Using available resources

"Normal" people would look at this next photo and say .."so what, it's a box." Builders of experimental airplanes would look at this and say "...Cool! another box I can use for priming large parts!"

Actually, this is the box that the new screen door came in that I am currently in the process of installing on my front door, part of which can be seen in the background. As I was opening it up, two things struck me:

1. This is quite a large piece of cardboard
2. This should make at least one, and possibly even two separate priming tables that will be able to hold a large number of wing parts.

The next step in the build from where I left off long ago is to scuff, clean, and prime all of those straightened wing ribs. This will require a lot of elbow grease and probably several days to complete. One thing that helps to complete this work is to have a large enough work area to setup adn prime all the parts without having to do them in smaller batches at a time. This box will allow me to place several ribs on it, and with this and the two other priming tables I already have, I shold be able to get the priming work done fairly quickly. I will need to make another box frame with more wire fencing, and then I can proceed.

It's funny how events of every day life can sometimes generate opportunities to help complete this project. Time to start building an airplane again. The new goal will be for both wings and both fuel tanks to be complete by the time Oshkosh 2013 rolls around next summer.

Fundamental Decisions About Cockpit Layout

This post starts with a recent attempt by me to search VAF for some info about Wing Stands and Jigs that may have been posted by Paul Dye (VAF user Ironflight). This is a gentleman whose wealth of knowledge I have come to greatly respect throughout my experiences thus far with building the RV8. He contributes articles frequently for Kit Plane Magazine and was a systems engineer for the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs at NASA. If anyone knows about all things "experimental" when it cmes to aviation - he is certainly one of those individuals.

Anyway I had heard that he had a simple wing jig solution and I was trying to find a post to that effect - that is until I stumbled on a couple of posts from him back in 2006 after his RV-8 Valkyrie was completed and flying. Doug Reeves, founder of VAF, had captured several pics of his panel layout, and as I started studying the photos there were some comments about the reasoning behind his panel layout that I did not want to lose reference to.

So this post is now dedicated to a small tidbit of information about some things that I must not forget when the time comes to figure where all the goodies will go in my instrument panel and various consoles on either side of the pilot seat. I like Paul's reasoning for why he put certain things in certain locations, and will plan on emulating those same considerations in my own plane when the time comes. Here is a list:

1. Overall he tried to group common items in the same locations to make it easier to locate systems with similar functions.

2. All primary electrical switches are located on the right console next to the pilot seat

3. All engine-related controls are placed on the left console, including the engine monitor.

4. He used a rail system on either side of any essential electrical switches to provide a bit of stability for manipulating the switches during turbulence - a technique used extensively at NASA. Gee, I wonder why?! The rails provide a platform to rest your fingers against to help actuate the switch, and it also prevents inadvertent activation of a switch by bumping into it with your hand or your knee, etc.

5. He placed his avionics that require the most interaction with the hand and fingers so that his dominant hand performs the actions such as turning small knobs or pushing small buttons, etc. He discussed this with some human factors engineers at NASA after initially planning to place the radios in the opposite location. His initial thinking was that his dominant hand should be focused on flying the plane so that it would be on the stick, and the weak hand would do all the radio switching and tuning work. He was advised to change his perspective, and allow his dominant hand to take care of the fine motor skill work, and the weak hand to focus on the joystick work. For me this means that the radios and GPS should be on the right side of the Primary flight displays if at all possible.

5. Then I encountered some interesting tidbits about nav/strobe combination lights. I noted that Paul seemed to have a 3-position switch for his strobes - top was ALL, middle is OFF, and bottom is TAIL ONLY. My current thinking was to put a combination red/white beacon on the bottom of the fuselage if that will satisfy the FAA requirements for visibilty to the rear. I also finally found post in the builders log from someone else that confirmed that the Wing tip Strobe location that Vans provides DOES NOT meet the requirements for rearward visibility of the anti-collision loght system, and therefore this discrepancy in their design needs to be addressed somehow. Putting the strobes in the wing tips, as most people do, only allow visiblity from the side and the front, and NOT from the rear. This is, in essence, a violation of the relevant FARS that I have reffered to in previous posts that is excrutiatingly specific about the distance, number of lumens, and angular visiblity requirements for the required exterior light systems.

6. One last thing that I noted about his overall panel layout, as well as those from several other builders, is that he retains the basic scan format with his backup airspeed indicator positioned on the left side of the EFIS display (which provides attitude display in addition to the other information when everything is working), and the altimeter on the other side. The backup attitude indicator is located elsewhere on the panel. I have seen several builders emulate this configuration, and then I have seen others that tend to try to keep all 3 backup instruments in one line across. The problem is that the EFIS is always in the way in the small panel space provided by the RV-8. This makes positioning all 3 backup instruments together in a location that will be readily viewable by a pilot that needs to use them in an emergency a bit of a challenge.

There are numerous schools of thought out there on the positioning of the backup instruments. One interesting insight is that if the backup instruments are located in a position that is readily viewable by the pilot most of the time, then the they tend to focus on the back up instruments instead of the EFIS for primary flying tasks, even when the EFIS is working perfectly. I am almost of the opinion on this that I would rather have a backup EFIS on a secondary power system so that not matter if the primary EFIS fails, I am still maintaining reference to flight instruments from a similar display. Works pretty well if you have the extra cash and the extra panel space to go with it such as in a side by side RV like the RV-7, etc. This does not work as well in the RV-8, where panel space is at a premium. Anyway, when the time comes, I may keep the backup round dials in a single line or I may break up the attitude indicator - just not quite sure how I will decide to do that yet.

There was also a comment about putting a combo nav light/strobe in the tail. Somebody mentioned that this is a major distraction for a low wing airplane at night, with the light reflecting off the wings from the rear, possible entering your peripheral vision. So he recommended not putting a strobe in the rear. I am hoping my decision to place this system on the bottom of the fuselage eliminates this problem, but I am worried about electrical noise affecting the ADAHRS unit for the EFIS, which will also be mounted in the rear of the airplane.

So much for checking out wing jigs! Here is the link to the post that contains Ironflight's panel photos.

IF I can just shed some of the cold weather that finally appeared in Colorado I am just about ready to re-engage in the wing work. Personally I will be glad when the holidays are done and over with - I need to get back to building an airplane.

Finally posting pic of the new air hose reel

 

 

My account with Google finally kicked in and I now seem to have access to my additional space for pics. So here is the pic of the hose reel that was installed in the rafters of the garage last week.

Almost 7 more gallons of fuel or cargo.......

Well I would say that this latest dry spell has gone on almost long enough, so here is an update for the fans, and also to get me back in the habit of posting my "progress."

Again, not much done on the actual building of the airplane, but I have spent a ton of time researching and prototyping my secret project, which involves a bit of electronic magic. If I can get it all figured out for the larger scale of the aircraft, it should be a lot of fun. Sorry, still can't divulge it to the general population just yet, but by the time I get done with the wings it will be fairly obvious.

On another front, I have now managed to lose 40 pounds, with another 47 pounds to go. Not bad for only 9 weeks of work, if I do say so myself. Ultimately this will translate into allowances for more fuel, heavier back seat passengers, or more cargo, or maybe even more avionics goodies, and it is great to be able realize that kind of additional flexibility with the airplane just by losing some excess pilot weight. Of course the medical and physical benefits of doing this are also obvious, and will hopefully allow me to further ensure that I will be able to maintain my medical certificate for many years to come.

So when you are not building, what else are you doing? Well, hopefully one answer to that question is that you are still finding time to get up in the air and fly. Over the holiday week I flew twice. The first flight was my second PIC solo flight in the Citabria, and involved one solid hour of 3 point landings. About half of these put a big smile on my face, and the other half left me cursing myself for basically flaring too high, followed by several PIOs. All the bounces were still straight ahead down the runway with no departures to one side or the other, but it was still enough of an eye opener to remind me that you have to stay on top of this airplane every second. Next time I fly the Citabria I will try to get back to some wheel landings.

The second flight was in a C-172 with my friend and fellow RV builder Mike Rettig. We flew (I should say that HE flew) for about 2 hours. I basically put on my CFI hat for most of this flight, and Mike did a nice job of flying after not having done much for the past 5 years or so. The longest dry spell I ever encountered for a pilot that finally decided to get current again was about 13 years. It really is like riding a bike - you just knock off some of the rust and spend a few hours to get proficient again, and you are off to the air races.

Afterward we ate lunch at the Perfect Landing restaurant, and then headed back to my place. Mike helped me get a long awaited workshop project off the ground and into the air (literally). A long time ago I had purchased an air hose reel complete with a heavy duty red air hose, but I had not found the time or the where-with-all to get it hung up on the rafters. All this time I have been dragging my air hoses on the ground while drilling, riveting, priming, etc. Well, that time has finally come to an end, thanks to the help from Mike. A few measurements, a few cuts of wood, a trip to the hardware store, and finally drilling some holes and setting some screws and bolts - and it was all finished - almost.....

Unfortunately it looks like I have been hit by the same 1 GB free storage limit on blogspot that Ron Duren recently reported about on his blog. Hmmm - guess I will need to cough up 30 bucks to get more storage.

Anyway, pics are pending I guess. Afterward I had to seal up a couple of leaks in the air fittings to the hose on the reel, but I think I finally got them all sealed up tonight. It is so nice to hear silence when you pressurize the hose with a non-running tool on the other end, instead of that pesky hissing sound of air leaking from somewhere that it shouldn't be leaking from. I now need to find a 25 foot long section of hose to run up nd over the rafters from the reel back to the compressor and I should be all set to start using this setup to rivet the wing parts together in the hopefully not-too-distant future. Mike also mentioned something to me about insulating the unfinished roof in the garage to warm it up a little in the winter time (and cool it down a little in the summer). I will need to invest in some 24 inch wide R19 or better insulation, but with Xmas on the way, and a full host of recent home repair bills pending, this may have to wait until next winter. It sure would be nice to warm up the garage another 10-20 degrees!

Anyhoo, just thought I would chime in and let others know that I am still lurking on their build sites, so don't get complacent like me - - 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.

Back to Building = Thinking it Through....

Hopefully if you are  a fellow builder you will not have to endure the lengthy pauses I seem to experience at just about every turn in between building efforts. I am doing a horrible job of sticking to my original goal of 3-5 years for completion, but life gets in the way sometimes, and so you just keep doing what you can do I guess.

One of the problems of having lengthy delays is that it is easy to forget just exactly what you doing or what your were thinking about at the time that you stopped working on the plane. You forget where certain tools are located, and you forget the small details about certain activities.

So I spent a short time tonight just reassissing where everything was at. I know that I still have a crap load of deburring wing ribs to do, but I also realized that I still had my horizontal stab sitting on my work table - constantly getting in the way. Only problem is that I knew that I had left it there after taking it down off the wall of the garage some time back because there were still several small things that I needed to do before I hung it back up again.

- final torque the 4 mounting bolts for the center bearing/hinge.
- smooth out the cut lines where I had trimmed the edges of the HS to allow proper clearance for the elevator counter balance arms
- re-prime a couple of areas around the center joint of the HS forward spar and support angles, and also around the tips
- smooth and re-prime the area of the rear HS spar flange that had to be trimmed to allow clearance for the control horns during full down travel of the elevators.

After reviewing those items, I also realized that I still needed to drill and mount a couple of K1000-4 nut plates to accept an AN4 bolt along the web of each elevator. Here is a shot of a 3/16 inch cleco that I inserted through the large hole of the nut plate first, and then inserted the clec through the large tooling hole in the forward part of the rib web of the counterbalance support and the tip rib of each elevator.

This additional nut plate allows me to secure additional lead weight to the elevator in the event that more is needed to balance the controls when the time comes for that. You simply take a piece of lead, drill the necessary hole, and mount it to the web using an AN4 bolt and the nut plate. The subject of some controversy among builders is where to place the nut plate - on the inboard or the outboard portion of the elevator. I have chosen to mount the nut plate on the inboard side of each arm, so that any additional lead and the bolt head will be located on the outboard side of the arm (where the fiberglass tip fairing will be installed).

The reason is simple. if the bolt ever becomes loose for any reason, bot the bolt and the additional lead weight would be retained in side the fiberglass tip fairing. If either of these items are located on the inboard side of the elevator, then they could become lodged between the elevator and the horizontal stab, effectively jamming your controls and causing some very serious problems. Some builders sluff this off and decide to put the bolt and the weight on the inboard side because it is more accessible since it is not covered by the tip fairing, and this is true. I guess I view this as being safe rather than sorry. So it is a builders choice.....

I will need to enlarge the hole for the AN4 bolt (1/4 inch hole I believe). SO I will drill it out a bit, then drill the holes for the rivets, and check that little assembly off the list of to-dos.

Last item for tonight is something that I spent considerable time researching, adn I am still not 100% sure I am going with this solution, bit I think it will work.  Here is a series of pics that shows a pipe support bracket that I intend to use for securing my wiring conduit to each wing rib. I found them at HD. Unfortunately, they are just wide enough to allow the conduit to slip very easily through each hole. I figured I could place a zip tie on each side of the bracket around the conduit to hold it in place.

Using these is  a bit easier than drilling large holes in certain areas of each rib and running the conduit through the holes. The only thing I still need to check is if the aileron pushrod will clear the conduit in the last lightening hole of each rib. There are some other nylon brackets that are designed to do the same job as these, but they are more expensive and come from specific aviation suppliers. It tool me forever to find the information about them on VAF. Anyway, these brackets from HD are readily available, and aside from being a bit bulky should do the job. All you do is mark the rivet hole locations for each hole, drill them, and mount. Most use pop rivets for this which is perfectly fine. I also like the fact that they are non-conductive and therefore are perfectly suited for supporting electrical wires and such.

I am now a tail dragger pilot!

After last Monday's performance I was a little bewildered about this endeavor, and was even wondering if I would be able to get comfortable enough to be able to call my self a tail dragger pilot. John had tentatively scheduled us for this past Wednesday, but the entire State was engulfed by heavy rains pretty much all day Wednesday, and the bird needed a new tailwheel as well, so we opted for an early morning flight on Saturday.

Today was one of those days that reminds you why I live where I do. I awoke to a gorgeous sunrise full of pinks, blues, purples and reds filling the cirrus-laden clouds above. THe winds were forecast to remain below 10 knots out of the south - just what the doctor ordered.

We preflighed the plane (the new tailwheel looks great John!) and we were off and running by about 7:00am. WInds were favoring runway 17 L. John had me do two 3 point landings to start with, and these were not super good, but good enough. Then we did the wheel landings - The first one was spot on - just enough power added to allow me to fly the plane all the way down. Then before I knew it, we kissed the runway with that ever familiar "chirp" of the main wheels, without feeling any side load or even vertical load in the seat of my pants. Then it was power off and stick forward to plant the wheels firmly on the surface - could not have been a better landing IMHO. Then I tried one more - probably leveled out a bit too high and did not add enough power to compensate, but the landing was still do-able, so I stuck it on the runway after a bounce or two and finished the landing on two wheels without any problems.

We finished up with a full stop 3 point landing on runway 10 - a rare occurance for Centennial airport, but traffic was light so ATC had no problem clearing us for 10. The last time I saw an approach by an aircraft to runway 10, was the first of two Presedential visits by O-butthead to the Denver area, when the secret service brought their jet in low and fast as I watched in amazement from my office window. Never seen a jet approach and land on that runway before.

Anyway, after .7 hours, John gave me a pat on the back and a well done. Feels pretty good to beat the demons and regain the feeling that you are in total contol of the airplane. John asked if I wanted to take her around solo a couple of times, and told hime I would wait till later. I just wanted to bask in my success for a while I guess.

Here is my endorsement that allows me privilege of operating aircrqft with conventional landing gear (planes with tailwheels for the none-aviation minded folks). I got 'er done in 10.8 hours over about a 3 week period of pretty consisten flying. Your mileage may vary on several factors.

 

As a closing note, all I can say is that I feel very nostalgic right now, knowing that I am now in the company of many other pilots that came before me - from the days of the Wright brothers and the infancy of powered flight, through WWI and WWII, and up to present day conventional aircraft. From Sopwiths to P-51s, to DC-3s, Citabrias, Cessnas, and so on. As John put it to me a while back - you are doing something that not a lot of other pilots know how to do today. I am sure I will continue to reflect on American aviation history as the rest of this day passes, and lazily comes to rest with another beautiful Colorado sunset on a beautiful Fall day.

Now I guess it is time to get back to building an airplane - an RV-8 (that's not an 8A)! Taildraggers here I come!