308 hours on the hobbs - Back to the Rudder (UGGGHHHHH!)

Had a bit of a scare the other day that I might have ruined both my VS and Rudder. Before I get into that, let's pick up where we left off before Oshkosh. I was almost done with the leading edges of the rudder. Lessons learned were:

The bend that was made with the bar  as described in my previous posts is only an INITIAL bend. You still have to do more bending (most end up doing this by hand) to get the holes in the edges to line up with each other so they can be pop riveted into place.

The plans clearly show that you MUST bend the leading edge skin near the edge of the spar flange in order to close them up so that the nicely curved edge is the proper distance away from the spar web. Very confusing since they spend so much time telling you how to bend the skin so that you DON'T end up doing exactly that.

Anyway, I used a techique of pushing down on the outside and up on the inside of the skin on the top to try to keep from creasing the skin next to the spar flange. Creases in the skin right next to the spar flange cause stress risers when flight loads are imposed on the control surface, which can cause crackes to form. I know this sounds confusing to you other builders out there. Just think of it this way. The initial bends were made with the skin down or on the surface of the board with the J bolts. The final bends are done in the opposite manner, pushing down on the skin on the top side to close the gap.

Here is a pic of all three sections closed up and pop riveted.

That pic does not show the crappy way that the middle and bottom skins turned out. To put it simply, the initial bend method that used (with the J bolts holding the bar and skin down flat on the table, worked SO well that I actually over bent the edges of the skins. They were initially bent so that the edges were almost at a 90 degree angle to the spar web. which the way that they should END UP when you are FINISHED bending everything. UNfortunately, as I stated previously, I still needed to finish bending the skins to close up the gap that still existed after the initial bends on both sides were completed. this ment that the edges of both skins ended up being well OVER 90 degrees to the spar web, causing them to curl up adn back toward the spar web just enough to caause me some severe headaches. This next pic shows the outcome. Notice the stressed edges of the inside skin in between all the pop rivets. This is the inside skin still wanting to curl back toward the spar web, but I am effectivey forcing the inner skin to attach to the outer skin. The result is that the edges of the skin are not flush with each other throughout the entire length of the edge:

I had problems getting some of the pop rivets to grab the inner skin so that it could be pulled tight against the outer skin. This was because in some areas the inner skin was curled inward  a bit more than the rest of the edge. So I was left with a decision, Replace the entire rudder skin since I had streched it too far, as one tech counselor told me, or devise a way to get the inner skin close enough to the outer skin so that the pop rivet would grab it. I chose the latter. I've spent way too much time on this damn thing already to even think about replacing the otherwise nicely attached rudder skin. I came up with a sort of lever that used 1/4 inch thick by 1 inch wide steel bar from HD, and a couple of small wood dowel sections, one taped to the end of one side of the bar, adn the other taped to the opposite side of the bar in a location where it could be used as a lever to push the inner skin outward after inserting it inside the curved section. Again, confusing as hell, I know. I forgot to get a pic of the lever so I will do that post again tomorrow. It actually worked fairly well, but required three people to get it to work correctly - one on the lever, one on the pop rivet gun, and one holding the rudder down so it would not move. Quite the operation but it did the job.

The LE skins are now all pop riveted into place. The only problem is that the middle and lower sections of the rudder LE are a bit concave when you look at them. This is due to the outer skin being pushed into the inner skin, and being drawn closer to the Spar web due to the over bent inner skin. Not happy with the outcome, but I have learned my lesson, so the elevators adn airlerons should come out looking very pretty.

Now on the next problem. After getting the LE skins closed up, I wanted to see that baby all hinged up on the VS. So I pulled down the VS from the garage shelf that I built, pulled out the 3/16" aluminum temporary hinge pins that I purchased, installed the rod end bearings in the rudder per the plans, and proceeded to insert the rod ends into the hinges. I found that the hinge holes were not quite large enough to fit the pins, After some research, I arrived at the conclusion that a 3/16 inch reamer would clear out each hinge hole enough to insert each hinge pin., and this seemed to work OK, but I noticed that each pin did have a little bit of resistance when going through the hinge holes. Then I swung it back and forth, with the RV grin all over the place, with the knowledge that had just completed my first full assembly of a stabilizer part and its corresponding control surface.

Then came time to remove the pins so that could move on to the elevators. Well, the bottom and middle pins all came out fine. but the top hinge pin would not budge. Short story is that a ridge had built up on the hinge pin due to inadequately reaming out the hinge holes, and this prevented it from coming back out of the holes. I ended up taking a small cold chisel that would fit in the confied space where the hinge is installed, and avery hard hammer, and banging the living hell out of it until it finally came out far enough for me to bend te hell out of the steel hinge half so that the bearing of the rudder would finally be free so that I could get he rudder off. Then I had to take my dremel cutoff wheel and leterally had to cut the tip of the hinge pin off in order to get it off of the hinge. I'll just close by saying that this ruined a perfectly good evening, and I almost ruined both parts in the process.

Further inspectiosn revealed that the hinges were still in good shape, and the rod end bearings on the rudder appear to be OK as well. SO I think I averted disaster yet one more time. The moral is that 3/16 " is a bit too SMALL for the 10/32 bolts that will eventually fit in them, as well as the 3/16" hinge pins that used. What I really needed was a number 12 reamer, which I did not have (have one on order as I write this). I did, however, have a number 12 drill bit. SO I used that to further ream out the holes. Just trust me when I say that the amount of material that was being removed by both the 3/16" reamer and the #12 drill bit, were basically dust particles, but apparently this was enought to make the difference in the pins fitting correctly or fitting too tightly in the hole.

Pics will help clarify this mumbo jumbo I hope:

Look towards the top of the pic on this one to see the sligt divet or inward bend of the skin. This is that concave result I spoke about earlier:

While I really wanted to try to put solid rivets in everything on the rudder, the trailing edge finally beat me into submission. You are given the option here to use pop rivets since the clearance in this area is so small. I was in the process of making a small bucking bar out of the 1/4 inch thick steel bar I mentioned earlier, but I finally caved in and said WTF and took the easy way out by using the pop rivets. Nice hole, eh?

Here is the original "happy moment" when I thought everything was coming to gether nicely. The hinge pins are in place and the two assemblies are now joined into one.

Next is a pic of the bottom temporary hinge pin in place.the temporary pins are used so that you do not put unnecesary wear and tear on either the hinge hole or the threads on the actual bolts that are used. the pins are smooth and are soft aluminum so they are not supposed to cause any damage or difficulty. (HA!)

And another seemingly happy moment, all before I realized I could not remove the rudder due to the stuck hinge pin:

And one last shot of the hinge pin assembly before I call it a night. Tonight I reattached the lead counterweight to the top of the rudder, hopefully for good this time. Torqued it to 30 inch pounds. Just a little powder coat touch up on the hinge brackets, and the VS and rudder can go to sleep for a while while crank out the elevators. 'Gnight all!

Oshkosh Airventure 2011 Recap - 7-25-11 through 7-31-2011

Time for those happy photos I spoke of in my previous post. Day one for me was actually 7-21-11 - departed about 10:00 am with kid and trailer in tow. My RV 10 builder and friend Mike Rettig was the only one to take me up on hauling gear for them this year. Thought that was a bit strange, given how many took me up on it last year, but no sweat off my back. First shot is the kid trying to work the camera to get a shot of the water tank in the town of York, NE, which is a couple hundred miles west of Omaha, where I park for the day to rest. It is painted and shaped like a big hot air baloon.

Of particular concern for me on this trip was the flooding of the Missouri River near Omaha. It was 6 feet above flood stage, and had been that way since April, but the crossing on I-80 in Omaha was still clear. the only trouble I had on this trip was almost getting killed by an asshole truck driver hauling onions that kept playing cat and mouse with me for about 10 miles, and another one that was decidedly drunk or high and could not keep his rig on the road. We managed to survive both of those episodes. ON the lighter side, we also saw more Ag Cats spraying crops along the highway, but did not get any pics unfortunately.

Stayed in a KOA campground on the west side of Omaha. Nice campground - just can't stand the heat and the humdity. I always get a site with electical hookup so I can run the fans in the trailer. These are the times where I wish I had an AC unit. Day two on the road is always full of anticipation, cuz that's the day we finally get to Oshkosh. total trip length one way is 1,024 miles. I take I-25 to I-76 to I-80, then a short leg north in Iowa on I-380 until I hook up with I 151 for the remainder of the trip.

Arrived in KOSH and set up camp in Camp Scholler again. This year I was on 23rd St. between Lindbergh and Elm, in the same general location as in years past. Trailer was facing east so I could watch the afternoon airshows from under the sun shade on the front of my trailer. This is still a great location because it ends up being about a half mile from the runway, so most of the airshow planes end up flying right over the trailer from time to time, so can get some great close up photos.

I took Adam around the grounds on Saturday to get him familiar with everything. Had to run back to the trailer to avoid lightening storms that moved in late in the afternoon. Sunday was fishing day. got up at 3:00am to make the drive from Oshkosh south to Fon du Lac, and then East to Sheboygan where the boat was located on Lake Michigan. Drive time was about 1.5 hours, and the planned departure was about 5:00am. I was OK with the early nature of the trip, but I was not OK with making it in torrential flooding rain storms and lightening. Almost as soon  as we headed south toward Fon du Lac, it started coming down heavily. About 20 miles from Sheboygan Adam and I agreed that it was not looking real good, adn I was afraid that the roads were starting to flood, so we turned around and headed back to Fon du Lac to wait out the storm. Nothing like being on an unfamiliar country road in the middle of nowhere, wiht sheet rain and lightening coming down all around you. A cople of phone calls to the captain of the boat resulted in a change in plans for a delayed departure at 6:00am to allow the storms to pass, which they did.

Here is the kid on the boat as we depart, with his cookie monster hat and aviator sun glasses, ready for fishin...

On the flying bridge of the boat with the captain.....




Fish ON!

And the only catch of the day - a 10 pound Koho Salmon! Great catch son! Hard to believe we only caught one fish. We had no less than 12 lines out on this boat at one time. Problem was the weather had caused the fish to stop feeding. There were tons of fish in the harbor, but nothing would bite.

Fishin was slow. We were done for the day - heading back to the bay after being on the boat for about 5 hours. It was a fun day, even if we only caught one fish, and even though it wasn't one of those 25 pound King Salmons that I had hoped for. The crew cleaned and packaged the fish for us, and we were on our way back to Oshkosh.

Either later that same day, or perhaps on Monday morning, we went to the museum. Adam found the kidventure area and we had a ball playing on the simulators. I did not take a lot of pics or video on this trip. Focused mainly on forums and the museum, and events like listening to Bob Hoover and Chuck Yeager speak about their experiences, attending REO Speedwagon concert on Monday, and the Lt Dan Band with Gary Sinese on Friday, etc., etc. Main focus was just having a good time with my son. There is never a shortage of things to do in Oshkosh during Airventure.

Fifi, the only flying B-29, arrives at KOSH!

Next is an example of the price of hot doggin' and not paying attention to the details. From what I learned from eye witness accounts, this is an F-16 from the Alabama National Guard, which had run off the runway during an attempted landing, landed way too long, and subsequently departed the runway, caved in the nose gear, and ended up nose down in the infield. I was about 150 yards away at the time at the Van's tent. According to Mike and Aneta Rettig, this pilot was erratically flying his airplane during the flight, and so I guess the outcome is no suprise. I was concerned because by the time I took this pic, flames were coming out of the back of the engine, and the fire department seemed to take forever to get there. The aircraft remained in that position for the remainder of airventure, an eyesore to the rest of the event... Chuck Yeager, being the military man that he is, had some harsh words for that pilot - suggesting that he should quit. I guess I would be inclined to agree if pilot foolishness was the true cause of this accident.

the Boeing 787 arrives. Also a disappointing event. It was only there for a half day, and nobody but VIPs got a chance to look inside the airplane. Very pretty aircraft - and is the only composite-built airliner in the world.

And a photo gallery......

Shutter malfunction. More T-6s/SNJs than you could count

The amazing storey of Glacier girl...

Chatting with Bob Hoover. What an extraordinary life - - escaped from a POW camp at the end of WWII in a Focke Wolf 190, became airshow airboss at Reno, Stunning airshow performances in the Shrike and the Aerocommander, acquainted with Charles Lindbergh, just amazing....

A real one.....

And a half scale kit called the T-51 that you can build and fly....

Lt Dan band concert in Theater in the Woods

Celebrating 100 years of naval aviation - The only Curtiss SB2C Helldiver remaining in the world today, and a present day F-18 in formation, right over the trailer.... SWEET!

Me and the kid at the "Official" front gate of Airventure

Mike and Aneta Rettig, and the kid at the gate. This was Aneta's first trip to Oshkosh - famous quote - "Sure is a lot of walking!" Good times had by all. Smores at the campfire at the Raley camp site, home made pizza at the Rettig camp site, Movie nights at the fly in theater, attending the Lt Dan Band concert together, talking airplanes and such, all good times. Oh, and for the kid - he met some good friends at the DJ tent and I basically never saw him for about 3 days as he was having a blast hanging out with them.

Lots of good memories on this trip. Already looking forward to next year.  I have some video of the night Airshow on the final Saturday night that I will try to upload in the next post.

Oshkosh Airventure 2011 Interrupts the build!

At about 302 hours I had rolled the leading edge rudder skins and did my best to finish closing the skins and pop riveting them together. It became clear that my initial rudder bend had actually worked so well that I ended up over-bending the skins. This created some problems when I tried to insert pop rivets in the last couple of holes in the bottom section. The inside skin would cleco OK to the outerskin, since the shaft of the cleco is long enough to reach inside, but as soon as I let loose of the cleco to try to insert the pop rivets. the inside skin would tuck away from the outer skin to the point that the pop rivet would not be long enough to grab hold of the hole in the inner skin, no matter how hard I tried to push in on the outer skin to close up the gap.

At this point I had about 1.5 weeks remaining till Oshkosh, and it felt like I was in hell week trying out for the Navy Seals just so I could finally get head up to Airventure 2011. The trailer was in the shop for some needed brake repairs which I had to force them to make twice before the problem was finally resolved. I learned after I got back that the tech that supposedly worked on them the first time was fired after failing to properly fix my problem. Apparently he had done the same thing to two other customers before me, so the shop manager cut him loose. I have read some stories about aircraft mechanics doing essentially the same thing while working on some airplanes. Just one more reason why I only trust myself to work on MY airplane when the time comes.

Work was also making me insane, since I was finishing up a project that I had worked on for the last 10 months. I was also in the middle of refinancing my house after seeing that interest rates had finally fallen lower than my current rate, so I was going through all that crap as well. When I hit the problem with closing up the rolled leading edges of the rudder, I had had enough for a while. The "so-close-but-yet-so-far routine with the rudder, combined with all the other madness that was happening around me, was really wearing me down. So I suspended the build to give me enough time to deal with everything else and placed also focus on preparing for Oshkosh.

This trip to Airventure 2011 was special for me. My youngest son Adam decided to tag along. I sort of half bribed him to come along by offering to charter a fishing boat to do some fishing on Lake Michgan, since we would be "in the neighborhood." In the end he had a great time, and even voluntarily mentioned to me that he could not wait to go back next year. That was music to my ears, and it was the reaction that had hoped he would have.


Some pics of where I left off on the rudder
All covered up to prime the leading edge of the inside skin:

Top and middle sections rolled, bent into final pistion by hand, and clecoed into place. Right side of the lower half still needs to be rolled. Many others before me had siad to do this in sections and don't try to roll all three sections at the same time. Exactly what I did.

Close up showing that the skins seem to be  butted up against each other nicely. What you don't see is the extreme curvature of the inside skin. So at least the kerf seemed to do its job by allowing the skins to lay flat against each other.

This last shot starts to show how "over" bent the inside skin became after I coaxed the skin into the final position. so that the holes of both skins would line up more or less in along the center line of the spar. If you look back at some of the early photos takne right after I performed the bend with tube, you will notice that the flanges and holes are almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the rest of the rudder skin. IN this pic, you now see just how much further I had to bend the skins over just so that the holes of both skins would overlap so that you can apply the pop rivets to close them up. Not real happy at all with the turn out of this. In fact, this is where I stopped taking pictures. You can just see the curl of the edge of the skin, and how it is obviosly now more than 90 degrees opposed to the spar, or starting to tuck further inward. This is the problem I spoke of earlier. The combination of hand forcing the skin into position the rest of the way and the over bent edges that resulted, is what caused the difficulties with the pop rivets. I will take more pics showing the crappy but still acceptable result of attaching the leading edges with the pop rivets, adn then you will understand even better what I am talking about. I will do pics of Oshkosh next cuz rehashing this process is painful, and I need some "happy" photos to take my mind off of the crappy result I got.