Project: Voltar-S21   -  
            Listing for Category : tail feathers
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Builder Name:Vern Little   -  
Project:   Rans - S-21 Outbound   -   VIEW REPORTS
Total Hours:2310.8
Start/Last Date:Mar 06, 2018 - No Finish Date
 
Friendly URL: https://eaabuilderslog.org?s=Voltar-S21

Home or Last Project Picture

Nov 16, 2023     Wire Grooming - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Bundled trim wires and secured in aft fuselage. Connected wingtip strobe light. Routed right wing fuel line stub.
 
Nov 04, 2023     Tail Cone - (3.7 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Attached taicone nutplates and backing strips. Used NAS1097 flush rivets and lightly countersunk plastic before squeezing.

Re-rigged control stick to be further aft, then torqued ball end bearing and jam nuts.

Closed up tail with fairings and cover plates and tail cone attached. Holding off on riveting VS fairing until I am ready to paint all the fairings.

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Nov 03, 2023     Tail Cone - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Trimmed tailcone closeout to fit and provide clearance to elevator. Enlarged slot due to interference with elevator horn. This will also make it easier to lube and inspect.

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Nov 02, 2023     Elevator Rigging - (3.0 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Rigged elevator and drilled elevator stops for proper deflections. Need to check stick travel ergonomics when seated.
 
Nov 01, 2023     Tail Rigging - (4.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Connected trim servo wires using a 5-pin Microfit 3.0 connector, and wrapped in silicone fusion tape. Tested pitch trim system and trim switches on control stick and panel— reversed motor control wires. Left service loop in place (need to secure) to allow for future maintenance.

Connected trim tab and adjusted for specified deflections. Secured incidence adjustment bolts with blue loctite. Attached elevator pushrod…. I used washers rather than the spacers called out in (one version of the) plans. Another version has a spacer bushing clip for this function. I think the spacer clip was designed to reduce construction time for the LSA and is a good idea. I had no problem using the washers, though.

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Oct 31, 2023     Elevator Attachment - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Attached Elevator and Trim Tab with AN3-11 bolts and castellated nuts. Still need cotter pins. Working on trim servo wiring.

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Oct 30, 2023     HS Fairing - (4.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Drilled out interfering rivets and dimpled skin/spar with pop-rivet dimpler. Re-riveted with flush rivets. Attached nutplates to left side, wet riveted. Attached both side fairings with #6 screws. Trimmed tail cone closeout fairing and checked fit.

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Oct 28, 2023     HS Fairing - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Added nutplates to right side of HS. One of the domed rivets on each side needs to be changed out to be flush. This is not shown on the Rev. - A drawing of the HS Skins that I received. A later version (still Rev. - A) shows the additional flush rivets. WTF!! Two different versions with the same revision number? Rans needs a serious injection of ISO-9000 quality control. Of course, the same can be said of Vans Aircraft these days….

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Oct 27, 2023     HS Fairing - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Trued up the airplane. Both wings have 1.0 degrees dihedral. Set HS to 0/0 with respect to wings and drilled aft bolt to lock it in. Roughed in HS fairing. Installed tennis ball head protectors after several bloody encounters.

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Oct 26, 2023     Rudder Rigging - (3.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed rudder rigging. Attached rudder cables to rudder horn and torqued bolts. Marked all bolts with laquer. It took 2.5 hours to attach the cable to the rudder horn due to limited access. Rebent my 3/8 wrench and bend a magnetic pickup tool to help. A lot of swearing entailed. Would it kill Rans to simplify access?

Rudder deflection approximately +/- 29 degrees.
 
Oct 25, 2023     Tail Attachment - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Final torqued all tail attachment bolts and attached rudder horn. Wired connector to tailBeaconX and tested it…OK.

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Oct 24, 2023     VS Attachment - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Torqued the aft bolts on the VS attachment. Used all the tricks to get a wrench on the nuts through the rudder yoke cutout. Used a bag of lead shot and vice grips to hold various socket wrenchs and extensions in place.

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Oct 23, 2023     VS Bolts - (1.6 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Worked on installing washers and nuts for VS attachment. Torqued front attach bolts, but need help with aft bolts due to limited access. Fabricated long-arm socket for easier access through rudder cutout.

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Oct 23, 2023     Vertical Attachment - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Attached Rudder to VS with AN-3 bolts and castellated nuts. Needed to ream the hinge bushings to 3/16” to get bolts to fit. See photo for my extension reamer setup. Used parts from an old hand-crank style deburring tool, a miniature threaded jacob's chuck from my angle-drill kit, and the reamer.

Tacked rubber VS fairing in place. It requires notching in a few locations. Needs to be pushed on firmly to ease installation of the VS. Only a few spots needs to be tack glued— once the VS is mounted, it clamps it in place.

Attached VS-Rudder assembly to aft fuselage, and pinned with required bolts. Also include the rudder stop. Pulled tailBeaconX wires through the snap bushings I had preinstalled in the VS. Working inside the tailcone with limited access is quite difficult!

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Oct 20, 2023     Pull Handle, Wiring, Edging - (2.7 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Finished pull handle installation, ran tailBeaconX wiring harness out of the fuselage, and attached VS moulding.

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Oct 19, 2023     Pull Handle - (3.2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Cut and trimmed the pull handle tubes to length and disc sanded to shape. Bonded with JB Weld. Cleaned and organized shop. No pics.
 
Oct 18, 2023     VS Pull Handle - (1.7 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Attached pull handle reinforcements to the VS. Primed faying surfaces and wet riveted in place.

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Oct 13, 2023     HS Attach - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Primered aft deck and wet riveted it in place. Attached HS and torqued bolts. Required 5/32” shim for aft HS spar to station 11 fitup. Access to the area forward of the station 10 bulkhead requires small hands or clever use of tools. I used a magnetic pick-up tool to mount the AN970 washers and a hemostat to grip the shear nuts until the threads engaged.

Rans has made this area difficult to access and inspect. That's also true on the Vans RVs.

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Jun 09, 2021     Closed VS, Rudder and one Aileron - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Closed VS, Rudder and one Aileron that were left open for MD-RA inspection.

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Jun 08, 2021     TailBeaconX mount - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Installed Aerosport Products 3D printed tailBeaconX mount to VS fairing. Used Permatex 84115 2-part plastic welder epoxy. Worked well.

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Jun 07, 2021     Seat Brace & VS Fairing - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Fit up seat pan tubes provided by Rans and fit VS fairing.
Enlarged bolt access pocket on top of rudder. This simplifies bolt insertion, or the temporary pins I use for alignment, which are just hex keys.

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May 01, 2021     Finished HS & Elevator - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Riveted HS tip fairings in place. Cleaned up and stored the parts until paint or final assembly.

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Apr 29, 2021     Panel layout - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Finalized panel layout. Actually spent hundreds of hours in design so far.

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Apr 27, 2021     Elevator Balancing - (2.0 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Tweaked elevator counterweight by drilling out material. Fit up HS end caps and glued backing washers into place, ready for riveting.
 
Apr 26, 2021     Checking Elevator balance - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Checked elevator balance by pinning it to the HS. Overbalanced by 200 g, located at CG of elevator (estimated paint weight).
 
Apr 24, 2021     HS Riveted - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Finished wet riveting HS after inspection. I plan to strap it to the bench, then attach the elevator for balancing.

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Apr 22, 2021     Elevator cleanup - (.7 hour) Category: Tail Feathers
Cleaned up from casting lead weights.
 
Apr 21, 2021     Balancing Elevator - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Mixed up a slurry of lead shot, microballoons and epoxy resin. Filled balance cavities about half full, nose heavy.

Will fine tune balance later, then cap off the cavity with foam and a cover plate.

Also, replaced some rivets on the fuselage that were not properly set.

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Apr 20, 2021     Trim servo mount. - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Mounted trim tab servo and fairing. Wet riveted elevator end ribs.

Used a 5 pin Molex connect on trim motor wires, plus spiral wrap for protection.

Fairing was trimmed with about an 0.032 flange around perimeter to help stiffness.

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Apr 20, 2021     Elevator riveting - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Riveting elevator skins after inspection. Made hinge keepers for trim tab.

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Oct 17, 2020     Completed elevator riveting - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Completed elevator riveting up to inspection stage.

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Oct 16, 2020     Elevator riveting - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
More elevator riveting and clecoing tip ribs and tip skins in place. Squeezed trail edge of tip skins to better fit elevator trailing edge and improve hole alignments.

Once again, the factory parts are missing a row of holes on the inner edge of the tip skins. I managed to carefully mark their position, remove them, and drill them on the bench.

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Oct 12, 2020     Riveting Elevator - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Riveting top skin of elevator frame and match drilling aft skin. The match drilling of the aft skin was necessary because the supplied parts were not drilled by the factory (bad parts). Initially drilled #40 in the center of the forward skin #30 holes , then carefully to #30, through the existing spar holes.
 
Oct 11, 2020     Attaching trim tab - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Carefully attached trim tab to elevator. Not happy with the edge distance for some rivets.

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Oct 09, 2020     Trim Tab attachment Category: Tail Feathers
Setting up elevator and trial fitting trim tab. Decyphering best way to align and attach hinges.
 
Oct 08, 2020     Building Trim Tab - (4.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Assembled and riveted elevator trim tab
 
Oct 07, 2020     Elevator construction - (3 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed elevator frame riveting. Discovered that the leading edge of the aft skins were not factory drilled. Contacted factory, but I will likely try to match drill using forward skins as a template and start with an undersized drill.

Also discovered that I had reversed the top aft skins when priming and rolling leading edges. Using one skin as a template, I drilled the other one to locate the holes for the trim motor supports. The template skin will have the holes plugged by rivets.
 
Oct 06, 2020     Riveted elevator framr - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Wet Riveted elevator frame. Drilled trim motor mount to #19. Before riveting hinge brackets, inserted AN3 bolts to ensure alignment.
 
Oct 02, 2020     Elevator prep - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Rolled leading edges of elevator skins using 1.25” pvc conduit. Also received WAT wingtip nav/strobes that I won in a photo contest on VAF.

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Sep 29, 2020     HS riveting for inspection - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed HS riveting to inspection stage. Dimpled inspection rings and skins for solid rivets & riveted rings in place.
 
Sep 28, 2020     HS riveting - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Completed wet riveting of HS bottom skin.

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Sep 24, 2020     Riveting HS skins - (2.3 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Clecoed HS together and started riveting skins in place.
 
Sep 23, 2020     HS Match Drilling - (3 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed match drilling of HS skin and spars. Dimpled skins and ribs near root cutout. Deburred frame.
 
Sep 23, 2020     HS Match Drilling - (3 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed match drilling of HS skin and spars. Dimpled skins and ribs near root cutout. Deburred frame.
 
Sep 23, 2020     HS Match Drilling - (3 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed match drilling of HS skin and spars. Dimpled skins and ribs near root cutout. Deburred frame.
 
Sep 22, 2020     Match drilling HS skin - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Match drilling HS skin to forward and aft spars. Ran out of clecos, so ordering more from ACS.
 
Sep 22, 2020     Match drilling HS skin - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Match drilling HS skin to forward and aft spars. Ran out of clecos, so ordering more from ACS.
 
Sep 22, 2020     Match drilling HS skin - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Match drilling HS skin to forward and aft spars. Ran out of clecos, so ordering more from ACS.
 
Sep 21, 2020     Completed HS frame riveting - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Complete HD frame riveting. Used manual riveter and bent nose ribs slightly to set rivets. Plans recommend riveting from the main rib side, but this complicates rivet removal if ever required.
 
Sep 20, 2020     HS riveting - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Wet riveting HS.
 
Sep 19, 2020     Assembling HS - (2.2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Assembled HS frame. Instructions don't describe position of two interior nose ribs. Figured it out and match drilled centre holes in spar. Match drilled for interior hinges. Reamed hinge angles and press fit bronze bushings. Used AN3 bolts through bushings to ensure alignment during riveting. Later, after riveting, I used a 0.1875 reamer through the bushings to improve bolt fit.

Discovered that the instructions have been updated again (without revision numbering!) and they mention drilling out the bushings to prevent binding.

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Sep 17, 2020     Prepping HS RIBS - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Fluting and straightening HS ribs.

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Sep 16, 2020     Completed Rudder riveting - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Left bottom rib unriveted for inspection.
 
Sep 15, 2020     Rudder Riveting - (0.7 hour) Category: Tail Feathers
Completed most of rudder riveting, up to the inspection phase. left bottom rib out for inspection. Rudder has a slight hook to it at the top. Hope that this will help with yaw trim!
 
Sep 14, 2020     Rudder assembly - (3.2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Wet riveted rudder frame and one skin.
 
Aug 06, 2020     Completed VS assembly - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Completed VS match drilling and wet riveting, with the exception of allowing one skin to be peeled up for inspection. Fairing will be completed later.

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Aug 05, 2020     Riveting VS Skin - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Clecoed side skins in place. Edge formed leading edge skin and clecoed in place. Carefully aligned assembly on wood blocks, clamps and weights. March drilled skins and forward spar. Wet riveted right side skins in place.

Received replacement undrilled rudder ribs from Rans. Deburred and stored until ready to prime.

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Aug 04, 2020     Rivet VS Frame - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers
Wet riveted VS frame using Super-K primer. Located missing VS ribs. Rans has changed rib design and plans show old design, so it was difficult to ID them. After bundling up parts into subkits, the remaining parts were easier to ID.

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Aug 03, 2020     Assembling VS frame - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Missing two ribs. Digging through my stack of parts and checking inventory sheet.
 
Aug 03, 2020     Assembling VS frame - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Missing two ribs. Digging through my stack of parts and checking inventory sheet.
 
Jul 21, 2020     Bending TE of Rudder - (.6 hour) Category: Tail Feathers
Used wooden bending brake to squeeze trailing edge of rudder.
 
Jul 20, 2020     Assembling Rudder - (3 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Discovered that Rans shipped me the older version of the rudder ribs. Warranty replacements ordered.
 
Jun 28, 2020     Priming Trim Tab Skins - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
Brused Super-K onto inside of trim tab skins. Too narrow of a gap for spraying.
 
Jun 03, 2020     Deburred HS and Elevator parts. - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 
Jun 02, 2020     Deburred HS and Elevator parts. - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 
Jun 01, 2020     Deburred HS and Elevator parts. - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 
May 31, 2020     Deburred HS and Elevator parts. - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 
May 29, 2020     Deburred HS and Elevator parts, removed labels and cleaned residue. - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 
May 28, 2020     Deburred VS parts, removed labels and removed residue. - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 
May 27, 2020     Deburred rudder parts and formed leading edge of rudders. - (2 hours) Category: Tail Feathers
 


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