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.

October 8, 2009: EAA Chapter 105 Visit

I had hosted the EAA Chapter 105 meeting in my single car garage! Approximately 40 members in attendance and we spilled out into the condo alley. Airplane sub-assemblies on display in the alley and in the garage.

Good business meeting with a Q and A about the RV-12 afterwards. Those in attendance included Van's brothers, Jerry and Stan, not to mention a bunch of other successful builders. All inspecting my work! Comments were helpful and confidence building. "Nice workmanship" goes a long way.

September 12. 2009: P. 29-04 Upper Fuselage cont.

P. 29-04 Upper Fuselage cont. Completed steps 1-7. Lots of separating, deburring and some priming. No problems here. Probably spent more time than necessary, but I took my time. Completed the panel base and have it ready for install.

Before I complete and attach the panel base to the upper fuselage, I want to decide on my paint colors. Will visit Sherwin-Williams.

September 7, 2009: P. 29-03, Fwd Upper Fuselage

P. 29-03. Started the session with "smear"ing fuel tank sealant on the upper surface of the the bottom flange of the F-1201A Firewall Upper. Used a kitchen scale to mix the ratio. Everyone needs one of these scales. Put your container on the scale, reset to zero, add ingredient #1 and then #2 and mix away!


Primed mid cowl hinges nd then match drilled to the firewall spacers and side skins.

Separated and deburred instrument stack angles, stack support pieces and canopy attach doubles (F-1202M-L).

August 30, 2009: P. 27-02 Rudder Pedals

P. 27-02. Plans are well written and if followed, this page went together quite well. I found that in step 3, it helped to do some filing on the WD-1206 Rudder Pedals on the end of the tubes. This facilitated sliding the WD-1211 Brake Pedal Torque Tubes on.

Then moved on to P. 27-03. Again, follow the directions and it goes together as advertised. I clamped the rudder pedals onto the workbench and took my time to line things up before drilling. I think the most challenging part of this page was getting the cotter pins in correctly and bent right.

August 13, 2009: P. 29-02 Upper Firewall Assembly

P. 29-02 started and almost complete. You know, one of the challenges with the 12 is that the plans are so well written and complete, that when something is forgotten (in the plans) or assumed by Van's, it puts builders into a tailspin. For example, on 29-02, step 7 instructs builders to "dimple then rivet nutplates" to the antenna shelf. It doesn't tell you to MCS the shelf or dimple it. Also, it might make sense to delay riveting the shelf to the firewall until after p. 29-03, step 7 where you are supposed to smear firewall sealant around the perimeter of the firewall parts.

Everything went well with this page, with some headscratching on the 26" hinge (step 2). The drawings indicate that both ends of the hinge will end in eyelets. Not so. You've either got to have an eyelet on the inboard end or outboard end. I choose the outboard end. Another small challenge that I did not see until after installation is the ends of the upper fwd fuse doubler sticking out (pardon the technical terms). Had I anticipated this I would have pre-bent the ends. However, in my defense, I thought Vans had a reason for not alerting you to this. I primed the cowl hinges with 7220 and installed. Tomorrow I will complete this page by finishing steps 7, 8 and 9.

July 18, 2009: P. 24-05 Baggage Bulkhead cont.

P. 24-05 steps 1-5. After dimpling and installing all nutplates (step 1) I primed the baggage bulkhead with 7220 self-etching primer. Step 2 has you flute the bulkhead to have the holes line up with the holes on the side skin (F-1270). I clecoed the bulkhead into place and did not see the need to flute to align the holes. I then riveted the bulkhead into place as per plans to rivet only to the baggage floor and baggage bulkhead. when I got to the point of installing the SB375-4 bushing, I discovered I was one bushing short of a full load. Will call Van's on Monday.

July 15, 2009: P. 24-04, Baggage Bulkheads

P. 24-04 steps 1-3. Clecoed the baggage bulkheads into place after having drawn center lines on the shear clips (F-1284-R & L). I did the bottom hole first on each clip and then clecoed before drilling the top hole. I had to really pull the shear clip toward the center of the tailcone to get the centerline to view through the holes on the bulkhead. Even after significant care, I missed the centerline by a small margin, but I think it is within tolerance.

July 14, 2009: P. 24-03 roll bar continued

P. 24-03 steps 1-4. Completed the roll bar bases and bolted into place on the fuselage. Then match drilled the holes through the roll bar into the bases, clecoeing after each drilled hole. Removed, deburred and primed, then reinstalled bases.

July 12, 2009: P. 24-02 Roll bar frames

P. 24-02 steps 4-7. Riveted the roll bar frames (F-1231A-FL, etc.) to the roll bar straps as per figure 1. I was concerned about the possible warping of the roll bar during the process, as experienced by others. So, I fit the roll bar onto the roll bar bases and riveted while in this configuration. Then I took the completed roll bar off the bases and used a scotchbrite wheel on my cordless screwdriver to smooth the counter sunk rivets. This worked well.

RV 12 Seats

My seats are here! Do you think they will match "yellow-jacket" yellow
(exterior of course)?

July 10, 2009: Static Air continued

P. 10-10 step 6-10. Took care to debur the F-1210C Angle so as not to cause a deformation when riveting the top skin onto the tailcone. First clecoed skin onto tailcone and then match drilled as per step 6. Dissassembled and deburred. Then re-clecoe and rivet. also followed directions to mask over holes within 7 inches of the fwd edge of the tailcone skins.

June 29, 2009: Static Air System continued

P. 10-08, step 8 and p. 10-09, steps 2-9. Things progress pretty well. Not sure about seal around static air joints, but did what plans indicated. Needed to put end of clear tubing in teapot of boiling water to soften and then slide over the joint. Moving onto p. 10-09, no problems and most of the page consists of riveting tailcone skins to frames. Routed strings for rudder control cable to be installed later.

July 4-9 Vacation in Boston!

Left for a 6-day vacation to Boston to go through art museums with son Syd, wife Wendy and sister-in-law Glenda. Wendy's cousin, Clifford Ackley is one of the MFA's curators and he took vacation time to show us around and take us to many different art museums. It was an incredible experience and worth repeating down the road. Enjoyed dinner and beer at "Cheers", viewing the MFA's recent acquisition for $25 million, and paid Paul Revere's house a visit. Good times had by all!!!