Andrew

Constructed Wing Cradle

December 11, 2011

Well, I needed something exciting to do on the airplane, so, instead of starting in on the right flap, I decided to work on the wing cradle.

Even though the right wing is the only one complete (well, kind of complete), flipping it over into a cradle will free up some room.

Let’s take a look at the intended final product.

Leading edge traces.

First up, I need two 3′ by 2′ end pieces.

Below, you can see I have one of the end pieces on my workbench with a couple leading edge traces. Since the spars are about 8″ wide, I used simple math (well, simple if you aren’t an engineer; I made it complicated) and left five inches from the edge, 8 inches for each spar, then 10 inches in the middle.

Leading edge traces.

After some master woodworking...

Then, I laid my other endpiece underneath that one, and marked the edges of the cutout so my spar reinforcement bars would fit well.

Done.

Per the plan, we need a little reinforcing at the top, and a 2×4 for the bottom.

Done and done.

Then, with a little more woodworking, I used my aileron bending brake and cut six two-foot-long angled support pieces, assembled pretty obviously per the plans and picture.

Whoa, this thing looks serious now.

With a little carpeting...

Then, I spent about an hour getting the right wing into the cradle all by my lonesome. I was extrememly methodical, and thought through long and hard about how I was going to do this.

Yes, I could have had a buddy over to do it in 5 minutes, but no, I had to make it difficult for myself.

Anyway, if you remember, my wings were supported by two pieces of angle supported by a 3/8″ bolt through the actual stand, and a threaded rod supporting the other end of the angle. The outboard side of the wing was bolted to the angle, so all I had to do was unattach the threaded rod portion, stand at the wing root, and rotate the wing. The outboard side pivoted around the wing stand bolt, and I was able to gently set the inboard side of the wing in the cradle as shown below.

Then, I moved to the outboard side to undo the last two bolts, and gently lower that side.

Easy peasy. (Next time, I’m getting a buddy to help.)

Before moving the stand back onto the MDF piece on the floor, I took the other spar off the stands, tipped each side of my stands up and took off the right wing stands.

Now both wings are a little closer to the center of the stall, giving me more room by the workbench, and the girlfriend a little more room with her car door. (That’s always a good thing.)

I know the garage is messy, but here's the right wing in the cradle.

One last shot.

Nice.

Time to get working on the lower skins. Well, let’s do the aileron gap fairing and flap brace first.

2.5 hours with all the construction and moving around.

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Posted by Andrew

Finished the Left Flap

November 26, 2011

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Whoa, two days in a row! With just a couple hours of riveting left, I knew I was close to finishing when I got the bottom skin on yesterday, so I made some time today to finish up.

Once again, I wasn’t in the habit of taking a lot of pictures, though, so you get some intermediate ones, and a couple finished pics.

After getting some of the rib-to-skin rivets set, I clecoed the spar in place with the hinge along the bottom edge, then flipped the flap so the top skin was up, and did my every-other-rivet taping.

I couldn't get a slick way to rivet the last two rib rivets at the bottom of the picture, so I followed the plans and used blind rivets.

Before actually riveting any of the skins on, I made sure to do the blind rivets for the spar-to-rib rivets.

These are all LP4-3s.

Whoa. I ran out after the exact correct amount. I’ll have to order more before moving on to the right flap.

Empty...

Then, I totally stopped taking pictures, but finished the flap.

Nice and shiny. No dings at all.

The bottom is nice and shiny, too, and only a few very small dings.

I’m starting to realize that I’m going to have dings in the project, and they are going to be visible. I think the whole polished airplane thing went out the window, so hopefully by the time I paint the airplane, all the dings will be filled, and you will be none the wiser.

2 hours today, and 164 total rivets all over the place. Whew.

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Posted by Andrew

Riveted Left Flap Lower Skin

November 25, 2011

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Whoa, Andrew’s building again. I realize that if I make that explanation every time I post, then someone clicking through the posts without seeing the date stamps is going to be a little confused. Anyway, I got a fair amount done today, and I’m feeling pretty motivated to keep some progress going.

Let’s get to the pictures.

First up, I have a whole bunch of primed parts, and I felt like clecoing some together (always helps the motivation to see assemblies rather than parts).

Here’s the left lower flap skin along with the ribs. I was very careful to review the plans to make sure I got all of the flanges pointing the correct way.

And yes, the flap is upside down here.

Here it is right side up. The plans or instructions don’t really give you a lot of hints on when to set which rivets, so you kind of have to think ahead. More on that later.

It's starting to look like a flap.

Next up, let’s get the top skin ready. First thing, I removed the blue vinyl and deburred all the holes on this side (I may have de-blued last time, I can’t remember).

Deburred and edge finished. Piece of boring cake.

Next, I started to de-blue the top of the skin, but I wanted to put some clecoes in the aft portion of the skin so the skin wasn’t resting on the workbench. This worked out pretty well for me.

Scuffed and ready to flip for more deburring.

I'm about halfway through pulling off this blue vinyl. It was cold out (so why do you have the garage door open?) and the vinyl adhesive was extra sticky.

After more deburring, I broke out the hand squeezer and put some new blue tape on my dies.

Ready for action.

Of course, I didn’t get any pictures…I’m out of practice…

I did take the skin outside after some more prep and get a coat of primer on it. While that was drying, I turned my attention back to the ribs and the bottom skin built-in spar.

I set 4 of these AN47AD4-4 rivets. Pretty simple here to squeeze these.

Then, I riveted on the nutplate on the left side of this picture, and riveted each of the AD4- rivets shown.

Great manufactured heads.

Great shop heads.

Then, I backed up a few steps and riveted the other angle bracket onto the inboard half of the spar. The instructions have you do this pretty early, but I waited until everything was primed.

Same thing. Good manufactured heads here.

And good shop heads here.

Once the top skin was dry, I brought it back inside and got everything 50% clecoed.

This part is exciting, there's riveting coming soon!

After putting some of the AN426AD3-3.5 rivets in, I put tape over each of the heads, and riveted.

Ready to rivet.

Then, I took out the remaining clecos, put more rivets in, moved the tape to the unriveted heads, riveted, then removed all the tape.

(Also, I cleaned up the skin before taking this picture, because I want it to look good for you guys.)

Wuhoo! 100 rivets.

I followed the directions mostly, except I was able to buck the 3rd rivet up on the left side. The plans allow you to use blind rivets there if you want.

Blind rivets in the aft two holes.

Wuhoo. 2.5 hours, 100 rivets. I’m back at it!

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Posted by Andrew

Deburred, Dimpled, and Primed Left Flap Lower Skin

November 16, 2011

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Well, I’m still trudging along at this thing. I need to start getting my butt in gear a little more. Gotta finish this flap then get working on that other wing…

Tonight, I decided to do a little prep work for the left flap. The pictures are kind of lame, but deburring and dimpling are starting to get a little old.

Here's the left flap lower skin after deburring, dimpling, and edge finishing.

After dimpling everywhere I could with the hand squeezer, I had to get out the c-frame for 6 holes. After that, I thoroughly cleaned the lower skin, and dragged it outside for some priming. Here it is back inside for drying while I go upstairs to sleep.

Notice how I skipped the debluing with lines and such. I think I saved myself an hour here. I'll probably continue this wherever people (except readers) won't be able to see it.

Lastly, I pulled off the interior blue vinyl from the left upper skin, then immediately decided that sleep was more important than more deburring. Maybe I’ll get some more done this weekend.

I am getting close to assembly on this flap.

I should be more excited…but I’m tired tonight. Sorry, everyone.

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Posted by Andrew

Checklist and POH

November 8, 2011

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So I realize that I’m a little ahead of the game when it comes to checklists and POH, but I’ve been hot and heavy into them at work for my job, and I decided to try my hand at the RV-7 version.

They are obviously preliminary, but I wanted them to look nice, because I’m considering selling them. Not for the content (which would come from the builder/pilots), but for all the fancy formatting that I’m really perfectionist about.

Let me know what you think of these, and if you think anyone would buy a custom checklist/POH.

The finished POH. (Pages are half sheets; 8.5" by5.5")

A closeup of the tabs.

Sample of Section 4, Normal Procedures

Sample of Section 8, Airplane Handling, Service, and Maintenance. (I know I spelled Maintenance wrong, and yes, it says section 11. I told you it was preliminary.

Keep in mind with the checklists that these are painfully detailed. These describe all tasks. I could certainly make a condensed version with just the highlights.

The three checklists.

A closeup of the emergency checklist

I teach ALARMS to all my students in case of an engine failure while airborne.

A closeup of the passenger brief.

Let me know what you think!

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Primed Some Left Flap Parts

November 6, 2011

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Well, another week later, and I managed to get out in the garage just once. I guess it’s better than nothing.

I decided to get some of the parts finished up and primed. I always like priming parts, because that’s usually what happens just before final assembly.

I started with the spar, spending quite a bit of time deburring, edge finishing, dimpling the upper flange (remember, the lower flange was countersunk to accomodate the skin, but not intrude into the hinge), and finally, some scuffing.

You only get a picture of the scuffing. Sorry.

Then, I started in on the prep for the ribs, and I noticed that the aft flange of the interior ribs are only drilled to #40. As part of my normal prep work, I reread the plans to make sure I know which type and size of rivet goes in each hole. Apparantly, this one is supposed to be drilled to #30 for an AN470AD4- rivet.

WRONG SIZE HOLE!

So, to make some extra work for myself, I clecoed the ribs and spar back onto the lower skin (which has the “rear spar” built into it), and…

Clecoed back together.

Drilled the holes to final, #30, size.

I haven't deburred yet, so don't mind the burrs.

Finally, I spent another chunk of time prepping the rest of the ribs, and getting them cleaned up to take outside for priming.

It was a beautiful day for airplane building today.

Too bad I couldn’t put in more time….just 1.5 hours today. Blah.

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Posted by Andrew

Last of the Left Flap Fabrication

October 30, 2011

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Well, I haven’t worked on the airplane in a week. Bummer. I’m never going to finish at this rate, so I need to start getting my butt in gear and start working again.

One notable thing from this week…it got cold.

So, I fished out the space heater, and put my VORNADO up on the shelf.

See you next spring, VORNADO!

Okay, let’s talk about why we’re all here…AIRPLANE BUILDING.

Previously, I had matchdrilled the flap brace, but didn’t drill any of the nutplate holes that are required to hold the rod end in place.

I disassembled the inboard rib and supporting braces from the rest of the spar/skins.

Ready for more drilling!

Per the instructions, I enlarged the aftmost doubler hole to 1/4″ and temporarily bolted in a nutplate.

It was hard to hold for the picture, hence the gap.

After drilling the two #40 nutplate attach holes, deburring, and a little countersinking (only on the left, aftmost hole) you end up with this:

That's an Oops rivet

Next, I needed to trim down one of the angles (you can see it sticking out too far in the picture above). Here it is after trimming.

Sharp edges, time for some deburring!

I fired up the scotchbrite wheel and got to work on those angles. After a few minutes, I ended up with a nice, smooth assembly.

Looks like I did a little dimpling on the rib, too.

With about 10 minutes left until bedtime, I decided to get the lower spar countersunk. The dimpled skin sits in these countersinks, which leaves the flap hinge unaffected underneath (well, above in absolute terms).

Just like a few other places in the kit, Vans suggests using the flap hinge as a countersink guide to make sure the holes are square.

Every other hole, pre countersinking.

I guess this is a closeup pre-countersinking.

Yup. That's a countersunk hole.

And finally, an AN426AD3- rivet sitting a little deeper than flush (intended) in the countersink.

1.0 hour of fairly boring flap work, but now I get to actually start preping stuff for priming and assembly.

STAY MOTIVATED ANDREW!

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Some More Left Flap Work

October 23, 2011

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Yes.

That’s the answer to the question “Hey Andrew, are you building an airplane, or what?

Yes, yes. Of course I am. But, I am taking my time. Not out of “choice”, but out of “holy crap, there are eighteen thousand other things I have to do today”…which was the theme of the day for the last two weeks…

But, I can’t complain too much. Last weekend, I was in Chicago for Zanetoberfest, and just yesterday, the girlfriend and I headed up to Virginia to a winery.

What a hard life I lead!

Anyway, I promised myself (and my girlfriend…no more middle-seat once the airplane’s done, I promise!) that I would get a little bit done today.

So, I headed out to the garage, dusted off two weeks of non-activity, and got to work.

Last thing I had done was to (very successfully) drill the flap hinge to the left flap. It’s still a little long, though, so I need to trim it up a bit.

I know I’m going to use the “secure-in-the-middle” technique, so I used some snips (with a wide berth) to snip the soft hinge, but left the pin intact. Once I can get the wing flipped over, I can figure out which middle eyelet to remove and trim down this pin, but for now, it’s going back on the shelf as a whole until I can get it figured out.

Here's the hinge just after snipping. Notice the intact pin.

Then, We cleco on the top skin and start matchdrilling.

Sweet.

I had to do a little maneuvering to get the spacer lined up (the sandwiched thin spacer below), but I ended up getting it matchdrilled okay, too.

The shadows make these parts all look distorted, but I assure you, they are not.

I also found the AA6x125x1.5x2x10 (whoa, that’s a hell of a part number) and started marking some holes and lines for trimming.

I drew both up before trimming.

I didn't trim the shorter flange down yet. It's 1.5" now, and it needs to come down to 0.75", but I want to wait and see how everything lines up first.

After matchdrilling the three right-most (in the picture) holes from the spar, I flipped it over and drilled the five left-most holes from the angle. I had previously drilled those from markings to #40, so it was easy to drill everything up to #30 all at once.

Aluminum shavings. I've been missing you in my life.

The other portion of this support is delivered from Van’s as a straight piece. Due to the wing-to-fuselage geometry, the spar-to-rib angle is 6.3° or something. Really?

They show you where the bend line should be, so I marked it, then clecoed the only matched hole to the rib, just to make sure the line would be in the right place.

Sanity check complete, let's bend!

Of course, I didn’t take any pictures of my bending, but it worked just like everyone else; one side in a vice, the other side sandwiched between two pieces of wood. Then, some big-a55 pliers…a little finesse…Perfect. 6.3°? On the dot.

OMG, THOSE PARTS NEED DEBURRING!

Then, some more match-drilling…

I haven't been building in a few weeks, but I think this is where I'm supposed to say "TADAAAAAA!"

1.5 hours. I hope this is the start of a string of building days. We’ll see.

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Château Morrisette

October 22, 2011

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Well, even though I haven’t been building over the last couple weeks, we have been having fun.

Today (which was actually before the post that just came out, sorry I know I got the posts backwards), the girlfriend and I hopped in the truck and started north.

A few years ago, we heard of a local (kind of) winery called Château Morrisette (yeah, I had to look that little “a” up…you type that thing by holding the alt key down and pushing 0226, when you let go a little â shows up!) I love being a nerd.

Anyway, Château (it’s so fun!! ââ) Morrisette has a dog theme, and everyone knows how much we like dogs. We also saw on the news that the leaves here are just past peak, and today’s going to be 65° (that one’s Alt-0176) out, severe clear blue skies.

Let’s go!

Driving north.

Ooh Pilot Mountain.

I can't remember where in VA we were at this point, but it's so pretty.

I'm pretty sure this is the Blue Ridge Parkway now.

This truck was going SOOOO SLOOOOW. (And we were okay with it, no rush, beautiful day.)

This is about an hour away. So pretty. There was some glare inside the car, so these pictures actually turned out better than it looked in real life.

Nice foliage.

A little mill on the side of the road. On the way back, there were a ton of people milling around (pun intended) taking pictures, etc.

I need a piece of property up here.

The next five or so pictures were crap, so the next one you get is us walking up to the restaurant.

Nice place.

The usual sign picture. (Why do I always do that?)

Apparently I do it with menus, too.

And winelists!

After lunch, we walked through the parking lot to the winery. What a great view from the parking lot.

Here's the winery.

There wasn’t really much going on other than a thousand people trying to taste wine. And by “taste,” I mean “when do we get to move on to those sweet wines?”

Really?

[snob on] I love that the east coast has started making wines, and I’m all for wineries using locally productive (sometimes sweeter) grapes for wine, but if you cater to the local tastes (sweet, sweet, sweet), then the more global palette will think you only make sweet wines. The family next to us actually said “when do we get to move on to those sweet wines? I can’t drink that dry stuff.” [snob off]

Oops, I just called them out and they're in this picture. Sorry!

Stop taking pictures of signs, Andrew.

Our favorite? This Cabernet Franc.

That dog kind of looks like Jack.

Nice cork.

Umm picture of a parking lot?

Our dog's rule, too.

Then, we headed back, and we took a ton of random pictures.

Past the peak, my butt. It's gorgeous.

TREE! (Nice picture, girlfriend.)

Seriously, I want some property up here.

Nice fence, too.

That grass is greener than mine.

Sigh. So pretty.

HALF A TREE!

Rolling countryside.

More beautiful foliage.

Finally starting to come down out of the mountains.

At least there's no one behind me.

We stopped at a little lookout on the way down.

These next few photos are the best of the trip.

I can see for miles...

There's pilot mountain in the distance.

...and miles...

MY FUTURE HOUSE!

Still pilot mountain.

Okay, after all those pictures, this one is kind of boring.

Andrew, stop taking pictures and get back to building the airplane. Next time, you can fly there, (but not home…not until the next day).

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Posted by Andrew

Drilled Left Flap Hinge

October 9, 2011

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Today, I kind of accidentally worked on the airplane. I wasn’t really planning on it, but I was taking out the garbage (see lower left of first picture), and I just happened to drill the first hole.

Then, I kind of drilled half the holes, and had to go back inside to get the camera.

But wait, let’s back up. I spent a lot of time the other day and before starting to drill to really make sure everything was lined up really well.

Halfway done.

Here’s my technique. I had some c-clamps along the whole length of the hinge, and every few holes, I’d cleco the drilled holes, move my three sideclamps down, drill three more, then CHECK THE HINGE FOR FREE MOVEMENT.

I’m not sure what I could have done if it had gotten out of alignment, but I was paranoid about doing this right, and my paranoia turned out to be fore no reason.