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.

Rudder Match Drilling Prep and Storage Concerns

 I have been a bit busy with life the last two or three weeks.  Between work and family stuff, I haven't had a significant amount of time to get outside.  I also started to realize I need to plan for the winter accordingly.  My garage is insulated for the most part but has no heat source currently.  I am waiting for some quotes to get a Mini Split or Heater installed to allow me to work out there in the winter months.  It get a bit hard to work fine motor when its 30 or 40 degrees out.

Another thing I have realized is my wife wants her parking spot back.  My wife is very understanding and allows me to utilize the entire garage during the majority of the year, however, winter is coming.  As such, the boss has ordered me to make space for her car in prep any snow events.  As such, I spent a lot of time calling around to local storage places looking for a medium sized unit.  I figure if I can get rid of the two large crates, I can easily fit my wifes vehicle in the garage when needed.  However, finding a unit was a serious struggle.  Most of the ones I can find are very small and won't work for my needs, and the larger ones have one of two issues.  One issue was they were inside units with tight hallways to access, I didn't want to risk swinging a flight control or large part and denting it when I don't clear something.  Also, many of them were simply unavailable.

I eventually struck a bit of luck and happened to check a unit in the next town.  I asked about mid size units, but the only thing open was a large unit, which literally became available that day (it was the first of the month).  Since I haven't been able to find anything, I decided to take it.  My thought process was I have some extra space in back for some household stuff, but I have the large unit to grow into as I finish other parts.  It also will allow me to store some racks for small parts in a more organized way.  And I am buying some saw horses to build some "skin tables" to store skins flat until needed.  I am hoping to have the unit setup and everything moved sometime next week, which will allow me to focus on the rudder again.

In the meantime, I was able to finish the rudder prep and have the skins placed for match drilling.  This process wasn't terrible, lots of little prep work.  Separating the stiffeners and lots of deburring was in order to get to this point.  I constantly am debating about the level of deburring, many people seem to argue online about how "smooth" or how perfect things should be.  I find the cut pieces are a bit less precise but the stamped parts are pretty straight forward to deburr.  I don't feel any major sharp points or anything, so I think I am doing ok.  

Lots of deburring to get the structure together.

After a long deburring session, I got to clecoing the skin together.  It's amazing how precise the kit is, and match drilling should be pretty straight forward.  Another thing I am still trying to figure out is how crazy I need to be.  On the vertical stabilizer, I would simply run the drill in and out quickly, most parts were not taking much if anything off at all.  So do I need to waste time with this step every time or now?  The plans aren't updated to reflect what parts are final sized or not, so I have been cautious and making sure to do it quickly.  I guess this makes a more exact part anyway and makes riveting easier.  Should I just be reaming everything instead?  What do you guys think?

Rudder skin cleco'd in place.

So that's where I stand right now.  The rudder hasn't been too terrible, but I am looking forward to my first back riveting experience which will be coming soon.  Time to get back out there this week.

Chapter 7 Begins : The Rudder

 So we have completed the last remaining step of chapter 6 and have officially broken ground into chapter 7.  Chapter 7 is the Rudder, which will be mounted eventually to the back of the Vertical Stabilizer from chapter 6.  This piece uses some different and new building techniques which I did not get to use in chapter 6.  During this chapter I will do a bunch of backriveting, some pull rivets, rivet a trailing edge, and roll a skin.  I am looking forward to this, the only thing I didn't do in my fundamentals class was the actually adhesive that goes in the trailing edge.  On that note, I should go order that soon so its here when I get to that point.

Today I pulled out the beginning parts and got organized.  The first few steps of chapter 7 have me labeling the cut lines for separating the pieces.  Many of the pieces come together as on larger piece, and some need to be cut apart or trimmed down.  The directions are very clear and make the process easy, its just a tedious job making sure to line things up.  I wish I had a metal break as the did in Atlanta, but the cost isn't conducive to my light use.  Here are the pieces I had marked up which are ready for cutting.  This took me a little over an hour to get done.  Next session will be cutting and deburring all of these parts down. 

Marked Rudder Pieces - Pre-Cutting

Marked Rudder Pieces - Pre-Cutting

Another item on my to do list is to finish organizing the parts.  I have honestly been debating getting a storage unit but that is going to be about $150 a month.  I really don't want to do so yet but spaces are limited around my area and I don't want to miss out on the right size one.  Optimally, the unit will be large enough to store the bigger pieces as I finish them and other parts I don't need yet.  This will also free up much more garage space to allow for work once I get to the tail cone and bigger pieces.  I have to make some calls and see what's available.

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.

Airventure 2022

 So I am back from Airventure 2022.  It was an absolutely amazing trip and I got to see so much of it.  My best friend Anthony came out with me and we utilized both of our networking abilities to maximize the trip.  It was my first Airventure and I honestly felt like a kid in a candy shop through a lot of it.  The constant buzzing of aircraft overhead, whirling of helicopters, and smell of low lead was just amazing all week.

Had to take the EAA Arch pic.

We went out on monday morning, flying commercial to Appleton.  I have to admit that Appleton is a great little airport. It actually is smaller than Islip here on Long Island and had a true small town feel to it.  It has a single TSA lane, single restaurant in the terminal, and only a few gates which makes for easy travel.  The moment we landed, we sensed the difference in ambiance then the stuffy New York attitude.  Everyone we ran into was friendly, talkative, and genuinely just good people.  It was a serious refreshment for me.

After we grabbed the rental car we headed into town, but our room wasn't ready so we couldn't check in.  We opted to head to the airport and meet up with our friend Dave who was going to be our "VIP tour guide" all week.  Dave is a former Osh Kosh Tower Controller for many years who recently retired.  Dave's wife Cathy is also a current controller and worked the show this year.  Dave was there to hang out with friends and support his wife and her team all week.  The camaraderie between the controller force there was really awesome to witness first hand, everyone is very supportive in that group.  Dave was able to arrange us a tower tour, visit Fisk Arrival, the north air boss tower (The "Tiki" Tower), and showed us all over the grounds.  The air traffic controller in me was so jealous I'd never be able to work this event, since I work in a center.  It was truly an honor to witness and understand how these guys and gals work all this traffic in such a coordinated manner.  The procedures in place are truly exceptional and they do a great job.

OSH Tower - Home of the "Pink Shirts"

OSH Tower Position (Works Rwy 18/36) - Notice the squares and dots on the glass.  These are to help them visualize where the actual dot/square on the runway is, it can be tough to visualize at this angle/distance.

Fisk Approach - These guys were a hoot to hang out and chat with.

North Air Boss Tower  (The "Tiki Tower)
L to R - Dave, Bob, Me, Anthony, and Cathy

I of course also had to stop by at the NATCA tent.  Since I am a controller for a living, it was a required stop on the itinerary, beside my friend and coworker Karoline was working in the tent this year.  If you haven't been, NATCA runs some great seminars every year about working with ATC and how to utilize ATC in emergencies and other situations.  They also run a few great scenario based seminars where they discuss things form the pilot and ATC perspective.  The best part, is many of these are eligible for WINGS credit if you participate.  Definitely check out their tent next year if you have a moment.  And for those with families, they have a section in the Kidventure activity area too.

Karoline and Me making friends with the Texans (Kevin from ZFW and a IAH controller)

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!