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