Now for something really funny - riveting the skins Begins

So what's funny about this? Just another in a long line of bad mistakes that I really need to figure out how to stop making. This happened on my second rivet while attaching the center nose rib to the top of the left HS skin per the plans. The "funny" part about this is that I managed to really gouge the skin very badly. Well, OK - that's not so funny, because I may now be faced with a decision to completely replace and redo all the work on this skin that I worked so hard to make perfect. Ok, so it's funny in a sad sort of way, because no less than an hour before doing this I sent an email to my friend Ron, saying that I was too afraid to try to buck these rivets all by myself, and asked if he would like to help. Then I went right out and tried to do exactly what I was afraid of doing, and now I get to deal with the result. Even more "funny" is the fact that Ron had made this exact same booboo on exactly the same rivet on exactly the same skin, but somehow I think that his ding was a little less severe than mine, but we'll see. In the mean time all riveting now comes to a screeching halt, while I contact technical counselors and get feedback from others to see of this is not so bad, or if I am ordering a new skin from Van's very shortly. As best I can tell, I did not puncture the skin, but the ridge on that divet is quite pronounced, and I am afraid that I really screwed it up. Such is the life of an airplane builder I guess.

On to the forward spar

After relatively good success and only a few bad rivets on the rear spar assembly that had to be drilled out, I started on the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer. This proved to be a much more challenging experience. My success to failure ratio of riveting the forward spar together was only slightly more than 50%. That means for every two rivets I tried to put in, one of them was bad and had to be redone. Not a very good percentage, and certainly not very good for the self confidence factor either. This is a close up shot of the area where 4 very tightly spaced structural rivets are attaching multiple parts together, including the forward spar, two angle support brackets, and the inboard nose rib. If you blow this pic up you will see smiley faces all over the place. This is what happens when the rivet set becomes uncentered and starts to dig into the surrounding metal. It all happens in the blink of an eye. Another problem I encountered was the fact that the smily face on the second rivet from the top was so bad, that it forced the flange of the nose rivet to bend outward just a bit, so the mating surface between the spar and the nose rib flange is not fully in tact. I talked to Van's about this and they said that as long as the shop heads (on the other side of the rivets in this pic) are OK, this should not pose a problem. The skins are also part of the structure that provides the overall strength of the stabilizer, and they will serve to add strength to this entire area once they are riveted in place. So I left this "as is" and will build on.

Another Shot showing how the flange is bowed out from the spar flange just a bit. These surfaces should be flat against each other.

Rear side shop heads of the same area. These are meeting size and circumference measurements so I am leaving them as is.

Center bearing bolted onto Rear Spar

A shot of the Rear Spar with the center bearing bolted on. Yay, I finally got to use my inch/lb calibrated torque wrench to snug up these four bolts and nuts.

HS Rear Spar in progress

Rear Spar in progress. What you see here is the left side of the spar with the two support brackets in the middle of the spar web, with most of the top bracket rivets installed, and the bottom rivets in progress. The green tape is there to help me remember that I am not to drive rivets in these locations because either a hinge or a rib attach point is located there, and I need to wait until I get to those assemblies before I put any rivets in these holes. No sense in driving rivets just to end up having to drill them out later!. One other nagging problem that I need to figure out how to resolve is shown by the splotches all over the spar. What happened here is that my rivet gun started spewing tool oil all over everything, after I spent all that time cleaning and priming. That just made me flat ANGRY. Now I have to take soap and water and HOPE to get all that crappy oil off of everything before I can do my final assembly. That just really sucks! Lesson learned - I will no longer be adding tool oil to my tools just before every use, as I have now determined that they are all over oiled anyway. At this point I would rather see the tool sieze up than have to clean up this crappy mess again.

Finally Pounding Rivets!

I thought this day would never come. I started assembling the horizontal stabilizer of my aircraft. The first step was to assemble the parts that make up the rear spar of the HS. These included two spar halves, two support brackets, and 5 hinges that will support the two elevators that make the plane move up and down. I thought that I was going to get to use my pneumatic squeezer on this assembly to same some riveting time, but I found that once again I did not seem to have the right tool for the job. The yoke on my squeezer was interfering with the flange on the spars, and this would not allow me to use it without grinding away some of the yoke.

Instead, I decided to pound these rivets using the rivet gun and a bucking bar. It had been a while since I had used them, and there are thousands more rivets that will require the use of these tools, so I decided to dive in and start riveting. I was doing fine until I got to one of the hinge brackets on the end of the right spar. As the picture shows, the rivet gun got a way from me a bit, and I did what is known as a smiley face all over the rivet head. Another rivet on the other side was noticeably out of place as well. So I needed to drill out these two rivets and start over.

RTL stands for right Top Left, meaning that this is the outer elevator hinge bracket for the right side of the HS, that goes on the left side of the hinge assembly. Even more confusing is the fact that this pic will not transfer over correctly for some reason, and is shifted 90 degrees to the right. I found that I needed to mark everything correctly, because once you turn something upside down or backwards, you cannot tell which part goes where anymore.

If you look at the right side rivets, the two that are closet to the hinge point in the middle, you can see the difference between these rivets and the others that have been driven. these had to be drilled out and replaced, and although I was nervous about doing this, it actually worked out OK, and I drove two new rivets in their place that turned out just fine.

Front and side views of the batwings

Front shot showing the cutouts where the lights will be installed

Here is a shot that shows the distinctive batwing flared design of the wingtips. This is pretty much a Van's trademark, and is one of the easiest ways to identify if the airplane is a Van's RV or something else. I'm not sure if there was some aerodynamic consideration for this design, but knowing a little about the designer of the airplane and his background, I would imagine that there is.

The fiberglass wing tips

These are the two fiberglass "batwing" wing tips that will fit on the end of each wing. The cutouts in the front are designed to fit the lexan cover for the strobe and navigation lights that will be installed for night flying purposes. the lexan comes in one piece, so you get to cut this in half and trim it to fit the cutout in the wing tip. The plans state to be sure to store these in the position shown, with the open end on a flat surface. Otherwise they will warp and become distorted. THe P-47 in the background is not part of the Van's kit, but is an RC model that enjoy flying quite a bit. I don't have any real traildragger time yet, but I have about 30 hours of taildragger time on this model, which requires much of the same skill and know-how as it does to properly fly a real taildragger.

Fuel Tank skins

At the top of this photo are the wing tank skins. You have to build the fuel tanks in much the same way that you build the rest of the wing. In the foreground are the leading edg wing skins. These two skins will basically fit next to each other. Each wing is about 9 feet long when completed, and they will attach to both sides of the Fueslage kit,which is the next step in the process after the wings are done.

Flap skins

Custom formed flap skins. The trailing edge is folded over, and the leading edge has a very distinct bend to it.

Aileron skins unpacked

These are the aileron skins unpacked from the bundle in the earlier photo

tubing for the fuel tanks

This is aluminum tubing. I know that it is used for the vent lines for each tank, and I believe it is also used for the fuel pickup line. It's only a 1/4 inch in diameter.

Finally down to the bottom of the box....

These are the remaining wing skins, all nice and flat on the bottom of the crate. These will be the final stages of completing the wings - still just  dream at this point, but also a goal that will be acheived.

Flap and Aileron Skins

All wrapped up and assembled neatly for shipping, On the left are the fuel tank baffles, and on the right are all of the skins for the ailerons and the flaps.

Leading edge Wing skins

These are the leading edge wing skins.Notice the bend. Just as they were for the tail skins, they are only bent at the factory to a certain point point. They are then pulled and clamped over the skeleton and riveted into place. I am very intrigued by the method and math they use to determine just how much bend to apply to these parts, and even more intrigued with the equipment and methods used to do this sort of thing at the factory. I see a trip to Oregon sometime in my future.......

Wing ribs

These are the nose ribs and main ribs for each wing. They are a lot bigger than the ones for the tail section, so they should be easier to work with. There is more to prime, so I'll probably be getting larger spray gun to do that.

Wing Spars

Another shot of the two wing spars. I still think I should pour a pad and make a plaque and make a statue or something out of these things!

Working the parts list

Checking the list, and checking it twice.........

What's in that little bag anyway?

This is just one of many, many more hardware bags that come with this kit. Every rivet, nut, bolt, washer, etc. needs to be counted and organized. The bag in this pic contains the hardware for a capacitive fuel sending unit that will be used to determine the fuel levels in both wing tanks. The stock parts for this from Van's consist of a float unit mounted inside the tank. I opted for less moving parts, mostly because the airplane is aerobatic, and while I don't really plan on spending most of my time upside down in the airplane, I did not see the point in having a system that will be subjected to the wear and tear of this kind of activity. There are also no bearings or shafts that might get stuck, or float parts that may become loose or dislodged in the fuel tank. The capacitive sender option is a better one all the way around as far as I am concerned.

Beautifully crafted Main Wing Spars

Yours truly standing next to the awesome looking Wing Spars that Van's assembles for you. They are gold anodized for corrosion protection. Makes them almost look like a gold shipment from Ft. Knox, doesn't it? :) The factory assembles these spars for each builder because of the large size of the rivets used, which require a special rivet gun which is quite expensive to purchase. The spars are made from layered, heavy gauge aluminum. As many others have said before me, when the wings are done, these beautiful pieces of workmanship will be hidden from view for the life of the airplane, never to be seen again. Maybe if we use plexiglass for the wing skins we can change that!!

Opened 'er up!

The tops of each crate were screwed down, and my buddy Ron Duren came by, originally to help off load the crates, but the FedEx actually showed up earlier than planned, so he helped me remove the lids, and then we pretended it was Christmas time and we had a whole lot of presents to open! Inventory is something that needs to happen fairly quickly after the kit arrives. Van's gives you 30 days from the time it is scheduled to arrive to perform the inventory and advise them of any damaged or missing parts. You can see how neatly everything is packed inside - something that Van's is an expert at. Ron's Wings for his RV7 are scheduled to arrive in May, so he was obviously just as anxious as I was to see what's inside the big, expensive boxes.

Now for the big box. Lots of stuff in here all packed up tight as a drum. It absolutely amazes me how they organize all this. The nice thing is, I only found one scratched wing rib that Vans sent to me. Everything ele was in great shape. The funny looking shape at the top left in the brown paper is actually one of the infamous Van's "Batwing" style fiberglass wing tips. These are actually pretty cool looking, and they give you the best sense of how wide each wing will be once they are built. They are just under 5 feet wide.

Magical Day Monday, 4-12-2010 - Wing kit arrives

It shipped about 1 week later than expected because the crating team was a bit behind. SO it took about 9 weeks for delivery. Kit came in two crates by FedEx Freight. One was 202 lbs, and the other was only 175 lbs. Both were easily handled by two men to get them off of the freight truck. This is a 15 ft, 5 inch long box that contains the main and rear Wing Spars, Push/Pull tubes, hardware, etc. I used three furniture dollies from Harbor Freight to move them from my driveway to the garage.

This one is the larger box that contains the wing skins, ribs, and aileron and flap skins. THis one was 8 ft long x 32" wide by 10 inches high. I used one more furniture dolly and my hand truck that has two additional wheels on the top side so it can be laid flat on the floor to support loads similar to this. The wood came from Oregon, and it is straighter than any wood we ever see here in Colorado. It was also green and had a good amount of sap on the bottom edges.

A mirror maze!

Looks like some wacked out metal scaffold assembly, but its just the reflective Alclad coating bouncing off of both sides of the HS skin after all priming was completed. Quite the optical illusion oif you ask me. I've seen some polished airplanes that do this same thing over the entire aircraft.

Primer on, tape and vinyl covering off

After primer is sprayed on, and the tape and protective covering has been removed. Notice the mirror-like appearance. This is the Alclad coating that helps prevent corrosion of the metal. I wasn't trying to make nice even lines, just to get enough coverage where the parts will join together. Still turned out pretty nice though.

Cool looking color scheme?

So I decided to prime the inside of my skins, but only the areas that are in direct contact with the rest of the rib and spar structure. The blue is the vinyl protective covering that comes on all sheet metal parts in the kit. The green stuff is 1/2 inch wide frog tape that is supposed to prevent paint from bleeding and keeps a nice edge on everything. I thought this turned out to be a pretty cool color scheme after I finished masking the skin....

HS Parts primed...

Left and right side HS ribs primed and ready to rivet. You can see the difference between the color of the NAPA 7220 light gray primer and the TE504, which is signifcantly darker. The black stuff underneath is tool drawer liner pads from Harbor Freight. A tip I picked up from Ron Duren. Thanks Ron! They work great as an anti-scuff material.

Light hanging bracket attached to each shelf

Shot of both sides of the light hanging fixture. I just clamp them to both shelves and it stays nice and sturdy. The top pic shows one of the sections of wood that is bolted together. Just a 1/4 inch bolt, a wingnut (of course for airplane drivers!), and 2 washers is all it took.

More Painting/Priming solutions - Make shift portable Hanging Wire and light rack

This is a shot of my solution to "add more light to whatever I am trying to paint." The hanging wire is at the top right of the photo, and I took three 1"x2"x8 foot pieces of wood and bolted them together in kind of a super large folding ruler type of thing, and I can lay these across the garage just aft of the hanging wire, and add some spot light fixtures as shown here. Then I run an extension cord over to the lights and go from there. The 3-piece wood bracket then folds back up and stores up against a wall, completely out of the way, until the next time I need it. This seems to be working out fairly well, but there is still never enough light, as they say.....

Priming HS parts

Now for some pics that show what the primer looks like after it is applied to the part with the paint gun. Once you get the mix correct, and get the gun set up correctly, this is actually kind of fun, but the setup and cleanup routines are a bit time consuming, as I have previously described.

This is a pic of the first attempt I made to primer one of the spars. It is a bit hard to see in this photo, but the primer was not mixed thoroughly enough, and the result was a very opaque or transparent coating, with very little actual primer pigment. My tendency was to overspray this to attempt to get a darker coat. Instead, all I got was a bunch of runs, as shown here.

Here is a pic that shows the difference of the parts in unprimed/bare metal (part on the left), the improperly mixed part (center), and what it should look like when a proper primer coat is applied. As always, click on the photo to show it in full resolution to really see the difference.

Shows parts on the hanging wires (14 gauge ground wire) Two of the nose ribs and one of the spars for the HS are shown.

Shows 2 of the ribs primed and the rest waiting for their turn on the wire. Also shown are the angle support brackets on the left, which were shot with NAPA 7220.

Happy Easter 2010 - New tools for Priming and Spraying

April 4 is Easter Sunday - and - as it turns out, a beautiful day in Colorado to catch up on some priming. Since I have resolved some earlier problems with applying my primer by getting a new air hose and ensuring that the mixture of primer and reducer is at the correct viscosity, I am now able to finish priming the rest of the HS parts. The trick for me is that I needed to get the primer mixed thoroughly, and then you add the reducer/catalyst, strain it into the paint cup, and then spend a couple of minutes mixing the parts together and checking the viscosity. It needs to run off the end of the stir stick without having any solids on the stick.

I bought a pneumatic paint shaker from Harbor Freight yesterday, and it seems to work fairly well. It comes with an oiler unit as part of the valve assembly, and this is the first time I have worked with an oiler. You fill it up with air tool oil, and it periodically sprays a small amount of oil into the shaker assembly to keep it lubricated.

I also bought a pressure regulator for the paint gun. That seems to be working as expected as well. It gives me the ability to keep the regulator pressure for the air compressor set to 90psi for most of the other air tools, and set the precise pressure of the gun to the recommended 50psi, without having to adjust the regulator at the compressor all the time. Pics of both will follow in later posts. I was busy trying to finish priming all of my HS parts today, and I almost got there....