Mar 10, 2024     Fuselage rotisserie - (1.0 hour)       Category: Workshop

In other news, a few weeks ago I picked up an engine stand from my co-worker Phillip in Houston that he had once used as a fuselage rotisserie for his RV-8 taildragger. Since his aircraft could be supported by the tail wheel he only needed one stand and support the other end on a table. However, I would need a second one to support it on both ends, so I bought up another nearly identical engine stand from Harbor Freight, though seemingly a newer revision that now includes a longer handle, a grease fitting, and a snap-ring to hold the shaft in place.

Phillip had also mentioned that his engine stand had been intentionally mis-assembled to remove most of the shaft angle. I compared the new and the old engine stands and replicated his modification into the new one, which involved omitting the extra wheel tube, flipping the horizontal support tube upside-down, and drilling a hole in that tube to directly accept a single caster wheel. Although I'm still far from actually needing to use it, I have it ready for when I do.

  Mar 05, 2024     Finishing kit delivery - (3.0 hours)       Category: Workshop

Due to the uncertainty of the laser-cut parts and the bankruptcy reorganization of Vans, I had decided to put all work on pause until the dust had settled. Things seem to be stabilizing and this past Tuesday I received my finishing kit delivered directly to my hangar at the airport.

I had ordered this kit in Jan 2023 and the original delivery date then was projected to be in March 2024, so I actually got received it on time despite all of the business chaos. I did end up having to accept a price increase due to the bankruptcy settlement, and the wheels/brakes ended up getting separated into a new subkit that you have to now pay extra for. (I already have that Grove wheel/brake subkit and the firewall forward subkit ordered and they will apparently be coming together in a couple more months.)

In any case, I opted to have this kit delivered to my hangar since I knew it contained some very large pieces, such as the fiberglass engine cowling halves and the large plexiglass canopy windows. Since I planned to do the final assembly of these large pieces at the hangar, rather than my small garage it would be easier to directly ship there and avoid having to transport them again later in my car.

The kit also contained all of the replacements for the laser-cut parts (from my previously received wings, empennage, and fuselage kits) that I had requested on the Vans portal website. I had opted to request all of the "red" parts (those recommended for replacement), but none of the laser-cut parts that were deemed by Vans to be less important or structurally insignificant. I also did not order any of the "gold" parts (those adjacent to parts that might be damaged during replacement), since I hadn't damaged anything yet. I've been informed I'll be able to order those "gold" parts in the future at no cost (including shipping) should I need them.

I've started the inventory process of all of these parts, though it will take a few more nights for me to finish that process up. I've also been recycling all of the packing paper and cardboard, as well as dismantling the wooden shipping crate. I'll also need to see if I can get rid of the growing number of wooden shipping pallets that have been accumulating at the hangar.

  Oct 21, 2023     Drilling out the rudder spar - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I've been taking a significant break in building due in part to the laser cut parts issues from Vans Aircraft, and basically running out of components that I could start assembling without eventually hitting a part I would be blocked on.

One of the pieces that I'll need to replace is the spar in the rudder. Fortunately, I decided not to make the final rounded bends in the leading edge of the rudder skins, since that have made the spar removal significantly harder. There were quite a few rivets that needed to be drilled out, but I think I managed to remove them all without negatively impacting any of the skins or ribs that are being kept. This took longer than I expected, and I ended up doing this operation over several days just to take a break from the task.

There are just a few more large rivets heads that are stuck in the rudder horn, but I'm considering just ordering a new one also since trying to remove the rest of the rivets is likely going to introduce some unintended damage to it.

  Sep 26, 2023     Propeller and spinner delivered - (1.0 hour)       Category: Propeller

I had placed my order for the Hartzell composite 2-blade propeller (along with the engine) back in spring, to take advantage of the Van's Aircraft promotion during the Sun N Fun event. About a month ago I was asked to make the final payment for the propeller, and today this ~70 pound package was delivered by FedEx. I spent a little bit of time opening and inspecting the contents but I haven't fully removed the propeller from the box since that seems like the best way to protect it until I'm ready for it.

  Sep 23, 2023     Cutting elevator foam blocks - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The trailing edges of the elevator uses foam blocks that are cut to shape and glued in place. To create these foam blocks I had to cut out paper templates and use spray adhesive to hold them onto the rectangular foam chunks. Once the adhesive had dried overnight I could use the bandsaw to roughly cut the foam pieces, and then the bench-top sander to trim the pieces closely to the lines on my paper templates. This all worked out quite well. Unfortunately, one piece of foam tipped over and out of my hand during sanding and is very slightly misshapen on one side, but I don't think it is significant enough to be a concern since the glue that will be later used (tank sealant) is quite viscous and can fill that slight void easily.

Next was to take two of the elevator skins and trim off an excess corner that was the result of the manufacturing process. I marked the line using a ruler and then cut the bulk of it using sheet metal snips, and then refined the line using the bench-top grinder again.

  Sep 17, 2023     Starting Elevator prep - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I've started working on the Elevator by gathering all of the punched parts and looking at what steps I could accomplish while I wait for the necessary replacements for the laser-cut ones. Hopefully the promised ordering form will become available later this week, though I'm sure it will be weeks/months before I receive all of the replacement parts.

After some blue film removal, I cut the trailing ribs apart on the bandsaw and then smoothed all of their edges with the Scotchbrite wheel on the benchtop grinder. There was also some deburring of the existing rivet holes with my hand deburring tool. Then I clecoed all of the rib halves together as instructed, which also keeps them together and minimizes the chances of getting lost.

Then I marked the Shear Clips with a pen and cut them apart on the bandsaw as well, followed by edge smoothing.

What's next? Looks like cutting some pieces of foam for the trailing edges.

  Sep 14, 2023     Laser cut parts inventory - (2.0 hours)       Category: Research

I spent a little more time identifying and separating the laser-cut parts that were indicated on the spreadsheet published by Vans, in preparation of the ordering form that will be available soon. Unfortunately, I have a fairly high percentage of laser cut parts in my empennage and fuselage kits, so a lot of my progress will be limited until I'm able to get the replacement parts.

  Sep 11, 2023     Finishing last rivets of HS - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

The only thing remaining on the Horizontal Stabilizer was to finish squeezing the last rivets on the flange of the rear spar that connects it to the skins. These were all the same length rivets so it made things go very quickly with the hand squeezer.

What's next? There are several laser-cut parts in all of the remaining sections of the empennage kit, so I may be starting to run low on new sections that I can start. Hopefully Vans announces the LCP replacement ordering page this week, though I'm sure it will probably be weeks or even months before I will receive all of those replacements.

  Sep 10, 2023     Beginning to rivet HS rear spar - (0.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was just a brief session to start installing some of the larger rivets that hold the Horizontal Stabilizer rear spar together. On each end of the HS there were 3 solid round-head rivets that needed to be installed with my hand squeezer. Then along each of the internal ribs, 3 more blind rivets needed to be installed using the hand rivet puller. Finally, along the two inner edges of both sides of the HS there were 3 more solid round-head rivets that needed to be squeezed.

What's next? Start squeezing all of the flush rivets that hold the skin to the rear spar.

  Sep 08, 2023     Riveting lower skin of HS - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session, I went about finishing the riveting of the fluish rivets on the lower skin of the Horizontal Stabilizer. These all involved positioning the bucking bar inside the skin with one hand and holding the air rivet gun in the other on the outside of the skin. As with the previous session, there were 4 different length rivets that I had to keep track of and ensure they went into the right holes.

After that was done, I moved the rear spar assembly out of storage, positioned it between the skins, and then clecoed it into place.

What's next? Squeeze all of the final rivets on the rear spar, and some blind rivets for the ribs.

  Sep 05, 2023     Riveting top skin of HS - (4.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Progress continued on the Horizontal Stabilizer with me working on flush riveting the top skin. This work was actually done over several days as I had a spare moment, so this log entry is all of them combined. There's something like four different length rivets that I had to use, so it was important to keep track of which ones went where. I tried to stick with one size of rivet for as long as possible before moving on to the next size.

I've also been spending some time auditing which laser-cut parts I will need to consider re-ordering once Van's Aircraft opens up the new page. It looks like I may be pretty limited on what I can work on next, since most of the remaining assemblies have at least a few LCP that would prevent me from completing them.

What's next? Time to flush rivet the bottom skin, and then to attach the rear spar.

  Sep 01, 2023     Offset riveting the HS spar - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

After preparing myself as much as possible for the challenge, I started using the double-offset rivet set to drive these rivets that attach the inboard ribs to the forward spar of the Horizontal Stablizer. This type of riveting is always challenging for me and I usually end up having the attempt some of the rivets multiple times before I'm satisfied with the result.

After those spar rivets were done, I started using the hand squeezer on the AD3-3.5 rivets along the inboard edges and tips of the HS. These all proceeded without any issues, other than some clearance limitations in a few places where the lightnening holes in the ribs.

What's next? I'll have to use the air rivet gun to drive all of the remaining flush rivets in the skin, and then I'll join the rear spar assembly on.

  Aug 30, 2023     Nose ribs and HS assembly - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session started by repeating the work that I did yesterday on the other side of the Horizontal Stabilizer, by riveting the two nose ribs onto the other half of the skin section. This work seemed to go a little more quickly than it did yesterday, probably because I had fresh riveting practice.

Once those two final nose ribs were riveted, I positioned both skins on the cradles and then positioned the forward spar assembly into place. This was then followed by loading up several dozen clecos to hold everything in alignment and it was very satisfying to see such a huge assembly coming together.

Finally, I installed the dozen blind rivets that hold the spar assembly to the nose ribs in the skin with my hand riveter tool. This was challenging due to the limited space within the skin and the placement of the ribs, but I managed to get it done.

What's next? Some double-offset riveting near the center of the spar.

  Aug 29, 2023     Riveting nose ribs into HS skins - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session I started using the airgun to rivet two of the nose ribs into the Horizontal Stablizer skin. Riveting nose ribs is always a bit of a challenge because the surface isn't flat so you have to be very careful about the angle of the rivet gun and the bucking bar. Additionally, with very limited space inside of the skin I'm not even able to hold the bucking bar in an orientation that would put all of its mass in-line with the riveting action. I did end up having to drill out maybe 4 rivets and try setting them a second time before I was satisified with them.

What's next? Two more nose ribs in the other skin, and then I can begin attaching the leading spar to these pieces.

  Aug 28, 2023     Priming the HS skins - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was a quick session to spray some primer on the interiors of the Horizontal Stabilizer skins to provide some extra corrosion protection (beyond the Al-cladding provided from the factory). As with other skins that I've already done, I'm choosing to save weight/waste by only priming the areas of the skin that will be in contact with other internal components, since those are the areas where moisture will tend to accumulate and promote corrosion.

I started by scuffing the contact areas with a Scotch-brite pad to roughen up the surfaces and provide slightly better primer adhesion. Then a quick wipe-down of the surfaces with acetone to clean off the scuffing debris and any oils. Finally, a quick spray of self-etching primer and then resting until dry.

What's next? Time to start air riveting the nose ribs into the fronts of the skins.

  Aug 27, 2023     Riveting the HS ribs and stringers to the spar - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Now that all of the ribs and stringers of the Horizontal Stabilizer were primed, I could begin riveting these internal parts together into a basic assembly. The primary parts were the two modified inner ribs and the stringer web, and then bracing their sides with the two longer stringers. All of these parts were riveted together with round universal head rivets and squeezed with my hand squeezer.

Once those five pieces were joined, they could be connected to the forward spar, again with more universal head rivets using my hand squeezer. Some of the rivets were specified as using longer rivets where the spar doubler was penetrated, so I had to be sure to put those in the right places. After that, I riveted on more ribs along the outer sections of the forward spar, as well as just the two outermost nose ribs. (The remaining nose ribs will apparently be first riveted onto the skin and then blind riveted onto the forward spar later.)

I also spent some time treating all of the countersunk rivet holes in both spars with my alodine pen to minimize future corrosion risk in those holes.

What's next? I'm going to do some quick priming on the interior of the skins and then start air riveting the nose ribs.

  Aug 26, 2023     Counter-sinking HS stringers and priming parts - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The last parts in the Horizontal Stabilizer that needed to be machine-countersunk were the stringers. As before, I used my micro-stop drill tool to make these countersunk to allow the dimpled skin to later fit into these rivet holes. This countersinking had to be repeated for the two stringers.

Once that was done, I took the ribs and stringers and used a scotchbrite pad to scuff up the surfaces and then clean them with acetone. Then I sprayed a quick coat of self-etching primer and allowed these pieces to dry.

What's next? Time to start riveting together some of these internal parts.

  Aug 24, 2023     Counter-sinking the HS spars - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session I used the microstop machine-countersinking tool to prepare the flanges on both sides of both spars. Since these spars will eventually be riveted to a dimpled skin, they have to be countersunk for the backside of the dimple.

What's next? There's a couple of more pieces that need to be countersunk, and then I think I may need to spray some more primer prior to more riveting.

  Aug 22, 2023     Finish dimpling HS skin - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session was a repeat of last night's session but for the other skin of the Horizontal Stabilizer. As before, I did most of the dimpling on the DRDT2 table, and then finished up the dozen inaccessible holes with the hand-riveter with close-quarters dies.

What's next? Making lots of metal chips by machine countersinking the flanges in both spars

  Aug 21, 2023     Starting dimpling of H-stab skin - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I set out both skins for the Horizontal Stabilizer and used a sharpie to mark the rivet holes that shouldn't be dimpled. Then I took one skin over to the DRDT2 table and dimpled as many of the rivet holes that I could reach in the first skin. About a dozen or so rivet holes had to be dimpled with the pop-riveter die set.

What's next? Dimple the other skin, then machine-countersink the spars.

  Aug 20, 2023     Dimpling h-stab ribs - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This brief work session focused on preparing the ribs for the Horizontal Stabilizer. The first step was to match-drill some new rivet holes in the nose ribs and the inner ribs, using the spar as a template. The instructions specifically say to match-drill those two parts (nose and inner rib) individually, however I didn't see that note and attempted to drill them while they were both clecoed to the spar together. This unfortunately resulted in not having the HS-1004 inner ribs clecoed flush when match drilling, so their single center holes got slightly offset and then oblong-shaped when I tried to properly re-drill them.

While contemplating my options and whether I needed to order two replacement HS-1004 ribs, I realized that I could simply swap those badly drilled ribs for the other positions where the HS-1004 is used since they don't need the center hole there. I marked these bad holes with a "X" on their flanges, as seen in the right stack in the photo.

After puzzling over the intentions of the instructions for a while, I carefully marked all of the holes that didn't need dimpling and used the hand-squeezer to dimple the holes that needed it.

In other good news, I was able to borrow the H-stab cradles from Tyson, another RV-14 builder from my local EAA chapter, saving me probably a couple of hours of effort to manufacturing those single-use jigs.

What's next? Start preparing the skin for dimpling.

  Aug 09, 2023     Deburring H-stab ribs - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

I had some time to get back on the project, so I started by beginning some of the preparation of the ribs that will go in the Horizontal Stabilizer. The edges of all of these parts are still sharp from the factory punching process, so I used the Scotch-Brite wheel on the bench grinder to smooth the outer flat edges. All interior lightening holes were deburred with the hand deburring tool and then smoothed over with a Scotch-Brite pad. Then I used the bench grinder again to contour the leading edge facets of the nose ribs to prevent protrusions through the skin later.

What's next? Dry fitting, match driling of these ribs, and probably some priming.

  Aug 05, 2023     Riveting the H-stab spar - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

With the Horizontal Stablizer spar assembled to its doubler and two spar caps with clecos, I could now begin riveting them together. This involved both universal head and flush head rivets of multiple lengths, so it was important to keep track of which ones went in which hole. Fortunately I was able to squeeze all of them with my hand riveter. I did notice that some of the rivets in one of my jars were mixed up with rivets that were slightly too short, so I had to spend a little time hand-sorting them into the correct jars.

What's next? Time to start preparing the ribs to be assembled together.

  Aug 04, 2023     Priming H-stab spar - (0.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

I sprayed the Horizontal Stablizer spar parts with a quick coat of self-etching primer. Once they were dry, i moved them back inside to the workshop and clecoed them together.

In other news, I received word today that my Hartzell propeller was ready for final payment prior to shipping, so that means I'll be receiving it soon--even though I requested that my engine be scheduled for delivery at the end of next year.

What's next? Time to start some riveting.

  Aug 03, 2023     Drilling, countersinking, deburring, scuffing H-stab spar - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session, I clecoed the spar doubler plate to the spar and final drilled all of the matching holes. A couple of the larger 1/4" holes were called out to be final drilled using a drill press, so I did that too. Next, a dozen holes on the spar doubler and a bunch more on the spar flange had to be machine countersunk to allow flush rivets to be later installed.

Then I unclecoed all of the parts and begun a final deburring of all of the new holes, and then a quick scuff of all of the surfaces with a scotchbrite pad and a wipedown with acetone to prepare for priming.

What's next? Time to prime these parts and then begin riveting these spar parts together.

  Aug 02, 2023     Match drilling second spar cap for H-stab finished - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session involved repeating what I did last night and match drilling the remaining other spar car for the Horizontal Stabilizer. This was again done in two phases, with the drilling of the part that nests against the spar cap webbing first, and then deburring both surfaces, and match drilling the spar flange.

What's next? Match drilling the spar doubler against the spar.

  Aug 01, 2023     Match drilling first spar cap for H-stab - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Tonight's task was to clamp one of the spar cap (stiffeners) to the inner flange of the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer, and then match drill all of the holes. The holes on the spar web were #30, while the holes on the spar flange were #40, and there was a bunch of deburring of the holes in between the two operations to ensure that there was a completely tight match between the surfaces. I was initially concerned about the amount of bowing/bend that was in these spar caps as they had been delivered from the factory (the instructions mention that there would be some bend), but they clamped quite flat against the spar just fine.

What's next? Repeat the same steps for the other spar cap.

  Jul 30, 2023     Cutting spar caps for H-stab - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Resuming work on my Horizontal Stabilizer meant trimming the corners off 4 pieces of spar caps (bent stiffeners) by using the bandsaw to extend a line through notches that had been made by the factory. After cutting off the excess, I used the bench sander to even up the cut, and then the scotchbrite wheel on the bench grinder to deburr and smooth all edges.

What's next? Match drilling these spar cars.

  Jul 29, 2023     Mounting TV in workshop - (2.0 hours)       Category: Workshop

This was just a minor improvement to my workshop, but I spent a couple of hours mounting a wall-mount bracket in the corner of my workshop so that I could hang an old TV that used to be in another room. I also had to install a new wall power outlet behind the TV to keep the power cords hidden and out of sight. This TV should keep me entertained a little more while I'm working on the plane build. I could even watch some of the other RV youtube build videos while I'm working.

  Jul 28, 2023     Oshkosh recap       Category: Research

I'm back from Oshkosh and the company status presentation from Vans about the current situation with the laser cut holes was very informative and timely. It sounds like even in their worst-case scenario testing the cracking in the dimpled holes is not the weakest part, and that (surprisingly) the inherent dimpled surface is still the weakest part. I later met up with Greg Hughes from Vans at one of the builder bash events and he personally answered some laser cutting questions for me as well.

It was fun meeting up with other builders as well. I learned that Kent who I had met through the Cherokees2Osh group was also building an RV-14. I got an awesome new RV-14 shirt from Josh with the Slack group info on it. Also met up with the VeArds and attended their session. I attended a couple of forum sessions about fiberglassing in RVs, which I'll need to eventually need to deal with in the later sections. I also won a giveaway from the Plane Lady of a new Tungsten bucking bar and a deburring tool, both of which I already had similar but different shaped versions of.