November 23, 2008: Center Section Bulkhead

Beginning on page 20-02, read and re-read directions to avoid mistakes. My 1st surprise was the softness of the CCR-264SS-3-2 rivets. Seems to be brass and when applying them with the rivet gun, there is a soft "clunk" and not the hard "thunk" I'm accustomed to with the alum. rivets.

Installing the retainer blocks went well. Again, needed to decypher the plans to determine which bolt was which, because several different sizes come in the bag. One can measure the bolts to identify (which I did not) or one can identify the bolts through a process of elimination. This worked but concerns me that it will eventually result in a mistake. I need to learn the sizing system to be able to identify parts through measurement.

Everything went well, including the match-drilling of the aft bulkhead to the center section. Some slight elongation of a hole here or there, but not much. My biggest challenge was to maintain a 90 degree angle of the bit to the work. After I finished up the riveting part of this assembly, I discovered that even with my attention to detail, the holes still were not at 90 degree angles, but it did work out.

On the machine countersink work, I was careful to set the tool to the right depth and tested on scrap material before moving to the center section. This worked well.

Some errors in the directions on page 20-04. On step 2, the plans refer to diagram #1, and I think they mean diagram #2. There have been other small things like this, but if you take your time and read several times, you will figure it out. I'm about half way through step 2 on this page and will try to finish tomorrow.

Saturday, November 21, 2008: Begin Fuselage

Started the fuselage kit today. Center Section Bulkhead, page 20-02. I spent time deburring parts and staging hardware for this section. Nutplates K1000-3 and K1000-08 came from Van's in the same bag and I needed to take some time to figure out which was which (there was a 3rd nut plate bag, with the biggest. Therein lies the clue.) Everything ready to begin in the morning!

November 16-21, 2008: Flaperons Compete. 161 hours to complete wings

Over the course of a week, I applied the flaperon skins to the ribs. This went smoothly. The drilling I had done on the counterbalance pipe gave me pause. The pre-drilling punching that I had done to ensure that the drill bit didn't "walk" out of the proper spot created the equivalent of a machine countersink and it looks like it when the skins are riveted at that point. I hope the photo will show this. Other than that the only challenge was again, the match-drilling through the skin into the noseribs. The lesson I learned here was to recognize when I'm tired and stop for the day. The result of not stopping was poor technique. I didn't start the match-drilling with a #40 and the result was elongated holes. I judged the holes to be outside the limits of tolerance and so made another trip to Van's to pick up another nose skin and do over. The do-over went well and the flaperons are now complete. Tomorrow, I will start on the fuselage.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008: Flaperon Internal Structure

P. 18-05 of the plans call for completion of the flaperon internal structure. It is true that the actuation bracket (A1207) has the outboard rivets tucked in close to the perpendicular part of the anglebar. I believe the squeezing went o.k. No problems installing the pivot brakets or the counterbalance pipe.

Tuesday, November 7, 2008: Deburring Flaperon Ribs

Since I had visited my veteran dad (WWII) over the weekend, I took this holiday and spent some of it deburring the flaperon ribs. Since having no garage at my Astoria, OR house, I took my bench grinder (with scotchbrite wheel) with me and worked in the living room. No surprises, just keep at this routine monotonous task till all ribs were completely smooth.

Friday, November 7, 2008: Picked Up Fuselage Kit

Picked up the fuselage kit from Van's. My son Tim helped by driving his van and loading up the parts as I was distracted by taking photos of Van's RV-12.

You can see from the photos the actuation bracket fit under the wing, some wing-tip colse-out and hand-hold details. The 12 had just come back from a short flight as they were testing some modifications. I talked a bit to one of the VAN's guys and he told me that the auto-pilot and lights options were built in. When I asked about how one would attach lights, he said that they were working on how that would go and that I would not have to remove wing parts to install. Not sure if I got that right, but hoping that adding lights won't pose a big deal.

The one photo I didn't get was of the fuel door. I was concerned as the paint in this region was deteriorating from the gas contacting the paint.

The fuselage kit fit easily into the back of the toyota van. There are lots of parts to this kit! Will do inventory at home this weekend. You can see my son and driver Tim, do his imitation of, of, of, well I don't know who!

November 2-15, 2008: Drilling the Counterbalance

I've never worked with metal before and this whole building experience is new to me. As such, drilling the counterbalance stainless steel pipe proved to be a challenge. I had read Marty's (http://martysrv12.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-28T19%3A46%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=7) blog as well as others (e.g. Jerry (http://jerryg150rv12.blogspot.com/), but still had trouble getting it right. Match-drilling the most outboard and inboard holes went well, which was about the last thing over the next few days that did! On page 18-03 the plans (step 5) call for you to match-drill through the skins into the stainless-steel. I knew from reading Marty's and Jerry's blogs that this could likely result in elongated holes in the skin. I decided to only drill long enough to mark the spot, disassemble and finish in the drillpress. This didn't work too well, due more to my learning curve I think than to the actual method. 2nd attempt after rotation of the pipe and starting over, I marked the spots needing to be drilled with my trusty ole sharpie and then disassembled the pipe from the skin, going to the drill press to drill the holes. I started with the #40 size with the notion to enlarge to a #30. The challenge was to drill the hole without having the bit drift, which it did. Not precise enough. Wising up a bit, I then went for the 3rd attempt, but started with significant punch marks to guide the drill. Success! You can bet the right flaperon went better.

From there to p. 18-04 where you are called to complete the Actuation brackets and match-drill them and the pivot brackets to the flaperon spar. I found it helpful to clamp the 1207 to the spar AND use a #10 bolt to attach to the inboard nose rib which was cleoed to the spar. On the 1207 actuation bracket, the most outboard holes are up tight against the perpendicular part of the barket and I anticipate a challenge in squeezing the rivet, but will go there when I get there (how's that for deep!).

Saturday November 1, 2008: Flaperon Actuation & Pivot Brackets

Wings complete and now on to the flaperons! Don't let the long interlude fool you, I spent time in between 10/18 and 11/1 working on page 18-02 getting the actuation bracket (A1207-L & R) and the pivot bracket (A1206) correctly manufactured. I had to make a visit to Van's to pick up additional AA6-125x1.5x2x10 because of my lack of precision in placing the pivot hole. Now, I don't know if I was being too much of a perfectionist or not, but I didn't want to be flying at 6,000 ABG and wonder if the flaperon was correctly manufactured/assembled.

So, I have 2 sets of actuation brackets, one of which is a better fit. The pivot brackets went well. I followed the example of Marty Santic (http://martysrv12.blogspot.com/2008/09/continuing-with-flaperon.html) who had consulted Jim Cone, etc. (It's a builder's community!) Using the drill press I enlarged the hole as per diagram directions on 18-02, step 2, and then while still in the drill press, put the tap into the press and rotated by hand to ensure that it went in straight. After a number of rotations, I removed the bracket and completed tapping with the bracket in the vice. This worked quite well. All parts then deburred and primed using the Napa 7220 rattle can.