Airventure 2024 Recap

 So Airventure just passed and the annual pilgrimage to Osh Kosh has ended.  They reported over 13,000 aircraft operations over the course of the event, averaging about 1,200 or so a day.  That is truly impressive!

On the building front, life has been getting in the way and keeping me busy from building.  Between working 6 days a week and the kids keeping me busy, I haven't had any time to build.  I am hoping to get some time next week on my vacation or at the latest begin next month when school resumes and I get some free time again.

Visited the famous Fisk Approach

On the Airventure front, Anthony and I went out once again and spent a few days there.  I went out a day earlier this year deliberately to attend the RV-10 Dinner at SOS Brothers.  Thanks to Martin for arranging a fun event and opportunity to meet a bunch of other builders.  I ran into the usual "Social Media" folks like Christine and Tye (Plane Lady), Gil (Build Fly Go), Austin and Amanda (Austin Manke), and a bunch of other builders.  Many builders who were active in the VAF and Facebook group were also present and I enjoyed chatting with them and picking their brains.  It was nice to meet guys who were finished building and flying, some approaching that point, and some who were just starting out as well.  It was a really good mix of folks and productive conversation.

Ran into some friends from home.

I took a few different seminars, some about building, and some about flying as well.  I took the RV oriented Fiberglass Seminar and then took the Fiberglass 101 workshop and built a small little project to demonstrate basic skills.  Fiberglass seems to be a little tricky to get started and I am going to have to take the full version of that class prior to diving deeper into bigger parts and such.  The RV-10 is a bit heavier on fiberglass then other RV kits due to the cabin top and canopy. but everyone says it isn't too bad once you learn the basics.  I will definitely be taking the RV Sport Air Fiberglass Workshop when that time nears and putting off my tips and such until later.

Fiberglass 101 Project

I took some good seminars on flying stuff which is important as I feel staying proficient and current as a pilot is truly important.  This included some foreflight seminars, avionics seminars, and some general IFR flying stuff.  I really enjoy the humorous side of Gary Reeves presentations and the other presenters were good as well.  

I also spent a good amount of time browsing the trade show and various vendors who were on display.  I've made the decision that I want to try and preplan a lot of what I may need later to make things easier for access purposes.  I see stories of builders climbing into the deep tail cone to put together things later and that sounds terrible, so why not do whatever I can earlier if possible.  Things like servo mounts, antennas, etc. can be done early and allow easier final assembly later.  To go along with that I wanted to start narrowing down things and had some productive conversations about that.

I spoke with Autumn from Evoke Aviation.  Evoke is the premier paint and scheme designer when it comes to RV planes.  Their planes have regularly won awards at Airventure and they have amazing attention to detail.  The big part is they spend a good amount of time cleaning up the fiberglass work and making sure all of them are spot on to ensure a beautiful finished product.  Their process has proven time and time again they know what they are doing and I am planning to use them when the time comes.  In 2022, I was able to see Kristin and Tom's beautiful RV-10 on display, and this year their was another beautiful RV-10 on display once again.  I spent some time talking to Autumn as she was the only one around that afternoon, and learned a bit about the scheme design stuff.  Autumn is one of the designers and spent some time talking to me.  I explained how I'd like to do a unique logo of sorts to personalize the plane.  I discussed my idea for the concept about it and she really liked the idea.  So when the time comes, I look forward to working with them on this.  And then it will be a nice cross country to Alabama when I am ready to actually paint it.

Kristin and Tom's beautiful RV-10

Evokes 2024 RV-10 on display

I spent a few minutes talking with Paul with FlyLED, who makes amazing lighting products for the RV line.  Everything is reasonably priced and high quality versus much of the certified and alternative offerings.  Being a experimental, I can take advantage of this type of stuff and avoid the craziness of certified alternatives.  I am planning to go with his Original kit for the wing tips, two seven star lights for the leading edges, and the rudder light for the tail light.  It will be an awesome package, I just need to decide if I want to do a "beacon" which is very inexpensive if I chose to do so.  I am a bit of a safety and visibility nut so I am leaning towards it, but still not 100%.

FlyLED Essentials Lights

FlyLED Seven Star (Right- Landing, Left - Taxi)

I visited some avionics companies and also some panel builders to get an idea for what I like.  I went out to Airventure with a serious interest into Advanced Flight Systems because of their airframe harness kits and the plug and play setup of their Advanced Control Module.  After playing with their system, I liked the graphics pixel quality but the actual interface graphics are extremely "cheap" feeling and the interface seems a bit clunky to me.  Now I know I am probably a bit bias because I use all Garmin in the planes I currently fly, but their interface and graphics are just leaps and bounds better.  I spoke to an Advanced rep and was overall unimpressed with the conversation, in fact it was one of the owners and he seemed uninterested in discussing with me my project and answering my questions which put me off a lot.  I also checked out the Avidyne booth to play with their IFR navigators and although they are nice, the interface is totally different.  It doesn't seem to bad to learn but having a big change in workflow could be a detriment when wanting to become proficient later.  Another thing I noticed, was the Advanced Flight doesn't offer any in person or training coursework for their products, just the manual.  So you basically are on your own to learn the software and finding a CFI or someone else familiar may be difficult.  This is another concern I have with going the Advanced Flight route.

Advanced Flight 6600 Display

On the retrospect, I visited the Garmin booth and attended some of their seminars on panel planning and equipment.  I was overall impressed with the equipment and the interface and graphics are simple to understand.  I played with their demo setups, asked some questions, and was given full attention and answers from their rep.  It was a relief to have someones full attention who enjoyed chatting with me and talking about my build.  With that, I went into main hangars and talked to both Stein Air and Aerotronics about panel building.  If I went with Garmin, I think I'd definetely have someone do the main panel build because the Garmin equipment has a large amount of intricate wiring and "leads" that need to be put properly in place for everything to work together.  Both builders offer this service and they both work with multiple vendors for other equipment as well.  This would allow me to order everything from panel, avionics, oxygen, switches, co detector, antennae, and more from one vendor.  Doing it this way would allow me to work with one person at either company and basically have a direct contact to "build out" my panel and system as I go.  The major difference I found was that the SteinAir way is to build the panel and the builder brings the wiring to the panel leads as needed.  Whereas the Aerotronics way is to build everything to a few CPC connectors which the builder brings the majority of wiring to the CPC connectors instead of the actual panel.  This allows Aerotronics a bit more flexibility and easier troubleshooting if their are issues.

Garmin G3X Touch Display

I was overall impressed with both reps from the panel builders and they were a pleasure to chat with.  Both provided good insight into the Garmin G3X system, into their companies way of doing things, and they all were supportive of my goal to install things as they are accessible along the way.  The one consensus which I agreed with was waiting for the big avionics as long as possible so that if anything new came out, I'd be able to get that and have the most up to date tech.  After my discussion, unless something drastic happens along the way, I think I am now leaning towards a Garmin setup eventually.  I still got some time to mull it over and decide.

I visited the Van's booth during the show and they had updated their display RV-10.  They have partnered with a few of the popular accessory companies and installed many things into the updated plane.  This included things like an Aerosport Products interior, Crow harnesses, Control Approach rudder pedals, a Garmin system, and an Evoke paint scheme.  Its really sharp looking and they did a nice job with it.  I've been watching all of these companies and things they put out and there products do look good.  I am really interested in the Control Approach rudder pedals, but I have to see when I get further along what I want to do.

Van's Stock Rudder Pedals

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Control Approach Rudder Pedals

Updated Vans Show Plane

So overall the show was a great time.  There was a lot of positive interactions with other builders and even genuine aviation enthusiasts.  My buddy and I were able to make meaningful connections, meet old friends, make new ones, and enjoy the aviation world.  The airshows were fun, the evening show was spectacular as always, and it was a good escape from the day to day life.  Now it's time to go back to reality and I need to get back in the garage to start working on this plane.  Until next time, see ya around!

Winter Break

 So I haven't been in the garage much during the winter.  The weather has been crappy and cold and I have been busy with the kids.  As well, the weather hasn't been warm enough to do any priming and painting outside.  So, I've taken the winter off and am getting back to it finally this week after some home renovations are done.

Just before I ended in the fall, I was finishing up the horizontal stabilizer spars.  I made an oopsy on some bad rivets, the longer ones seem to be bit more finnicky.  I drilled them out and those holes were not great.  I reached out to Vans technical support and was given the go ahead to create a doubler's and rivet it on.  I ordered up some doubler's via Send Cut Send and am going to get those finalized this coming week.  Back to work.  

More updates to come now that the weather is finally improving.  And I hope everyone had fun at Sun n Fun this week.  It was fun watching everyone's updates online.  I will see everyone at Oshkosh as I will be there from Sunday to Thursday this year.  I am planning to do some workshops and hope to attend the RV-10 builders dinner to meet some others this year.   

Horizontal Stabilizer - Spars Take Shape

 I apologize for not having any update recently.  I have been hard at work with the school year starting for my kids, the yard work, and work obligations.  I finally got some time to get outside and prepped the Horizontal Stabilizers.  But enough excuses, back to the build.

I finished getting the spar caps cut and deburred.  This wasn't too bad but required alot of drilling once done.  I matched up the parts to the spar and started match drilling.  A lot of the holes were not predone so it took a little bit of time.  I got the flange done, removed them, cleared the piece, and then was able to get the web side finished.  This was a bit tedious but was enjoyable to finish up.  

Spar Cap Match Drilling

After the spar caps were finished up and drilled, I finished out the doubler drilling.  This was rather straightforward, similar to the one on the Vertical Stabilizer.  The one doubler was a bit stubborn to straighten out but I had it near perfectly straight when I finally finished up.   The next part was to cut the horizontal spar attach brackets from same angle aluminum pieces.  This was a bit of a complicated portion as you had to make angled cuts on a piece of metal that is hand measured and cut.  The numbers were pretty precise and took awhile for me to get right.  After getting these done, I had to deburr and round off the edges which took some time.

Measuring the Stabilizer Attach Brackets

 

Bracket cut and marked for drilling.

After the brackets were all done, I was able to finish up the second doubler and drill the brackets.  The brackets get one hole drilled by measurement, and then they got match drilled to the doubler and spar.  This wasn't too hard, but with three pieces of some thickness, I noticed the bit wanted to wander a little.  I was able to minimize it and was happy with the final results.  I utilized a trick from Austin Manke to lift the spar off the table, I had prebuilt the stabilizer stands from a later step while I waited to paint.  This allowed me to lift the stabilizer and rotate it around, making it easier to work with.

Drilling Spar Caps with the Stands holding it up.  Makes it alot easier.

Stabilizer Attach Brackets Mounted to Angle Iron for Drilling

After completing the match drilling, it was to to do everyones favorite part and disassemble and deburr.  It took a little time to deburr all the pieces and holes, but its a rather straightforward task.  Using the electric screwdriver,  I was able to deburr a lot of the holes in short order.  I used other tools for the lightning holes and edges.  It was tough to deburr the spar lengths on the deburring wheel simply due to the length, but it was finished nonetheless.  Then it was on to painting next, but a small project to finish first.

Once I finished the deburring, I was bothered by the way my Air connection was mounted.  The connection drops from the ceiling and is screwed to the wall with some drywall screws.  However, the screws weren't holding well and they were coming out of the sheetrock.  This was bothering me and I didn't want to damage the air connection or wall further.  I ended up heading to Lowe's to get a small board to reinforce the screws.  I picked up some drywall anchors to screw the board to the sheetrock, and then screwed the air outlet to the board again.  The wood was a perfect anchor point and it looks so much better, and isn't pulling off the wall anymore.  Now we are ready to paint.

Reinforced Air Outlet

It took a few days for me due to the crappy weather we have had in New York Lately.  But we finally got some warm weather on Wednesday which was just enough to prime and the winds were calm.  So I broke out my painting racks and went to work.  After I used up my remaining EkoEtch, it was time to get painting.  I really like the Stewarts Systems products as they aren't extremely hazardous like others and simple to use.  I got the painting done in short order and was ready to start riveting after lunch.

Priming  and Riveting the Horizontal Stab Spars

After the Stabs were all dry, we were off to riveting once again.  Luckily, the spar is perfect for squeezing, so I was able to utilize the squeezer for everything.  This provided clean rivets and I was able to get alot done in short order.  I am about 90% done now with the riveting and can move onto the ribs and skins next.  Until next time....

Section 8 Begins: The Horizontal Stabilizer

 Now that we have finally completed the rudder, we are onto the next section.  This section, the Horizontal Stabilizer is much bigger than past sections we have worked on.  I had to run down to my storage unit to pickup the pieces, and I ended up having to get creative.  If you plan to put your parts into storage like me, I recommend trying to keep the longer parts at home, it's just easier than getting back and forth.  Smaller things like tail cone parts, skins, and other pieces are easier to transport.

The HS Spars are a bit long....

Despite the creative method to get parts home, I was ready to go and didn't wait long.  We reorganized my workbenches into a lengthwise arrangement and got to work cleaning up a bit.  It's amazing how much dust, debris, and other crap gets stuck under the tables when they aren't moved for a while.  It was nice cleaning up the garage before moving on.  The first page had me getting the doubler setup and the spar match drilled.  It was extremely straightforward and didn't require any heavy lifting. 

Match drilling the Horizontal Spar

After doing this, it wanted me to disassemble, prime and rivet.  It is a tiny batch of parts and I didn't want to bust out my priming setup for nothing.  The next page had me cutting down the spar caps, stringers, and the doubler for the other spar.  I decided to move onto this section and prep all of these parts.  This would give me a larger batch of parts to prime at once.  The parts weren't hard to cut down, it was similar to the same thing I did on the Vertical Stabilizer spar.  

I also got to do my first bearing of the project.  This was pretty straightforward and explained well.  It had me cleco the sections together and then rivet everything together.  It required me to clamp the parts down to avoid any warping.  The flange parts are all done and ready to get mounted after priming.

Completed Flange Bearing

Next week I will complete deburring the stringers and spar caps.  Then we will be ready to prime everything together and get to riveting.  This part should move quickly and once I have the priming done, we will get to assembling everything.  Also on my list of things to do is a trip to Lowe's.  I need to pick up some wood to make the stands for assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer.

The "Before" Picture.... The End to come in a few updates.

Section 7 : Complete!

It's crazy to think that only a year ago I started this process of building.  Despite some breaks in progress for work, family, and other things, I am amazed that we have completed two sections at this point.  Now that we have finalized much of the "Workshop" setup, Storage arrangements, and time allocation, its time to get the ball rolling.

So back to the headline, the Rudder is done!  We last left off where we completed the trailing edge, mounted the counterweight, and now we finished the leading edge.  The leading edge is where the two skins are rolled together to allow the rudder to maintain its aerodynamic efficiency.  Section 5 which describes many of the basic techniques that are used in the build has a rather small paragraph about how to roll the skins together.  It essentially says to duct tape the skin to a pipe, roll downwards, and keep pressure on the spar.  After making the basic roll, you manipulate the skin to finish the roll.  After rolling it, you match drill the holes, debur, and rivet together.  It really makes it sound extremely simple, but I didn't find it as such,

Rolled Leading Edge Section

The RV-10 directions describe this step pretty simply, by telling you to do it in sections and use a 1.25" pipe.  That was about all the notes it provided.  When we did this at Synergy, it was on a small test kit which used a small broom stick.  It was all the same chord and didn't variate along he spar in width, the RV-10 spar varies along the length.  So suffice to say the practice kit wasn't as realistic as I would of hoped.   I tried the tape with a pipe, used a broom, and than man handled it a bit.  It ended up coming out pretty decently, and I was able to cleco the skins together.  I let them all sit for a little while in the form of the rolled joint, and then drilled them.  It was definitely not as simple or smooth as I would of expected based on some feedback online. 

Rolled Leading Edge With Cleco's

After riveting everything together, it was off to the races to clean up the skin.  I quickly wiped down all of the surfaces with some acetone to remove any oils before storage.  The Rudder is now moved into storage along with its counterpart, the Vertical Stabilizer.  I also removed the Horizontal Stabilizer parts from storage.  It was quite interesting since the Horizontal Stabilizer spars are significantly longer than the parts I have dealt with so far.  I ended up having to put them through the rear window of my pickup truck and hold onto them for the short ride home.  After some redesign of my workspace and cleanup, we are prepped to get ready to go on the horizontal stabilizer in the coming days.

Horizontal Stab Spar Ready To Go

Chapter 528 2023 Meeting

 So I definitely wish my EAA chapter was more active like I hear other ones are.  My chapter hasn't met for quite some time.  It's really disappointing to me as I want to get to know these guys and hopefully have them come assist or give me tips on my build.  Many of the people who come to the meetings I am finding are not actually builders, but many have bought completed RV's or other homebuilts.  You hear lots of chatter about people needing an A and P or looking for someone to look over the plane.  There is one person who is kind of the tech counselor, he is actually the RV-10 owner thats local, so that is a great benefit as a resource.  The other person who runs the chapter built and RV-7 and had built another early generation RV years ago.  So I am hoping to get these two to be more involved and lend a hand at times.

So we met up at the hangars out at FOK last month and got to chat and relax awhile.  A builder who is just about done with his Sonex showed off his build.  His build just did Taxi testing and is doing some final cowl work now.  He is excited to get that process going.

Another person I met was someone building an RV-12 based out at Mattituck.  He's a retired career helicopter pilot between the military and police department who is now enjoying the extra free time he has.  He's been making good progress on his kit and has a lot of the parts on hand so he isn't being delayed by much.  I am eager to see how his build progresses and hope we end up visiting him later this summer and seeing his project.

NY, especially downstate, has a serious problem with hangar availability and the cost of that.  Between the efforts to close the East Hampton airport, and the serious influx of traffic, the hangars are hard to find.  The guy building the Sonex was on the waitlist for 5 years before he finally got offered one.  I guess I need to get on the list, but I don't want to get a call and be unprepared.  

We all had a nice afternoon and had some pizza over our plane chatter. I am hoping that COVID is now over, we will meet a little more often and the guys who are actively or have previously built will get a bit more hands on with helping or pointing me in the right direction.  I really want some extra eyes to give me tips, feedback, and insure I am moving in the right direction before I get into the really big and expensive pieces.

Rudder Trailing Edge and Counterweight Completed!

 So June was quite the whirlwind.  Between school wrapping up for the year, the kids being home part of the month, and work being extremely busy with summer travel starting, there was just not much time to build and keep my sanity.  I ended up taking much of the month off to spend time with the kids and focus on the things that needed the most attention.  Finally, after some time away and finding a free moment, I finally got to the trailing edge of the rudder this week.

Backriveting the trailing edge

My Cleaveland Tool kit had a squeezer attachment for the trailing edge included in it. I've heard some mixed opinions about the tool from the forums and other builders online, but I wanted to give it a shot myself.  I took the first rivet and tested using the squeezer attachment only and wasn't 100% happy with the result.  So I then went to the old fashioned method which was taught in the Synergy class and riveted with the mushroom set on some steel angle.  The steel angle made it easy as I didn't need to constantly reposition the rudder assembly over the small backrivet plate.  This allowed me to basically do one entire half at a time.  

Squeezing a few of the rivets that needed it at the end.

So my final setup to do this was the angle iron of steel on the table edge, the rudder over that, and then my wood and block on top to hold the rudder down.  This worked really well and I had mostly great results.  When I finished the normal back riveting, I noticed a few had a little proudness on the shop head, so I squeezed those and it finished setting them perfectly into the dimples.  So I think the final result was a hybrid of backriveting first and then squeezing to clean up the final result.  This seemed to be the best result, and sounded pretty much like what Austin did from Youtube.  

After taking on the trailing edge, I moved onto the rudder counterbalance arm.  This involved installing a counter weight, drilling my first nutplate, bending the skin to cover it, and then final assembly.  The directions spell out the method pretty well, but it takes a little finesse.  I bent the skin like it said, clamped the wood on it, and did the hammer method.  I wasn't thrilled with how many hits it took to get the bend desired, but it stated an 85% bend in the manual.  I got about there and then started working on the final bend and nutplates.  Using the screws to dimple the skin for drilling was a simple process that is pretty smart when you think about it.  I made the drill holes and dimpled everything up.  After I figured out how to drill the nutplate, it was smooth sailing.  Overall, I am happy with the final result, I am not sure if I should of made the skin a bit tighter to the weight, but I guess I'll find out down the road at final assembly.

Bending the skin around the Counterbalance Weight

Hammering the skin crease in.

After I finished the counter weight skin, it was time to roll the leading edge, the last step of the Rudder assembly.  Section 5 calls out for a 1 inch pipe, but the RV-10 manual says use a 1.25 inch pipe.  So a trip to Lowes was in order to get the correct pipe.  My reading, Youtube review, and other resources all have very mixed opinions on the pipe size and method.  I have seen some use clecos, some use duct tape, and others use brute force to get the roll.  It's not the most simplistic idea when looking at it, but I am sure I will figure it out.  So off to Lowes and then we will close out the Rudder for good.

Rudder Spar Complete

 So there was a small break in building to allow for some family time.  The family and I visited one of our most favorite places, the Walt Disney World resort.  After a nice week away and lots of great memories, it was time to return home.

After getting back, I immediately got back to finishing up the spar.  I started riveting the rudder spar to the skin and realized that the 3" yoke on my squeezer wasn't going to cut it.   I was happy with the results of the squeezed rivets so I returned to my trusty Cleaveland Tool for a new 4" yoke.  It took a few days to come in, but I was ready to go.   I finished up the spar rivets and everything turned out great.

After the spar was complete, it was time to tackle the counterweight ribs and skins.  I set the pop rivets and set the first two skins and realized there was an issue.  I noticed a gap in between the skin and rib that was ever so slight.  I wasn't happy and realized something wasn't right.  I took a look and phoned a friend, (Thanks Christine, AKA Plane Lady) for realizing my error.  Sometimes when you are looking at something for long enough, you tend to just not notice the small nuances.  I somehow missed the holes on the side of the counterbalance rib, and never dimpled them during the prep phase.  Once we figured it out, I was honestly mad at myself for such a simple mistake.  But it shows the humanity of a homebuilt and truly teaches a lesson.  I had to drill out the few rivets I already set, and then drill out the two pull rivets holding the rib to the spar.  I had not done this before, so a review of section 5 and a trip to the hardware store for a punch resulted in a perfect outcome.

Original Set, Notice The Small Gap....

I got everything dimpled and cleaned up after it was removed.  This then allowed me to reset everything cleanly without any damage.  The second time, the skin was nice and tight to the rib and looked much better.  I know am ready to rivet the trailing edge.

All Fixed and Skin Tight.

Stiffeners Riveted and Trailing Edge Work

 The last month has been a bit busy with school breaks and getting the house ready for spring.  Lots of yard cleanup, Easter, and the kids being off have slowed down my time.  I finally got around to back riveting for the first time on the plane.  I utilized my two backing mats and put the back rivet plate between them.  This kept the parts at a good height without any major bend going over the side.  I see why some people like having a bigger plate or sink it into their table, but I think the ability to move the plate is more beneficial.  I noticed as you got to the ends of rudder skins, it was beneficial to just slide the plate down the table instead of the part.  Otherwise, you have a huge section hanging off the end.  Back riveting was pretty straight forward.

After I finished the back riveting I was rather impressed with how everything looked.  Time to start prepping for sealing and rivet the bottom rudder horn into place.  I took the recommendation of many people and ended using a pull rivet for the very last hole on the training edge of the horn.  It was way too tight and I tried more than once to buck and indirect rivet it with terrible results.  That was just way too tight a spot and I didn't want to slaughter the horn itself beating on it with the rivet gun.

After some time away from the project for the housework and the lack of a second set of hands, I finally got my father to come over.  He was going to be my second set of hands to hold the rudder skin while I joined them together.  The directions were pretty clear in describing the process, and we read through it a few times.  I ordered the cartridge style proseal figuring that one would be the perfect amount to utilize, but mixing that thing was a royal pain!  It took forever it felt like to mix thoroughly through using the little dowel and mixer in the cartridge.  After what felt like an eternity, we were ready to rock and roll.

Setting Pop Rivets in the stiffeners

I started with joining the base as instructed and pop riveted the first stiffeners.  Its pretty tight without severely bending the skin back, so it was easier to use a manual pull riveter.  I was really careful and layered the proseal as thinly as I could per the directions.  I tried to use a little roller at first, but that just gummed up and didn't do anything.  I ended up using a few popsicle sticks which I stole from my daughters craft bin.  That worked well and I had one which was snapped in half, so the pointed end was great to get into the tight corner against the skin.  After a long session of cleco's and pop riveting, the skins were joined and the trailing edge sealed.  

Trailing edge secured and curing

I utilized a technique that my Technical Advisor has suggested and others I have seen do online.  This was to go purchase a piece of aluminum angle iron.  This is a great and thicker straight edge which I used to support the trailing edge.  I utilized one rudder skin and marked all the holes and drilled the angle iron.  Afterwards, I deburred it and checked it to make sure everything matched.  This gave me a straight and stable edge to cleco the entire trailing edge to while I prosealed it.  Upon completion, I had it completely clecod to the angle iron and left it to cure for a few days.

The kids have been off this past week so no work has been done.  It was a good time to let the edge cure and solidify before I start cleaning out the holes.  Next week I will clear out everything and get to finishing up the rudder.  I'm hoping I can finish the rudder up before my trip next month, and then I will jump right into the Horizontal Stabilizer upon getting back.

Trailing Edge Cleaned

 So the kids were off from school for a few days and things have been hectic at work.  I finally got around to removing the primer from the trailing edge area of the rudder skins.  A little MEK, a rag, and some elbow grease and it took about an hour to do.  I will definitely not make that mistake on future parts because I don't want to deal with that again.  Now to start back riveting this coming week!

Rudder Riveting Has Begun!

 So now that the priming is done, I have begun riveting the rudder together.  It began with the rudder horn and base pieces for the rudder.  This included riveting my first nutplate on which was neat.  I always contemplate which direction to put the rivets as the plans don't show it.  I know they tell you to put the manufactured head on the thicker piece, but many times the two pieces of metal are the same, so it is strictly just appearance?  I looked at a few other builders online and it seems like many times it didn't matter.

The rudder horn was pretty straightforward with the squeezer.  The squeezer is so nice to use, especially when doing multiple rivets of the same size.  You slowly tighten up the first one, and once you figure out the right depth, its rapid fire to get the rest done.  It easily repeats the precision of the first one and you can bang out a whole line rather quick.  If you have a second hand to remove the clecos and pop rivets in, it can be extremely fast.  

When I got to the rudder spar, I did have to drill out on rivet which I was not happy with.  The rivet was set and looked like it squeezed one side more than the other.  I am not sure if this is just squeezer being misplaced or not level perfectly.  I have to be a bit more careful to make sure I am dead on lined up as I go.

Rudder Horn and Spar Riveted

Rudder Skin Primer Removal (Oops!)

In other news I had explained my oopsy during the priming session in the last post.  I had broken the rudder trailing edge wedge and accidentally primed the entire skins.  My research showed I should have left the little edge unprimed to allow for better cohesion between the two skins, wedge, and proseal.  So I spoke with my tech advisor and he advised two options, first was to try scratching it off with bare scotchbrite.  I thought about this and remembered I had the scotchbrite wheel on the drill bit, its about a 1 inch wheel.  I took this and was happily surprised how the primer came off fairly easily.  However, it took me awhile and is very difficult to be exact as you go.

Scotchbrite Wheel Trial

So above is the piece I tried to clean up using the drill mounted wheel.  It really didn't go that great where I'd want to continue doing it for both skins.  It's a long piece and will take a really long time.  Option 2 presented was to get a can of MEK and use that as a solvent to help rub it off using scotchbrite by hand.  I am thinking of trying that option now as it might be easier to do.  It doesn't help that the dimples are a bit interesting to work around.  I will report on how this goes next week once I get some MEK and give it a try.  In the meantime, I am going to continue with getting ready to back rivet the skin stiffeners and get things ready to mount.  I am looking forward to my first back riveting and pull rivets on this coming up soon.

A New Tool, More Priming, and an Oopsy...

 Building has continued as of late and this past week was expected to be in the 50's and low 60's which is totally out of the norm for New York in mid winter.  As such, I made a decision to make sure I was ready to prime before the super warm day yesterday.  I had finished up all of the match drilling and had taken apart the rudder assembly.  The last step remaining was to countersink the trailing edge wedge.  Some builders reported doing this with a drill by hand, but that is a lot of holes to do.  In my cleaveland kit there was a jig designed for a drill press.  This allows you to setup a drill press, configure the countersink cage, and then repetitively drill through the wedge more quickly and efficiently.  And the wedge is kept perfectly at the appropriate angle to drill.  However, I don't own a drill press.... yet.

I had a nice gift card for Lowes leftover from Christmas and decided that it was time to put it to good use.  I went to Lowes and picked up their countertop drill press from Porter Cable.  I already have the band saw and grinder, so it fit in perfectly to my collection.  I got it home, took some time to assemble, and was ready to start countersinking soon enough.  Add in some small clamps and I had the press all rigged up and ready to go.

Drill Press with Trailing Edge Jig

It took me two sessions to do, but I slowly made my way through both sides of the trailing edge wedge.  This part is thin but has an important job of joining the two skins together when I do the final assembly.  I took my time getting the first few holes setup and making sure they fit my test dimple plate perfectly.  After fine tuning the cage, I was off to the races to finish the rest of the wedge.

Nice Countersink Holes

Now that the wedge was finally countersunk, I was all ready to get started priming on Thursday.  I woke up to the temperature already in the high 50's and got setup early.  I used the same setup with my priming racks over the 2x8's.  After getting the kids off to school, it was time to bust out the Ekoetch and start scrubbing.  The etching is very time consuming and tedious work to get done, but its nice cleaning everything up.  Again, its not a big deal to have lots of scratches as this helps the primer bond to the surface.  The unprimed outer parts will eventually be sanded and scratched up when they are ready to paint.  As long as we have no large and deep scratches, we are good to go.  I have to figure out the best way to protect the skins a bit when moving them around the racks.  My racks have chicken wire on top and make some small scratches.  

I had one hiccup or oopsy during my etching session.  One of the last pieces I etched was the trailing edge wedge.  Now doing this was a mistake because we don't want to prime this as it can effect the adhesion of the Proseal when I build the rudder.  But as I was scrubbing the wedge with the scotchbrite, the wedge literally snapped in my hand.  The wedge is so narrow, just gentle pressure caused it to bend and snap.  I now have to recut and redo the countersinking. I am not looking forward to shipping a piece of trailing edge by itself.  I might wait until I order the fuselage and include it in that if I don't have enough pieces.

Snapped Trailing Edge

Priming wasn't too big of a deal.  I gave everything a very thorough stir and made sure to mix it well.  I still like my little detail paint spray gun, but as we get into bigger assemblies, I might need something larger.  I had to replace and refill the spray tank once during the session.  I'd prefer to avoid doing that mid spray if I can.  After everything was done, I broke it all down and got everything cleaned up.  Next week I will start riveting together the rudder pieces for the final time.  This section will be an introduction to back riveting and my first time using Proseal.  I look forward to the new processes.

Let There Be Heat! And Building Resumes...

Heat in the Garage

 Well after a two month hiatus due to bitter cold temperatures, my workshop has received an upgrade.  We have run a fresh line for power and installed a mini split in the garage.  Now my garage is not 100% insulated as the outer walls are not shared to living space, so I had to insulate whatever I could.  I insulated the ceiling space, front doors, and cleaned up the weather stripping to insure I am as tight as I can be without drilling into the walls.  After that was done, my HVAC friend came by and installed our new mini split.  I am not expecting 75 degrees in the winter, but keeping the room above 60 makes it comfortable to work out there and not be freezing.  I gave it a quick test the other day and I am quite happy so far.  It will also be nice in the summer if its scorching as I can cool the garage as well.  Back to work now!

Let there be heat....

Christmas Tool and Workshop Additions

In other news, Christmas came and I added some new tools to the collection.  I know there are plenty of tools and parts that I will purchase over the life of my build, so I have started to compile a list of everything I will need over time.  I am starting with some basic tools and will buy some parts as I approach needing them.  However, my family has come through and picked up some basic tools for Christmas.  I now am a proud owner of a soldering iron, label maker, 12" offset back rivet set, and some extra countersink cages.  These will all be quite useful and helpful as my build continues.  I am going to continue updating my list of things and hope that my future birthdays and Christmas' will help lighten the hit to my wallet.  

My Wife's Christmas Gift to Me.

One thing that I was super excited about was a surprise gift from my lovely wife.  We all know that the spouses will either make or break any home build, but mine has been amazing.  From the minute I asked to do it, she has been supportive and willing to help anytime I need.  Now, I haven't had to have her crawl into the tail cone yet, but I think she will do so without issue.  She purchased me a sign for the workshop that I cannot express my gratitude.  I am so happy and have mounted it on the wall right above my workbenches.

Building Resumes....

I've continued to build on the rudder section.  I began where we left off with match drilling the entire rudder skins and substructure.  I have now disassembled and labeled the skins.  I got to break out a new tool and play with that tonight.  The new tool is the Cleaveland Edge Forming Tool.  I broke it out of its plastic finally and played with it on the scrap pieces I have.  The directions were not very detailed, it only said don't over do it, but the website for Cleaveland had a short video describing how to adjust and do it.  I still am not overly thrilled by the video, but it is good enough.  The real question is trying to determine how much is overdoing it.  I might reach out to my tech advisor to discuss this briefly before doing it.  So thats where we will continue next, edge forming and deburring for priming.

Rudder structure all built and match drilled...  Time to take it apart now...

Workshop Cleanout and Electric

 So we last left off trying to figure out storage and heating solutions.  Well, we have made progress on both tasks.  My new storage unit is setup and I just moved the large crates into the storage unit for the time being.  This frees up all of my floor space in the garage, which may not be important for now, will make a major difference as I get into the larger parts.  I also just had the 240V line run for my new mini split unit that will be installed this week.  So despite a lull in build time due to the bitter cold, I am hoping to be back on the bandwagon next week.  I am looking forward to a great 2023 build year!

Storage and Heat..... Who Needs That?

 So My rudder is assembled and ready for the match drilling of ribs.  However the last month has been quite hectic with the holidays and winter approaching.  I haven't been in the garage too much because the temperatures have been getting down to the 30's and 40's, making for a very cold work session.  It's very difficult to work with fine motor skills at such low temperatures.  I have been in the process of getting quotes to install a mini split into my garage so I can make the workshop reasonable.  For those that don't know me, my attached garage is a 2.5 car garage and I prefer to avoid the flammable liquids/gases based systems.  As a firemen, I have seen numerous occasions of Carbon Monoxide poisoning in homes where these types of heating systems do not operate properly or the room doesn't ventilate well.  So I hope to have this heat settled in the next two weeks or so.

In other news, my wife has been on my case about getting her garage back for the winter.  With the fear of winter snow coming, my wife would like to be able to park in the garage during a storm.  As a result, I've been searching around for the best options for off site storage.  Most of the storage solutions near me are fully packed or only have smaller units.  After some searching and luck, I happened to come across a storage place who just actually had a tenant move out the day before.  This allowed me to snag a larger unit which gives me room to grow as the plane gets larger.  This also allows me to open up floor space as I build further into the project.  So I am hoping to be back on the bandwagon shortly and get the rudder finished up.

Chowder Run : Farmingdale to Plymouth, MA

New Equipment to Learn

 I have been trying to make a conscious effort to still fly and stay current.  Now that I finished my instrument rating, I want to use it and stay current.  The archer I rent got a new GFC500 installed and I have to admit, its an amazing piece of equipment.  I did a local flight with my instructor and went over autopilot procedures, usage, and best practices.  We shot a few approaches, did a hold, and just played with the functions on it.  It was a really fun flight to do, and really made me confident that I could use it in single pilot IFR situations.  I still want to do a lot of manual flying, but it will be good for enroute and high workload parts.  

Off to Plymouth

Now that I have learned the basics of the autopilot, I wanted to do a flight and enjoy the weather.  The weather hasn't been bad this fall so far, and we have had some very warm days.  My friend Amanda is a great safety pilot and I try to invite her along any time I can.  It allows me to keep my instrument skills sharp and stay safe at the same time, plus it's always good having a second capable pilot on board.  I have been making a conscious effort to file IFR every flight just to utilize the system and keep sharp.  Despite I am very aware of the rules and such due to my day job, I'm an FAA controller, it's good to do it anyway.

So I had a craving for some chowder and felt like heading north to somewhere new.  I love exploring new airports and spots that are unique, so the east coast of New England was calling.  I searched around and came across Plymouth, Massachusetts.  There is a nice little diner at the field with a new terminal building.  We filed IFR, headed north, and flew east over New England along the way.

The ride was pretty smooth, but the winds started picking up as we got closer to Plymouth.  The forecast had no serious weather or wind forecasted, but as we got to Plymouth, the winds had picked up quite a bit.  Winds were gusting into the twenties but it was practically down the runway.  After an uneventful flight, we landed, and got to enjoy lunch.  The chowder was delicious and the Reuben I had to go with it hit the spot.  After we tracked down the fuel guys, we finally headed back to Farmingdale. 

The flight home was a bit more interesting than the flight up.  We got a hold for release clearance when trying to depart due to inbound traffic, then we departed VFR, and picked up IFR in the air.  After we got airborne, we got some weird clearances.  Boston approach sent us direct to Groton off a vector to rejoin our course, however, when we checked into Providence, they recleared us to a fix that was previously on the route.  The odd thing was that was technically no longer part of the route, so we had to verify everything between. 

Cruising along with Amanda

Once we got back to Long Island, we crossed the sound and basically followed the North Fork.  As we got further west, we had some clouds building up, and worried about icing if we got stuck in them for a long time.  It was a thin layer, so we asked for lower and New York Approach took their sweet time before giving us the clearance.  As we descended through and out of the layer, it got pretty bumpy.  We had moderate chop until about a thousand feet below.

While we were up in New England, the winds out west began to grow as well.  Returning to Farmingdale found a significant crosswind, and it was the perfect direction to be a crosswind to any runway.  To further complicate things, Farmingdale was landing runway 19 when 32 would of been better.  Regardless, we flew the visual approach and landed safely.  Another beautiful day for flying and a great flight to add to the logbooks.

Where should I head next?  I was thinking maybe heading west on the next one, maybe Philly or somewhere that way?  If you got any favorite spots, let me know.