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.