Greg Dexter was kind enough to come out and help with the project again today. What a great way to start the new year - we finished the second flap which completes the wings! I'm readyto move on to the fuselage now! Finished riveting the leading edge skins of the right flap to the nose ribs then riveted the top skin and leading edge skins to the spar. Next, we riveted the top skin to the main ribs then turned the assembly over and clecoed the bottom skin to the spar and riveted the bottom skin and other side of the nose skins to the bottom of the spar. Then we used pulled rivets to finish riveting the bottom skin to the main ribs and finally we double flush riveted the trailing edge.

When we finished we drove over to see how Todd Young's RV-9 project is coming along and to borrow a couple of rivets that I ran out of (so ok, I'm actually 8 rivets shy of finishing the flap). After that we went out to KOFP and did some flying in my Cherokee and had the chance to drool over two other RVs that were on the field. Life was good today.

Photo 1 Note in the missing hole in this photo. The bottom skin was missing a prepunched hole and incredibly I didn't notice this on the initial assembly. I did note a missing hole in the AEX wedge when I counter sunk those holes but I figured I missed drilling the hole. The hole was in the top skin and I had added it the wedge using the wedge from the left flap to located the hole. It was a minor step to fix Van's omission (this is the biggest goof I've found so far and on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd rate it about 0.2).
Photo 2 The finished right flap. I think it came out every bit as good as the left flap.

I had help today. Greg Dexter, a probable RV-8 builder came by and spent the day helping with the flap assemblies. We finished the left flap which included riveting the top and nose skins to the spar and the top skin to the main ribs. Then attaching the bottom skin to the spar and riveting it to the spar and the riveting the bottom skin to the main ribs using pulled rivets (because there's no way to buck a rivet there). To complete the flap we counter sunk the AEX wedge and double flush riveted the top and bottom skins to the wedge. We then began assembly of the right flap. We riveted the hinge assemblies to the spar and attached the top skin and the nose skins. After Greg left I riveted about 2/3 of the nose skin to the nose ribs per the directions using a mixture of pulled and driven rivets.

Photo 1 This is where we started Friday morning. Only the leading edge skins are riveted and the bottom skin is not on.
Photo 2 The top skin has been riveted to the spar the ribs. The flap is laying top side down and the skin is weighted to the table to keep it flat. The weights are lead ingots cast from wheel weights that I use for casting bullets (yet another hobby).
Photo 3 Greg and I are inserting rivets in the trailing edge. These will be taped down and flap will be turned over and the rivets set in two stages to achieve a double flush rivet. For those who are interested, Van's always calls for 3-3 rivets where the trailing edges is to be double flush riveted. After trying a few 3-3 rivets I quickly started using 3-3.5 rivets and have never found them too long. I've occasionally wondered about how well 3-4.0 rivets would work. And for those who think I may be using too much proseal or epoxy in the joint, I'm not using any. The rivets simply connect two skins and the AEX wedge and I don't use any adhesive.
Photo 4 Greg inspects the trailing edge and it meets with his approval....and mine too.

Riveted the left side flap hinges/nose rib assemblies to the left spar. This was the third time I'd assembled a flap and the orientation of the parts finally starting to make sense to me. Next I riveted the the main ribs to the spar and then clecoed the top skin and nose skins in place. Finally, I riveted the nose skins to the nose ribs and put the whole assembly in the stand so it'll be ready to rivet together tomorrow morning.

Photo 1 Riveting the main ribs to the left flap spar
Photo 2 Partially completed flap assembly in the flap stand

Deburred and dimpled the right flap skins and the ribs. Scuffed and cleaned parts for priming. Found some undrilled areas on the flap-hinge assembly and drilled and deburred them. Primed all of the right flap parts and touched up some of the left flap parts. Assembled and riveted both the right and left flap bracket hinges.

Photo 1 This is a close up of the inboard section of one of the flaps. There are a lot of parts that meet here. The part with two clecoes on the right is an aluminum plate that doubles up against the inboard main rib. The flap actuator mounts to these two pieces. On the left, with three clecos is an aluminum angle that joins to the plate on the right and to the end of the rib and the spar. It transfers stresses from the flap to the spar.
Photo 2 These are the flap hinge brackets. Riveting small parts like these is easy to do alone.

Countersunk the right spar, dimpled the ribs (right and left), deburred the top and bottom skins and the spar where it wasn't countersunk. Scuffed the skins for priming.

Photo 1 An awful lot of buiding an airplane is pretty mundane and frankly boring. Here I'm peeling off protective plastic coating. This stuff comes off at its own pace and an hour of this is enough to make me want to quit for the day.

Drilled the 905 end rib using the 906B as a guide. There was some minor interference between the two leading edge pieces (901 ! and 901 B) and the overlapped by about 1/32" or less in the middle. I marked the area and used the scotch brite wheel to remove the offending material and reassembled to verify the fit. It was fine. Disassembled the flap and started pealing off the coating and began deburring.

Photo 1 This is a shot of where the leading edge skins butt up against each other. Initially there was a little overlap
Photo 2 This is a shot of the same area after some very minor and judicial trimming.

I primed the parts for the left aileron.

Counter sunk the holes on the left flap spar flange and washed and dried all of the small parts for the left flap in preparation for priming. The skins and spar are too big to go in the kitchen sink and will be "dry cleaned" with MEK to remove finger prints and oil.

Finished disassembling the left flap and deburred all parts, paying careful attention to mark all parts for reassembly. I dimpled the skins and scuffed the parts that will be primed. All that's left is to countersink the spar and the AEX wedge before priming the parts. Deburring can be mind numbingly boring!

Drilled the trailing edge AEX wedge, the top skin to the ribs, the leading edge ribs and the spar to the skins top and bottom. The photo shows the drilled right spar. I also took a look at the rivet call outs on the plan sheet and wasn't surprised to see a lot of blind rivets called out.

Photo 1 Right flap drilled and ready to be disassembled, deburred dimpled, and primed prior to final assembly.

I disassembled the left flap, labeling parts as needed so I can reassemble it exactly the same after I finish deburring, dimpling, and priming. Then I set out to assemble the right flap. I have drilled the table as needed, drilled the top skin to the ribs, drilled the ribs to the spar, clecoed the bottom skin on, installed the inboard and outboard nose skins, and installed the AEX wedge at the trailing edge. I am now ready to start drilling. I'm really curious to read the directions on how the flaps are to be riveted together. It looks like it will be difficult. So far I could always figure a riveting pattern/scheme/sequence out on my. I have not figured this sequence out...yet.

 

I got up early this morning to put a big day into building the RV-9 and about 30 minutes into work I hit a snag. The inboard leading edge skin of the flap was interfering with the center aileron attach point. I must have left my brain upstairs because I have no other excuse for taking so long to figure out that I'd misassembled the flap attach assembly. Late this afternoon I figured it out, corrected the mistake in about 10 minutes and then drilled the top skin and leading edge skins and drilled the trailing edge wedge (not shown in Photo 1). It was frustrating and inefficent work today but I'm making progress again and it feels good. Tomorrow I hope to get the right flap to this point (I'm always optimistic). Then its dimpling time, deburr, prime and reassemble for final riveting.

Photo 1 Top view of the assembled flap.
Photo 2 Bottom view showing clecoes going through the table top.

More progress! I finished drilling holes in my sacrificial table top. The holes allow you to cleco the flap ribs to bottom skin and then turn the assembly right side up and have is laying flat on the table. The clecoes that hold the skin to the ribs go into the holes you drilled. I also drilled the ribs to the spar and I drilled and clecoed the bottom skin to the ribs and set everything "into" the table. Thanks to Matthew Brandes for pointing me in the right direction on this when I was suffering from a terminal "brain fart." Tomorrow I'll put the top skin on the disassemble everything to debur, dimple, and prime the mess. Maybe if I'm really energetic I'll start on the right flap. It feels good to be moving again. The fuselage parts have gathered too much dust!

Photo 1 Here you can see the upside down flap with the bottom skin clecoed to the ribs (which you can't see).
Photo 2 This is a close up showing the holes in the table that will match up with the clecoes.
Photo 3 Here the flap is right side up with the clecoes sitting in the holes. You can see the ribs in this photo. The whole purpose of the exercise is to built a straight, flat, flap.

Gosh, has it really been 3 and a half months since I worked on the plane? I guess so. It's been a hectic time in my life. Anyway, today I scratched my head until I figured out where I stopped and then wrote the dumbest question of the project (so far) to Matthew Brandes to figure out how to cleco the flap skins and ribs to the table top - from the bottom - you drill 5/8" holes in the table top. I'm done kicking myself for not reading the directions more thoroughly and I marked the table and started drilling holes. I'm anxious to keep the momentum going so I can finish the flaps and start on the fuselage...unfortunately I'll be in St. Louis for a few days on business. This coming weekend is looking like it might be free to put some time in on the project.

I need to remember, "Perseverance builds airplanes, not skill."

Finished final fitting on the FL906 assemblies (R&L), deburred all the parts and reassembled both spars. Clecoed the R spar to the R skin and began assembling the ribs.

Photo 1 This shows the right FL906 after final fitting of the parts. I was pleased with the way the parts came out.

Photo 2 The next step is to attach the lower flap skin to the spar assembly and drill and cleco the ribs to the skin and table. The table top is considered expendable.

Completed the right 906A and made the two 906C spacers. Frankly, even though the drawing is clear where all the parts go, their role and relationship (particularly with some of the subtle angles) didn't make sense until they were pre-assembled on the 903 spar. All those crazy angle cuts started making sense. I need to go back and trim up both 906C's for a perfect fit. The one shown is pretty good (the other isn't as good). About 20 minutes of fitting should complete the task and leave me ready to figure out how to match drill the parts to each other. If you are building and have not gotten this far, build the right 906C as a mirror image of the left one and have faith that all those crazy small angles will work.

Photo 1 Photo showing how the 906 assembly fits to the 903 spar. The 906C spacer is between the 906A angle and the 903 spar.

Began construction of the FL 906A flap brackets. Cut both parts out of stock and dimensioned the left one to final size and marked the right one for dimensioning to final size. Will need to match drill both later. With a little luck I'll be posting more regularly again.

Photo 1 The right (on L roughed out) and left (on R finished but not drilled) FL 906A flap brackets

The right aileron came out pretty good. The left aileron is straight and airworthy but it isn't as pretty as I'd like. I'm not sure what I'll do with it it. Tonight I started the flaps by preparing the flap ribs and assembling the nose ribs to the wing attach points and spacers (FL 907 and FL 908). The geometry of these parts takes some thought.

I've noticed a lot of comments recently on various forums about whether to use 3.0 rivets as called for in the plans or 3.5. I've done both and there's no doubt that 3.5 is the way to go. I drilled out all the 3.0 rivets and replaced them. What a mess.

Photo 1 Flap spar with the nose ribs attached.
Photo 2 Close up of the nose rib assembly.

Drilled the rivets out of the trailing edge of the left aileron. Mixed up proseal and prosealed the AEX wedge of both ailerons. Riveted both ailerons and then weighted the right aileron to the table while the proseal dries and clamped the right aileron to a couple of 4' long angles to maintain the straight trailing edge. I'm not sure if I shouldn't have left the left aileron alone...time will tell if I made an improvement by prosealing.

Finished priming the parts and began reassembling the aileron. I put the main ribs on too soon (not reading the manual carefully enough) and that made attaching the nose ribs with the counterbalance weight to the spar a real challenge but doable. I didn't rivet the skins to the main ribs this time and that made riveting the nose skin and top and bottom skins to the spar down right easy. All that's left is to rivet the AEX wedge into the trailing edge. I'm going to deviate from the plans ever so slightly and glue the wedge in and then rivet it. The plans don't call for the glue. I'll either use Proseal or a structural epoxy. Also, I want to drill out the AEX on the completed aileron and glue and rivet it too. It has some very minor pillows that the glue will correct.

Countersunk spar and primed parts. Ready for assembly.

Dimpled and deburred the rest of the right aileron and counter sunk the trailing edge wedge. Need to prime the small parts and countersink the spar then assemble. Also build 2 saw horses for the fuselage.

Drilled the wedge for the right aileron and disassembled the parts. Completed inventory on the wing bags. One bag was miscellaneous parts to make up for pieces dropped and lost. In addition to having a sense of humor Van's must be psychic to know what we're going to lose.

Reassemble the right aileron and drilled the nose skin to the ribs and the SS counterweight. Also drilled the top skin to the ribs and the spar. Ready to dimple and deburr the parts, then prime and assemble. Shirley worked inventorying parts in the bags for the fuselage.

I deviated from the instructions a bit on this aileron. Maybe I learned something from building the left aileron (and maybe not). The instructions have you drilling the counter weight, a long stainless steel tube, in assembly with the nose skin. It the aileron in to lie flat it has to be right side up with the clecos holding the bottom skin to the spar hanging over the edge of the table. This is a bit awkward. The stainless steel tube must be drilled slowly and using cutting fluid. My efforts on the left aileron ended with decent holes in the counter weight but the aluminum skin was wallowed out more than I liked. The pulled rivets had heads big enough to cover the holes but it still bothered me. This time instead of drilling everything in assembly I just started to drill each hole. This opened the aluminum skin (mostly) and put a nice divot in the 13 matching places in the counter weight. I then disassembled the unit and took the counter weight to the drill press and used the "divots" to locate the bit and finished the holes. I reassembled everything and just reamed the holes to be sure everything lined up perfectly. All of the holes were round and lined up properly.

Photo 1 Me drilling the counter weight. The instructions have you drilling it in assembly. This worked better (see explanation above)
Photo 2 Here's the counter weight clecoed to the nose skin.
Photo 3 Here's the aileron ready to install the wedge (the long thin part lying behind the aileron.

Completed the left aileron. Riveted the nose ribs and skin, the counter weight and skin, the top and bottom skins to the spar and the ribs and riveted the trailing edge.

Photo 1 Here the nose skin is clecoed to the counter weight and there are pulled rivets waiting to be pulled in every other hole. The rivet in the hole on the far right has been pulled.
Photo 2 Here's the aileron in the stand ready to rivet the skins to the spar. Notice the puckering on the right edge. Most of that came out.
Photo 3 The finished aileron (well, it isn't quite done, the attach brackets need to be bolted on)

Picked up the two fuselage crates from ABF. For those who are curious the shipping weight for both boxes was 360 lbs and the cost from Van's to Richmond was 218.20. The smaller box was easily managed by two people and the larger box was manageable by two people. There was no apparent damage to parts although the box did show evidence of fork lift abuse.

Began final assembly of the left aileron. I was looking forward to finishing the aileron but it wasn't meant to be. It was a poor day in the shop and I quit before I did anything irreversable. The nose ribs are attached to the counter weight, that assemly is riveted to the spar and the ribs are also riveted to the spar. The top and bottom skins are clecoed in place and I'm chilling out.

Last night was our annual EAA Chapter 231 dinner so we enjoyed the company of our fellow aviation enthusiasts instead of building. Today we finished fitting the left aileron together. Drilled the trailing edge wedge, then disassembled everything deburred everything, dimpled the skins and ribs, countersunk the spar and assorted parts that were 0.040 thick, primed the small parts and called it a day.

Photo 1 Inspecting the aileron assembly after drilling the AEX wedge in the trailing edge. For you photo buffs most of the pictures on this site have been taken with one of two Nikon digital cameras. This photo was taken with a 2 megapixel Hewlett Packard camera that I got bundled with a printer. Those studs making up the wing stands are straight. The HP lens apparently has some serious barrel distortion.
Photo 2 Shirley dimpled most of the parts that needed dimpling today.
Photo 3 The small parts that I primed.

Corrected the dimpling error from last night. Drilled the left aileron top skin to the spar, nose ribs and counter balance weight. The 13 holes in the counter balance took some time to drill even with a new bit and cutting oil. It is stainless steel and the angle makes it tough to drill while weighted down on the table.

Clecoed and drilled the bottom skin to both ailerons then temporarily riveted them to the skeleton. I really need to read the damn directions better. It seemed odd putting "keeper" rivets in a skin that wasn't dimpled. I didn't make that error on the second aileron. I guess the FAA can conclude this is an educational project since I learned from my mistake tonight. Attached the top skins and match drilled them to the ribs. Attached the nose skin to both aileron skeletons and marked the notch that needs to be cut out of the nose ribs.

Photo 1 Well here's my first aileron assembled but not drilled or riveted.
Photo 2 And here they both are. The blue color on the one in the rear is just the protective plastic that the skins come covered with. I have not yet removed it but I will shortly.

I drilled out the temporary pop rivets in the warped aileron skeleton and rotated the counter weight to get a fresh area to locate holes. With the skeleton clamped to the table I located the holes in front (the easy ones) with a Sharpie and carefully punched a center. Drilling slowly with cutting fluid I cut the holes and clecoed th counter weight back into the skeleton. Then I removed the spar and turned the remaining assembly upside down. This exposed the hard to mark holes while keeping the assembly in proper shape. I the started a hole in the previously hard to locate spots. Then, after removing the counter weight I drilled the remaining holes. Upon reassembling it was easy to check for warpage and there was none apparent. With a bit more confidence I repeated this method on the Right aileron.

ABS also called and wanted me to know I'd be owing them $220 and change on Friday. I didn't whoop or holler but just asked for directions. Now I know where to go to pick up the fuselage! I am kind of excited!

Photo 1 Close up showing the rear hole after the hole has been started marking the right place to drill. The front hole has a temporary pop rivet in place.
Photo 2 Both aileron skeletons clecoed together, warp free (so far).

Finished preparing the right aileron skins and stiffeners. Riveted right stiffeners to the skins. Drilled out the temporary rivets holding the aileron counter weight to the nose ribs. Clamped the aileron spar to the flat table and marked the counter weight. It was time for the Super Bowl so we quit for the evening.

Photo 1 Stiffeners riveted to the left and right aileron skins.
Photo 2 Set up showing how I plan to avoid warp in the aileron skeleton on my second attempt to assemble it.

Prepared the aileron skins (R and L) and the associated stiffeners. Primed, drilled in place, deburred, and dimpled the left skins and riveted the stiffeners to the skins. Discovered a twist in the assembly built on the 29th (aileron spar, nose ribs and counter weight). I think one of the holes in the counterweight is incorrectly placed and is causing the problem. I'm planning a solution which I'll describe (probably) tomorrow.

As an aside, this evening's work is very reminiscent of building empenage parts. Experience counts because there was nothing tentative in my actions and work progessed smoothly, quickly, and accurately.

Photo 1 Drilling the stiffeners in place.
Photo 2 The stiffeners riveted in place on the top and bottom skins of the left aileron.

Temporarily installed a new table top for the aileron and lap construction. We layed two piece of 3/4" MFD board on the old table and checked for flattness. It's pretty close; closer that I expect I'd get with a 2x4 frame. I may revisit this work surface decision if I come up with a better way to do it. Started assembling the left aileron. Clecoed and drilled two brackets to the spar, clecoed and drilled the nose ribs and drilled the counterbalance arm to the nose ribs.

Photo 1 The aileron spar is sitting on the table, two nose ribs are pointing toward the ceiling and counter balance (a stainless steel tube) rests on top of the nose ribs.

Finished riveting the top skin on the right wing skeleton. I squeezed the rivets on the inboard rib and few along the outboard end where the skin attaches to the rear spar. The entire J-stiffener and the remainder of the lower spar to skin was driven. The angle of the skin to the rear spar makes riveting tight. This is especially true where there are doubler plates on the spar. It's tight but possible. No more clecos!

Photo 1 The completed right wing (well, it still needs wired, plumbed and the lower skins and the tip put on but it's done for now).

Did a little more riveting on the right skin. It wasn't a good night so we called it quits before damaging anything. I'm guessing one more decent evening should be enough to finish riveting the top skins.

Continued riveting the top skin onto the skeleton of the right wing. Made excellent progress and now only have the J-stringer, the inboard rib, and the rear spar to rivet to the skin. Those clecoes are disapearing fast.

Photo 1 The clecos continue to go away, replaced by rivets.

Began riveting the skins onto the skeleton of the left wing. This is job that requires two people, though the manual says it's possible with one person (but doesn't say how). I'd guess we're about 25% done. Most of the inboard skin is riveted to the ribs and main spar and one rib is riveted to the outboard skin.

Photo 1 The clecos are starting to go away, replaced by rivets.

Riveted the left leading edge nose ribs to the spar. This process gives a new meaning to "blind rivets". For the most part these rivets are bucked without and visual aid making is slow and occasionally frustrating. The next step was squeezing the rivets that attach the LE skin to the spar. Finally, we clecoed the top skin to the ribs and spars in anticipation of riveting them on.

Photo 1 Left wing with fuel tank and leading edge complete and top skins clecoed on and ready to rivet.

Primed the non-alclad parts of the aileron attach brackets and riveted them together. Finished assembling the left fuel tank. It sounds simple but it involved fitting the fuel pickup, fitting the fuel float and sensor, completing the vent, installing the baffle (with literally hundreds of rivets) and finally installing the Z-brackets. The tank is now sitting on the spar as the proseal sets up. What a damn mess! Clean up took at least an hour and a lot of that was cleaning the clecoes used to attach the baffle to the skin. I did not install the fuel sensor as it was not giving correct readings at low levels. I'll call Van's next week and see what they think.

Photo 1 Aileron attach brackets
Photo 2 Prepped for sealing the tank
Photo 3 The left tank completed and mounted on the spar

Assembled and deburred the aileron hinge assemblies. I eventually found the bearings hiding in bag 1928 - right where the packing list showed them to be. Several pieces of angle need to be primed and the garage, where I normally prime parts, rarely gets above 30 degrees. It's time to find a new place to prime parts.

 

The Christmas holiday is over and it's time once again to build an airplane. It took a while to figure out where we stopped building and develop a plan of action. We also took some time and went to the local aircraft supply depot and bought some MDF board for building a FLAT table on which to construct the falps and ailerons. None of this time was counted in the 3.5 hours posted.

We finished dimpling the last three ribs and the lower spar (well there are a couple of places that still need dimpled). Installed the platenuts on the W-919 joint plate. Actually figure out a better way to do the. First I followed the plans through drilling the #19 holes. Then placed the platenuts on the outside with a screw through the hole to center them. I used a cleco side grip to hole the plate nut in position, then drilled one of the holes. I inserted a cleco in that hole and drilled the other hole. I deburred and dimpled the holes (including the #19 for the #8 screws. Then I put the platenuts on the inside and clecoed one end and riveted the other end in place. When I was done riveting I put the the tank back on and everything lined up very closely.

Tommorow night will likely be another adventure with proseal. With a little luck we might be able to seal the second tank. If so, closing in the left wing is next. Then comes building the ailerons and the flaps. I paid off the fuselage on 12/30 to avoid the price increase and more importantly to get the kit because the wings are nearing completion. With a little push maybe the fuselage will be done before Oshkosh 04. I don't know for sure yet but finishing the fuselage seems like getting over the "hump". The finishing kit, the firewall forward and the avionics are not minor tasks but there will be light at the end of the tunnel when the fuselage is done....or so I think right now.

Photo 1 Shows the various steps in drilling the nutplates to the joint strip (W-919).

Photo 2 Shows the nutplates attached.

Finished making the aileron stiffeners and the started making the aileron aileron stop (a phantom part).

Wow, two weeks without building! A business trip and preparation for Christmas have taken their toll. It was nice to get back in the shop and try and figure out where we left off.

Reviewed the plans for the ailerons, which seem a tad more complex than previous drawings but not beyond my capacity to make sense of them - if I look at them long enough. Found all the parts except the raw material for the A-914 (a "phantom" part) and the "bearing-com 3-5", which appears in the drawings but not on the parts list or in reality. Hopefully it's shipped later. Deburred the major parts and starting cutting out the stiffeners.

Finished dimpling all 3 wing skins. Still have 3 ribs and the rear spar to dimple. Found what may be some early signs of corrosion around several pre-punched holes (see photo). As a precaution I scuffed away all signs of the possible corrosion and primed along all rivet holes. In all liklihood what I say was a mineral deposit. The skins (as shipped) were briefly soaked during Hurricane Isabel. During clean up they were amont the first items cleaned and stored. The wing walk doubler seemed the worst affected and I scuffed and primed both sides.

Photo 1 Shirley dimples the inboard wing skin.
Photo 2 Possible corrosion starting on a wing skin.
Photo 3 Outboard skin after priming.
Photo 4 Inboard skin after priming.

Finished countersinking the left spar and got most of the ribs dimpled. Shirley finished deburring the top skins and started dimpling. I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how the ailerons are assembled and how they work and find the parts to fabricate them. The drawings are a bit tougher than any earlier drawings.

Removed the left wing skins. Shirley deburred the two inboard skins. I countersunk the top edge of the main spar and dimpled most of the ribs. Rather boring work but necessary.

After a long Thanksgiving break, we finished riveting the last two rows of rivets. It was a lot slower going than I'd expected (over 3.25 hours x two people). Finished dimpling the bottom of the rear spar (apparently I missed this somehow). Moved the wing off the stand and moved the left wing up because the lighting is better. Trued the left wing in the stand and finished some match drilling in preparation for the massive deburring, dimpling and countersinking that will happen this week.

Photo 1 The right wing ready to remove from the stand. Look mom, no clecos! (Which assumes mom knows what a cleco is).

Today I installed the vent line in the left fuel tank and with help from Shirley and Todd, continued skinning the right wing. All that remains to complete the top skin is finishing two rivet lines: one that joins the skin to the main spar and one that joins the skin to the rear spar. Prior to starting the skin riveting I rechecked the wing twist and found between 0 and 1/64" of twist. The limit is 3/32" so this wing is very close to true. The wing is beginning to look finished.

Photo 1 Shirley drives the rivets and Todd bucks.
Photo 2 Don bucks rivets.
Photo 3 The nearly finished right wing.

Dimpled the right outboard (large) wing skin and found some dimples I'd missed on the inboard skins. It's hard to imagine how I missed dimples but it's hard to argue with the obvious. Removed the right tank and spent several hours cleaning up a couple of poorly set rivets, then remounted the tank and worked with the fit. In the end everything lined up well but proseal does change the dimensions a bit and it takes some patience and finesse to get the tank back on in the right position. Attached the upper skins and started the riveting them to the skeleton. We got almost all of the inboard skin (and doubler) riveted on and we're ready to rivet the remainder tomorrow. This is some of the best riveting we've done.

Photo 1 Top skins clecoed onto the wing skeleton
Photo 2 The inboard skin (and doubler) riveted on (no clecoes!).

Today we closed in the right tank. It's a lot more work than it appears at first glance. I started by prosealing the vent and gas lines to the inboard rib, then prosealed the cover to the inboard rib using the cork gasked (prosealed the gasket). Then we spread proseal every where indicated in the directions and riveted the baffle to the tank and the Z-brackets to the baffle. For what it's worth, the directions about applying a bead forward of the rivet holes works great. Finally I installed the float (proseal again) and what a mess that was. Along the way we checked everything at least 3 times. What a mess (but I think we did a good job)! Clean up alone took over an hour. This will be the last work until Saturday (11/22) due to other commitments.

Photo 1 Shirley applying a bead of proseal per the instructions
Photo 2 The right end plate where the fuel line, the vent line, and fuel senser exit. Not pretty but hopefully sealed agains leaks.
Photo 3 The bottom of the finished tank mounted on the spar (it looks so good without the clecos.
Photo 4 The top of the finished tank mounted on the spar.

Installed the 18 platenuts on the left Z brackets, finished both fuel pick up anti-rotation brackets. I messed with these for another hour + trying to get the fuel pickup line to fit without binding. In the end I opened the hole up to make a horseshoe shaped bracket. Refit the tank baffles and cleaned up a few countersinks that need to be a tad deeper. Drilled the 7/16" hole for the vent line fittings in the R tank and installed the fittings and connected the vent, Installed the platenuts for the fuel tank cover plate and fuel sender mounts (both tanks). Fit the Stewart Warner fuel sender and bent the float wire. After a little guidance from Matthew Brandes, I bent the wire correctly to avoid having it rotate freely. I'm read to proseal the tank shut tomorrow.

Photo 1 Z brackets with platenuts installed
Photo 2 Access cover plate for the right fuel tank with fittings
Photo 3 The guts of the tank. The white plastic piece is part of the fuel sender and the float is attached to the rheostat that indicates the resistance on the fuel gauge in the cockpit. Immediately behind the sender is a blue fitting that connects to an aluminum tube and terminates in a screen. This is the fuel pick up line. In the bottom right corner is the fitting where the vent line exist the tank.
Photo 4 This is the finished anti-rotation device. It keeps the fuel line from rotating in the tank. It's hidden behind the fuel sender in photo 3.

No, I have not given up, lost interest or died. Saturday was Mom's birthday so I drove to South Carolina to celebrate (and to see Mike Hoover's RV-9A project). Other commitments have conspired to interrupt work but it was fun getting back into it. Tonight I finished riveting the left leading edge. About 90% was left undone from the last session. Riveting is much easier with two people.

Photo 1 Finished left leading edge.

 

Got the last 5 rivets into the center rib of the right leading edge where it attaches to the spar. They're not pretty but they're functional (and are totally internal and can't be seen). Started riveting the left leading edge assembly and started to fit the end access panel on the right tank. The screws are a tight fit.

Assembled the left leading edge for riveting. Nearly finished riveting the right leading edge to the spar. There are 5 rivets left that I couldn't rivet and still reach with with a bucking bar. It's hard to argue I'm not ham fisted now.

Photo - Leading edge riveted to spar

Primed the ribs, leading edge sking and joint plate for the left wing leading edge. Began riveting the right leading edge to the spar.

Dimpled the hole on the bottom of the ribs and rear spar and riveted the mystery holes where the tank goes.

Countersunk the #40 rivet holes on the bottom of the main spar and primed the top and bottom web of the spar to deal with all the countersunk holes. Deburred the outboard wing skin and drilled and deburred the leading edge to the spar. Temporarily installed conduit for the wing tip lighting.

Countersunk and riveted the mystery holes - the top hole that rivets the spar to the rib but goes under the tank. Don't do what my friend down the street did and rivet the analogous spots by the leading edge. He had to drill those out because they're supposed to go through the leading edge skin, not under (I'm glad I don't make mistakes like my dumb neighbor). Located, drilled, deburred, dimpled and riveted the platenuts to the joint strip. Deburred the bottom side of the ribs on the right wing. Drilled out the rivets under the leading edge skin.

Called Van's and found out that last nights mystery holes get drilled, countersunk, and riveted (so the rivet is under the tanks and leading edges). It is just as I had suspected. Oddly, Van's was not keen about admitting any deficiencies in their instructions.<g> Oh well, no one's perfect. Drilled and counter sunk these holes, dimpled and cleaned up the top side holes in the rear spar per the nearly perfect directions. Deburred and dimpled the inboard top skin. All actions performed on the right wing. It looks like a lot of the remaining wing assembly amount to mindless, menial tasks and then we rivet. That's mindless and menial too but you can't lose your concentration or you'll have a ding for the world to see.

Removed the top right skins to prepare them for final assembly. Deburred the J-stringers, countersunk the top of the spar for the skins, dimpled the top of the ribs, deburred and dimpled the walk skin doubler. Basically this was all slow, monotonous work and there's lots more to do. The two large wing skins are going to be tedious to debur.

I'm also doing a little head scratching over some holes in the spar. It appears that there are two holes in the spar that will take a rivet and secure the end of the web on each main rib. One hole is match drilled with the skin and the other hole seems to sit under the leading edge or tank skin (depending on where the rib is). I have not match drilled or countersunk these holes. I've read the directions dozens of times and apparently I missed this instruction. In reviewing the plans I can't find a rivet call out. It would be easy to drill the holes counter sink them and use a #3 rivet of the right length and then install the leading edge and tank over the flush rivets...but I'd sure like to find the direction.

Straightened and cut the fuel tank vent line to length, flared the end and installed the line with the plastic bushings. I did not install the fittings.

Photo 1 Vent line installed with fitting.
Photo 2 Another view of the vent line and fitting where it exits the tank.
Photo 3 And yet another view showing what you couldn't see in Photo 2.

Finished riveting the right leading edge. Clecoed both tanks and the right leading edge on the wings. Worked on the fit of the fuel pick up tube anti-rotation brackets. The wing and leading edge really look nice without any clecos!

Photo 1 The tank and leading edge riveted and installed.

 

Photo 1 Close up of J-stringer.
Photo 2 Another close up of J-stringer.

Finished installing the platenuts on both spars that are used to attach the fuel tanks. Made the wing tie down attach points from AEX stock. This amounted to cutting to length, deburring, and tapping the center hole for a 3/8" eye bolt. Not sure where all the time went today. The platenuts took about an hour per wing and I did drill out and reinstall about 2 dozen of the rivets that didn't seat perfectly.

Photo 1 Tie down attach points in the raw.