PropJock

Week of April 29, 2012 18 hours. I worked alone this week and I am not sure where the time went. I ordered more tubing for the fuel pump (this is a FI plane so the pump and filter require some well bent tubing in the cabin). I “practiced” on my last piece, which is to say, I bent it but the outcome was less than ideal – however, it was better than the piece that was in there. This step was largely done 6 weeks or so ago. Last week Steve and I tried to put the doghouse on the fuel pump and it wouldn’t fit. The solution was complicated but involved moving the pump aft an inch or so and the filter aft about half that amount. That meant nothing fit any more. The tubing arrived Thursday and I plan to bend it next week. Practice is helping! And it damn well better – I’ve spent $70 on extra tubing.

Next, at Vlad’s urging I worked on getting the engine mount on. Well, the engine mount is pretty easy – if you discount how hard drilling those 6 holes is. Four of them go through the stainless steel firewall (really hard), then a thick aluminum fitting (easy drilling), and then through steel. The other two just go through stainless steel and aluminum. Each hole took close to 20 minutes to drill – and that was after buy new TiN coated bits at Home Depot for $8 each. But before putting the engine mount on I needed to construct the battery box, mount it and then mount two electrical relays. The relays are really simple to mount – just four bolts that go into 4 platenuts, There’s a backer plate to build and four or five rivets to drill out. I’m 99% sure Van’s sent the wrong platenuts – right size but wrong threads. I utterly stripped one bolt trying to get it in. So after riveting this all together I got to take it apart and re-do it with the platenuts (K-1000-32) that were threaded like the AN-4 bolts. All-in-all it was a 2.5 hour job that took 6 hours…a lot of sweat and a few choice words.

Drilling the engine mount on was pretty straight forward. I used my engine hoist to locate it and then drilled it in place. I have not torqued the bolts yet as there several holes I need to drill through the firewall for the throttle, mixture, prop control, and heat. Plus I need to build the heat control box. Torquing the bolts shouldn’t take long.

Next week I want to get the canopy mounted to the frame. I’ll need warm sunny weather so I can work on the patio and keep the plexiglass warm to keep it from cracking. I’m not sure how long this will take as I need to cut the plexiglass some more, and there are skirts to make and install. I’m guessing it will take more than a week to do this step. Future steps will include bending the fuel pump tubing, cutting the holes in the firewall, re-installing the rudder pedals, and putting the plane on gear.

Week of April 22, 2012 32 hours. Steve came back and it was one of our less productive weeks, mostly because I was so tied up with other business – work and fly-in related things. We did get the canopy frame mounted to the plane, I trimmed the tracks on the aft end, and we mounted the center track on the turtle deck. Every step seemed to be fraught with problems that needed to be fixed before going on to the next step.

After measuring and debating how to square the rails we started bolting them to the fuselage per the plans. Getting the washers and nuts on was a problem because they were located at the edge of a channel and there was no straight in access. Eventually I wised up and relieved the area under the bolts (screws?) so I had a straight up access. After hours of sweating each washer and nut, the process got much faster and was a one man game not requiring four hands. A hint in the plans would have been nice.

Next we mounded the frame and when sliding it aft, it did not quite clear the turtle deck on the right (pax) side and was just touching on the left (pilot) side. We dug out the bending jig/form and rebent the frame so it would clear. Doing that caused the front bow to expand too. With a wider front bow the wheels would jump out of the track at the aft end where I’d ground the tracks to prevent them from overhanging the side. Hmmm. That initially seemed to be a fatal error calling for replacement tracks. It occurred to me if the wheels rolled down the center of the tracks, without outward pressure, they would stay in place. Bending the front bow a tad narrower made the aft bow narrower and we were back with the aft bow hitting the turtle deck. Agggghhhh.

Well the solution was pretty obvious and a trip to the aviation aisle at Home Depot yielded pipes for my pipe clamps (purchased after Steve’s last visit). We came back and clamped the front bow to hold it at the narrow end of what worked in the tracks and then we bent the aft bow out. The clearance right now is almost zero but the plans do say the plexiglass will spread the frame about 1/2 an inch, which should provide plenty of clearance.

We would have done more but I was disorganized, had to work one day, and Saturday and Sunday were devoted to hosting RV-1 and the Regional Festival of Flight at Suffolk air port. Late Friday afternoon Vlad Karpayov arrived from New Jersey (practically NY) in his RV-9A. Vlad flew Steve to Suffolk Saturday morning and let me fly back Saturday evening. Sunday was a fairly miserable day weather wise and we canned our plans to go to Suffolk. Around 11 am the ceilings lifted enough for Vlad and I to fly. I got a total of 1.7 hours and 3 take-offs and landings in his 9A. I owe Vlad a debt of thanks for sure. He was very generous with his plane, his time, and his advice. All I can say is the 9 is an absolutely awesome plane to fly and I need to get mine done.

3-12-2012 45 hours since last entry….I guess.

Near the beginning of February I started bending the canopy frame. I’m building a slider RV-9A and this step of the build has been the hardest and most frustrating so far. Apparently every fuselage is slightly different from every other fuselage and the canopy frame is welded out of 3031 steel. The jigs they’re build from are “close” but by no means exact. Add to these “discrepancies” in fit, the steel warps a bit when it’s welded and there’s just not a lot Van’s figures they can do to get a “perfect fit”. It’s up to each builder to take the “roughed out” frame and bend the front bow to match the roll bar (but be 1/8-2/16″ higher), the side rails to match the fuselage (but inset 1/16″) and bent the aft bow to match the curve of the turtleneck but inset 1/16-1/8″.

I spent roughly 6 weeks and at least 40 hours trying to get the fit right. I got the front bow pretty close but still too high, the side bow was perfect, and the aft bow was occasionally close but over time the pax side got further and further from what it should have been. Steve Steinbeck showed up and brought some pipe clamps with him, along with some ideas about how to get things bent correctly. I’ll describe how we did it. Hopefully, it will help another builder or two fit their canopy’s more quickly. I’ll include photos – none of what we did is difficult but the process is rather specific.

At this point in time, we have bent the frame into near perfection, trimmed much of the excess of the canopy sides and back, drilled the hole for canopy lock (and discovered my step drill is not 5/8″ where it says 5/8″) and I have marked where the split between the windscreen and the sliding part of the canopy will be made. Tomorrow I split the canopy. I’ll try and do a day by day entry with pictures shortly.

2-3-2012 14 hours since last entry….I guess.

Every day except for one day I’ve been working on bending the slider frame. The object is to bend the frame so that it sits 1/4-3/8″ above the roll bar, the side rails are to parallel the fuselage and be inset 1/16″, they are also to be level with the longeron within 1/18″ and aft bow is to 1/8-1/16″ below the aft turtle deck skins. The plans note this is a frustrating job. I can confirm that. I would get close in all dimensions and then one more “tweak” and the damn thing would whack out and be off in 5 directions more than ever.

Over the course of the week I got real good at bending the side rails and somewhat good at bending the aft bows. The forward bows are pretty easy and stable to get. Finally, two days ago I figured out a bending tool that really helped tweak the aft bows. I also figured out how to stand on the frame upside down (the frame not me) to get one goofy bend that I couldn’t figure out. Standing on the upside down frame twice got it almost perfect. I’m not ready to start cutting the plexiglass – or so I think. There may be some additional forward fuselage work I need to do.

Here are some photos – in part showing what I had to do and in part bragging. If you’re building a 9 (or a 7) slider and are having trouble – drop me an email with your phone number and we can talk about the problem – I might have solved it and if so, I’ll share what I did.

The photo above shows the final fit of the roll bar in front and the forward bow behind. The bow is supposed to be 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch taller than the roll bar. It is about 5/16″ of an inch higher than the roll bar – right in the middle of the spec. It started out 5/8″ too high.

1-24-2012 3.3 hours

Most of my time was spent bending and grinding the slider frame. I now have the rails very close, I think. I ground the front tubes down and the front bow is essentially parallel to the roll bar. The problem is, the specs say is should be 3/8″ higher than the roll bar. In fact it varies from 3/8″ to 5/8″. I’m wondering if this really is a problem. The other modest issue is, it looks like the rails are out of limits for being parallel to the longeron. I think I’m allowed 1/4″ and they’re out at least 3/8″. This might go away entirely when I get the rear center slide rail finished.

I have assumed the aft bow is close to where it should be but assuming isn’t good for anything but an interim plan, when building an airplane. I started putting the structure together that the slider frame will slide on. I have bent, marked and clamped together the F-662 and F-663 (spacer and rail) that the frame will track on. Tomorrow I need to double flush rivet these parts (Steve, this means the rivets will be flush with both sides – they’ll be pretty on top. The shop heads will be flush but not pretty, which is okay since they won’t show).

The plans say I should duct tape this to the plane for now. That sounds like an ‘interim plan’ to me. Hopefully I’ll be able slide the rail up and down and fit the aft HDPE stops. Then I’ll be able to see how close the aft bows are.

In any event, the progress is slow, but it’s moving forward. The canopy is the last major structural piece left to construct. The forward fuselage isn’t done but it appears to be less than one day of straight forward work, which means it’ll probably take two or three days to complete.

1-23-2012 0.7 hours

Worked on bending the side rails of the slider frame to match the fuselage. Getting closer.

1-22-2012 – 4.9 Hours

The session started with mounting the roll bar. It’s a bit putty trying to bolt the roll bar in but it is possible with a little tweaking. The roll bar is supposed to be perpendicular to the fuselage and as the picture shows, mine is pretty close.

Next I trimmed the roll bar support to length. I ended up cutting a bit over an inch off of the support bar, then drilled the #12 hole for the 3-5A bolt that holds the support to the roll bar. I also drilled the support to the rib in front and bolted it on. After this I cut the roller tracts to length, clamped them in place, and studied the geometry of the frame in relationship to the fuselage. In short, the sides and back are very close. The front curve is a bit high. I’m guessing it’s about 9/16″ of an inch high. It is also not parallel to the roll bar. Cutting about 3/8″ off the bottom of the from frame tube appears as if it will take care of all of the parallel issues and most (if not all) of the height issue. I want to talk to Van’s before I cut the frame – I suspect cutting it incorrectly could be an expensive mistake.

I’ve got a few ideas about how to drill the HDPE blocks in the back. Mostly I am thinking of doing test runs with wooden blocks until I get it right and then I’ll work a jig up in the drill press to duplicate the correct cut.

1/20/2012 – 3.2 Hours

Picking up where I left off yesterday, I drilled the pilot holes out to full size in both the fuselage and the roll bar and made the funky shims that help clamp the roll bar to the F-721B, aft canopy deck. There are two on each side and they’re different and the left and right sides are mirror images so, in short, all four shims are different. I then checked to see if the roll bar is square to the fuselage and it was close but I shimmed both sides to get it near perfect. Next I started on the roll bar brace. After making some progress, I realized the bar needs to be shortened, and decided to call it a day.

Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the brace tomorrow, bolt the entire unit together, and then built the tracks and rollers for the canopy frame. When that’s done, I have the pleasure of bending the frame to fit the fuselage. As near as I can tell, it is a pretty good fit already but I won’t know until all the parts are in place. Bending the frame to fit is almost always frustrating and has stalled many a project. No one has ever figured out a quick and direct way of making the bends. Should I say, “I have an idea that I’ve never heard tried”? I’m optimistic that I can do this task very well without too much frustration. Then the question is, sikaflex or pulled rivets to hold the canopy on?

And I forgot to mention – I’m already having empty shop anxiety. So yesterday I jumped on an offer someone made for the preview plans for an RV-3. I will not start until my 9 is flying but already I’m thinking, build it light, VFR, day. Simple avionics. One EFIS, no steam gauges, one radio, and a transponder. An aerobatic tail-dragger that gets better than 30 mpg. I think I could live with just two planes.

1/19/2012 – 2.0 Hours

During the course of riveting the top aft skins there were a couple of rivets that could not be installed until after the skin was riveted on in order to avoid physically blocking the rivet and bucking bar. I riveted both of those and a couple of rivets associated with the bulkhead behind the luggage compartment. A couple I’d just never put in and one that I did put in, I wasn’t happy with, so I drilled it out and squeezed a new one.

After that little bit of clean up duty, I officially began the finish kit by laying out the roll bar location, drilling pilot holes, and bending the roll bar to fit.

January 19, 2012 – 2.1 hours

I finished riveting the aft fuselage. There were perhaps 50 rivets that Steve and I did not get to and these are done. I also did some evaluation of the work we did and found a minor mistake (sorry Steve). I’ll need to drill out two rivets on one side so I can install hangers for the static tube. Otherwise, things looked good and all I did was tweak a couple of rough spots in a way that an old-time P-38 riveter told me about. When he told me, I filed the idea away never thinking I’d actually need it. Maybe I’ll show some before and after pictures as the trick really seemed to work well.

Next I started to fit the roll bar to the canopy and I marked the location of roll bar and started bending it to fit. At this point I think I am with the 1/16″ tolerance Van’s specs (finally a tolerance!).

Not counted as building time was another hour spent reading the plans to see what I need to do to get the canopy frame mounted and bent into shape. This appears to be a frustrating task and talking to my friend in SC, Mike Hoover, he suggested this step will take months. I had an idea about how to do this easily. Now that I see what needs to be done, my idea won’t work…but, I had another idea that might. If it shows promise, I’ll document it here and on Van’s Air Force BB. I’m hopeful that I’ve cracked the nut – no one has yet figured an easy way to bend the frame. I should know if my idea is sound within a week.

January 18, 2012 – 0.5 hours

I reassembled the forward top fuselage ribs and sub panel and installed the roll bar support. My intent was determine if my radio stack would fit without altering the center rib. My plan is to use an Affordable Panel, after market panel and it comes with several options. First, you need to decide on the “regular size” or the “XL”. Personally I think the regular size will work fine but the manufacturer assured me the extra inch lower that the panel extends won’t interfere with leg room. It probably won’t. Next, you need to decide on a center radio stack or an off-set stack. Traditionally, the pilot side has a six pack of primary instruments and then a variety of other gauges and instruments to fit the needs of the type of flying the plane is intended for. This means the pilot side gets filled with VORs, CHT and EGT gauges, maybe an NDB indicator (boat anchor equipment now) and perhaps an autopilot, and ELT control and other backup instruments. My plane will have two EFIS units, one primary in front of the pilot, and a smaller, somewhat less sophisticated (but still more powerful than most commercial planes have) EFIS on the passenger’s side. The radio stack could go in the middle or be off-set to the right. The only other things that might go on the pilot’s side of the panel (other than switches) are the ELT control and the EIS. The EIS is somewhat redundant, unquestionably ugly and may be relegated elsewhere. The ELT will go somewhere else, if I can find an appropriate and legal spot for it.

So, putting the radio stack in the center makes sense for three reasons. First, the radios (and an independent GPS) are closer to the pilot, second the passenger’s side EFIS will be closer to the pilot, which will be important if the primary unit fails. Finally, the centered design appears to have more possibilities for future upgrades – something I’m not likely to do but something I don’t want to rule out.

It appears that my chosen radio stack will fit in the space available without cutting into the center rib between the panel and sub panel. So, now I know what I can use. The only remaining problem is getting the courage to order the stuff; it isn’t cheap.

…but not very many entries. Sorry about that but I think my readership amounts to two people and mostly I am keeping this up to document, for the FAA, that I built this plane. So here’s what’s been happening.

My records show on 11/26 I worked for 3.4 hours, on the 27th for 2.5 hours, on the 28th for 1.2 hours, and 4.9 hours on the 29th. Oddly, I didn’t write down what I was doing. I suppose I thought I’d remember better than I do. During that time I was working on the rudder pedals, brake system and fuel system. I spent a LOT of time turning perfectly good 5052 tubing into scrap as I tried to bend the parts needed for the high pressure AFP fuel pump.

I don’t have any records showing that I worked on the plane in December. That is probably correct. I was working hard on preparing for a trip to Mexico with my wife. We left on December 12 and returned on the 31st. Between getting a bit ahead at work and getting ready for the trip, I don’t recall working on the plane but I have other records to check and I may update this time period, if I find I did some work.

My goal was to have the aft fuselage finished before going to Mexico. That didn’t happen. I wanted to be working on the canopy when I got back, so now I’m a few weeks behind…but so what? I am making progress, albeit slowly.

On Sunday evening January 8, my good friend Steve Steinbeck arrived from Cary, NC to give me a week of assistance on the plane. I think I wore Steve out a couple of days. Here’s what we accomplished.

1/9/12 – 10.7 hours. I installed the roll axis servo for the GRT auto pilot while Steve worked on bending and rebinding fuel lines. He has a much better touch for this than I do and he certainly improved on my work.

1/10/12 – 11 hours. We disassembled the plane back to it’s basic parts; wings, fuselage, rudder, vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, and elevator. Before disassembling the empennage we did a test fit with the elevator trim cable and discovered that there was interference between the fuel pump and the cable. The end result is I ordered a new rudder cable from Van’s – roughly $160 shipped. That was an unexpected expense. Finally, we set up a new work bench so we could work on the wings. Basically, I cleared the pool table of plane parts, supported a piece of 3/4″ MDF board across the table and put an anti-skid surface over the MDF.

1/11/12 – 10.5 hours. We started by riveting the flap brackets on for the right wing and then riveted the flap gap seal on and prepared the aileron gap seal by drilling it in place and debarring it.

1/12/12 – 7.8 hours. We riveted the aileron gap seal on the right wing and then I removed the autopilot servo so I could “loc-tite” two screws into place that hold the D-connector to the servo. I also worked on a design for the conduit to carry the wing wiring and reviewed the installation manual for the ELT which I’d ordered on Monday. I went with a simple 122.5 only ELT by AmeriKing, which will need to be updated with an expensive multi channel model before 2020. The simple fact is ELTs rarely work so why put more money into one that you need to? I’ll rely on an APRS or similar, but not required, device to actually find me if I need to be found.

1/13/12 – 13.6 hours. We drilled debarred and installed the flap mounting brackets in the left wing but ran out of time to rivet them on. Next I completed the ELT mount but did not install it in the plane. I installed the outside air temperature sensor (a replacement of the original, which I never installed) and mounted the Gretz heated pitot tube. This wasn’t too complicated, once you figured the directions out but it did involve mounting a backing plate to the wing and drilling a lot of holes in the wing for rivets, screws and cutting a big hole for the tube itself. Steve spent about 3 to 4 of the 13.6 hours making 19 hangers to my specifications for hanging the wiring conduit in the wings. The hangers came out really nice. The day before he’d made hangers out of scrap material that likely would have worked. The redesign was lighter, held the conduit away from the lightening holes better, and over-all gave a much more professional look.

1/14/12 – 12.5 hours. We riveted the flap attach brackets to the left wing, drilled dimpled, and riveted the flap and aileron gap seals. Along the way, I discovered some missing dimples in the wing ribs and the rear spar, so I put those dimples on. We installed the mounting tabs for the conduit, hung the conduits, and ran string though the conduit to pull wires through. To get the string through quickly, I tied a cotton ball to a string, stuck the ball in one end of the conduit and had Steve put a shop vac on the other end. Thhhhhhuuuuuck. The process took about 1.1 seconds.

1/15/12 – 5 hours. Let’s just say it was a rough night at the emergency room…and drugs do evil things to people and I don’t believe the people even have a clue about how bad off they really are. I’ll keep the young man in my prayers but he doesn’t see a problem.

We installed the ELT in the plane, ran the new elevator cable and it looks like the extra 10 inches will be enough (not sure until final assembly), ran the wiring for the tail lights, and clecoed on aft fuselage skin.

1-16-12 – 14 hours. We riveted the two aft fuselage skins on. I’m guessing well over 500 rivets and there are only a dozen or so to complete the job. We just ran out of juice. It is really starting to look like an RV – not just an airplane but an RV. Really cool.

1-17-12 – No build time but I put a lot of tools away, cleaned up after the building spree, unpacked some canopy parts and started to plan the next steps.

11/26/11 3.6 hours

Finished the fuel tank vents, except for installing one more adel clamp on each side and screening the forward facing vents. Next I drilled the brake line exit holes next to the gear leg exit hole. Worked on the rudder and brake assembly next. Figured out where to mount the rudder pedals to suit me (I think – and hope that I don’t change my mind when I put the seat cushions in). Started installing the hydraulic lines for the brakes. I expect to finish this task tomorrow and hopefully will connect the rudder cables and then start the top section of the forward fuselage where the panel and windscreen will go.