Drove the Rivets for the cover plate

In case I have not mentioned this previously, lets just say that I am so glad that do NOT have put up with any of this stuff for the right wing fuel tank assembly. I finally got wipe to cobwebs off of my rivet gun and used it to set the 4 rivets to secure the cover plate over the hole. Since it had been so long since I had used the rivet gun and bucking bar to set rivets, I at least did the "smart" thing and took one of my test pieces that was already drilled, deburred, and dimpled, and still have a few holes available for some test rivets.

Another thing I wanted to do was test a flexible shaft flat rivet set with the rubber cup that surrounds the flat rivet set, which s at least 1.4 inch larger in circumference than my 1 inch flat set that have been using for my build up to this point. I bought this thing because it had the red rubber cup around the edges of the metal flat set, to allow it to grab the aluminum and keep it from slipping.SO I put it in my rivet gun, and well, lets just say that its a good thing I did some tests first, before I did the real thing.

Its hard to see in the next pic, but I was less than pleased with the rubber rivet set. The main reason was that the rubber extends almost 1/16th of an inch beyond the metal rivet set surface, and this does not allow the rivet set to sit directly on the rivet head before you squeeze the trigger on the rivet gun. The result was similar to what many others have experienced with this "stock" tool. The head of the rivet does not sit flush in the dimple and allows the head to rise up, resulting in a proud and improperly set rivet.

None of the pics of the shop heads came out very well, so you'll just have to trust me when I tell you that, in addition to poorly set manufactured heads, I also discovered that my air pressure was set way to high for the rivet gun. I don't even remember the last set if rivets that I drove with the rivet gun, but they must have been AN7470AD4 rivets, because the gun pressure was turned way up. The result on my test rivets was that the shop heads were all way over driven, and the gun was barely controllable.

Once I figured out how to turn down my gun pressure again, AND I switched back to my 1 inch wide flat rivet set, I was able to get satisfactory rivets.Here is the pic showing that horribly large flat set the rubber cup, and the bucking bars, rivet gauge, and my "normal" flat set already installed on the gun. You can see how much the rubber extends beyond the actual metal part of the larger flat set.

I think I can still make this larger set work, because I do continue to have problems with the flat set sliding off the rivet. I am going to have to sand or cut off the "excess" amount of rubber so that the flat set will make better contact with the surface of the rivet. I have to try taking off a little bit of rubber at a time, and run some more tests.

Now for the fun part. As I have mentioned many times before, the key to setting good rivets is all about how well you clamp the work piece to ensure that it will not bounce, bend, or vibrate in such a way that the rivet will not end up being set correctly. If you work alone and do not have a bucking buddy to help you, you absolutely MUST keep the work secure, since one hand will be operating the rivet gun, and the other will be working the bucking bar, the work piece has to be clamped down good. SO here is the contraption that I dreamed up - all for 4 rivets on one lousy fuel tank rib:

This "contraption" is made up of 6 different clamps, and 3 different wood blocks, all strategically placed on the work bench, with the rib positioned upright on the edge of the bench, with the bottom rib flange clamped in place first, followed by all the other clamps to make this assembly as rigid as possible, so I could set the 4 cover plate rivets. Here are the remaining detailed photos, showing exactly where and how I had to set each clamp to achieve the objective:

The smaller block of wood ha to  used to ensure that the hing for the trap door could be cleared. the other clamps had to be placed carefully so that the stiffening rings would not be compromised. Every single one of these clamps was needed until I felt that the rib was stationary enough to be ready to set these rivets. Let's just say that I am glad that this is the only rib that I have to do all this work on.

And the final result, after using my standard rivet set with a piece of masking tape over the face of the set, and my "fat man" tungsten bucking bar.

At the end of it all I was pleased with the results, and my rivet gauge confirmed that the rivets were set correctly. There will be a million more of these rivets to set if and when I finally get to the point where I am riveting the skins to the wings.

With this little "project" done, I think I will turn my attention back on the Leading edge assembly, and I will remark the lines for the rivets, cut line, and nut plate locations on the LE skin, using the edge of the skin as my reference point, so that my spacing of everything from one side of the bay to the other is accurate and consistent.

I am now very close to making that dreaded cut in my LE skin.

On another note, we had our first YE rally of 2018 yesterday - flew 2 kids and one adult - had some engine issues on the third flight adn had to RTB shortly after Takeoff. Getting tired of dealing with fouled plugs on airplanes so I may renting a different one for next month's rally.

We also had our EAA Chapter 301 Founders Day Brunch and Awards Ceremony. A great time was had by all at the Mount Vernon Country Club high on top of Lookout Mountain. The Chapter is 50 years old as of the 23rd of this month, which is a pretty significant accomplishment, and we received a very nice new Chapter Banner from EAA HQ that looks really sharp.

Till next time, KPR....

Catching Up After a Long Dry Spell

Man, this year is just flying by. Wish I could say the same for my project. I have been overtaken by events over the past several months, and the result is that not much has been done on the build. It started with the decision to get my tailwheel endorsement, followed by attending the Sport Air Electrical workshop earlier this month, and then I got the hankering to do a bit more flying for a while. SO I also checked out in the club C-182 and C-172s. Then work got in the way - you know, that pesky thing that allows you to embark in this crazy activity known as "flying." Unfortunately in my line of work October means huge deadlines for software releases that have been worked on for months, so one has to do what one has to do to get to the finish line.

Then I had a couple more revelations that have served to get in the way of actively working on the project. The first was an opportunity through the company I work for to take part in a weight loss program called Slim-genics. For far too long I had let my weight get the better of me, adn now it is slowly taking its toll on my ever-aging body. So I took a huge plunge and dove in head first and I am now about 4 weeks into this program and have lost almost 30 pounds. The ability to continue holding a medical certificate and continue to have the privilege of flying where ever I want to is a very strong motivator for me to get and stay healthy from now until the end of my days. Unfortunately this also required a time commitment to do all the things that are necessary to change bad habits and get back to a healthy life style. SO other things must suffer a bit while I take care of the truly important stuff. ONly other thing I will say about the program is that IT WORKS! I had to go buy a new smaller belt today and new clothes are not too far behind. Looking forward to "getting smaller" in the window. (reference the movie Apollo 13 for the pun!)

Then I decided to take the opportunity to fly my very first EAA young eagle this weekend. His name was Logan and his Dad's name was Mike. IT turned out to be a bit if challenge to make this happen, since we had two snow packed systems roll through the Denver area last week, and unfortunately this set the stage for a heavy Frost on Saturday morning. I was out at KAPA at 0600 in 17 degree temps to provide enough time to preheat and preflight the airplane and reposition up to KFTG where the YE rally was taking place. The sun finally warmed things up enough for me to depart in a C-172 at about 1000, and I was able to catch one of the last flights with Logan and his Dad before it eas time to turn around and head back to home base. That ride was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoy introducing aviation to the young peopel in hopes of lighting a spark in some of them that may someday result in them pursuing the same dream as I.

Then, as if that was not enough, I also decided that it was time to dust off an old project I had started a few years ago when I had a hankering to put together a miniature christmas village, complete with christamas trains and and little holiday scenes being played out by miniature people in a different place and time. I first caught this bug after discovering a system provided by the Woodland Scenics company, which specializes in products to create such displays. They have everything from specialized plaster products to fake trees and rocks, etc., and they have a series of how to videos that take you through the process step by step.

I became acquainted with all this when I helped my oldest son with a High School class project that involved creating a midieval scene from the Roman empire that involved a castle dn draw brige and such. That is when I got the idea for the christmas village. I made it as far as getting the train track laid out adn a basic idea for the village that I wanted. I stopped working on it after a lot of detail work on the tunnel was completed, with a bit more left to do. It has sat in a corner of my basement gathering dust ever since, so I figured it was high time to try to get this project moved along for this upcoming holiday season, so I am now neck deep in that effort.

Needless to say, this does not leave much room for working on the plane. I will say that the Sport Air Electrical class was just awesome. Fellow RV-8 builder Scott Larsen also attended. In that class we learned how to attach a variety of different crimp connectors, including a BNC connector to some RG58 antenna coax. Then we also got to wire up and solder an actual Phone and Mike jack for a PPG intercomm system, and the acid test was whether you could plug in a headset to the actual intercom unit and hear yourself speak over the microphone. Mine worked just fine. The final project was one that emulated an on/off nav light circuit and an adjustable interior cockpit light circuit. Again, mine worked as expected. I cannot say enough how valuable all of these Sport Air classes are for learning basic skills tht can be applied to the airplane project. The class was taught by Dick Keohler, whos is also one of the folks that presents a variety of electrical how to hints in the EAA Hints for Homebuilders series of instructional videos. Dick is a great guy and a great instructor.

Then there is all the current events that have unfolded within the EAA organization over the past several weeks. Recently appointed leader Rod Hightower resigned and President and CEO of EAA, sighting family relocation concerns as the reason. There are a lot of long-time EAA members that are not happy at all with this transition, adn it seems the root concerns are centered on EAA losing its focal point on Homebuilding, Experiementation, and Innovation, to a much more all-inclusive aviation audience adn community.

Dick Koehler also told us some stories about the massive re-org that took place at EAA after Hightower took office, adn some of shady things that occured behind the scenes that seems to have negatively impacted a lot of really good people. I was very saddened to hear some of these things, as my experience with all things EAA up to this point has been largely positive. The most disturbing thing that Dick told us was that the traveling Sport Air classes that I was attending may very well be the last ones to be offered at satellite locations forever more. EAA is sighting financial issues as the reason and apparently was moving toward a philosophy to conduct the classes at Oshkosh about once per quarter, instead of traveling to a variety of different locations throughout the country. This was truly disheartening to hear.

These are truly trying times for EAA as it struggles to determine it's niche in the rest of the aviation world in this present day environment. Now that a new leader is being sought, I hope that the integrity of the namesake for the Experimental Association will be preserved as we move forward in the vast world of all things aviation.

So, enough for now. Hopefully the remainder of the year will be a bit more serene, and a little less hectic. And then, true to my past experience thus far, I will probably find the time to start working on the plane again just about the time there are sub-zero temperatures in the garage. That just seems to the be the way of things for me and this project. The wings will get done - - eventually.

Wings 83, total 546 - Back in the Saddle Again......

Besides being a great Aerosmith tune, my post title is a true testament to the way of things. Seems like I had been out of the saddle for quite some time, but the reality is that I have still been immersed in many things regarding my build, just no actual time spent actually building it lately. To accentuate my lack of progress over the past month or so, I ahve to inclde this next pic. To other builders out there, let this pic serve as "motivation," or you can look at it from my perspective, which is an embarrasing kick in the pants to get this flying machine finished as soon as possible.

Thanks goes once again to Mike Rettig for this lovely work of art, written on my dust-filled horizontal stabilizer, that I have not hung back up on the wall since my build party a couple (few) months ago. I stil have some touch up priming and a couple other things to do before I hang it back up again. Sadly, it does not take very long for just about anything in my garage to accumulate a rather thick coat of dust. I am ashamed to have let it get this bad.

Since my last post I have suffering from a  bit of analysis paralysis regarding how many additional holes I need to drill in my wing ribs to install the necessary conduit to run all of my electrical wires through the wings. In order to figure this out, I also needed to come to terms with some avionics decisions that would also determine what kind of electrical wires and antenna wires I would need to run.

One of the key decisions you have to make in this day and age is to determine if your airplane will fly using mainly GPS navigational assistance, or if you intend to continue to take advantage of the VOR,Localizer, and glide slope information that is still in use and available to both VFR and IFR pilots alike. My decision? Since I am a pilot that is rated to conduct flight in both VFR and IFR environments, I plan on being able to exercise either one when the opportunity suits me. I threfore plan on installing a GPS unit that is qualified for both enroute and approach IFR (WAAS capable), and, as an independent back up system, I plan to to continue to use, or have the capability to use the existing ground-based VOR navigation system. 

In order to do this, you have to install the avionics equipment for each system, and run the electrical wiring and the antenna wiring for both.

Up to now, my experience with VOR antennas has always involved what is known as a cat's whisker antenna. This is basically a rather thick wire antenna that is shaped like two sides of a triangle with the base missing. The pointed end of the antenna is usually mounted on the top of the vertical stabilizer, with the "whiskers" spreading outward towards the rear of the airplane. THe traditional IFR installation for this system was to install two separate VOR receivers, both of which would be tied to the same antenna. I don't see too many experimental aircraft using this installation method, nor do I see many cat's whiskers antennas.

I have since learned of a different option that was introduced by an antenna whiz by the name of Bob Archer. He has invented some Nav and Com antennas for a variety of different airplanes that can be installed inside a Wing tip, thus reducing drag and allowing faster cruise speeds. I have seen many pics of this antenna and I have access to several builders who have used this same installation. This weekend I attended the annual EAA Chapter 301 picnic, complements of Rudy Kniese and Ted Lemen. While there I met Lyn (Will get last name and add later) who is building an RV-7A. He invited me to look at this Wings so that I could see how he had routed his wires nd so I could see the Archer antenna installation in his WIng tip. It was fantastic to see another build again. I learned so much more than just about wire runs while I was there.

I learned about the distinction between fuel injected engines with vertical induction vs. horizontal induction. Horzontal requires an inlet mod that most make out of fiberglass. This eliminates the need for the scoop on the bottom of the engine cowl, which still has to be used if you use vertical induction. I also learned about the routing of the fuel vent lines, placement of the engine cooling baffles, and directing airflow to various components within the engine compartment.

Anyway, back to antennas. One of the other things I had read somewhere was that the antenna needs to be run separately from the wires for nav and strobe lights, landing lights, autopilot servos, etc. It is also supposed to be at least 1 foot away from all other wires to prevent RF interference from distorting or disrupting the signal. Lyn showed me that he as able to run the main wiring bundle for the lights and such up toward the front of the main ribs, and the VOR antenna cable can run through some conduit that is attached by a hangar through the rear lighteining hle of each rib. Lyn had a very spiffy looking zip tie clamp that was riveted to the outside of the rear lightening hole with two rivets. THe conduit is then attached by a zip tie assembly. Very neat setup. I also found some other hangars today at HD that I had read about from several others. the 3/4 inch hangar should work just fine. THis puts the conduit right through the center of the rear lightening hole, so you don't even have to drill another 3/4 inch hole in your wing rib, which is also a plus. The antenna cable will also be at least 16 inches away from any other wiring through the wing, so this will work nicely.

The antenna cable being used these days is RG400 - really expensive stuff I guess, but my life and the lives of my passengers is worth it. My plan is to run the Nav antenna out to the right Wing tip, another comm antenna out to the Left Wingtip, and then most all remaining antennas except for the GPS antennas will go on the belly of the airplane.

TO close for the night, I spent two hours finishing up the straightening of the remaining fuel tank ribs, and I sorted all the main ribs and stacked them together so that the correct rib sequence is set for each wing. I then numbered each rib so I know which one goes where. I still have deburring that needs to be done to certain areas of each rib, but the hard part is over. Actually the next hard part will be all the scuffing and cleaning of the ribs, but first I get to match drill the holes to the spar - have to get the sapr down off the shelf to do that. Yippee, I am building an airplane again!

Stacks of ribs waiting to be attached to the wing spar.

POST MORTUM NOTE AFTER RESEARCHING THIS WELL AFTER I HAD LEFT IT ALONE!! This may vary for each different model of Vans Aircraft. I have since found out that the RV-8 plans do depict relief holes in the this area, but only in the pictures. The instructions in the plan book make absolutely no mention of putting relief holes on this location, so this is an area where Vans really needs to update their instructions for the RV 8.


So, another great thing about Chapter 301, they have a lot of active RV buildes and fliers. I found one post on the Van's Air Force website where someone mentioned the need to trim this area of the front spar, and I became even more perplexed. I contacted the Chapter 301 president to ask him who I could contact about the bend line problem I posted earlier. He put me in touch with Bill Truax, a really nice person and Technical counselor who has build at least 13 airplanes I think. He took the time to come to my work shop and look at the problem in person. He told me that it probably would not be a problem and to go ahead and make the bend. So that is what I did, and it all worked out fine. On to the next step......

Joined Chapter 301

So, after attempting for the past 6 months to visit another local EAA Chapter, Chapter 301, I finally made it. What a great time that was - I met the pilot of "Rare Bear," a highly modified F8F Bearcat fighter aircraft from WWII. This is a long time crowd favorite of the Reno Air Races. If you think what I am doing is crazy, you should have heard all of the things they have done to that aircraft just to get a few more knots of airspeed out of her to win the race - it would boggle your mind. I got his autograph. More importantly, I joined Chapter 301. I also met some old friends - including Jack Buschmann, a former Civil Air Patrol Colorado Wing Commander, and a old CFI that I used to work with named Roger. Jack announced that he just finished his DAR final airworthiness inspection after working on a quickbuild RV7 for the past 2 years, and just got his signed paperwork that same day! Now he has to finish putting it back together and conduct the test flying period required by the FAA. I can only imagine being at that stage of the build for my own aircraft. Totally cool.