness, otherwise it's on you for any missing parts of incorrect issues. That's it for now. I just want to get this posted tonight. I'll upload pictures in a couple days so you have reference for some of the dialog. Take Care and Thanks for Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 56.3 hrs

Vertical Stabilizer Started!

I started assembling the veritcal stabilizer (VS) today. I got everything fastened together. I started with clecoing the VS-808 spar doubler to the VS-803 rear spar then added on the VS-410PP, -411PP and -412 PP hinge brackets. I then drilled the missing holes in the upper VS-410PP bracket per the plans. I prepared the ribs, VS-704, -705, -706 & -707 by fluting, edge finishing and straightening them out. Next I cleco'd the ribs to the front and rear spars then match-drilled the rear spar doubler to a #30 with the rear spar. After that, I match-drilled all rib to spar attach holes. Next came clecoing on the skin to the VS skeleton assembly, then match-drilling all skin holes except where the fiberglass caps go. I disassembled, deburred and edge cleaned. Next is to clean, scuff, clean, prime then reassemble.

I'm stoping at this point just before priming. I want to go and research lighting on the VS/rudder to see how I need to run cabling through the assembly. There is a light location on a rudder caps so I want to make sure when I run the cabling, I have everything drilled ahead of time, before priming and assembling. I don't have any pictures tonight. This is a pretty straightforward assembly. I will probably snap a few after priming and while assembling. I'll let you know how it goes and what I decided later about lighting. No VS-mounted cameras here like some folks are adding. I'll do a dash or wing cam If I really want video.

That's it for now my peeps. Take Care and Thanks for Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 51.1 hrs

Birthday Wishes & First Completion

Happy Belated, 236th Birthday United States! It's been a pretty incredible week with days at work, days off, working on my mistress, etc. I had to work Monday and Tuesday, off Wednesday for our nation's birthday celebration, back to work Thursday and off Friday.

My company has a 9/80 work week. It's confusing as heck at first but pretty nice, and you get used to us pretty quickly. The only nicer work week is the 4/10s. We basically have every other Friday off. We work a full week of 9 hour days, but on the first Friday, the first 4 hours complete the week. The second 4 (only an 8 hour day on working Fridays) are then put towards the next week. That week (the second one) I work Mon-Thurs 9 hour days then off the second Friday. The 4 hours that was carried over from the previous Friday, counts in the second week, completing the 40! Anyway, week was a weird work week, trying to get used to when I needed to go in and when I didn't.

Ok, back to work. Monday saw a little rest from the project and I got back to the plane Tuesday, July 3. This looked like a pretty simple evening. all I had to do was rivet HS-710 and HS-714 reinforcement angles to HS-702, the forward spar. Well, this little chore seemed easier said than done. I struggled a bit on and off with some of the riveting. Everything seemed to be going along hunky dory. I felt good about all the rivets I bucked. Then I turned the spar on its back and BAM!! What the hell are those ugly things?

Ever Put A Smile On A Rivet? I Did!
Frowns In This Case

Yep, I wasn't paying attention to the setting of my rivet gun's rivet set on the rivets here and I think that when I did the initial buck, I put the gun down and checked the shop head with the guage tool and felt it (they) needed a little more and when I picked up the gun, it felt like I had the tool on the head. WRONG! Time to drill out some rivets. Here's the process. Be sure to LOOK and make sure the rivet gun is ON and read to go. Hope this helps other builders:

1) Secure Your Work Piece

2) Mark Your Rivet with a Marker
Then Use a Center Punch

3) Drill the Rivet on Center to the Bottom of
the Rivet Head

4) Insert a Punch Sized to the Hole
#30 In This Case

5) Snap the Head of the Rivet Off
This Exposes the Hole & the Rest of the Rivet

6) Use a Light Hammer to Punch out the Rivet

If Done Right, You'll Have a Clean Hole to Re-Rivet

Interestingly enough, I boogered the same locations, opposite of each other. I managed to buck the replacements without incident.

The next SIMPLE part of this little task was to rivet the nose and main HS-404 and HS-405 ribs. Well, hold on. Not so fast! I am starting to liken this riveting thing to my golf game. I love to play golf. I do not profess to be the greatest player. I'm the kind of golfer who knows how to play the game well enough to love to hate the game. I've never taken a lesson, save a tip or two on the practice range with the course pro walking up and down helping golfers here and there. Like drugs, the first one is free, then you're hooked to pay for the rest. Bad analogy, but it fits. That said, I play out of hazards (sand traps, the rough, out of the trees, out of the woods, etc.) quite often. Well, I've become pretty adept at getting out of hazards over the years. Riveting is, for me, a very similar process right now. Though I've had lessons in riveting, I'm no professional. I get by, for now. I check my shop heads often for height and shape to make sure they're straight and the right height. And yes, occasionally I have to "get out of a hazard" and drill one out. Like my hazard game, I'm becoming very adept at drilling out a rivet without damage to the hole, i.e., enlarging, elongating, etc. I know that in time, I'll become more adept at riveting and hopefully, forgo the need for drilling out rivets regularly. So, with that, it took me 2 hours to rivet the two reinforcement angles and the 4 ribs to the forward spar. I drilled several (I lost count) rivets out and re-riveted the same ribs a few times. Part were because I didn't set them very well to begin with and part were because I didn't follow the plans and directions carefully. At one point, I installed the HS-404 ribs without the HS-405 attached with them. They are supposed to be riveted TOGETHER! The thing that confused me was the -404 ribs only use 2 rivets for attachemnt and the -405 ribs use 4. Even with that, I was thinking in a line of 4 rivets, the front rib used the inner two rivet holes and the aft, -405 rib used the outer two. WRONG! Well, I finally got them set to satisfaction, nice and clean!

HOBBS Meter - 37.3 hrs

Wednesday, July 4, American Independence Day! - Today, I started finishing up the horizontal spar (HS) by assembling the forward spar assembly to the HS-601PP skins. This is COOL! It's finally starting to look like part of an airplane. First, I riveted the HS-707 nose rib to the top of the left skin. This is easier said than done. After dimpling the skins and the ribs, the Cleko (cleco) fasteners don't stay in the holes very well. Typically, you can get by with fastening every other hole, but in this case, I need a cleco in every hole. In addition, I needed to be a little creative with that little chore. I used a little duct tape to hold the aft part of the skin trailing edges together, along with another trick. This seemed to work pretty well. I was able to get the rib tight against the upper skin for riveting. Only one drill-out here.

A Little Trick to Get the Skin Tight
Against the HS-707 Nose Rib. No Duct Tape Here

Next, I cleco'd the end, HS-706 rib to the skin then HS-708 temporarily to the skin and the aft flange of that -708 nose rib. This helps hold that rib in place for the riveting the bottom part of the rib to the skin.

HS-707 Nose Rib Riveted to Top of Skin
Getting Ready to Rivet Bottom

After that, remove the -708 rib. Cleco the -706 end rib and -707 nose rib to the skin then cleco -708 back on, then blind rivet. You can't get to the front of this area to hold a bucking bar so you have to put 3 blind rivets in. No bad jokes here about 3 blind mice, I'm punchy enough at this point! :o)  Next, I riveted that -706 end rib to the -702 forward spar. I then riveted the skin to the rest of the ribs. Now, REPEAT all that you just did for the right side skin. Well, it's 9:00 pm and time to watch fireworks so I'll finish the bottom of the right skin riveting to the ribs and spar. I'll pick up here tomorrow.

Ready to Finish Bottom Riveting

HOBBS Meter - 42.9

Thursday, July 5 - I finished the right side bottom of the skin to the ribs and spar. Next, I attached the rear spar assembly to the HS-404, -405, -706 and -601PP skin. There are blind rivets to set on the HS-708 rear spar but you'll do this last, per the directions. I had some more dirll-outs but not many. I had to drill a rivet out that created a figure 8 hole. So, I cut a couple pieces of scrap aluminum and put them on on either side of the damaged spar hole, drilled the new pieces and shaped them to make sure they'd fit the area comortably. I then bucked a new rivet here with the next sized rivet to compensate for the newly added, reinforcement aluminum. Worked like a charm.

Figure 8 Hole Before the fix

The Back Side with Reinforcement

I riveted the skin to the end ribs, HS-706, and inboard ribs, HS-404 and -405. Be careful here, there are 10 rivets that you DO NOT SET. You'll set these later for the faring that will go on the TOP side of the HS. Read the plans and you'll see them. I finished by riveting the skin to the rear spar assembly then pulling the blind rivets (same as a pop rivet) on the HS-708 rib. With that, "Congratulations! You've finished the first major sub-assembly on your new airpane".

Horizontal Stab Complete!

After I turned the HS over, I found an empty rivet hole right smack dab in the middle of the left, bottom skin! AARRGGHHHH! I'll either put a pop rivet (not very likely) there or try to be creative and maybe tape a bucking bar to the end of half a yard stick and slide that in a lightening hole (makes the piece lighter, not like a bolt of lightening, silly) then try to buck it that way. We'll see. Remember the reference of "playing out of hazards" earlier? Well, I think this will be a new trick I can add to my bag of tricks, if I can pull it off. I'll let you know how that goes. Until then, Take Care and Thanks for Reading!

HOBBS Meter - 46.5