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

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.

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.

Vertical Stabilizer - Part 3 of 3

 So I have been busy lately trying to finish up the vertical stabilizer.  The kids went back to school last month and this has freed up a lot of time during the day.  It has given me a good four hours three to four days a week to get this completed, and I had taken full advantage.  So let's jump in.

Deburring and Dimpling - Take 1

After we finished the last section, the entire assembly was cleco'd together, the skins were mounted, and we were ready to start drilling.  I quickly match drilled the skin onto the associated spars and ribs and then started the most fun part, taking it apart to do it all over again.  I deburred all of the rib holes, deburred the skin, and I got ready for dimpling.  I had not used my DRDT yet, so I was excited to bust it out.  I got it setup on my bench and made a small adjustment to it because the dies were slightly off center.

I quickly worked my way through the skin and rib pieces.  They were pretty simple to work through.  One note to future builders, go slow and make sure to go in order.  Don't skip around or anything weird because you will forget one of them and notice it later (I missed one!).  The actual job of dimpling isn't very difficult, it just takes time to finish.  Once that was done, I went to work to completely deburr everything.  Deburring was pretty straight forward, I purchased an electric screwdriver to make it easier.  This tool was a god send, as you could just hold the trigger and move from hole to hole.

First Big Batch of Priming 

After everything was deburred and cleaned up, I sprayed it off with some fresh air to make sure there weren't any metal pieces floating about.  After my first try at priming the rear spar, I made some adjustments to my priming setup.  I got some frames from plywood sheet and bought some metal wire which I stapled over the top.  These were easily laid out over two long pieces of wood on a pair of sawhorse's.  This allowed me to manipulate the pieces and spray easily on my lawn.  I haven't quite figured out what I will do in the winter, but this works for the rest of the year.

My Priming Frames Setup

The priming went fairly well.  I am using the Stewart Systems EkoPrime and EkoEtch products which were well reviewed by Charlie Derk, another past builder in his blog (his blog is linked on my page).  The product is not as toxic as most of the other products out there.  I like this as I don't need to go as crazy and I think it will be easier to spray inside as needed.  The EkoEtch is easy to use, just mix it up in a spray bottle and spray everything.  After a quick spray, you scrub it down, and then rinse it off good.  One issue I had, I hadn't removed the outside skin blue plastic trying to protect it.  During the rinse/etch process, a small amount got stuck under the plastic which I didn't notice.  It discolored a tiny section of skin, but was easily cleaned up with some acetone and corrosion protector.  This won't even be noticed after paint down the road.

Priming Session In The Yard.

After getting the etching all done, I got right to work priming the parts.  The primer goes on pretty easy, I sprayed it all once in each direction then the other way.  It dried within minutes which allowed me to flip over everything and spray again.  It turned out pretty well, but I noticed I had some small sections where it was heavier than others, something to work on moving forward, but everything was fully covered.

Riveting Continues and Skin Riveting

After priming and letting everything set for a day, I got back to work re-assembling the parts.  I started to rivet up the rear spar and get things put together for the final time.  I wanted to try different things, so I tried using the squeezer for as much as possible and then utilized the rivet gun with an old fashioned bucking bar for the remaining sections.  

Aft spar riveting

I had a little issue when I first did the aft spar.  On page 6-4, you beginning to reinforce the aft spar with the VS-1017 doubler and the VS-1012 rudder brackets.  The directions don't really tell you any specific order to put these rivets in.  So I started attaching the brackets first, but I quickly realized I had no way to access the shop head of the middle rivets between the brackets.  So I got some practice removing the four rivets in one bracket so I could squeeze those rivets.

After the spar was completed, I got to work assembling the ribs and riveting those.  These weren't terrible, but there were some tricky ones to buck/squeeze due to the flanges or other rivets.  I think I had two rivets that ended up being unacceptable and had to drill out.  I tried to drill them as I did in my class in Atlanta, but they didn't come out as simple.  I need to modify and grind down the pliers a bit to make it easier to grip the shop heads after drilling.

After I got all of the ribs done, I got to work with the skin.  Once again, the skin takes a bit of maneuvering in order to get things lined up.  After it was lined up, I went cleco crazy to make sure things were lined up.  Get a good worklight that can shine into these parts, this way you can verify the rivets actually have captured the skin and ribs below.  The work light made this pretty easy to do.  However, alot of the rivet checking is done simply by touch with the rivet gauge due to the tight spaces in the stablilizer.

Riveting the skin on the Vertical Stabilizer.

It took me about two days worth of working, but I got the stabilizer skin fully riveted on.  A few were drilled out but it wasn't too bad.  I highly recommend trying to squeeze anything you can, but sometimes the orientation can be challenging.  The nice part of the squeezer is you can setup one calibration and squeeze a line in quick succession.  The bucking bar is a bit more involved and requires more thorough checking as you build.

So I have completed the entirety of section 6 now with the exception of the VS-1010 bracket as I am waiting for a new torque wrench.  I am going to start pulling the parts for the rudder out to get those laid out and prepped.  Hopefully next week we can get that started.

Completed Vertical Stabilizer

Things I learned or points for future builders:

• Get a carpet or something soft to "line" the top of your workbenches.  The skins and parts can get scratched or cut with too much bumping around.
• If you have the space for a bigger workbench depthwise, go for it.  I really wish I had a three foot deep table as parts would fit more nicely on it.
• Organize the parts as best as you can.  The worst thing is looking for a part an having no clue where it is.  I currently have most of mine in the crate, and need to spend some time organizing them better.  I am thinking of totes/bins with numbers on them and a spreadsheet. 
• On section 6-4 Section 5, make sure to do the doubler only rivets first, these are the AN470AD4-4.  Then do the 4-5 that hold the brackets on.
• Figure out your priming methods early and try to have an established workflow before you get to big batches.

Coming Up Next: Section 7 - Rudder

Time to binge watch some youtube for research first :)

Vertical Stabilizer : Part 2

 First Mistake

It was bound to happen eventually and I am glad it happened on a small piece like the Vertical Stabilizer, but I made my first "oops".  I had successfully finished match drilling and deburring all of the spar caps for the Vertical Stabilizer.  I had gotten to the countersinking section the spar doubler and misread the "Except the hole above the VS-1010-L" section.  I started to counter sink and ended up counter-sinking the set of holes that were supposed to be left alone.  I might of been able to make it work, however I decided I wanted to do it right.  Luckily, the part with shipping was only about $45 to replace and ship to NY.  I guarantee I taped off and marked those holes immediately before starting any drilling.

VS Continued

So last week after returning from Airventure, I was eager to jump back into the build.  I didn't find as much time as I hoped at first, kids being home in the summer makes it difficult to get time, but I eventually got some.  I completed the "remake" of the match drilling and countersinking on the rear spar doubler.  Then I carefully began to deburr and round out the ribs of the stabilizer.  The directions and all the videos I watched emphasize rounding off the front ribs very well to avoid any dents or printing onto the skin at final assembly.  I went to town with my deburring wheel and got some nice edges.  

VS Ribs assembled for the first time.

The part is finally beginning to look like something of an actual part now.  It took a little trial and error to get comfortable with the ribs.  I tooled around with the 1 inch deburr wheel, a metal file, the yellow handle debur tool from Cleaveland (with the sharp edge), and the big deburring wheel.  I figured out what works and what doesn't work for me at least.  At Airventure, there was some discussion by different people about how much to deburr.  It seemed like many of the pros felt some people overdo the deburring process. I know on "Missile 29's" videos, he went pretty crazy on his VS and had noted he probably overdid it himself.  I made sure to remove any large bumps on the edges and ran the deburr wheel/tools around the other edges quickly.  I couldn't feel any major burrs and went with it.

After I did the match drilling on the ribs and finished deburring, it was time to bust out my first skin.  The Vertical Stabilizer skin is a pretty awkward skin to work on my little benches.  I got it up on a chair and spent a few minutes trying to simply get the blue protective film off.  It was finally completed and time to slip the skin over the substructure.  A lot of the videos I had watched all mentioned the skin was pretty snug and most had difficulty at first getting it on.  I had read the entire section and first tried to do one side at a time.  This proved to be a decent start,  but I quickly realized you needed access to the ribs to "manipulate" some small corrections to line things up.  

As a result, I then decided to try and follow the rivet order and start in the middle at the front of the VS1014 rib.  This was the key, but lining up that very first hole was a pain.  I recommend getting one side on and then standing the structure as in the picture above.  Put downward pressure onto the top of the skin pushing the skin "into" the structure.  As long as the rib is lined up right, the hole quickly should come into view.  Once those two holes are in, everything else was pretty easy, just move in straight lines.  It only took about 90 minutes of trial and error to figure that out and get it all cleco'd up.  It was getting late and the kids don't show any sympathy for my late hour build sessions. 

 

VS Skin completely cleco'd to the substructure.

My next session will include the match drilling of the skin, deburring all the holes and ribs, and my first dimpling session.  I am looking forward to getting that done and then final assembly of the Vertical Stabilizer.

Tail Kit Has Begun!

Inventory of Tail Kit 

Well I have successfully completed the inventory of the tail kit.  I luckily had no backordered parts so I can get going without any hiccups.  After about 5 hours of tedious counting and sorting, the small hardware is sorted and boxed away.  The skins and larger pieces are in the middle of the garage, I need to sort through them a bit more when I get a free minute.  I would like to condense the wing and tail kit boxes together if I can to free up more floor space.  I will probably do that after I get back from my visit to Osh Kosh for Airventure 2022!

Chapter 6: The Vertical Stabilizer Begins...

Now that inventory is completed, I pulled out the beginning parts and got started on section 6, the Vertical Stabilizer.  The beginning has you do some cutting on the spar caps and lots of match drilling.  I know the kit is mostly final size drilled, but some things like these spar caps have no holes when they arrive.  So I busted out the old air drill and went to town, I noticed it makes my compressor run non stop, so I am debating trying out my cordless drill for the next part and compare.  I know many have debated the ease of use vs the heavier tool, but I want to try it myself.  The other thing I noticed is my band saw it a little on the "touchy" side.  Any little movement and I honestly think it has some wiggle into the band itself.  I was trying to be as straight and precise, but it was not the prettiest thing I have done.  Cutting a 16" straight line on such a narrow piece is not very easy to do.  It has plenty of edge distance and I got lots of deburring practice and cleaned it up a bit.  

Spar Caps Cut and Cleco'd

Spar Caps Cleco'd To the VS Spar

After that I dove into and started drilling the Spar Caps to the Spar web.  This wasn't terrible but it is lots of drill, cleco, uncleco, deburr, cleco and repeat.  I can see why many of the older builders mentioned the final size holes being a godsend for us newer builds.  I can see how this extra step on a lot of parts to upsize everything can be a pain.  I found the time outside so far relaxing and enjoyable.  I hope to get the flange side done this week before leaving for Osh Kosh, my hope is to get the ribs together and maybe have a skin cleco'd before I leave.  

Airventure 2022 is Finally Here!

So Airventure is finally here.  I have been waiting for a full year since my best friend and I decided we were going to go.  It's been bittersweet to plan and think about everything.  Getting to meet some of the builders I follow online, seeing some of their completed projects, and also seeing lots of products on the market in person is going to be amazing.  One of the big reasons I got into the Van's project was everyone always spoke of the Van's Community as being the best of them out there.  The builders I have interacted with and followed all talk about that and it seems many of them build a lot of those bonds at Airventure.  I hope to meet many builders at the RV Social or Van's banquet.  I also am hoping to get some time to walk through the Homebuild camping/parking and see some finished RV-10's.  I'd love to meet some of the builders as well and pick their brain about things they opted to do or not do on their project.  One of the hardest things is making these decisions, but luckily I have some time for the big ticket items.

My buddy and I will be flying out on Monday and staying in Appleton for the 4 days we are staying.  Unfortunately we both have younger kids, and I don't think either of us could afford a divorce over this trip.  We are both blessed to have such amazing and understanding wives to let us embark on this adventure.  It might not be the big adventure of flying there ourselves, but that will come in time.  We are both in our 30's and we hopefully will have many more years to try and attend in a plane ourselves.

As I mentioned, I hope to see some items like lighting and rudder trim.  I know some builders use the aerosport product, some have a servo based system, and others just put a wedge on.  But I think taking a look at the various builds and picking the brains would be beneficial.  I am hoping to get to a few seminars and also take a trip out to checkout Fisk and maybe the tower, I am a controller after all and seeing that operation would be awesome.  So until I get back to Airventure, thanks for reading and Rock you wings.  Welcome to Airventure 2022!

Got reposted by EAA for my Airventure post! 

Tail Kit Arrival!

 I received a call today that my tail kit has finally arrived at the local delivery warehouse.  I paid the bill, a whopping $1,125 for freight from the west coast and scheduled delivery for Monday morning.  This gives me the weekend to straighten up the garage and make space.

I have been drilling and countersinking the wing spars the last few days.  I have completed the fuel tank nutplate countersinking but I have run into a snag.  The wing kit does not come with any trim bundles of extra metal.  So I have no extra piece to make a countersinking jig to test the depth with.  So I started working on the tie down for the time being while I wait for the kit.  I am trying to avoid flipping the spar over since I have it all mounted up.  My thoughts are finish prepping the spar before putting it back into the crate for storage.  This way, I can remove the spar and get right to work once I finish the tail kit.  I think it be better to not be mid completion in the one section when going into long term storage.

So I put away the wing spar and cleared off the workbench.  I inventoried the large crate last night and everything was perfect.  I have to do the small hardware bag but that can wait a few days. I’m hoping to do the smaller crate later this week after the holiday weekend.

Priming Take 2 and First Drilling

 So I had to redo my priming setup based on the issues found during my first session.  Luckily I had some scrap wood lying and I had an idea.  I went to the hardware store and got some wire netting which I stapled across the wood as a frame.  It allowed me to spray down and through the frame with no issues of sticking.  I quickly flipped the parts over and sprayed again without issue.

After ironing out my priming setup, I moved onto match drilling the J stiffeners.  They require you to mount at a specific measurement and drill along the length.  It is a lot of holes to match drill on one flange alone.  With some manipulating and moving as I went, it took me about an hour to do the top flange.  I am going to do all of the countersinking and river the nutplates before I flip the spar and do the bottom flange. I figured this would be easier instead of continuously flipping this spar over repetitively.  I now need to setup the counter sink cages and get those dialed in.

The new priming setup.  This worked much better than the paper itself.  

In other news, I received notification today that my empennage kit is finally shipping out today.  Its exciting to think that I will have a tail kit next week sometime.  However, I need to make space on the garage floor for it to sit.  My wing spars need to be stored appropriately and the minds at be seem to think storing them flat is optimal.  I am currently debating finishing the one wing so it can be put into the wing stand, but I am not sure.  I am very torn as it would be a great way to store the parts and open up additional space, however the work would take me quite awhile to do.  The other option is to put the spar back as it is, move some parts around and deal with the tail kit right away.  Either way I will be looking for space to store things as I continue building.  I'll post back what I decide to do in the next update.

Finishing Up The DRDT Table and A Van's Update

 I lost track of progress on the DRDT setup because I wasn't in a rush.  Now that I have the wing kit sitting on my garage floor, I had no reason to stall anymore.  After finishing up inventory, I got to work on getting this table put together.  I utilized the plans within the box and made the table. It went together pretty simply using a few nails and some wood glue to hold everything together.  I finished the frame and will be planning to head out to Lowes for some cheap carpet to line it tomorrow.  Once that is done, I can finish up organizing the tools, receive the primer I ordered, and get started.

In other news, I received notice from Van's that they are preparing to crate my empennage kit.  This was estimated to be ready for shipment in mid May.  This is only a month away, so I am debating waiting for the tail kit and starting that first like normal people would.  This would give me a bit of time to finish organizing and also not be in over my head at first.  However, I do need to organize the kits better if I am going to have room to work on the kits together.  I also decided to cancel my practice kit order.  They are backordered through at least May or June and it seems a bit pointless to now wait two months to do those when I will have two kits sitting in the garage.  So once I finish up the organizing of my tools, I think I am going to just get started.  Let's hope this doesn't backfire on me.