Jul 14, 2021     10-23 & 10-24: Tail cone complete - (1.3 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Big milestone. Got the last of the tailcone skin rivets done for now. I installed the forward top skin temporarily just because I kept bumping into the flimsy F-1006 bulkhead.

Installed the battery tray temporarily as well as the Garmin pitch servo bracket. Still waiting on the Van's yaw servo bracket. Also attached and torqued the shoulder belt harnesses to close out the section.

Excited about moving on to the empennage attachment this weekend. I'm going to need to skip the elevator attachment to the horizontal stabilizer because I still don't have my back-ordered control horns. I did speak to Van's this week though and they said “imminent”. We'll see.

  Jul 10, 2021     10-23: Top skin riveting - (2.2 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got started on the task of riveting the top skin on the tailcone. I knew this would mean getting inside the cone and was kinda putting it off. I moved the cone to the floor and set up a fan blowing right into it. It wasn't too bad getting in there.

Once again the wife was a huge help working the big bucking bar while I back-riveted from the inside. With me stuck in the cone she helped with a few new tasks like confirming the line pressure on the air compressor and verifying rivet sizes in the plans.

We finished the longitudinal stiffeners in our first session. Will come back for bulkheads and longerons.

7/11: got the bulkheads and most of the left side longerons done. These all came out really well with the wife on the gun and me on bucking bar inside the cone. She's becoming quite the riveter. Will be very helpful going forward.

There is a little bit of faceting of the kin around the aft most bulkhead similar to what the manual describes on the stabilizer ribs. This are will be covered with a fairing so I'm not concerned but a good point to remember going forward - need to shape the tabs on all curved bulkheads and ribs to avoid this.

  Jul 04, 2021     10-21 & 10-22: Aft deck riveting - (2.0 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got back from 4th of July trip early enough to get some airplane work done. Got the aft deck cleco'd in place and proceeded with the rivets. I was able to squeeze a handful of them but most had to be bucked with the double offset set.

Then install some of the bolt hardware. Temporary installed the bolts in the tail attach doubler so that I could match drill the bolts for the tail attach brackets. Those were easy to match drill with the 12” #30 bit but final drilling to #12 was tight. I was just able to get the right alignment with my drill laying in the aft deck.

Proceeded to install the bolts. I contemplated installing the vertical bolts with the nuts on top so they would be easier to inspect, but Van's clearly shows them nuts down so I redid them.

Felt good to get that done. Ready to install the top skin.

  Jun 28, 2021     10-20 & 10-21: Finally done riveting lower tailcone - (4.0 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Had my riveting partner a bit this evening and was finally able to knock out the rivets in the bottom curved corners. I back-riveted them from the inside while she held the bucking bar on the outside. Worked well and was able to get the bulkhead tabs tight to the skin.

Did a little more work to finish up the aft rivets. Did a little QC of the overall tailcone work and found about five rivets that sat a little proud and I drilled them out and redid them.

Moved on to installing the battery tray ribs. Following the guidance of other builders before me, I installed the ribs to the skin prior to riveting the battery tray attach angles. Worked great.

Riveted the aft portion of the side skins to the longerons. These were fine except the ones that coincide with bulkhead tabs. It was very tough to get those to lay tight. Had to redo several times before getting something passable.

Reflected on a big step: the riveting quality has gotten a lot better. Turn the gun down! I'm running like 30psi and using the flush set with the urethane ring. My confidence in setting flush rivets is much improved. I did back-rivet some against the plate but found the best quality in descending order: squeezer, back-rivet with partner on bucking bar, solo bucking bar and flush set. I did let my wife use the the flush set with me on the bucking bar for hard to reach places and those came out fine too.

Going on vacation for a week tomorrow so this was a good milestone to hit.

One last item to take care of and that was installation of the static ports I bought from Cleaveland tools. Cleaned and scuff the skins around the ports and scuffed the ports themselves. Mixed up a small amount of tank sealant and applied and taped. It can cure while I'm gone. Remaining static system parts should be here when I return.

  Jun 27, 2021     10-20: getting closer on riveting - (2.2 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Flipped the tailcone around and got the bulkhead rivets on the right skin done. Started to proceed with rivets on the aft bottom skin and the rudder stop braces.

I realized I had installed the rudder stop brace F-1056 upside down and it was not aligning correctly with the rudder stop stiffeners F-1055. Had to drill out the four flush rivets in the aft bulkhead assembly and redo them. It could have been a lot worse. Was able to get them with the gun, although I did have to drill them out several times to get them to sit perfectly flush.

Almost done with this section. Just need to get the rivets in the bottom radius done. I tried to back-rivet those myself but they came out terrible. Could t maintain a rotation of the cone against the back plate that would keep those flush. I will try to do them with the wife holding the big bucking bar.

  Jun 24, 2021     10-20: Still tailcone riveting and static system - (2.8 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Took a break for wisdom teeth removal. Was a little depressed to not get to work on the airplane but felt much better this morning after pounding a few rivets.

Got another couple hours in after work. Got through all of the left side stiffeners and started on the left bulkheads. Was able to back rivet those to try to keep them tight against the skin. Some are tucked under the j channel stiffeners and very tough to get to though.

Looking ahead at installing static ports and realized I should just do all of the static plumbing now before the top skin goes on. Ordered lines and fitting and some hardware.

Purchases: Steinair: static lines, fittings; ACS: nut plates, adel clamps, screws, snap bushings

  Jun 21, 2021     10-20: more tailcone riveting - (1.8 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Finished up the bottom skin, which is great because now I can proceed solo for a while. Had a little challenge with how to set the center rivet in the aft most bulkhead. It sits between to other skins and the flush set cannot get to it. I made a little shim skin to place over the rivet and it set without any trouble.

Flipped the cone back upright and started riveting the side skin stiffeners. Everything is looking good so far.

The verdict is in on my new Boeing flush set with the urethane rim. It's awesome. I also got a red rubber swivel set. It's ok, but is tough to compress enough to keep the rivets from sitting proud.

  Jun 19, 2021     10-20: tailcone riveting - (2.9 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

This is going to span several days. It's a lot of work.

Set up to try to back-rivet the bottom skin against my steel plate. First set of rivets came out fine, but it does scratch the skin a bit. I wanted to also try out the large round bucking bar I bought specifically for back-riveting. Had to recruit the wife to help a bit. These came out awesome and no scratches on the skin. That's how I will proceed for as much as I can. That means I need a helper though. No problem because it is fun to work with the wife on the project. We developed a good flow pretty quickly which will be important for future dual riveting.

Got through most of the bottom stiffeners today, probably overall 50% if the bottom skin.

6/20 update: made a little more progress on the tail cone but not as much as I wanted to finish this weekend. The good news is that every rivet is perfect. The bad news is that it requires a partner and I only get to steal the wife away to the shop for 15 minute spurts at a time. Oh well, we can finish the bottom in the mornings before work. Kids are out of school now too so more time for pre-work plane building time.

Main reason I didn't get as much done this weekend was because it was Father's Day and Ben and I flew down for lunch with my dad. Almost more fun than driving rivets.

  Jun 18, 2021     10-20: tailcone reassembly - (2.0 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got the sawhorses back out and assembled the tailcone similar to before. This time I installed all clecos from the inside. I'm going to at least try to back-rivet most of the stiffeners to the skins and flipping the clecos will allow that.

Got the bottom skin and right skin installed upside down on the saw horses and then flipped it all onto the bench as before and installed the right stiffeners and skin.

Looking pretty good.

  Jun 18, 2021     10-18 & 10-19: Bulkhead assembly - (2.1 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Worked on assembly of the bulkhead components. With some clever arrangement of flat dies and washers I was able to get everything with the squeezer. Would have been easier with a Longeron yoke, but I'm mailing due without.

Got down the side skins and finished the section by riveting the nut plates for the rear access cover plates.

Ready to assemble the cone this weekend.

  Jun 17, 2021     10-17 & 10-15: Priming finished - (2.9 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got up early this morning to try to finish up the priming before work and before it gets too hot. Finally got through the last pieces of the tail cone. Decided to prime and paint the battery hold down bolts too as my hands were filthy with rust every time I picked them up.

Was so excited to have some parts to assemble, I started clecoing some of the aft bulkhead pieces together. Then I saw some of the rivet call outs as AD426 flush rivets. Oh yeah, I forgot to dimple! What else did I forget?

Back tracked through section 10 to see what I skipped when I jumped ahead to prime. Found I should be back on 10-15 and proceeded with the dimpling of the aft skins. I also missed the countersinking of the hold down prior to priming. Countersunk it and touched it up with a q-tip.

Dimpled the #30 holes associated with the forward F-1006 bulkhead.

Next, I dimpled the perimeter flanges of all the bulkheads. Now I'm ready for assembly!

  Jun 15, 2021     10-17: Tail cone priming 4 - (1.5 hours) Category: 10: Tail Cone

Primed half the remaining parts this evening. OMG it's hot outside. But got through a good chunk. One more brief session and will be done.

Also finished the dimpling of the right skin perimeter.

  Jun 13, 2021     10-16: Dimpling skins and stiffeners - (3.6 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Lots of dimpling today. Still a bit to go.

Got through all the skin stiffeners, the bottom skin, aft top skin and one side skin. Remembered to bend the edges of the overlapping skins prior to dimpling.

Didn't dimple the forward top skin since I'd like to leave the vinyl on it and it won't be installed for a while.

Something to note that I have not previously discussed: I am jumping around a little between sections based on my priming and dimpling process. I am priming prior to dimpling anything. It is very difficult to properly prep parts that have been already dimpled. The dimples just chew through scotchbrite pads and your finger tips. I find that the primer is durable enough to dimple after priming. Their requires me to plan accordingly and prime parts before the instructions typically say to do so. So far no issues.

6/14 update: it's getting quite hot in the shop so trying to squeeze in a little work each morning. Got through most of the right skin. Just need to finish the perimeter holes which I can get with the squeezer. Parts from Van's arrived so need to work in a priming day.

  Jun 12, 2021     10-17: Tail cone priming 3 - (3.0 hours) Category: 10: Tail Cone

Lots of priming today. Got the remaining skins and all of the stiffeners.

Have a lot of parts that I can start dimpling now so can take a little break from priming. Still waiting on the new bulkheads from Van's anyways.

  Jun 09, 2021     10-17: Tail cone priming 2 - (2.0 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got the longerons and all the other misc parts primed. Pretty parts. Just the bulkheads and two top skins left to prime.

My replacement parts from Van's have shipped along with some back ordered items. Unfortunately the yaw servo attach bracket is back ordered. I'll make due.

  Jun 07, 2021     10-17 & 10-23: Elevator bellcrank and battery tray - (2.8 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

My nephew was in town so I saved a little project for him. He has a wet A&P so he should be able to handle it.

We separated and deburred the bellcrank parts then cleco'd and final drillled the holes through the center bearing. I assumed those were not final drilled.

Prepped and primed a small batch of parts including the remaining battery tray items.

Squeezed the rivets for the bellcrank assembly and finished the part.

Moved on to the battery nutplates. Might as well move ahead to bolting everything together as shown in 10-23. Found that I did need to final drill the 3/16” and 1/4” holes for the AN bolts to fit. Pretty cool assembly. I final torques the elevator bellcrank bolt but none of the others since the plans say not to.

  Jun 06, 2021     10-17: Tail cone priming 1 - (2.0 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got the big side and bottom skins prepped and primed. This is again going to take several batches.

  Jun 04, 2021     10-16: Battery tray - (0.6 hour)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Just some quick fabrication and prep work on the battery tray. Separated the parts and deburred then countersunk the #40 holes. Not a lot of drilling required.

  Jun 02, 2021     10-16: Countersinking longerons - (1.8 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Just a little countersinking after work. Nothing special.

Did it all by hand with the electric drill and the micro cage. I have a hard time with this typically, but getting a little better. I've learned that starting at a lower rpm until the bit begins to bite and then accelerating as it cuts works better.

  Jun 01, 2021     10-15: Deburring and misc stuff - (2.5 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Cut and removed the forward triangular portion of the right skin per plans. Was a little nervous about that cut but no big deal with some snips. Filed it smooth.

Then step 4 - deburr everything. The one little step that can take hours. All of the holes that were drilled in the stiffeners and longerons get deburred. Upon inspection I actually caught a few holes that didn't get drilled on the left side. Cleco'd the left stiffeners back to the skins and drilled the few missing holes. It was just a couple so not too worried about fit up.

Deburred the edges of the big skins. And set up the countersink for all the #40 holes in the longerons. Tested on the rudder stop brace. I'll tackle the longerons next.

Step drilled the hole in the aft bottom skin for the tie down bolt.

Will come back to all the dimpling in this section after priming.

Hit the 200 hour mark.

6/9 update: deburred the two top skins that I forgot.

  May 31, 2021     10-12 thru 10-14: Top skins and aft deck - (4.8 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

A very productive Memorial Day. Got the top skins cleco'd in place and match drilled the upper stiffeners. I opted to leave the vinyl on the forward top skin F-1074 since it is going to be quite a while before it is actually needed again. Try to keep it from getting too scratched while in storage.

Fabricated the horizontal stab attachment bar support angle and the elevator up stop angle. Match drilled the aft deck to the longerons, making sure to check that it was all still level. Clamped the support angle and up stop and match drilled all of it in place.

Want much to do on 10-14 since my shoulder harness anchors are back ordered. I did final drill the holes for the static ports and upsized them to accommodate the Cleaveland Tools static ports that I bought.

Then it was time to disassemble everything and get ready for priming including quite a bit of deburring.

Spent at least an hour cleaning up the shop after a long weekend.

Noticed during disassembly that I had a few holes misaligned when I drilled through the longeron and into the bulkhead tabs. Ended up with double holes in three separate bulkheads. After sleeping on it I decided to just order new ones. While I'm at it I ordered an AHRS tray and the yaw servo mount. The yaw servo bracket is unjustifiably expensive yet still significantly less than the comparable part from Garmin.

Purchases: Van's: replacement bulkheads 1007-L, 1007-R & 1008-R, AHRS bracket, Yaw servo bracket.

  May 30, 2021     10-11: Longeron drilling - (1.5 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Clamped and drilled the longerons. Just a lot of holes but not too bad. I went ahead and drilled to #40s, not the 3/32” called in the plans since the hole in the skin is already #40 and there will be no additional final drill step later. My bends worked well and had no trouble achieving the alignment with the skins.

Got to skip most of the other steps in this section since everything is already final sized. It would have taken many hours to final drill all of the skins. Thanks Van's!

  May 29, 2021     10-7 thru 10-10: More tailcone fit up - (5.2 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Finished drilling the skin stiffeners on the left and then flipped the whole assembly back to right side up on the workbench. Cleco'd the right skin on and marked removed the vinyl along the bottom skin overlap.

Installed the two aft most bulkheads and the bottom rear skin. Took a little while to figure out the orientation of the skin, but then could it is shown clearly in figure 3.

Then drilled the holes for the right side stiffeners. That took a lot of my day with several starts and stops.

Moved on to fabrication of the rudder stop stiffeners and the rudder stop brace. Tricky to get all that installed into the tight back end of the plane but got it all cleco'd and match drilled.

Fabricated and countersunk the bellcrank rib angles and cleco'd in place on the bellcrank ribs. Fabricated the spacer for the aft deck and temporarily held in place on the rear bulkhead with double sided tape. Installed the aft deck and confirmed everything lines up well with the skins and longerons. Ready to start drilling longerons.

What a day. There is definitely a large airplane piece in the garage. Disassembly and priming all this is going to be heartbreaking.

  May 28, 2021     10-7: Initial tail cone fit up - (2.5 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Plans call for sawhorses at least 38” tall to support the tail cone during assembly. After a bit of searching, there don't seem to be a lot of off the shelf options so I decide to just get some brackets and 2x4s. Quick to trip Lowe's and $70 later! Geez the rising lumber prices are driving up the cost of my build.

Got the sawhorses assembled and started erecting the tail cone upside down, suspended from the bottom skin. Cleco'd the formers in place and the slipped the appropriate stiffeners into place and match drilled them, being careful to keep the centerline hole I drew previously centered in the hole.

Then hung the right side skin. Wow, we have an airplane in the garage! Proceeded with drilling the first bay of the stiffeners then stopped for the day to just admire.

I did leave the vinyl on the bottom skin to protect it a bit and provide masking for primer. I did remove the vinyl where it laps under the side skin. Used the cleco'd side skin as a guide and did the soldering iron against it.

It's so shiny that it is difficult to photo. After seeing such nice unblemished skin, I was finally motivated to pull the trigger on a new flush set with a rubber guard. Maybe I'll have better luck with it. Also ordered a larger round bucking bar for back riveting. Might use it on the tail cone but I'm pretty sure will need for the wing.

Purchases: Lowe's: sawhorse supplies, Yardstore: flush rivet sets and bucking bar

  May 27, 2021     10-6: Longeron bends - (1.0 hour)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got the main longerons cut to length from the 3/4” aluminum angle stock. Drilled and noticed the holes per plan and then marked the bend location.

Clamped in the vice and whacked with a mallet to the 2 degree bend. Checked it against the skin and kept whacking until it lined up relatively well.

Setting up for a nice long Memorial Day weekend of tailcone fit up. Need to go buy sawhorses.

  May 27, 2021     10-5: Forward bulkhead and longerons - (2.1 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Got the F-1006 bulkhead pieces deburred and cleco'd. Starting give a sense of the size of the tail cone.

Cut the various F-1047 longerons to length and mitered the corners.

Marked the rivet center lines on the longerons.

  May 25, 2021     10-4: Bulkheads - (2.3 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Did the small amount of fabrication for the F-1010 bulkhead. Cut the angle stock on the band saw for the Horizontal Stabilizer support angle. I measure the 5/32 taper on each end but cut them the wrong direction. Luckily was able to recut them on the opposite leg of the angle and maintain the correct overall length.

Cleco'd the F-1010 pieces, clamped the support bracket and match drilled the #30 holes.

Got the F-1008 and F-1007 bulkheads deburred and drilled the rudder cable holes in F-1007. The rudder cable bracket that attached to F-1008 is back ordered.

  May 23, 2021     10-2 & 10-3: Rear bulkheads - (2.5 hours)       Category: 10: Tail Cone

Started on the tail cone with fabrication and tapping of the tie down block. Tapping was straight forward, just took my time and backed the tap out every couple of turns. Then clean the tap, oil and repeat. Took several iterations, maybe a dozen or more. Cleco'd and match drilled the hole down to the two aft F-1012 bulkheads.

Proceeded with some light fabrication of the rudder cable support bracket and drilling for nut plates. Drilled the #12 holes in the drill press thinking they'd come out nice, but they are totally triangular and the AN bolts don't fit well. Time to buy a set of reamers for all the common bolt sizes. Might as well order static ports too; I'll need them soon enough.

Straightened the horizontal stabilizer brackets. As stated in the plans the parts were well out of flat and required bending back in the vice. My vice setup is far from ideal, but I did manage to get it whacked back straight using the method in the plans.

Cleco'd the HS stabilizer brackets to the F-1011 bulkhead and match drilled the rudder cable bracket and stiffener.

Excited to be working on the tail cone. Gonna be a lot of work. And a lot of priming.

Purchases: Cleaveland Tool: reamers, static port