Dec 18, 2023     Vinyl Wrap - (100 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

This was a big job, but compared to paint it was a lot faster. In hindsight, I would have preferred to paint the cowl and fairings, and spinner, and only wrap the metal. Next plane ;)

  Jul 05, 2023     Engine first run - (4 hours)       Category: Engine

We had our first run of the engine. We tested the fuel system first, both the internal pressure, looking for leaks and then we jacked up the plane in a nose high attitude (17 degrees) and did a fuel flow test.

We ran 1 minute on each tank with only 3.5 gallons of fuel in each tank and got similar results of about 2.5 lbs per minute. This is about double what Lycoming demands from the fuel flow test.

Now the plane is finally done! We have just the inspection left and then we can do our first flight!

Here is a link to the video of our first engine test run. I did have a CHT probe and an EGT probe wired backwards (swapped the pins) which was (thankfully) and easy fix so all probes ended up testing perfect after the initial run.

https://youtu.be/kr_JsWNpEeU

  May 28, 2023     Canopy harness - (20 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

After finishing the avionics and testing all other connections I wires the canopy harness. I could not use Van's instructions exactly as the led strip I used was a little different and I wanted to make it span the entire bottom of the canopy rail. So instead of using their routing I decided to combine the canopy latch wires with the wires and then connected those all together at the molex.
I also could not use their mounting brackets that are in the canopy frame as they interfered with my G3X mounts. So I just used an Adele clamp to secure the wires together and then some RTV to give the connection wires a little bit of strength. These wires are all fairly easy to get to so should I have to replace them it would not be a big deal.
The canopy latch was a little bit of a pain. The hole was just large enough to get two wires though. I used some safety wire to “fish” them out and then it was fairly straight forward.
The only issue I had was that the switch was not fully engaging with the canopy latch pin. It was a fraction too short. So I built up the edge of the switch just a tad and now everything is working as intended.

  May 28, 2023     Wing Root Fuel Filter - (13 hours)       Category: Fuel System

Instead of having just one fuel filter at the intersection of the fuel vale to the fuel pump, I went ahead and purchased the wing root fuel filters that also come with a cut off valve which will allow me to shut off fuel without having to drain tanks should I need to replace a leaky connection.
The wing root filters will also help save me the hassle of working inside the tunnel where all my nice interior will be should I have trouble with my fuel system.
The installation required a little bit of trial and error to find the best spot for the Adele clamps which secure the hoses on both sides so that the system is not touching the ailerons or the bottom wing root fairing.
Alll in all Jt cost a bit more than I expected but it was an easy install and hopefully the upgrade will be worth it by saving my loads of time during annual inspection.

  May 25, 2023     Rigging and Wing Root Fairings - (180 hours)       Category: Controls

The wing root fairings were a little strange in that you need to countersink the forward holes on the upper wing root spar in order to accept the dimples of the upper wing root fairing. It's a little difficult to do with the wings in the plane for the most inboard hole. Would have been better to do this before mounting the wings. However, once I got my right angle drill out and carefully countersunk each hole everything came together perfectly.
There also was a small gap in between the fairing and the fuselage at the front but not really anything between the rest. I'm not sure how to address this but I'm dining many people with the same issue and they are using various solutions. Some sort of seal material would be nice but I can't seem to see an easy way to install any of the options out there. I'll postpone this for the moment.
This was only short lived as I still need to complete my rigging and also need to connect my fuel system. I have decided to go with the wing root fuel filters which will be a deviation from the plans and will also require me to remove the fuel filter from inside the tunnel of the plane. It is assumed this will save me time in the long run….let's hope so. These mods are not cheap!
The rigging was incredibly satisfying. Although I did not enjoy working through the access hole to remove and replace the bolts holing the bell tanks together, I did manage to get good at it with the right combination of universal head and extensions on my socket wrench. This allowed me to adjust every little detail until I was able to get both sides perfect in trail at the same time (with flaps fully retracted).
The “trail” position of the flaps is -3 degrees and so when you combine that with the ailerons you end up with a slight mismatch of the ailerons and the wing tip. This is normal although it appears wrong. There is no way you could have both the ailerons and the flaps line up with the wing tips so apparently this is just the way it has been designed. At any rate, mine lined up perfectly together, so hopefully it flies like a dream.

  May 20, 2023     Wings on and wired - (50 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

Quite a bit has happened since moving to the airport. Got the wings on, took about 3 hours. Surprisingly easy to do. Using dry ice to reduce the bolts diameters helped get them in and with every bolt it seemed to get a little easier.

Once I got the wings on I started to connect the rest of the wiring harnesses. Starting from the back and then to the front I made sure everything worked. The wing root had a lot of mismatched wires and so I was grateful that I labeled all the wires making it easier to piece together the puzzle of “what wire goes where”.

After several days of working 2 or 3 hours I powered Jt all up and checked all my connections. Everything worked perfectly except the flap motor is backwards, so I just need to reverse those pins.

  Mar 12, 2023     Wiring lights - (50 hours)       Category: Lighting

The biggest thing I need to log is that I used the same wire that I got from spruce for the rest of the kit to connect the wiring to the panel. The vans harness has colored wires which do not align. So I have to make sure and keep all the connections accurate by labeling the wires and their counterparts when they meet at the moles connector at the wing spar.

Vans: - Mine:
RED - White
YEL - Orange
GRN - Blue
BLK - Black

Now that I am done wiring the fuselage and everything to the wing root it is time to move to the airport so I can mount these wings!

  Mar 01, 2023     JD Air Latch - (13 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

I finally decided to add the JD Air canopy latch. I found out it was only $130 and a small amount of metal work (the parts you use are 100% compatible with the ones from before). This, combined with my decision to go with Classic Aero for my interior made the decision come to a head.

Start off by drilling out the BOTTOM BRACKET only. You can leave the top one in place. Then you align the template for cutting using the existing slit as a guid and trying to match the edges with the edges of the holes. The dimples from the previous holes on the corners are the only part that require a little finessing and in the end you will have a very tiny gap should you elect to remove the hole completely (which I did). I am talking only 1mm though so you won't notice it. Better to have the edge clean and straight.

After that you install the mount and match drill the bottom bracket. Rivet the bottom bracket to the skin and install the hardware. I was very please how easy this task was. Only 3 hours from start to finish.

  Jan 08, 2023     More Wiring - (280 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

One of the big decisions I have made is to install the Lemo jacks for the BoseA20 headsets. The advantage of using the 6-pin “Lemo” jack instead of the standard 2-plug mic-phone jacks is that you can get power for your noise cancellation without having to rely on batteries. This may cause additional strain on your system but should not be enough to deter the change. What will be a significant change will be swapping out the connection on both of headsets as it costs an additional $300 per headset.

In addition to this I have had to acquire a lot more miles connectors that came with my vans kits. Specifically I needed to look up the correct amperage for the flap motor which takes a lot of juice and you really don't want to lose that in flight (although not the end of the world I suppose). In addition I have several wire segments left to connect between the baggage area bulkhead and the panel as much of that does not connect all the way.

Lastly one of the things I need to research on now are the transducers. I am not sure what type of connections to make and I am thinking of just making spade connectors for the three wires.

  Jan 03, 2023     Panel Installed - (285 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

This post is long overdue. I spent so many hours on this panel and figuring everything out that you may want to watch this video I have made instead of reading all this. However, the key points are below:

1) Before I installed my panel I added a firewall blanket to help reduce the noise from the engine compartment. This was a difficult job but would be a lot more difficult after the instal so it had to be done now.

2) The panel I purchased from Aerotronics came with most of the wiring harness completed and the panel fully installed. I had to completely detach the pilot side of the panel in order to route the wire harnesses through the sub panel bulkheads and then reattach. The most tedious portion of this was disconnecting the rocker switches but when it was all done the panel fit like a glove.

3) I did not know where to instal the battery backup so I decided to use the span of the “glove box” behind the passenger side panel but the connection for this doesn't not have room without routing through the lightning hole where the canopy frame is so I actually reversed this and now the battery backup is installed aft of the sub panel bulkhead.

4) The transponder location was sorta difficult and for now I have elected to use the frame that holds the pitch servo. These parts are borrowed from the RV10 and hold the battery and thus give the name “battery angles” and so it seemed logical that this could house the transponder. The GTX45R states that the “transponder should be mounted so that the blue tooth Antenna is pointed towards the panel for optimum use” and this right now might be a problem. However, I am hoping that the proximity and fact that it's slightly off center and so not pointing at but still able to reach the panel shojld be good enough to transmit. Not sure how important the blue tooth capability is for this model but this might require me to located the transponder in another location when it comes time to test.

5) I ended up using only 3 of the 12 wires from the vans tail kit wiring harness (the only ones left to be used were for the nav/strobe). In the future I would advise to people not to use the vans wiring harnesses as they are not really built for the Garmin system.

6) For the center stack I had to swap the GTN650 Navigatioj unit with the audio panel because the depth of this unit was so long that it ran into them the bottom of the bulkhead. Even after switching it with the much shorter audio panel, I had to trim about 1 inch of material from the bulkhead but checked with Van's and they told me that was totally fine structurally so long as I did not cut the bottom part of the bulkhead.

Note: I also discovered a leak in one of my brake fittings and had to remove and reinstall with permatex. I had used something else recommended by a friend and now all my fittings have permatex #2 on them.

  Nov 08, 2022     Brakes finished - (100 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

I ended up having to place some temporary wheels on my landing gear while I was waiting for the brakes to arrive. So once they got here I had to lift my plane using a wing bold and the engine hoist to allow me to install the wheels and brakes.

I ordered some Mobil 28 oil to pack the bearings but before I did I thoroughly cleaned them out. Then I installed the wheels with the newly packed bearings and assembled the wheels onto the plane.

Ran down to the auto store to grab so high temperature thread sealant and then installed the AN fittings for the brake lines.

These are actually aluminum which was strange to me (I imagined them being plastic) but perhaps due to the high heat you want to use aluminum. I found it strange because the gear legs flex when you land and so I thought the aluminum would then be flexing each landing but I am going to trust Vans and their proven track record here.

Fabricating the lines had no real instructions other than the starting length and a picture. Unlike the fuel lines though, the shape is not rigid and can easily be molded by hand to look very straight. I didn't have any friction tape so I temporarily used some masking tape and will replace it with friction tape when it arrives.

Very happy with how long everything turned out. Tomorrow we will add the brake fluid and check for leaks. Fingers crossed!

  Sep 11, 2022     Cowlings - (80 hours)       Category: Engine

The cowls took me a lot longer than I expected. It begins with you mounting the top cowl with an angle that will rest on the spinner bulkhead which is to give a nice alignment for the cowl. You add one washer to give room for the engine to seed later on as it wears into the Barry mounts.

I had already grossly trimmed them to the scribe lines and put in a hole on each side of tbe spinner so that I had a way to connect the two cowls while I was taping in preparation to match drilling.

After this you level the plane in roll so that you can use plumb bobs to make sure you have the top and bottom cowls aligned for final trimming before you install the piano hinges. This was a lot more work that I expected but I am glad I took so long. These cowls are very expensive and you don't want to screw them up beyond repair. It's a lot easier to take material off than to put it back on!

Once I got everything aligned and trimmed as best I could I decided to go for it and install the piano hinges. I was very pleased and a little surprised how easily the hinges came together. The top hing pins were definitely the hardest to get to go in with that curve on the edges but it really was a non event. It was good to take time when I installed the hinges the first time to the firewall and made sure I could easily slide the in's in and out with little hang up.

Once all that got installed and riveted I did a final trim to make sure they all had a gap for paint. I used the metal ruler thickness as a guage to try my best to keep the gap all about the same, this required a lot of ON and OFF and ON again operations with the cowls which is where a lot of my time got eaten up. It was definitely good to go this over several days instead of trying to rush through it as you get tired and impatient when you have to keep removing and installing these cowls. That's when mistakes happen.

Speaking of mistakes, I should have considered the oil door before I trimmed the support flanges. Vans sends you and oil door that has two holes in the corners where you are supposed to install the wing nuts to secure the oil door. However, if you want to use flush latches which I found on Amazon by the way, you won't be able to use those holes and this the oil door is useless. So I have to fabricate my own. Bending the .063 metal is a challenge. I am using my friends roller than he has at school which takes time but does a nice, uniform bend.

Installing the air inlets on the top cowl took some time and effort, I really did not like the fit but eventually with (again) lots of ON and OFF and ON again procedures I managed to get them to fit nice enough. You end up filling and saidung yne edges that contact the baffles anyway so I probably didn't need yo be so picky, but I was very happy with the smooth transitions in the end.

Once all that was done and cured I put one final coat of resin and then installed the heat shield. This turned out to be a lot easier to do in segments and overlapping them. Trying to form one large sheet was impossible and ugly and it was a lot easier to just trim out sectors. For example the exhaust channels in the bottom were curved and deep (about 5”) and they tapered to a smooth surface. Even doing these alone required 3 pieces. But when you finish it off you seal them with epoxy and so it was really no big deal and once again I was quite happy with the final result.

The fit around the front where the spinner is was pretty poor but that was actually the easiest thing to smooth out. Simple as some filler and sand paper.

Lastly I decided to use my own fairings to hide the hole for the hinge pin entry at the front. I made a layout on my cowl and cut it to cover the gap which I will secure with two screws.

  Aug 10, 2022     Propeller instal - (25 hours)       Category: Propeller

This section began with cutting out the spinner bulkhead to match the double so it fits nicely over the prop hub. A seemingly simple task that tools quite a long time due to the thickness of the bulkheads and the angles needed to match. A lot of sanding and filing to get the two edges perfectly aligned.

After that was done the two plates are primed and riveted together before installing onto the propeller.

The propeller is not too heavy but it's awkward and the installation of the special bolts requires quite a lot of back and forth and so a hoist was required. It might have taken some time to set up but it was for sure the right way to go.

Oh and before I can put the propeller on I needed to remove the seal from the front of the engine. This was a little nerve wracking due to the fact that the genie is by far the most expensive part of the plane. I ended up drilling a hole and then hammers a flat head screw driver in and gaining leverage to twist and wiggle and eventually pull the plug out. Then a nice cleaning and we are ready to go.

We also removed one bottom spark plug from each cylinder to allow the engine to turn over easily and safely.

Once the bolts were all tightened and torqued they were all safety wired which again proved to be a challenge. Surgical clamps are needed here. Be VERY careful not to damage the hub while fishing out the safety wire. I managed a few small blemishes on the paint but nothing through it so I can feel good about the safety wire install.

The spinner was quite a challeneg. Cutting out the slots for the propeller went easy, drilling a series of holes before shipping them out with some small pliers. I do have a nibbler but this is not the correct tool, just use some wire snips. The hard part of this was getting the forward bulkhead match drilled. The surface of the spinner has a gel coat that is not see through, so some magnets and creativity were required. I ended up setting up two magnets on the bulkhead first and then Taping the inside magnet ti the bulkhead before installing the spinner and adding the outside magnet. This worked pretty well although I did miss a couple which cause for a small amount of repair work to fill the bonus holes. Luckily I got some good advice to use a very small drill bit at first so that you can see where it marks the bulkhead and adjust your next hole to center. These will all eventually be drilled to #19 so the chances are you will swallow up this bonus hole if you are close enough.

The last part was to reuse the parts you cut out for the blade slots to fill this gap. This was not ideal. There was material missing due to the fact that I cut inside the marked lines and sanded them down (per instructions) but the material gap was over 1/8” so I elected to fabricate them from aluminum. I believe this is how they do it on RV-7 and it makes more sense to me. Easy enough to do except the thickness I require is .063 and Aircraft Spruce is out of this at the moment so once again I am waiting for material that's back ordered. That's the theme of 2022.

  Jul 28, 2022     Engine part 2 - (30 hours)       Category: Engine

This week was lot of reading. Propeller and engine manuals, fuel servo and we'll just about every document I could find regarding torque values and I have finally turned the corner in becoming an engine mechanic.

I've got most of my hose and clamps lined out and installed my alternator. Surprisingly the torque values for the bolts that go into the engine case are much higher than what we would use for nuts. For example the 5/16 bolt into the engine casing takes 17-19 ft-lbs which is over 209 inch-lbs. Normally when installing an AN5 bolt I would use between 100-140 in-lbs. And I like to be on the lighter side of this range so basically the torque values I am using on the engine are about twice what I am used to and I really don't want to over torque and break anything so this is something you triple check. In addition the engine overhaul manual warns that under torque bolts can wear quickly and cause damage as well so needless to say the correct values are very important. So this took me lots of time to read and get to know these manuals that came with the engine and the propeller (the alternator instructions say to use the torque values specified by the engine manufacturer).

Next I ended up running some wires through the penetration point of my engine. It's really cool seeing it all set to come together.

Still missing quite a few of my parts from the kit. My prop governor bracket, baffles, engine starter master solenoid, lots of things actually. It's a little frustrating as Van's waits until all the parts are in before they send you the rest, which I imagine is more efficient but for us builders it seems like a hassle to have to constantly skip steps and sometimes entire sections. But this is the current state of our world with all the demand and low supply chain issues we are facing.

So, I guess I am onto working on the cowlings.

  Jul 16, 2022     Engine part 1 - (40 hours)       Category: Engine

This was a big couple weeks for me. Obviously the engine install was a huge deal. I got a flight in a friends RV14 before I borrowed his hoist and he gave me some good tips. Having never worked on an engine, I had to wait for my mentor to be come over. This was definitely a 2 person job.
Once we got all the Barry mount cushions in the correct order with the washers in the right orientation (top and bottom are actually opposite each other) we set out everything and hoisted the engine. It was super exciting to get the engine up. The foam around the engine from the Lycoming box/crate was incredibly difficult to remove. We ended up cutting little chunks off with a saw and then gently peeling them off until we were close enough to the engine to pull the rest off by hand. Eventually we got it all clear.
We installed the first bolt in a manner of minutes. No surprise there. The second bolt took us quite a bit longer. We elected to get both top bolts in first, not sure if that was the right decision as in order to get the bottom cushions installed I had to lift the front of the engine while my mentor installed the cushions. Then we went yo aligning the holes. This was a very long exercise in patience. We did a lot of experimenting with slightly adjustments up and down, slight jiggles with our hands and some love taps with a rubber mallet. We did use a center alignment tool for the holes that made it a lot easier to get the bolt holes generally aligned, but it still took a lot of patience and small adjustments and eventually we got the bolt in. Once the third bolt was through the fourth bolt went in quite easily, maybe just 10 minutes of fiddling. We may have gotten lucky but we were not complaining. We got them all in and torqued them all so that our engine was now holding the tail up so I could remove the supporting saw horse and pads that the tailcone was resting on.
We did install a nuts as we installed each bolt just a few threads. But the final bolts we used the nuts to pull the bolt through. Then we were able to get them all fully installed and relaxed the engine hoist and put it away.
After that I went on to install a ton of clamps and hoses and set myself up for the coming wiring and baffles. I also installed the cooling flap that was pretty easy to make.

  Jun 03, 2022     Canopy Part 2 - (45 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

After finishing the frame for the canopy, I installed it onto the plane. Turns out the canopy release system I fabricated with the fuselage was it satisfactory. There were slightly offsets which caused the pins to bind when trying to close the canopy. Although I was able to work it in, I elected to rebuild the piece with greater precision and it was amazing how much difference it made.

Once I got that installed properly I noticed the skins did not align perfectly with the fuselage skin. After trying to “pull” it outward (it was off by about 1/16”) I elected to remove it and rebuild the bottom bracket and include a shim of .020” skin which tucked in nicely between the frame and the inside of the skin and allowed the outside skin to sit perfectly flush. These details cost me hours of time but gave me great pride to see a perfectly flush surface between the canopy skins and the fuselage.

Next I sanded down the many high spot on the inside of the canopy lol where it meets the skins in order to help create a straight line torwards the end of the curve. This proved to be a long and tedious process but I read ahead and saw that we would be sanding down further on the outside so once I got the fuselage to sit flush I left it alone. I used straps (per the instructions) to hold the canopy flush with the canopy frame forward skin while I began the process of match drilling. Surprisingly the match drilling was simple and took only about 1 hour.

Once that was all finished we moved the canopy to the table and removed all the clecos holding it into the frame. The aft edge was a little too long to sand so I trimmed it with a dremel before sanding it to the final trim line. This was my least favorite and most nerve wracking activity, Glad I got it done with no “slips of the hand”.

Once all that was finished I decided to paint the interior. I had been putting this off for quite some time. I remove a lot of hardware and even some pop rivets that held the black nylon pieces so those would not get painted. It looks very good even though I have an “orange peel” finish which is a sign of an amateur painter, it's a nice uniform finish so I actually really like it. I decided not to sand it down with finish grit paper and add a top coat of clear poly, I like the finish I got from just yhe polyeurethane.

  May 09, 2022     Canopy part 1 - (20 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

This starts off with installing the canopy latch mechanism. This was fun to see a moving part go into the airplane but it was frustrating to install all those clevis and cotter pins in very hard to reach/see places. Lots of hardware in addition that pushed my skill set to the brink. Luckily it all went in. I'm not a huge fan of removing these for final paint when that part comes but I imagine if I did it once I can do it again. I did have some issues with one of the canopy latch pins binding so I ended up buying a reamer and reaming the 3/8 holes and it slides nicely now. I did remove the bushing in order to do this which required removing a bunch of LP4-3 pop rivets. It was nice to have a set of center hole drill bits for this purpose.

Once I finished that it was onto assembling the canopy frame. This was great to get back to simple metal work with clecos and drilling. There's a lot of drilling and deburring and all the skills required to get through the beginning of this build come back in handy. I enjoyed this thoroughly.

When the aft assembly came time to work I noticed that the roll bar attach brackets were slightly off. 1) They are 1 inch thinner on the inside so the outer edge lines up. The inside edge does not. 2) In order to set the outside perfect aligned with the roll bar I needed to use the frame Van's gives you to align them. This however caused the joining line to have a slight gap appear on the forward side only. I did t like it but I found out that this happens often and so I went forward and when I checked the fit it was almost perfect. It wasn't worth purchasing new parts in hopes of a better fit especially having read how some people who did this got the same result the second time around.

I did however crate a new splice so that there was no edge distance issues. I also beefed it up just a tiny bit since the joint wasn't flush anymore.

I still have a bit more prep to do before I rivet it all together so for now that is all I have to report

  May 04, 2022     Rear window - (15 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

This was a fairly easy process once I went and got myself more clamps and just got past the nerves of cutting into something so expensive. The rear window is about $600 to replace so you really want to take care of it.

I ended up countersinking a little deeper than perfect for the screws that go directly on the window (the ones attached to the roll bar). These have already been oversized after tapping the screw holes so it would be difficult to start this process over. Instead I bought some tinneman washers to sit inside the countersink (just like the skin does on the sides and aft edge) and it looks very clean and actually will be more secure against cracking in the future.

Next I will be building the canopy frame and then it's onto the main canopy piece.

  Apr 17, 2022     Wings 4 - (100 hours)       Category: Wings

Wing tips.

I installed the aeroled's abd the lens for each wingtip per the plans. I am using the sunspot AeroLeds that vans sells. Works great, easy plans to follow and I'm very happy with them.

I then went onto the wingtips where I had to install a ton of nutplates and since I am using the Bob Archer wingtip Antenna I figured that I should install that now since it will go under the nutplates.

All in all this was a fairly uneventful task and now I'm basically done with the wings. The Quickbuild option saved me a ton of time which is perfect since my finish kit is now here sitting in my garage.

  Apr 17, 2022     Wings 3 Bottom Skins - (30 hours)       Category: Wings

Took a very long time to finally rivet the bottom skins in place. Dealing with the pitot tube was annoying and had to take out the mounting bracket before ri could put the pitot tube out.

Thankfully my mentor was willing to spend several hours with me over 4 days getting these skins riveted.

I ended up moving all the wiring for the nav and landing lights so that it stays along the spar and kept the shots mid rib for the pitot tube and power, the GMU11 adhrs (left wing) and the VOR antenna and A/P servo (right wing).

I did find two issues with the quick build kit. First the attach tab for the right aileron was installed without hardware so the bolt did not line up. I contacted support and they advised me to bend it slightly outboard and that should relieve the pressure on the bolt. Upon inspection the tab was bent slightly inboard so when I adjusted it to slightly outboard the bolt went in fairly close to straight. With the bearing inside the addachemeny it will not be an issue.

The second issue I found was they had installed the wrong nutplates on one of the access panels. This just also happened to be under 2 skins. So I had two drill out half a dozen rivets and gently peel back the skins to remove the nutplate and install the correct one. Luckily you cannot even tell since I have become a pro at removing rivets 🫣

  Apr 01, 2022     Aileron Actuators - (28 hours)       Category: Wings

There are several small items I did between the last post and this one, mainly centering around systems routing and wiring. Sadly I am still waiting on a couple more items before I can close so I skipped ahead and completed the aileron actuators and the bellcrank assembly. I did not yet install the auto pilot servo as it will make riveting the bottom skins a little more difficult and I can instal that though the access panel later.

Once again I was able to cut the steel tube and drill all the holes with my harbor freight band saw, drill press and my Ryobi hand drill. It is quite a pain working with steel parts.

The puzzle of final assembly was pretty challenging as I primed the inside and outside of all the parts that were not already powder coated. These parts were already very snug before priming and adding the primer proved to be too much. Thus, I ended up having to remove-assemble-repaint all the parts that overlap

When you assemble the actuator in the wing root, you have to actually push the home-made tube deep into the bell crank, so yet again I had to remove and repaint the primer in the outside of the tube. Luckily this was not too difficult.

Once I got everything on I was incredibly pleased with the measurement once I put the aileron bellcrank in neutral using the jig from Van'a. Both sides were spot on perfectly 2 & 17/32 “ from the rib. Incredibly impressed once again with the accuracy of Van's parts and this time I proved to be quite accurate myself given all the different chances I had to be off if I wasn't perfectly accurate.

Now that I have finished this I am just about ready to close. I will only have the wing tips left before the finish kit awaits. It's getting closer!

  Feb 20, 2022     QB wing part 1 - (58 hours)       Category: Wings

Inspection of the QB wings, ailerons, flaps and bottoms skins complete. Bottom skins were damaged so Van's sent me 2 new ones, other than that the quality of the work was incredible. Few bolts were loose and one access panel needed some love to lay flat but the overall workmanship was very well done.

Additionally the inventory was a lot more hardware than expected. I found it very useful to roseate the bags into the trays with the correct label and made additional trays for hardware that was in familiar.

Very easy to work with screws and nut plates. Although I do not play on installing the stall warning so the access panel on the leading edge is unnecessary, so I have to figure out how to plug this two holes. I ordered some reduced head 3-3.5's for these holes.

Once I finished catching up with the plans I began working on landing lights. I also ordered these from vans but they will be quite some times before they come. The plexiglass was easy to work with but scratched even with my finger nail so I used A LOT of painters tape to keep it from scratches. Luckily I discovered just how easy it was to scratch while practicing on the edges (per the recommendation of section 5).

It was a bit of a hassle moving the wings back and forth from the wing racks, but the location of the landing lights made it so that I had no choice here.

Next is to work on the Pitot Tube. I purchased the pitot mast from Dynon and it looks like it will work just outside the bulkhead where the aileron bell crank is located. Should not interfere with the tie down and I can use the rib to help anchor the back of the mast ledge to it with a small piece of aluminum angle.

  Dec 31, 2021     Section 35 complete - (25 hours)       Category: Fuselage

The big items I got done here were the piano hinges, the air vents and the canopy release system.

One of my hinges the edge distance wasn't what I wanted it to be so I ended up remaking that side and was more careful on the second side. It's a pretty easy task although doing it on a curve made it a little more challenging to keep it aligned.

The jettison mechanism was pretty simple to install once I got the assembly together and greased it up. The righ pin is a little longer than the left pin but both pins go completely through so I don't think there's anything to worry about. Would like to know what the specs are for that.

I ended up fabricating my own air vent containers that were the same outline as the Vans air vents. I didn't like the way vans sandwiched the vents in between the fiberglass and the holder. I would prefer to just be able to remove the vents by removing the 4 screws. I painted it black to match although I still have not finalized a color scheme for the plane yet.

I've still been working on some odds and ends so my builders log is not as organized as it was before. Mainly I am just stalling for my wings to come in and I don't want to install my top skin without first installing my avionics so I am done with this section for now. I also got my sticks in from Aerontronics so I can go back and finish the control systems while I wait for my wings.

Wings are arriving sometime after January 15. So I'm very excited!

  Dec 25, 2021     Section 35 part 1 - (20 hours)       Category: Fuselage

This actually took me several days but I was too busy to update my builders log. Surprisingly this section was a little challenging with some of the rivets. It begins quite straight forward but I ended up using the offset and having to have my mentor help me set some of the more difficult rivets in the sub panel frame. Definitely need to pay attention to the order of these rivets and the lengths.

Once I got the sub panel assembly put together though, it was very satisfying to put into the plane. Seeing the cockpit take shape really gave me an appreciation for how beautiful this plane design is—the look that leads most of us to choose Vans' (along with its performance).

This is the time you need to install the canopy jettison handle. I am not planning on mounting this in my panel as it would interfere with my G5 but I am still installing the mechanism so that I can easily remove my canopy if I need to. I still have time to change my mind on this but I am not planning on doing any serious aerobatics and so I don't really think I want to have the option to jettison the canopy.

That said, making the pieces was quite fun. I began with a hacksaw along the CL of the aluminum tubing and then used the band saw (was able to slide the thing sand paper inside the slits) and just sanded down until the pieces fit nicely into the slots I had carved.

I also have decided to stick with the piano hinges and return the Skybolt fasteners. It sounds like it will be a pain in the butt to remove them but I really prefer the look of the seamless lines and also I don't like the puffing that occurs in between the cam locks as I have noticed on several RV's that have the Skybolt's.

Just need to put it all together and then I will be all done with this section!

So I have to finish the piano hinges and then dimple the rest of the top skin. I don't plan on riveting this on until after my panel goes in so that will sit on the side for quite some time.

  Nov 24, 2021     Section 34 - (34 hours)       Category: Fuselage

This is a short section but one you want to take your time on. Over two days I was able to get the flap torque arms and the motor (flap actuator) installed.

*note: The jig for this first step where you match drill the torque arms through the crank comes in the wing kit. If you don't have that, it's $15 from the Van's store ☺�

Once we got it lined up and measured it four or fives times (it's a little confusing as they have you line up the inside of the flange in the middle to the outside flange of the end. However, we got them both lined up and then drilled them out.

After that you upsize them to #12 to fit the an3 bolts. It was a little bit of trouble to drill through both holes so I found using a long #30 to make sure the holes are lined up perpendicular to the ground while I drilled made it easier to make sure I was in the second hole. The holes should center themselves but I am sure some people will elect to use the drill press here. I did not, and found no issues just using my hand drill and taking my time.

I also primed the insides using spray cans. I started by running a long drill bit with some scotch bright pads which helped clean up the insides of the tubes. I then repeated with some acetone and finally sent through some acetone soaked paper towels to clean out any residue left behind. Then I just taped off the edges and primed them with the SEM self-etching primer.

After that is complete you install it into the plane, torque the bolts and apply the torque seal (except for one bolt at the top that needs to turn freely and you use a nut castle and clevis pin).

There is one section where you have to drill a hole in the flap actuator which will allow you to attach safety wire which is part of a service bulletin for older RV's. This seemed like it would be hard but actually it was quite simple. Now I just need to get my safety wire back from my buddy and install it to be done with section 34.

Onto the sub panel!

  Nov 23, 2021     Section 33 complete - (15 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Most of this section was easy and super fun. That hourly count of 15 would have been more like 10 if not for 4 bolts! When you get to this section, you will know which four bolts! (I'll give you a hint, they connect the rudder cable sleeves to the cushioned clamps). Man these were extremely difficult to tighten. But we not only got them done, we got them torqued and sealed!

Finishing up the rudder cables and installing the guides was mostly uneventful. I did however have to drill out a couple of the pop rivets for the cable guides as the washer backing didn't hold while I squeezed due to the slight angle of the tunnel and the consistent force of gravity. Make sure you hold these washers tight against them until the rivet is completely squeezed.

I'm not entirely sure about these plastic hoses. Seemed easy enough to get them set but I really hope none of the fitting leak. This is my first time using these seals so I am putting my faith into Van's section 5 instructions.

After I finished the brakes system I put a little silicon on the bushings that were modified as they wouldn't stay secured. I would have preferred tank sealant but didn't feel like opening up another serving just for these 4 bushings. Silicon should do just fine to make sure they don't pop out due to vibration.

I have been building my fuselage ahead of my wings (which I ordered quick build and are set to arrive in February). Because of this, I had to order the jig for the flap control arms which come with the wing kit. No big deal, just $11 and some days of shipping

  Nov 14, 2021     Section 33 part 1 - (20 hours)       Category: Fuselage

I had already installed the oil reservoir so that part was already done. This section begins with separating quite a few different pieces for the rudder pedals. It's fairly basic stuff.

I decided to prime and then paint the rudder pedals. I know they will get scuffed a lot but I plan to put grip tape on the part where you step to protect the paint a bit.

After I drilled, primed and assembled the rudder pedals I managed to squeeze all the rivets with my hand squeezer. It allowed the paint to remain perfect.

Then it was onto the rudder assembly attachments. It took me a while to figure out how to make the spaces but I ended up using a rivet to gently sand down the spacers until it matched in height. After that I used a soft hammer to gently bend the tabs so they were perpendicular and then went onto mount the rudder pedals. I ended up doing the first bolt using the washer recommended but had to make some adjustments with various light washers in order to fit. I tightened the castle nuts with my fingers and ensured the friction was minimal before installing the codder pins.

Ones the pedals were all done I got some thread sealant from Ted and installed the master cylinders. They are labeled left and right but there is only one way they can be installed so don't worry too much about labeling them. This was very satisfying to see how well them moved once installed.

Next it was onto the nylon bushings for the pedal mounts. This required using a template to drill 2 #12 pilot holes followed by a #10 final drill using the drill press into these 4” blocks. It was quite easy.

Before I installed the redial pedal mounts I used the 3M wheel to clean up the ends of the pipes that had some powers coat remains in it. Then apply some grease and install the assemblies. I found that using two washers in the center assembly allowed for less friction on the pedal mounts. There will be some friction no matter what, so I just installed them to where the friction of the nuts increased slightly signifying I had removed all the play in the nuts.

Next it's onto the brake lines!

  Nov 11, 2021     Section 32 - (40 hours)       Category: Fuselage

This is actually a very simple but time consuming section. You begin by constructing the bushings for the flap poles and then construction the seat positions out of piano hinges. This requires precise match drilling (use a punch here) and cleanup of the edges. Then I just primed all the parts and went to work.

You begin by attaching a few nut plates to the forward edge and then a couple to the access hole in the back end and then get your squeezer ready for a seemingly endless session of blind rivets. Luckily they are all LP4-3 so they are no very difficult. You will once again need the wedge piece for the ones on the corners but it's something that at this point everyone is pretty used to doing.

The final rivets in the aft bulk head are AN470-3-6 so you will need to get your rivet gun and bucking bar back there to finish this off.

I ended up making once smiley face on the second to last rivet. Very annoying but it is barely noticeable (to anyone but me 😌).

The last thing you do is add the flap motor mount which really strengthens the seat back bar (now you can sit on this and it doesn't even flinch) and then close the walls in the baggage area. I elected to just paint these with the gray SEM self-etching primer out of the rattle cans.

  Nov 11, 2021     Section 31 Complete - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

To finish this section I need to apply some tank sealants to the penetration points of the firewall. So to make this section more efficient with the rest of the parts that need tank sealant (the oil reservoir and also the bushing for the rudder cables) so I skipped ahead a little.

Once I got the ranks sealant applied and all the fittings set right where I can tighten them by hand with no gaps at all, I set out to torque these. I also torched the bolts that hold the oil filter to the firewall. I found that the friction torque to overcome the nut plates was nearly 20 in-lbs. They are an3 bolts so I ended up setting my torque wrench to 35 in-lbs.

Torquing the fittings was recommended to be between 70-120 in-lbs. so I chose 90. The aluminum tubing we use is softer and so you do not want to use the higher torque setting. It was pointed out in the plans but also it's in the standard Aircraft handbook with a pretty nice explanation.

How you actually do this is another story. I ordered crows feet since I didn't have any and they appeared to be perfect for the job. However, the space was so tight I ended up having to grind them down quite a bit. It's always nice to purchase new tools and immediately begin to sand them down ☺�

Once I got those to a reasonable dimension it was just a matter of patience and perseverance. Luckily I got them all done.

Onto the next section!

  Oct 30, 2021     Section 31 - (12 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuel systems part 1:

The first thing we have to do is install the plastic guides to hold the fuel system pipes. These are easily separated and form using a band saw and 3M wheel. The. You install them with pop rivets. You use a washer on the back of the rivet to hold the shop head. You will need to use a wedge piece to get the top rivet as the holes are too close to the flange for even a skinny cherry rivet puller. Not a big deal.

After that it's onto the fuel selector. Not a lot of work here, just a few nut plates to install, some holes to counter sink and then some screws to install using Loctite 948 to keep them from coming loose.

Once that is done you crimp on two terminals for the fuel pump electrical leads and tie the ground into the bolt using a washer (optional) o protect the lead from Tempe bolt head.

Now comes the fun part. Quite a bit of cutting and bending and flaring (all things I needed to borrow tools for). You begin shy straightening the tube on a flat surface. I found it much easier to cut it into length first and then straighten it more accurately.

It took some time to completely understand the bends but if you use the plane to guide you it's actually pretty intuitive.

This was one of the most fun exercises I have done so far in the build.

  Oct 30, 2021     Section 30 - (68 hours)       Category: Fuselage

This section was the grand section of them all! (So far). Joining the tailcone with fuselage.

This began by removing the tail feathers. I was able to do it in about 2 hours and stored the small parts under my bed and the Horizontal is in my living room against the wall.

After that I rearranged my garage so that the two pieces would line up. We used saw horses and a short table (the crate they sent me the kit in — now reinforced and with wheels) and some towels to get them to match. Wasn't very difficult really.

I had already prepped the bulkheads where they joined but I needed to add the nut plates and enlarge a hole with the stepper bit. Then it required a little fluting. This probably could have been easier if I realized how difficult it would be to pass each rivet through the hole that had, in some spots, 4 pieces of metal to join. However the clecos went in fine.

Man of the stringers and longerons could be done alone. But when it came time to get to the bottom skins and the ones aft of the bulkhead it required assistance. My mentor was in Colorado so my wife gratuitously gave me a hand and we knocked it out over the weekend.

After that I rearranged my garage again. Amazingly I was able to cut down using all 3 car spaces to just one now. I even folded up and put away two tables I had been using for a very long time. This was a very exciting section!

I got a little carried away and ended up re-organizing and labeling all my hardware. I got sick of searching for the bag number in the inventory list and then finding the hardware from the bag. I took each bag and placed the hardware with all the other hardware that was the same and labeled each drawer. It was actually very satisfying.

Time to start on the fuel system!

  Oct 16, 2021     Section 29 Complete - (150 hours)       Category: Fuselage

After we finished the rest of the rivets (which by the way were NOT easy, we decided to order cherry rivets for the aft most river between the skins and the bulkhead that resides just beneath the ridge of the lower longeron. Basically impossible to set it with a bucking bar and not sure what else to do, so we calculated the length of the appropriate cherry rivet and ordered it. It was CR3212-4-4 and it connects the lower longeron to the wing box.

Then I added the seat rest bar which included 3 rivets that I do not rivet until after the next step when I insert the intercostals. Congrats Van's you got me again! Luckily I am an expert at removing rivets so this was a non-event. 🤫

After that I am supposed to do some work on the vents but they did not send me all the parts. In fact, I do not even see it on the inventory list. In fact, when I search the store I have never seen this part before in my life. I'm going to have to contact Van's and see what I am missing here. The missing part is VENT-SV5.

So it's on to section 30! A short section but the holiest of all—joining the fuselage with the empanage. To prepare for this I removed all the tail feathers and stored them in safe places Ed around my house.

  Oct 10, 2021     Section 29 part 5 - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Almost finished is something you never want to say in this project. You may often feel “almost finished” but I assure you that you are not.

A thorough inspection of our work revealed several areas of concern. First and foremost the cherry rivets that are called for in the bottom longerons where the box meets the engine mounts need to be removed. I found it very easy to drill out these cherry rivets as they are flush head and the pins can just be punched out and then drill out the mass of the rest of the rivet with a #31 drill bit (these are CR3212-4-5's. The dome head ones that we used on the inside would require you to grind off the head before being able to punch out the mandrel. However since these are flush rivet sets and the heads broke off the mandrels before they were fully set.

I did wonder why they used these cherry rivets instead of solid rivets and then when you inspect the back you realize that the heads of the inside cherry rivets (that are 5's) are in the way. So using the cherry rivets will be easier and since they are structural there's no problem using the pop rivets here. (Assuming they set correctly).

After we fixed those we noticed that the after fairings were not laying flat and there were not a lot of fluting options to make it both line up with the holes in the skins and match the curvature of the side skins. There was really not way to make it perfect (though we tried!). After several adjustments and a little “un-fluting “ with the hand seamer I managed to get it to lay relatively flat agains the skins and the holes lined up decent enough to make me feel comfortable with the fit, not a lot of stress on the clecos.

After we finished those off and riveted them to the skins we added the remaining nut plates. Then we re-installed the after wing attach bars )which were literally the first part you make in this fuselage kit!) and we realized that the holes in the skins were not quite big enough. A little filling and sanding and we were back in business. We added some alodine to the skin surface to help avoid corrosion.

Next it is onto the bottom skins. Incredibly difficult to get the bucking bar inside the longerons flange and over the head of the rivet. It took finding just the right bucking bar to do it (picture below). The final rivet is a AN426-4-6 rivet but the bolts in the way and it's impossible to get there and also not crack the rivet head due to the longerons flange and so we decided to stop and order a cherry rivet for that rivet.

Lastly, I am including a picture of the whiteboard I have dedicated to keeping track of all the things that I am missing and need to finish up. It's a beast to try and keep track of all the things that need to be finished and it's a great idea to write them down. Previously I had been making notes in my plans and then crossing them off when I got back to them. This make it a lot better and keeps these tasks in the front of my thoughts so I remember to finish these various tasks.

An example is the bottom row of rivets for the battery box. There's nothing urgent about finishing these but I simple could not set these without a 7.5” off set flush head for my rivet gun. I finally got this and now just need Ted to come back as this would be hard to do alone. So it's still on the board!

Oh, I also prepped and primed the parts for section 30! That's where we join the aft fuselage with the main fuselage. No will need to remove my tail feathers and re-arrange some things but it's gone be great!

  Oct 08, 2021     Section 29 part 4 - (36 hours)       Category: Fuselage

These skins are long but a lot of them can be done alone. The tar for the tank sealant is once again a pain in the butt to deal with. It's very annoying to set these rivets

I have noticed on several occasions the wrong rivet sizes are called out. I also have noticed absolute errors in the plans. For example they tell you to countersink a part that is supposed to be dimpled and the party below it requires to be countersunk to receive this dimple. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me but then I realized that the plans are simply wrong. I checked my resources (other builders logs) and confirmed that the plans are just “mistaken”. It's quite annoying but I think that since these mistakes are so obvious that nobody is reporting them and they just keep them in there.

At any rate the fuselage is almost complete. The next section we will connect the empennage to the fuselage. Before I do this though I will have to remove all the tail feathers.

There are quite a few fabricated parts in this section. It's quite rewarding. It feels very good to watch pieces you make line up perfectly (almost as perfectly as the machined parts from Van's). Most of the parts you fabricate are not incredibly crucial in terms of precision, but it's fun to try and be perfect anyway and be rewarded by pieces that look like they came out of a factory.

Tomorrow we will completely finish this section and prepare for the empennage attach.

  Sep 25, 2021     Section 29 part 3 - (40 hours)       Category: Fuselage

I finally made it through all the parts needed for section 29 to be finished and got them prepped and primed. Once I got them primed, I went back and started building the upper and lower longeron assemblies that hold the engine mounts. For some reason you end up using cherry rivets in combination with the solid rivets. I don't know why but I followed directions.

Then you back rivet the stiffners and double for the wing spar support. It was pretty easy after the firewall session last section.

Once I was done I went though all my nuts and bolts and checked that they were all properly torqued. Then I used torque seal to easily identify which ones are done and if there are any changes due to vibrations in the future.

Then I just rebuilt the skins and cleco'd it all together. I used temporary bolts for both upper and lower longerons even though the plans only specifically say to bolt the lower longerons.

I also noticed that the firewall flanges were never dimpled and clearly they need to be since they received the dimpled skins and go into the counter sunk piano hinge. But I checked on the forums and found that indeed this step is not in the plans but you need to do it.

I also noticed that the two rivets just forward of the wing spars are very difficult to line up. Make sure you cleco these first and then worn your way around the rest or you will end up having to remove all the clecos in order to get this on straight.

Tomorrow my mentor is coming over as it's time to do the skins and this will be a two man job.

  Sep 12, 2021     Section 29 part 2 - (40 hours)       Category: Fuselage

After you have finished the bottom skins, it's time to install the control stick. You will need to get some geese to help stick the washers and shims together so that you can get the bolts in just right without any play and without too much pressure. I ended up just using 1 light washer and 1 regular washer and no shim. But I think almost every builder ends up with a slightly different combination so trial and error is really the only way here. By the way, once you torque the bolts you will notice a slight amount of resistance (I mean super slight). I decided to torque to the bottom of the range (20 in-lbs) and the control column moved freely with 0 play.

After you get those installed it's time to work on the longerons. Get ready for some major match drilling, deburring, and countersinking. All fairly easy stuff but time consuming. I ended up making a jig for all the counter sinking in the longerons. Super helpful. Thank you Steve out in the UK for the tip 👍.

Oh and you will also need to get your deemed out to trim the longerons. It's not bad but hopefully you have a lot of cutting wheels as they will not make it through all the longerons you will need to cut (they are quite thick).

The side skins also get some very interesting love in this section. Not just your standard deburring and dimpling. You end up having to feather one corner and the radius the portion that will meet the canopy. You start to really get an idea of how this is all going to work.

If you are like me and ry and prime everything together you may find this section a bit tedious. If I had to do it over again I would prime after each step instead of skipping each time the plans call to rivet (like when you are supposed to rivet the engine mounts to the longerons). Dealing with clecos throughout all of this is kind of a pain.

A big time soaker is the piano hinge. I decided to stick with the piano hinge for the firewall attachment that will be used to connect the cowl. This was not a crazy hard task but it definitely slowed me down due to the fact that nothing I had was riveted so I had to cleco everything together to make sure I had it right. As normal, the plans call for a length of 20 1/8” which will give you the EXACT edge distance you need. Not that there is a slight curve and this will affect the line up, so I recommend starting with the top hole and not the pilot hole. Otherwise you may have to make a new piece (like I did) unless you happens to be perfect and account for deburring in your measurements. Or, make yours 20 1/4” instead of 20 1/8” so that you will have a little room for error. You will end up countersinking these holes too, so that means you need 2.5 x's the diameter of the rivet.

After that there's going to be a lot of pieces that get separated and dumped and deburred. Make sure you label everything as they look very similar to each other after they are separated and cleaned up.

  Sep 12, 2021     Section 29 Part 1 - (40 hours)       Category: Fuselage

This section has been going on for a while. I just was too busy to update my log.

The beginning of this section requires connecting some major pieces together. There's going to have to be some re-arranging of the work space to accommodate the large pieces going together.

After you get them in and bolted together there's a TON of match drilling, clecos and deburring. This will later be met with endless counter sinking. 🤫

Then you install the step brace with the brake fluid brass elbow that will need to be at 7Degrees off square. I used a clever little iPhone app to make this easy. Also use plenty of boelube and make sure you support the back end of the belly or the step brace will not go in.

Once you are ready to start riveting you will need to mount the belly on its side, so you create a job using a wooded block through the bulkheads where the wing spar will be. This cause me a lot of anxiety sleeping and having a nightmare of the thing crashing down. So I personally mounted it with clamps and then jigged it's agains the wall to ensure it could not move. Many builders have done similar things.

Before you rivet you get to add more tank sealant. Yippee…I never get sick of that stuff 😳. At any rate, I'm getting a lot better at using the black tar so I suppose it's not terrible.

Then you install some #5 cherry rivets that actually broken my rivet head. I had to order a new one and ended up using my cheap ARROW rivet gun to pull these monsters. Access was not a problem for these so I recommend using the cheap rivet gun.

After this was finished my mentor and I put in a couple good sessions to rivet the entire bottom skins together. It went very quickly with two people but you will need to remove the step braces and bolts so don't bother torquing any hardware until you finish this all.

Oh and that long skinny bucking bar you use on the elevators, make sure you have that ready for whoever is on the bucking bar. There's quite a few obstacles in between those bulkheads.

  Aug 04, 2021     Section 28 MISTAKE - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

After I realized in section 29 that I had put the cover plates on wrong (the picture is very difficult to tell).

This required me to drill out about 30 rivets and then reset the cover plate. Not a big deal but sure would have been nice to know this ahead of time.

I hope this post helps someone avoid this mistake in their own build. Turns out this is a very common mistake and a lot of builders (on Van's recommendation) leave the mistake alone.

  Jul 29, 2021     Section 28 Complete - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

So I finished the firewall. There were quite a few “puzzles” to complete in this one.

You will notice that I added an additional Spherical Grommet into the cable penetration parts to the firewall. This will actually house the throttle and mixture cables and the existing grommet will house the cowl-flap cable. The prop will come from the pilot side of the firewall.

I've attached a picture for those who are also going to be installing the IO-390-EXP119 which was introduced last year (specifically designed for the RV-14).

Here are some of the things I learned with the conclusion of this section.

1) Stainless steel rivets are VERY hard to set and even if you set it perfectly straight, the shop head of the rivet will not look as nice as the aluminum rivets.

2) The left and right side vent assemblies ARE NOT mirror images. This is a very good “gotcha” moment that luckily I avoided thanks to the very specific directions from Van's.

3) If you are now an expert at back rivets before this section, you will be after. Even when I was assembling the vents (stainless steel rivets) I found it necessary to back rivet.

4) The bottom flange of the battery box interferes with the bottom row while countersinking and whole riveting. This could have been avoided if the holes were moved up 1/8”. There is plenty of room for this. I sent a note to Van's to have their engineers consider it. Since it was pre-punched, this was not an option for me. I ordered a 7” long off set flush set for my rivet gun. You could also do this by back riveting these by holding the bucking bar firmly while having a friend back rivet the shop head, but that is not an ideal situation and I did not want to risk having to drill those out so I ordered the new set from Aircraft Spruce ($25).

5) When you are doing the bottoms skins, you can move the firewall assembly in many different configurations and still find it easy to secure and quite stable.

Now I need to rearrange my garage to prepare for the next section.

  Jul 17, 2021     Section 28 part 2 - (20 hours)       Category: Fuselage

I bought two single use tank sealant carriages from Aircraft Spruce to make it easier to deploy. I took my time and prepped as much as I could but that black tar gets everywhere. This specific section makes doing the Quickbuild almost worth it alone. That said, pretty happy with how it came out.

First thing I did was cleco it all together and make sure I knew what was going where. Then I taped all the edges (both sides) wherever there would be tank sealant going in between two flanges. Turns out you don't really have to hurry. The sessions took me several hours to finish and the tank sealant in the gun continued to be useable all the way to the end. So my biggest tip is to take your time. I felt like there was a clock ticking and so I kept trying to get everything done before the sealant cured.

The back riveting session was surprisingly hard. Given the additional soft material in between the flanges and the odd angles of the e tunnels, I ended up setting a bunch of rivets high that needed to be drilled. I opted to complete them all first and get to the center muffler shroud and install the billet (before the tank sealant became unusable) and then went back the next day to remove the high rivets and replace them with new one. Even with the three pieces connected, back riveting was not a big problem. The only problem I found was that when you drill out a rivet with tank sealant around, every chip you make ends up in the sealant. I opted to wipe the chips off with a rag and acetone and then re-taped and re-applied a billet to all the seams. Probably labor intensive but it was a good seal.

After I completed the attachment of the firewall to the bottom skin assembly, and clean up any excess tank sealant, I began to rivet the center of the bottom skins to the tunnel. This was another time to modify the instructions according to the OP-62 KAI for the new engine.

For the IO-390-exp119 there will be a cowl-flap in the belly that will attach with #8 screws to the skins. So instead of riveting the entire center section, I installed 5 nut plates in each. This was a bit of labor and again I had to prevent metal chips from going into my tank sealant. This time I placed tape over the seam so that it blocked Ben and then vacuumed them up before removing the tape. Tank sealant is a big pain to work with, even several hours after you finished setting it.

I have to now install these nut plates and then rivet the rest of the assembly but I am %90 of the way finished with this section.

By the way, a couple tips for tank sealant.

1) You have plenty of time. Move slowly and don't rush.

2) Have plenty of acetone and a rag (not just paper towels) you can use to clean. Rags soaked in acetone work very well, just avoid contacting the billets or seams you mean to keep.

3) Have popsicle sticks and q-tips ready to detail the cleanup. Works wonders.

4) When you finish, you can re-tape and apply a nice straight line if you notice that your seam doesn't have a clean line or a spot that doesn't have any sealant sticking out.

5) clean off the rivet heads after you squeeze or buck then before you measure them with the gauge. The tank sealant will give you a false sense of the diameter of the shop head.

Oh, but my biggest tip of all: Pay for the Qucik build. Let Van's do the table sealant ☺�Only partially kidding).

  Jul 14, 2021     Section 28 part 1 - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

For this section I decided to purchase the one time use fuel tank sealant form Aircraft Spruce. I also made a mistake on the piano hinge and had to order a new one. Lastly, I could not find the antennae doublers anywhere, so I went ahead and replaced those as well from Van's. After a week of prep, we have begun.

After dimpling, countersinking and priming all the parts I began by riveting the doubled and stiffer a to the skins and then the muffler shroud covers for the tunnel. Put another dent in the bag if k1000-8D nut plates too. Still about half a million nut plates to go….

One thing I struggled with was countersinking the battery box. This requires you to use an extension for your counter sink bit, which means you cannot use the cage. Even though this worked fine, the bottom set of holes were further interfered with by the flange in the bottom fold. I ended up forcing it open just enough to get the counter sinks in. They were not perfect but they will work.

I also began to modify the pieces to fit the cowl flap for the IO-390-EXP119 engine I am planning for. This also required another piece from Van's (CT-00102) which is a double spherical grommet and cost me an additional $75. I thought this came with the kit, as they know I am planning on the EXP119 engine but it was not in my inventory so I put in the order from the web store.

As for the plans for the IO-390-EXP119 I took them down to Office Depot and had them print them out in color. That cost me $11 but was well worth it to have full size plans which I inserted into my current plan book.


**It's worth to not that this is the first time you actually have to use the KAI OP-62 instructions.

Tomorrow I will crack open the first tube of single use pro-seal.

  Jul 08, 2021     Section 27 complete - (16 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Back rivet for the win! I really was not found of back riveting so many AN4 rivets but after this section I consider myself to be quite the expert.

I ended up using every bucking bar I could to get to all the heads of the rivets including my tiny tungsten bucking bar which is my main bar. I used it for the 70 degree angle that allowed me to get into the center section perfectly without having any high rivets.

I ended up drilling out about 15 rivets total but I managed to do this without messing up any holes. Many of them probably did not need to be drilled out but once you established perfection on the flush head it's difficult to allow any high set rivets to stick around no matter how close to flush it may be.

A few nut plates (k1000-4) are on b/o so I wasn't able to get this completely done. But I will be able to get those done later when they come in.

For thes center section I ended up using a piece of woof between the two angles to apply pressure in the backplate. I even talked my wife into climbing up onto the workbench and placing her foot on the wood to allow me to use two hands on the rivet set.

There's actually a handful of rivets at the bottom that I was not really able to back rivet without a long back rivet set. If I had that I could have done them all, but instead I will wait for a friend tomorrow and we will just buck them with the swivel head.

The final step was to ream the 6 holes for the engine mount. I used the drill press on the work bench and placed the fwd side face down on a plywood table while I matched the drill press to make it a right angle.

Onto section 28!

  Jul 06, 2021     Section 27 Part 2 - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Today was a long back rivet session. To pick up where I left off I decided to use the long bucking bar used on the elevators and mount it on the other corner of the table to get those hard to reach rivets while back riveting.

Couple tips:

1) Set one rivet then check that it's flush. If one is high, they will all be high (learned that the hard way)

2) Remove every cleco. Sounds weird but those clecos can do more bad than good. Instead of relying on clecos, get the rivets taped in and lined up on the back rivet plate or bucking bar and use a clamp to make sure it's flush.

3) TRIPLE check that your angles are completely flush before setting. When I noticed a sliver of air between the dimples on one of the angles I pulled out my “dimple” checker and noticed that two of my counter sinks were not deep enough to fully allow the angle to set flush. So I rechecked them all and luckily only had to counter sink two holes total (since I had already primed this wasn't perfect but I put some alodine over it).

4) If you are going to use the bucking bar you need to make sure the rivets in the center. Don't try and do both lines. Just do one line, unclamp, move it over a little and then do the other line. I also used a wood shim to maintain the edge distance and kept checking that the rivets I was doing were in the middle of the bucking bar (see picture).

5) I had to use a long mushroom tip to get those deep ones where the angle interferes with the back rivet set. I don't have a long back rivet set. Although I had to set them longer, I found that the quality of the rivets were very good.

6) Do the gussets last. They are actually the easiest ones to do.

Hope this helps someone else down the road. I'm glad I took time to think this over. I've seen blog's where people used the C-frame for this section. That wasn't necessary at all in my experience. I recommend just using the back rivet plate, the long bucking bar and plenty of patience. This is not the time to rush 😉.

  Jul 05, 2021     Section 27 Part 1 - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Prepped all the parts for the firewall today. This included a lot of countersinking. I mean A LOT. Some people use wood to support their pieces but I just used my hand. It's a method I have been using all along as I have pretty much always done it this way. You get a good grip on the cage and can hold it perfectly square and you can just let the bit do the work.

Albe very careful about what you counter sink and what you don't. There is a double on the left side that will be countersunk on the opposite side of the firewall, so you don't need to dimple the the holes in the angle that intersect those rivets. Same think on the right side with the battery cage at the top of the firewall. What I did was I looked at the next section to get a better picture of what will happen and why some are dimpled and some are not.

After I finished that I primed everything and began dimpling and prepping the stainless steel parts (which do not need to be primed). I found the 3M wheel worked the best on the edges so as not to ruin my deburring tools.

There are a few simple assemblies before you begin the very difficult back riveting section. I actually was not able to finish the backrivets with my set up. Due to the geometry of the firewalls that have ridges in them as well as flanges. I am considering using my C-frame to get the missing rivets.

Things I did learn were to take out all the clecos. Do not leave ANY space at all or they will set high. Also, the AN425-4-4 rivets are correct size. If they are not legal then they are either over driven or they are not sitting perfectly flush.

So far so good. Hopefully I will figure out how to finish the rest tomorrow.

  Jul 03, 2021     Section 26 complete - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

It's done! There were SO MANY difficult rivets to finish here. Not only did I need to use the offset we had to go raid my Mentor's hangar for his bucking bar assortment. It took longer to do the ribs than to do the skins. But in the end, we got them all in and we finished the skins without a single dent. I ended the day doing a final touch up of some primer and then taped the rivet lines on the bottom with painters tape to protect the belly skins from scratches as I move forward with the next few sections. This piece is big and bulky and will be taking up a lot of table space.

One tip about the seat belt attachments. They didn't fit easily through the slots so instead of overdriving the rivets that kept them from passing through, we just filed down a little but on the middle where they can pass. (See picture).

Onto section 27 (Firewall) beginning tomorrow!

  Jul 02, 2021     Section 26 part 5 (Bottom Skins) - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Today we tackled the bottom skins and the baggage compartment assembly connection. Made it through with only a few rivets that we needed to drill out and ended up putting in two additional blind rivets where the seat belt attach bars are and the bucking bar was very difficult to get in.

After that I began working on the aft ribs assemblies that contain most of the seat belt attachments. I found that the rivet used in the seatbelt attachment was difficult to pass through the small slit in the bulkhead so I ended up squeezing it a little more than it was. Still legal, but slightly overdriven. I could have also drilled it out and replaced it but since the rivet was still legal I left it.

Another issue I found was the plans called for some difficult AN470-4-5's when assembling the step step assemblies to the power coated attachment. Some builders alter the build order here but I found that I was able to squeeze the em all just fine (see picture). On the opposite side I used 2 cherry rivets and bucked the middle one (was not able to buck the top and bottom fwd rivets. So I used Cherry Rivets per the plans instructions.

I ended the day where the plans call for riveting the assemblies to the main assembly (which will be followed by the skins next. Tomorrow we will (hopefully) finish this section.

  Jul 01, 2021     Section 26 part 4 - (20 hours)       Category: Fuselage

There was a ton of prep left to do here. Ended up going back to the Epoxy primer (AZK0) for the bottom and fwd skins and the stiffners and miscellaneous parts.

There's a lot of back riveting done on this section and getting the seat ribs aligned, squared and parallel took some time and care.

This is not something I would have been able to do alone. The skins are so bulky that I had to ask my mentor Ted to come and help me the last couple days.

I also used some Bonderite alodine to cover the surface of the anodized bulkheads that were countersunk. This was expensive ($100) to purchase but it gave me piece of mind.

Additionally I back riveted the nut plates for the gear brace. I used the step drill on several occasions. Little but if reaming and a little bit of match drilling. Don't forget to “whang” the gear braces in the vice (per section 5 instructions—they literally say to hit it with a hammer in a vice until it's straight). Lastly I had to grind down 40 rivets from AN426-4-5 to 4-4.5 because they didn't come in my kit. Perhaps consider purchasing m 4.5's to save yourself the hassle.

Now we just have about 500 rivets to set in the morning :)

Couple days away from have this section complete!

  Jun 25, 2021     Section 26 part 3 - (28 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Riveted the seat belt attach lugs to the baggage ribs. Added the routing angles in center for the systems.

Attached the F-01405 (first part in done insection 25) bulkhead and bulkhead angles to the assembly.

Did a lot of dimpling for the nut plates on the ribs as well as all of the bottom #40 holes where it will mate with the skin.

Did NOT install nut plates here. Looked ahead in the plans and there are some that come in later but a lot of them do not appear to have nut plates deep into this build. All keep you posted when the nut plates go in (so far plans only have me rivetIng the nut plates in the ramp of the ribs.

***NOTE*** There was one bolt on the outboard bulkhead from the previous section that I noticed called for 2 washers (bolt-washer-bulkhead-doubler-washer-nut) where the others did NOT include a washer between the bolt and the bulkhead. However, if you do this you will need to upsize the bolt to an AN-14A instead of the AN-13A per the directions as you will not have enough protrusion to be sure the nut is gripping the bolt. (See image)

The fuselage is beginning to look like a big piece of the airplane!

  Jun 23, 2021     Section 26 part 2 - (120 hours)       Category: Fuselage

A lot of prep work again. Putting a small dent in the enormous bag of nut plates waiting for me. Couple things I learned this time.

1) If you are using the SEM self etching primer, dimple the edges first. When I used epoxy you could prime and then dimple, but with the self etching primer the primer cracks on the dimple if you prime before dimpling.

2) Squeeze as many rivets as you can, but you will need to buck some regardless. Increase the pressure about 15-20 psi if you are using the off-set rivet set.

3) When fluting to match the curvature if the skins, just flute the whole edge lightly to start. The first one I did hole by hole and then had to “un-flute” a little to relieve the curve that set in too deep by the end. The second-fourth edges went perfectly when I just did the entire curve and slowly brought in each one. No need to cleco them, just line up the holes and you will be able to make more, light adjustments without having to cleco each time. Then when you do cleco at the end you should be very pleased with the result.

Ended the day with a bunch of bolts. Little tired today so I will begin tomorrow with the rivets.

  Jun 21, 2021     Section 26 part 1 - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Today I spent about 2 hours sorting my parts by section number. I am doing the standard fuselage kit. There's a LOT of sub kits and a LOT of parts. Several of them needed to be primed (welded steel or other steel part-not stainless). I set up my computer and used the parts index to sort them all by section number. This was a long, tedious task but it will make the upcoming sections a lot quicker to gather the parts. Also, the same index list shows the material each part is made of so if you need to prime something that's deep in the build, this is a good time to check if it needs to be primed now or not.

After that, I got to work on the many, many ribs and doublers that are waiting for me.

I do enjoy this part so it was a very enjoyable day!

  Jun 20, 2021     Section 25 complete - (20 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Finished the first section of the fuselage (FWD MID FUSE BULKHEADS).

There were a lot of difficult rivers for this seemingly short section. I ended up using the offset rivet set for most of the rivers at the end but even with that I needed to push the cover ribs off to the side while setting the rivets.

I also needed to use a 90 degree drill to set the screw at the end. Already I am beginning to see the difficulties that come with this more advanced kit.

I switched to SEM self-etching primer for these parts. I still have some epoxy primer left from the last kit but I plan to use that only on the skins now. The SEM primer does a decent job, is quick and easy and is very fast. So it's probably the way I would go from the start if I did the entire project over again. The only thing I do not like about the self-etching ‘rattle cans' primer is the quality. It comes off easily even with the cleco's. That said, touch up is simple and easy so I think I will continue with the SEM rattle cans.

One last thing. I also got several bags with tons of AN bolts that were very similar in size. I did not separate them on the inventory, perhaps I should have. It was quite a boring job measuring them all out. I ended up spending 4 hours putting my hardware into the appropriate slots. I found that Van's did make some mistakes on some of the washers and miscellaneous parts. For example a K1000-06 nut plate is NOT the same as a K1000-6 nut plate. Something that they are very good at fixing when you let them know, however. Just give them a call or email and they send you the right hardware, even months after the kit arrives ☺�

On to section 26!

  Jun 10, 2021     Section 25 - (18 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Aft center bullhead and forward center bulkheads countersink and assembled. Bearing brackets and cover ribs primed and assembled. Missing the angle (F-01441-L&R) so I ordered an angle online and will fabricate my own.

Tricky plans with only the left side shown. Often the right side is identical but sometimes it's mirrored and so you gotta be slow and take your time.

  Jun 01, 2021     Fuselage Inventory - (16 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage standard kit, crate, delivery and tax. Inventory was tremendously long. Got myself set up and ready to begin. Section 25 begins with the FWD MID FUSE bulkheads. Those things are massive.

Just a heads up, I am still waiting on QuickBuild wings that should around in December. I skipped to the fuselage to allow myself to keep building over the summer. I was unable to do any work these past few months as there were major delays in shipping due to COVID-19.

Expect this build to continue as before.

  Feb 17, 2021     Finished Empanage - (100 hours)       Category: Empennage

I have finished the last piece of the empanage. There actually is still one fairing between the HS and the VS in the plans but that does not come until the finishing kit.

Fiberglass work is extremely fun and rewarding. I used micro bubbles mixed with the West Systems epoxy for most of my filler but also used some of the SuperFil from Aircraft spruce for some of the dents in my elevator tip fairings that I got from Van's. It's extremely light and easy to mix.

Now I am just waiting for the wings and fuselage to arrive. Supposed to be March/April so I am just doing as much research as possible about everything else in the meantime.

  Feb 07, 2021     Fairings - (100 hours)       Category: Empennage

For the fairings I purchased:

Epoxy (west systems)
Pro Filler
Bidirectional cloth
Spreaders
Micro bubbles
Dispensers

I also purchased for fasteners the 2 lug and 1 lug nutplates for the #04 screws. Aircraft spruce did not have these so I found them at Spencer Aircraft. I also got soft rivets for attaching the nutplates to the fairings.

There's quite a bit of work to get the fairings to be perfect. Both of my elevator fairings were dented and I had to repair them, Van's didn't even respond to my request for new ones. In the end it was just a little bit of filler and all is nice and smooth.

When I started it was very cold so I used a fast hardner, but then the temperature rose and I quickly learned to use the slow hardner.

Fur cutting the glass I used the dremmel and for sanding I have found that 60 grit 3M paper followed by 120 and then 400 for finish works extremely well.

Learning a lot about fiberglass and enjoying every second of it.

  Jan 26, 2021     Empanage Attach - (15 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the aft fuselage skins and attached the pieces. It was great to pull out the rudder from the upstairs closet.

I ended up having to do quite a bit it molding of the elevators leading edge to make sure it didn't rub on the attachment brackets.
One cool tool (see picture below) my mentor made was built out it PVC pipe and really made installing and adjusting those rod bearings a lot easier.
I also purchased a light duty torque wrench (range 10-110 foot-lbs) so the accuracy for the bolts on the attach point was better.
In addition I ordered all new hardware from aircraft spruce so that when I am done with all the adjustments I will will replace the hardware with the final hardware from the new set.

  Jan 07, 2021     Rudder Fairings - (12 hours)       Category: Empennage

Added two rudder cable exit fairings. It took some planning but we decided to rivet them to help the fairings lay down and we used the two front blind rivets that hold the plastic guides and then match drilled the #40 holes on top and bottom to help them lay down.

I had to use the close quarter dimples to dimple the skins since they were already installed. These fairings were purchased from aircraft spruce and are .025" thick aluminum.

  Jan 03, 2021     Systems - (15 hours)       Category: Empennage

I installed the trim tab wires, the ELT antenna, the ELT power source (phone cable), the pitot static system, the rudder cables, the ADSB antenna and the tail strobe wires. I laced the wires after they were layed out and corrected the positions and lengths, and then for added security I used tank sealant on the bushings housing my rudder cables to keep them from moving around as they are used.

  Dec 20, 2020     Aft Fueslage wiring - (12 hours)       Category: Empennage

With the new skin properly dimpled and all the parts primed we riveted the bottoms skin and then attached the longerons, j-channels and remaining bulkheads. Later the wiring per instructions (not finalized, just routed) and then attached the left side skin.

Came out beautiful!

The wiring took us about 2 hours to do properly and I was very grateful to have my mentor Ted with me to guide me through the process.

Lots of work still to do but it's looking like a very nice back end of a plane!

  Dec 02, 2020     AFT Fuselage - (45 hours)       Category: Empennage

Even though I reduced the dimple die of the female part of the 3/32" dimple die the part left smiley faces on the curve of the side skins. I only did one and then stopped to order a new one. Big cost to replace the skin but I would have hated seeing those smiley faces on the skins. I ordered a new reduced die from Aircraft Tool Supply and the new skin arrived yesterday. I will practice on the replaced skin until I am ready to do the new one (with no smiley face).

  Oct 03, 2020     Elevators - (40 hours)       Category: Empennage

This has been a lot of work and very confusing but so far it's turning our beautiful. Just needed to slow down and read carefully and so I haven't been moving as fast as before. But it's shaping out really great.

  Sep 01, 2020     Elevators Day 1 - (8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Began working on the elevators. Pretty basic stuff. Little cutting, little trimming, little fluting. But first time I actually fabricated some foam parts for the TE if the elevators. $79 belt sander from Harbor freight paid for itself today.

  Aug 31, 2020     Finished Horizontal Stabilizer - (60 hours)       Category: Empennage

So I had to replace a few parts including a spar but man, this came out just about perfect! There's a total of about 1000 rivets (seriously, that's accurate) and I can say that every single one of them has been checked. Only had to drill out about a dozen. Getting pretty good at these things now, this is such a fun project!

  Aug 22, 2020     HS main spar assembly - (80 hours)       Category: Empennage

We finished the main assembly. Onto the skins. Riveting the nose ribs to the skins take very tiny hands, of which I do not have. This was the biggest challenge so far. So nice to have this long bucking bar from Cleveland Tool's.

I also had to replace the flange bearing and the brackets for the hinge because I damaged the housing with the bucking bar. Why didn't I squeeze them? I don't know, I did the second time. Thank you Van's for the 24 hours turn around on new pieces for only $80!

  Aug 19, 2020     Finished prep and Primed - (12 hours)       Category: Empennage

We finished all the prep, Dimpled everything and now we are primed. All that's left if the assembly of the HS.

I decided to prep everything before any riveting. So now everything is primed and ready to go. This was a very big task and a ton of hours of prep but everything turned out just beautiful. Can't wait to put this all together.

  Aug 17, 2020     Horizontal Stabilizer Prep - (30 hours)       Category: Workshop

I've decided to prep everything and prime before setting any rivets so the first few days of this has been a ton of hours drilling, counter-sinking, bending and deburring. Using the 3M wheel saved me a lot of time but there's several places that I had to do by hand. Fluting on the other hand took like 20 minutes, so it's not all bad.

I also drilled out some #30 holes on the spar and spar caps where they should have been #40 and so I decided to replace the spar (which was not cheap!). But with minimum edge distance at a premium on this spars there really was no decision. Lesson learned: Slow down and triple check before you drill!

  Aug 06, 2020     Cannibalize the Van's crate - (4 hours)       Category: Workshop

The plywood and the wheels were the most expensive part but this will come in handy for the Horizontal Stabilizer

  Aug 05, 2020     Finished Rudder and Vertical Stabilizer - (30 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the Rudder. Trailing edge and leading edge were intense and time consuming but turned out great thanks to my wife Liz and my mentor Ted!

  Jul 30, 2020     Vertical Stabilizer Primed - (40 hours)       Category: Empennage

I completed all the drilling, dimpling and countersinking for the VS. Primed now and ready for rivets in a day or two.

One thing is that I had to skip the first part of trimming the front spar because the doubler is still not here (back-ordered) so these let's will just sit and wait (primed) until it arrives and then I will be able to piece it all together with rivets.

  Jul 26, 2020     Counter sink Rudder TE. Took a lot of practice on the removed piece to counter sink both sides without widening the diameter of the hole. Once the Counter Sink bit was tuned just right, the process was fairly easy. - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

  Jul 24, 2020     Priming the rudder - (13 hours)       Category: Paint / Decals

I went ahead and purchased the AZKO Epoxy primer from Aircraft Spruce. Ted helped me get started with the compressor and sprays gun (the 9 dollar harbor freight gun) and it works great! Rivets are bout to go in!

  Jul 23, 2020     Rudder coming along - (10 hours)       Category: Tools

Today we prepped and prime the main rudder spar and a few of the other pieces. Match drilled all the skins that were called for and dimpled almost everything. Much easier o do with a couple friends (Thanks Ted and Austin!)

  Jul 22, 2020     Welcome to my workshop - (20 hours)       Category: Tools

I spent a lot of time making the workbenches and putting up the peg bird and organizing all my tools. I did purchase a new tool box from Harbor Freight (the blue US General Mechanics Toolbox) for my airplane tools. I kept the box Van's sent me for the larger skins and my wife is incredibly supportive allowing me to take over the entire 3 car garage (mostly) for the initial phase of this build which is my first build.

  Jul 22, 2020     Air Compressor - (2 hours) Category: Tools

I purchased this from Harbor Frieght. It requires oil but that's literally a piece of cake and actually I believe Oil Required compressors last longer. At any rate, this is a VERY GOOD compressor. Very happy with it. Also got a gun from them for priming my parts. $18 at Harbor Freight.

  Jul 22, 2020     Band Saw - (1 hour) Category: Tools

I was unable to find an 18 TPI blade so I ordered one from Blade Serpent. The 14 TPI blade is ok but very rough.

  Jul 22, 2020     Bench grinder and belt sander - (2 hours)       Category: Tools

Left the grinder open on the side with the 3M wheel. Belt sander is best for beginning and then finish up with the 3M wheel. Both of these I got from Harbor Freight. 3M wheel I got from Cleveland Tools

  Jul 22, 2020     Preparing for priming - (8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Built a table for dimpling to hold the skin over C-Frame tool (Plans from Cleveland Tools). Removed the vinyl from inside and along rivet hole lines. Built a table out of chicken wire to hold ribs and stiffners for priming. Purchased the AZKO primer set from Aircraft Spruce for $200.