New shelf to stow VS so Rudder work can continue

As simple and mundane as these three pics appear to be, this process took several hours for me to complete. The entire time all I kept wishing was that I was spending that time working on the rudder, but in the end I knew that this had to be done.

There are so many angles I want to cover about this, so this might turn into another of my epically long posts, but I will try to keep it short, as it has been a rather long day today. So lets start with the explanation for what I did and why I did it. The left side of the top photo shows several shelves that I built to remove all the ground clutter in the garage when I first started preparing for the project. Also notice how almost every inch of that shelf space is already used up. One thing about building an airplane is that as you complete each part of the project, you transform all the little parts and pieces into a much larger part of the actual aircraft. Each of these sub assemblies must have a place to live while the rest of the airplane is completed, and that "place" cannot be my work bench unfortunately. So I needed to make more shelves. I have several additional 18" x 7 foot long pieces of particle board and plywood that I actually double stacked on the shelf brackets on the left side of the garage. So I decided to use one of those for a new shelf for the VS, and I also decided to suspend the new shelf from the rafters as an experiment of sorts.

Any other Vans airplane builders will surely recognize the dollar sign painted on the end cap in two of the pictures. I used the spare wood from my wing kit crate to make both end caps for the shelve. Don't discard that lumber. There are a million and one uses for it as you progress through the project. The rafters in the garage are on 24 inch centers, and so I needed to trim up the shelf a bit so that it would fit in between the two end caps. I used 4, 4inch long metal L brackets from Home Depot. I inset them 2 inches from the edge of each end cap, and then positioned them on the bottom and marked adn drilled the holes. The wood for the end caps came from the siding of the crate for the Wing skins, and it measured 1 inch thick x 9 inches wide, x 18 inches long. The shelf is 3/4 inch ply.

Additional measurements were made to ensure that the shelf would properly support the VS and perhaps the Rudder when it is completed, and that it will allow enough room for the VS to be layed on the shelf without hitting any of the rafters. I had 9 inches to work with, and ended up drawing a line that was 2.5 inches from the top of the end cap to leave enough wood overlapped against the rafters for proper support. This would leave me roughly 6 inches to work with after the shelf was installed, which was plenty, considering that the girth or thickness of the VS at its thickest point when laid on its side is only about 4 inches or so.

The weight of the VS is only about 10 pounds, so I had no concerns about the shelf being able to support the weight. In fact, my only concerns were that the end caps would be able to support the weight of the shelf. It is amazing that such a large object is so very light, but that is the nature of the game that us plane builders must play. The last thing I need is to go out to the garage one morning and see my VS all bent up on the floor of the garage after my shelving experiment fails.

Anyway, I think it all turned you great, and the VS is now solidly sitting on the new shelf. I place a long piece of rubber tool box liner on the shelf to help prevent further scuff marks on the VS, now that the blue vinyl covering has been removed.

This will not be the last time that I have to do this either. As it stands right now, I will need additional shelf space to store 2 elevators, 2 ailerons, and two flaps, not to mention the space needed for the 2 wings that I hope to get started on next month.

KPR............................

Hand Squeezer did the job on those LE rivets

These two pics show the new Avery hand Squezzer that got today. It also has my 4 inch thin nose, no hole yoke attached to it, and 1/2" x 3/8 inch dye in the ram. It is called a no hole yoke because there is no hole for inserting a rivet set on the top of this yoke, which allows it to taper to a much thinner point, so that it can reach into small confined spaces where other yokes will not fit. Case in point, those 4 pesky leading edge rivets on the top rib of the VS I spoke about in an earlier post. My first impression of this hand squeezer was, man, this is really heavy!. I was concerned about being able to keep it positioned over the rivet head while I manually squeezed the life out of the rivet. At least I would still have better control over when the squeeze is applied, unlike the pneumatic squeezer.

Short story is that it took care of the 4 LE rivets with not problem. No dinged up skins or bent
ribs or deformed holes or badly set rivets. Everything went in nice and clean. I can honestly say that as far as squeezers go I think I am set for good long while now. On to the rudder now....

208 hours on the hobbs - Major work on the VS is DONE!

So I got my tools today from Avery - boy that was fast. They even credited the shipping back out of my order. I just love getting new stuff in the mail. Here is the "finished" VS, with the blue protective vinyl coating removed. My friend and fellow builder Ron always celebrateseach building milestone with a beer and a cigar. Well. it's too f'n cold to drink beer in my humble opinion, so I won't be doing that tonight. Perhaps some blackberry brandy to warm me up perhaps. It is a nice feeling to finally finish each major part of the airplane, but frankly I am way behind the schedule that I had originally set for my self, and I just want to finish up the rest of the tail at this point. 1 rudder, two elevators, and yes, the dreaded trim tab to go!

Two of the four remaining VS Leading edge rivets

Here is a pic of the four remaining holes on the top and bottom of the VS tip that I need to rivet to finish assembling it. They are the two holes where the rib flange rests against the skin. The holes on the outermost edge are for attaching the fiberglass tip to the top of the VS, which will be done later. I decided to leave both holes open in case I need the room to set the forward-most rivet. I can get a bucking bar in there just fine for the hole behind the most forward rivet, but getting a bucking bar in the first hole (most forward) is a bit of a challenge, especially after setting the rivet on the opposite side. I am waiting for my hand squeezer to arrive this week, and then I should have enough control to be able to use the special no-hole thin-nosed yoke to set the final rivets in this assembly without damaging anything.

VS spar and center hinge rivet problem

Here is the pic that should help clarify what I was talking about in an earlier post. It shows the center hinge of the VS attached to the rear spar, and the four An426 flush rivets that attach the skin to the rear spar above and below the hinge plates. As I look at this, I may need to reset the bottom rivets as they have been overdriven just a bit, but the ones on top look just fine. I used the Fat Man bucking bar with the angled tip to get into that tiny space so that I could set these rivets. The thickness of the hinge plate and the round-headed AN470 rivet get in the way, and make bucking these rivets a bit of a challenge.

HS hanging above the workbench

I think that I was so exhausted by the time that I finally finished riveting the HS together that I forgot to include a pic that show my solution to one of an airplane builder's favorite questions: So where do ya put that finished part till ya finish puttin' the rest of it together? As shown, I had to get up on the shelf that sits above my workbench, screw in some cushioned hanging brackets, and suspend the HS by the rear spar. It sits there waiting patiently, until I get the elevators finished, which is the last part of the tail kit.

VS rivet setting - common problem and my solution

I wanted to take a moment to elaborate on what appears to be a very common problem when riveting the rear spar, spar doubler, and the center spar hinge together, add then get to the point where you are trying to attach the skin on both sides to the rear spar in that same area. Many run into a probem trying to figure out how to set the 4 rivets of the skin to the rear spar where they are in alignment with the hinge plates of the center rudder hinge. I will try to get a picture in here that more clearly demonstrates the problem, but for now th three pics that I do have will have to suffice.

The top pic shows the center hinge on the rear spar at the top of the pic. The bottom pic shows the relationship of the rivets attaching the skin to the location of the rear spar doubler and the corresponding round headed AN470 rivets that were used to attach the spar stiffener to the rear spar. Note the rivet shaft hanging down from the top skin and going through the rear spar flange before the rivet is set. Also note how the round rivet head attaching the stiffener to the rear spar is directly in the way of where the bucking bar or rivet set must be inserted to set that rivet. This will give you at least an idea of how certain things can get in the way of a bucking bar or squeezer yoke, making the setting of some of the rivets that attach the slin to the spar a bit of a challenge. Now use your imagination to add the center hinge plate the top of the rear spar stiffener. This adds at least another 1/16th of an inch, plus the additional width of the AN470 rivets attaching the hinge to the rear spar. Basically what is happening is that the amount of space to insert a bucking bar so that it will cover the entire shaft of the rivet attaching the skin to the spar is being reduced as each "layer" of thickness from each different part is added to the "girth" of the rear spar.

Most folks are trying to insert a squeezer yoke in there to squeeze the rivet, and there is too much of gap between the face of the rivet set and shaft of the end of the rivet. The end result is that only about half of the rivet shaft is able to be set, and you end up with a deformed rivet that has to be drilled out. Their solution is to grind down the end of the squeezer yoke. Not liking that solution very much, I ended up discussing this with Vans, and they promptly asked me if I had a bucking bar with an angled face on it that should be able to reach in there and provide enough area for the rivet to be set properly.

I told them that I had two different tungsten bucking bars, each with an angled face on one end. Refer to the second pic and you will see one of them next to the rivet gun. I have affectionately named each of these bucking bars Fat Man and Little Boy, after the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan at the end of WWII. The one in the pic is Fat Man. It is short and fat, and allows it to fit in between the flanges of rear spars and other small areas fairly easily, where your hand can still be placed relatively close to the work. Little Boy is longer but skinnier, and can fit into other areas where Fat Man cannot.

Anyway, the important thing to note is the angled face on one end of the bar. It comes to a point, which reduces the surface area, so that it can be inserted in such a way that avoids the protruding hinge plate and round rivet heads that attach it to the rear spar. In fact, it allows you to bypass all the things that would get in the way if you try ot use the flat side of the bucking bar or an unmodified yoke. I was able to use this bucking bar with the rivet gun to set each of the 4 skin-attach rivets without any further problems. Just make sure you tape up the bar to keep it from marring the spar flange or the hinge plate, and you will be fine. This approach beats the heck out of grinding down your expensive squeezer yokes.

Airventure 2010 pics

The wall of fire at night - traditionally ends the airhshow activities at Airventure each year. It NEVER gets old. Even more spectacular at night.

I believe this is Gene Soucie in a bipe with both wing tips lit up. Spectacular!

One of many B-17s, framed in this pic by a pair of power lines that just happened to get in the way!

Friends finally arrive at KOSH after rain and ground-condition delays prevented any airborne GA arrivals for several days. Pictured are Gary and Carolyn Zilik, Deb and Scott Mills, and a few others whose names I do not know. BTW, Gary knows EVERYONE that comes to Airventure! Simply amazing!

Young Eagles Awards Banquet. Sulley Sullenberger and Jeff Skiles from the famed US Air "Miracle on the Hudson" flight 1549, presenting YE of the Year award to our very own EAA Chapter 301 Rudy Kniese.

The trailer in its high adn dry location at Airventure 2010. When I finally arrived and checked in at the entrance, I was given two choices - go try the high ground and see if I could make it, or follow the other big rigs to the nearest mall parking lot and wait until the grounds were drier in a few days. It was really that wet. Since I had Four wheel drive, and a smaller rig than most others, I decided to try the campground, and this is where I ended up. the wole process was quite nerve racking, but I made it.

Gary Zillik with Scott Mills preparing to depart from Fond du Lac airport in Scott's airplane, about 30 miles south of Oshkosh, after picking up the part for his electronic ignition that had failed after they had departed for home. I was able to pick up the part from a vendor at KOSH that just happened to have it on hand, drive it down there, and deliver it. Worked out pretty well for all, since I had wanted to check out that airport anyway.

While at Fond Du Lac, I noticed this rather odd-looking homebuilt aircraft. After meeting the owners, I learned that it is a highly modified RV-8, with larger than normal tires for unimproved strips, and a Continental IO540 310 HP engine attached to the firewall. Talk about horsepower! For those that are less aware, this airplane, which is the same model that I am building, normally takes a 160 to 200 HP Lycoming engine, so this thing is way over the top power-wise. Turns out it was for sale and I was askedif I wanted to buy it. I declined, remembering my own build sitting back in the garage. Anyway, had to get a pic of it. Based somehwere in Oklahoma.

P-51B with the infamous red tail of the Tuskeegee squadron. The only group of African Americans that were allowed to form a combat squadron in WWII. You can also se one of the real tuskeegee airmen being assisted down from the plane after being given a commemorative ride in the back seat.

Not one, but two T-51, 3/4 scale homebuilt airplanes, superbly built. This is what dreams are made of!

C-17 awaiting takeoff.

Just walking around the grounds, and what do I find? Doug Reeves' own RV6. Doug is the owner/operator of the Van's Air Force web site and forums, and has become a central point of contact for almost ALL RV kit builders. I spend hours on this web site.

The Mule (My 2002 Chevy Trailblazer) packed up with all the gear adn getting ready to depart Oshkosh for the trip back home of just over 1,000 miles. My horse and I have made two successful trips so far, and we are looking forward to a third haul in 2011.

A shot from the side door. Look at all those chairs and tents! It was with a great sense of pride that I was able to help my fellow RV pilots by reducing the amount of gear they had to haul around to get to and from Oshkosh. I am still being thanked for this to this very day! I was glad to do it, adn will do it again this year.

These were ruts left in the ground by one of the super large RVs (camper types, not the airplanes) that I was parked next to. They got stuck trying to get in here, and had to have a a huge John Deer tractor pull them in the rest of the way. the truck shown is from another camper that parked behind me after the big RV finally left. It show some scale as to the depth of the ruts that were created, and gives some idea as to how saturated the ground was for most of the week.

A 3/4 scale homebuilt Storch. This was a WWII german observation and reconnaissance plane that saw a lot of service during the war. I have more pics of the interior which was just simply emaculate, right down to the spare machine gun strapped in the back. A truly beautiful airplane.

The goodyear blimp. This was the first time I have ever been so close to the blimp. It flew directly over my camp site several times, and the sound of the engines was quite soothing.

A little inspiration.....Oshkosh 2010 list of things you missed of you weren't there

Those of us that live, work, play, and fly in the parts of the country that provide a winter wonderland during this time of year may need some good ole' inspiration from time to time to stay focused on our love and passion for aviation. As such, I noted that I never really posted any pics from my second excursion to Oshkosh last year, and so I thought I would do just that to help celebrate another milestone in my build. If you did not go, you missed:

1. Sloshkosh 2010 - record breaking rainfall, swamped parking and camping grounds, delayed arrivals - awesome effort by EAA to resolve all the problems.
2. Lt. Dan Band with Gary Sinese - awesome concert at Theater in the Woods
3. Campfires at my camp site in Camp Scholler
4. Attending the Young Eagles Award Ceremony and Banquet
5. Having the Mule (me) running cargo for several aircraft both to and from KOSH.
6. Emergency Parts run for Gary Zillik when Electronic Ingition module failed on the way home
7. Night Airshow - my first one ever! Absolutely one of the best treats of the whole week at Airventure 2010.
8. Movie nights every evening at the inflatable outdoor Ford Theater. Free popcorn and great movies.
9. Great company- new friends.
10. Airplanes - DC-3/C-47 mass fly-in and anniversary, B-17 anniversary (4 in the air at one time), 2 P-38s, Jap Zero, WWI fighters, flying cars, electric powered full sized airplanes
11. and on and on and on.

Pics follow.

....And the prize - almost

Almost finished with the VS. I have left 4 of the leading edge rivets at the top for later, after my hand squeezer from Avery tools arrives. I amde a mess of at least two of these on the HS assembly, and I don't want to screw these up, so I will wait for the right tool. The problem is that there is just not enough space to put a squeezer or any other tool in there to set those leading edge rivets. I may have to try a special back rivet close-quarters technique to set those rivets. I am leaving the fiberglass tip work till later, and the only other thing to do is to re-squeeze some of the rivets since I may not have set my depth quite right on my pneumatic squeezer for several rivets. Last thing to do is get rid of the smudges from fingers etc. with acetone, and find a place to hang -er up till needed for setting up the rudder hinges.

Attaching the rear spar

A nice shot of the rear rib flange of the bottom rib that attaches to the rear spar. I was able to use my pneumatic squeezer to set these three round headed AN470 rivets. Another tip that I was reminded about after reading several posts on VAF was that you generally want to put the manufactured head of the rivet up against the part with the smaller thickness. In this case the metal for the rear spar and the rib are supposed to be the same I think. SO then the only rule would be to pace the manufactured head on the part where it is easier to access with the rivet set. I will go one further by adding my own little rule that I intend to stick with for the rest of the build. I will also apply the manufactured head of the rivet to the part that is more flexible than the other part, assuming it can be accessed with the rivet set adn bucking bar correctly. What I mean by that is explained in part by looking at the photo. The rib flange is the part that is able to bend and flex a bit. The rear spar web, on the other hand, is absolutely stiff, and will not budge very much, if at all.

Sometimes the flanges do not sit exactly flush the the part that they are being riveted to. In this case that is the rear spar. The only way to seat the rib flange so that it is nice and flush with the rear spar is to put the manufactured head of the rivet against the rear flange of the rib, so that the cup set on the squeezer can be placed over the head, and then enough pressure can be applied against the head to push the flange up tight against the rear spar web. This rivet clamping techique worked rather well, and helps prevent rivets from creating or "filling" the gap in between parts that may not be mated very well for one reason or another. Clecoes only hold parts together in these situations marginally well (not very well at all in my experience), which is why I have also ordered three 1/8 inch screw clamp clecoes, which should help cinch down the work pieces a bit better during riveting. Can't wait to try those out on the next rib-to-spar assembly!

Good Rules to Follow

Rule number one: Don't screw up! I think I will also take this opportunity to accentuate this point a bit more dramatically, by using a quote from the movie The Right Stuff, which has been on TV quite a bit over the last month or so, and is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was actually, and truthfully, a comment made by Alan Shepard, who was the first of the Mercury Astronauts to be launched into space successfully. After entering the capsule, he was heard over the capcom radio to say a small prayer that went something like this: Please Lord, don't let me F*** up! I just love that!

Rule number 2: Always, always, always secure the work. This picture shows just one of the many methods I employed to do just that. No rivets were set without the work being securely fastened to the bench in some manner. Sometimes you have to get creative about how this is done. One other trick I learned was to elevate the work so that it does NOT rest on the clecoes. clecoes are just s[ecialized spring clamps after all, and so they do give way with enough pressure applied to them. So, I used some scrap 4x4 wood blocks to take care of this. They worked out quite well.

The green tape you see on one side of this pic is there on purpose. Similar to the HS, there are certain holes at the bottom of the VS that are used as attachment holes for the screws that will hold the molding against the HS and the VS. The fiberglass molding reduces drag and conceals the joint where the HS and the VS attach to the fueselage. It is attached to the VS by several screws that will go into the holes that are covered by the green tape. The tape is there to remind me NOT to set any rivets in there. If I did they would just have to be drilled out later.

VS Skin riveting and new tools ordered

I have to post this pic after posting the other boo boo pics, just to prove that 99% of the rest of the rivets all look very nice. I just placed an order from Avery tools to get a hand squeezer and a special flush rivet set that has a guard around the edge. I will start using this one for riveting the skins once I receive it, but until then, a very awesome tip I got from a post on the VAF forum said that you could use masking tape on the head of your flush rivet set to avoid marring up the surface of the skin, and to help keep the rivet set from moving on the skin while you are riveting. Another little trick I applied was ensuring that the work was properly clamped or secured in place, so that it would not move either. These two things have most likely made the biggest difference in my skin riveting experience on this particular part of the airplane.

And a few more bad ones

Looks worse in this pic then it really is. These happened right after the one in the rpevious post, so I have a succession of about 3 badly set rivets with slight skin damage that will have to be filled. Very discouraging...... Notice the one good rivet at the top of the pic. That is what they are all supposed to look like :)

Not as bad as the HS, but not good either

This was a result of getting tired and choosing to continue on with riveting the skin, rather than taking a break from riveting. This is called a smiley, and when they go deep enough, they can become a structural concern. Luckily these are not very deep, and some filler will take care of these small dings in the skin. This occurs when the flush rivet set in the rivet gun is not held straight up and down on the skin while bucking a rivet, and is tilted just ever so slightly while pressure is applied to the skin and the trigger is pulled. It happens in less than a blink of an eye, and really sucks when it does, especially after doing a much much better job on the entire VS skin up to this point than I did on the HS. Oh well - ya keep learning as ya go sometimes.

What happens when you don't get it quite right

This pic is oriented similar to the pic in the previous post, but shows the opposite side of the middle rib of the VS (VS707). If you double click on the pic to expand it to full resolution you should be able to see the slight deformity of the spar flange (near the center of this pic, on the bottom side of the spar, just to the right of the rib). I am still not totally certain how it got bent that way, but it obviously occured when the bucking bar either slid off the rivet, and perhaps was combined with the rivet gun continuing to hammer on the rivet on top of the skin. Only the spar flange appears to be bent, and thankfully there is little if any damage to the skin. I dressed out adn re-primed the flange as best I could.

I also spoke to Vans about this, and explained that I was thinking about placing a back rivet plate in there to try to pound out the bend in the spar flange. They said that as long as the bend was not compromising the rivets ( it is in between them), and there was not apparent damage to the skin itself, then it should be OK if left alone. There is a risk that any additional attempts to pound out the bend in the flange might also stretch, distort, or weaken the skin. So I decided to dress it out as best I could, leave it alone, and build on.

Riveting the VS skin to the forward Spar

This pic shows the inside of the skin after most of the riveting of the skin to the forward spar has been completed. The right side of the VS skin is on the bottom, and the left side is on the top. This pic also shows rivets of the skin to the middle rib of the frame (VS707). The camera is looking forward from the back of the VS where the rear spar will go, once all of the forward skeleton is riveted in place. The rivets actually don't look to bad here. I used both of my tungsten bucking bars and the flush set in the rivet gun to set these rivets. It is quite the trick, because you have to slide your bucking hand, in this case my left hand, under the skin, and hold the rivet gun with the right hand. You have to buck the rivets mostly by feel, and by learning how to position your hand and fingers around the bucking bar under the skin, and then focusing on the correct position of the rivet gun on top of the skin. Definitely takes some practice to figure out how to do it correctly.

204 hours on the hobbs - VS is almost done,Delivery of Wing Jig

Been a while, but finally got back on the build. The VS is all but done, with a few minor tweaks to finish Lots of pics and posts to make. Since the last post I have had to endure all the holiday hustle and bustle, a family emergency, and a bit of a deep freeze here in Denver over the past few weeks. Then there is the kids basketball, school, and so on and so on. On a good note, I got a call a few days ago from Bob Markert, whom I had met some time ago. I met him through Ron, and went to see his RV-8 build at his home. He had contacted me a couple months ago and said that he needed to part with one of his Wing jigs, and asked me if I was interested. I said, "of course", since any time I don't have to spend doing extra work on the build, like building a Wing Jig from scratch, I am all for it. Anyway, he said he would contact me after he returned from a trip to China, (he is a pilot for United AL), and that was about 2 months ago. He finally called me up at work the other day, and we made arrangements to transfer the jig. He and his wife Mary brought it over to my house, and we chatted a bit.

Turns out that Bob has been pounding the books while at grad school, instead of pounding rivets, and he had not been working on his RV-8 for quite some time. He is now at a point where he expects to ramp back up again, which is good to hear. He found me out in the garage pounding rivets when he drove up, and I think that inspired him even further to start working on his bird again. It was really good to chat with him and his wife again. Personally, I think that he and I are the only ones in the Denver Metro area that are currently building an RV-8.

VS progress and pics will be in subsequent posts.