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.