December 13, 2009: AP Servo Brackets Installation Complete

P. 39-03 & 4: Completed the AP servo bracket installation. No surprises and easy. Now back to the rest of the fuselage. Before I do, happy to report that I've rented a hangar for the RV12 at a nearby airport (12 miles away at Twin Oaks Airpark). New hangars being built and ready for move in January 1st. This will give me the room I need to mate the larger pieces, e.g. tailcone to fuselage.

December 12, 2009: Auto Pilot Install begun

P. 39-02. Began installation of auto pilot today. I have not mated the tailcone with the fuselage yet, and I am glad that I didn't. It has been much easier to work on the AP install with the fuselage on it's side. I used tin snips to remove the material from the F-1215-R seat rib and then took a file to complete the hole to the right size and to smooth. Used sandpaper to finish. I'm following the post-construction directions. It was necessary to buy a 90 degree angle drill attachment for my drill. I got a set from Avery's and it worked great! On step 2, directions call for removing one nutplate rivet. This is absolutely necessary to get the bolt head to be properly inserted into the rib and through the servo doubler. All went well and tomorrow I'll move on to page 39-03.

November 15, 2009: Painting Fuselage

Finished with basecoat and then did clear coat (top coat). The sherwin-williams system calls for completing top coat within 7 days of basecoat, otherwise, strip and restart! So, finished today. Next painting will include tunnel covers and roll bar. I've not connected the tailcone yet because of my small space and need to manipulate the large parts when necessary and this can be done by one person if the parts are not connected. As can be seen, I've decided not to paint the firewall.

November 14, 2009: Fuselage interior painting

Completed masking, priming and painting basecoat color in fuselage interior. I like this color, but it was a challenge to paint and not have runs. Oh, well, another learning experience!

November 1, 2009: Fuselage Paint Prep

Spent about 5 hours paint prepping and some priming of my interior fuselage. Still have the Fuse on it's side. Spent most of the time vacuuming, cleaning with acetone, masking and then some priming. During priming, I discovered that I had left some riveting to do on the cross brace (F-1205C), 19 rivets to be exact. Good catch. Tomorrow I'll finish priming and then on Tuesday, I'll put the base color coat on, followed by the clear coat. The SW directions call for this happen shortly after color coat, but definitely within a few days of the color coat. Consequences of not being timely is to take the color coat off and start over. :( I've taken care to mask off the firewall so as to leave it paint free. I will go ahead and paint the step plate within the fuselage, figuring that the adhesive in the non-slip pad will stick to the paint.

October 31, 2009: P. 27-05 Brake line installation

P. 27-03 Pedals and Brake Lines.

No real surprises here if following the directions. I turned the fuselage on it's side so as to temporarily install the rudder pedals. This made it easier. From there, I worked on the brake lines.

I found that sliding the sleeve and nut onto the tubing, then pushing the insert as far as possible, tended to hold the sleeve in place. Then following the plans, I put the tube (with sleeve and insert in place) into boiling water for 60 seconds, did the trick. When pulled out of the water, and with force against a piece of heavy angle, the insert was pushed into place.

The only small surprise was that when clamping the main brake lines to the side of the tunnel, the pre-drilled hole was too small. I ended up using a #11 drill bit to enlarge the hole and the fit was perfect.

I then removed the pedal system, leaving the main lines in place within the tunnel, and taping off the ends of the open brake

October 13, 2009: Fuel Tank started!

P. 37-02, steps 1-8. Separated fuel tank parts, deburred and attached the T-407 ring to the Fwd tank bulkhead (T-1202). Moved on to the Fwd Tank Bracket, to MCS #40 holes, rivet nutplates to the bracket.

Will continue the tank during next work session. Need to get all parts in order and prepped for sealant. Researched options for cleaning parts as per plans and settled on Alum Prep. After my purchase, I talked with Marty S and he told me he used acetone with good results. Darned it! I could of had an acetone:[

Need to buy fuel lube pipe thread sealing paste.