I disassembled the flap motor to install the required safety wire and cotter pin. It seems early to close anything up but I put the sides of the flap moter enclosure on. I assembled a stool with rollers that I'll use for supporting the wings when I'm ready to install them.

I read a bit further in the directions about how to install the wings and I discovered I'm not quit ready for that step yet. I need to install the bottom wing skins and plan for my wiring and pitot connections. That's what I get for having a 16 month layoff. This week has me travelling a bit so not a lot will get done.

Decisions decisions. Today I made a series of calls and ordered my finish kit and decided on a prop and ordered an engine. The engine will be a IOX-340 (that's not a typo) by America's Aircraft Engines. It will have the Silver Hawk fuel injection, vertical induction and two magnetos (no electronic ignition. I should get the engine sometime in October. I'm not in any rush but I wanted to use the 25% off coupon from LOE in 2006 (it's good for two years). The propeller (not ordered) will be a Whirlwind 200RV. I had considered the Whirlwind 151 because the three bladed prop is so sexy looking. Sex appeal isn't everything and the 9A has enough good looks as it is. Whirlwind said the 200RV will be more efficient, cheaper to operate, and with my engine selection it will probably be more reliable. So, it will be the 200RV propeller.

One interesting piece of information that others may find helpful is I paid 80% on the finish kit about 2 years ago. For the life of me I forget why I did this but it locked my position in (but not the price). Now I can send them the last $1,500 or so and they'll ship my kit. In short I don't have to wait 9 more weeks.

Today I assembled the flap motor in the housing and reinstalled it in the plane. I found it easier to do sitting in the baggage compartment and then attaching the actuator rod to the flap weldment and then inserting the bolt, spacer, and washers that mount the motor end of the unit to the housing. I tried operating the motor using a 9v battery (rather than the 12 volt it's designed for) and it worked just fine. I still need to safety wire the unit (my wire and pliers are at the airport). I should complete this task tomorrow.

I need to prime and paint the center cabin cover and reinstall those parts and then it's time to install the wings and set the incidence. Installing the wings will take two people, so it will depend on me getting some help

Photo 1: The flap motor housing installed.

I took it slow today and fit the center cabin cover (F982C) between two of the floor stiffeners and then drilled it to the stiffeners and the F601K1 firewall recess. It's nice to know I can still measure and drill. Next I installed four platenuts in the cabin cover and two platenuts in the firewall recess.

The center cabin cover and and the fuel valve cover need to be prepped and primed tomorrow, and four more platenuts installed in the fuel valve cover. After that I'll need to finish work on the flap motor and it will be on to installing the wings! I'm looking forward to that task.

Back to work today after a nearly 17 month delay. Sometimes life gets in the way. My only brother passed away last April and it really took the wind out of my sails. A number of other significant events have happened to: the birth of a grandchild, preparations for semi-retirement, and I'm getting ready to start back grad to school for the second time in a month.

Anyway, today I reviewed my notes, which were fairly detailed to see where I needed to pick up the building process. I worked on fitting the firewall recess to the center channel and looked to see what I need to do next. I'll need to complete the flap motor mounting and connections and complete the center channel (drilling a few holes and installing some plate nuts) and then it is time to mount the wings.

I am expecting to order the finish kit and my engine this week. I totally missed my goal of flying my completed aircraft to the Virginia Regional fly-in (no longer associated with the EAA) but I should have the time to finish it for next years fly-in. With a grandchild in NC I really need a way to make the commute a lot faster.

Back to work today after a nearly 17 month delay. Sometimes life gets in the way. My only brother passed away last April and it really took the wind out of my sails. A number of other significant events have happened to: the birth of a grandchild, preparations for semi-retirement, and I'm getting ready to start back grad to school for the second time in a month.

Anyway, today I reviewed my notes, which were fairly detailed to see where I needed to pick up the building process. I worked on fitting the firewall recess to the center channel and looked to see what I need to do next. I'll need to complete the flap motor mounting and connections and complete the center channel (drilling a few holes and installing some plate nuts) and then it is time to mount the wings.

I am expecting to order the finish kit and my engine this week. I totally missed my goal of flying my completed aircraft to the Virginia Regional fly-in (no longer associated with the EAA) but I should have the time to finish it for next years fly-in. With a grandchild in NC I really need a way to make the commute a lot faster.

No building for the past three days. The weather has been delightful and I decided to fly the Cherokee Thursday after work and I had so much fun I went again Friday evening. After flying I put time into figuring out what I want in my panel and that's getting both interesting and real. Real as in "happening real soon" and as in "real expensive". Saturday was a Fly-In/Drive-In picnic at Merlin (2VA3) and I took the wife and showed her how much fun landing on grass is. Oddly, she didn't share my enthusiasm for the experience. The Fly-In was great fun and I hope our chapter does it again!

Sunday after Mass I was back to building. The tasks today were a hodgepodge of things to wrap up. I did some painting on the flap housing parts. No blistering this time but my technique still needs work. Next I installed two more nutplates so I could bolt down the center block that supports the flap weldment. All three blocks are visible. They're white (HDPE) blocks; one on each end and one in the center. I had left this to do "later" and I was overdue for getting back to it. One of bolts wouldn't start after got everything back in place and I was wondering how I'd deal with this (wondering started back on the empennage when putting nutplates on there). My guess is something was interfering with the bolt lining up properly to get a grip on the nutplate. My plan was simple; take a die and rethread the nutplate. It worked like a champ.

Next, I got the F-656 gussets riveted to the longerons and bulkheads with help from my son-in-law, Dennis. He also helped as I finished bolting the landing gear weldments to the fuselage. The five bolts and one of the flush screws were easy to drill. The hole for the forward most screw was blocked by a rib. There are several solutions for extending the hole to the exterior and I choose the one that involves drilling the rib and then drilling though the starter hole in the gear mount. Alignment was perfect and now I have an extra hole in my rib. I counter sunk the screws slowly using a battery operated deburring tool. It's slow and not necessarily the best way to go (slow speed chatter?) but it got the job done. Finally, I started working on a few tasks related to the forward tunnel and getting that piece finished. The wings are next. I spent some time measuring things; they're going to be a tight fit, which I suppose is how they're supposed to fit.

I'm still proceeding slowly. Here's a photo of the right gear hole when I got it to final size. I don't know how much flex this weldment will exhibit and in what direction if someone (heaven forbid) makes a less than perfect landing. I'm guessing most of the flex will be in the actual gear leg and will be outward. The fit is pretty close to the rear. Here's a shot of both gear attach weldments in place. The silver bolts are temporary hardware store bolts and the brass bolts are the real AN hardware. Every bolt, washer, and nut is in place but none are torqued yet. Here's a close up of the left gear weldment. I expected getting the washers and nuts on the three lower bolts would exercise my patients and test my knowledge of cuss words but I was pleasantly surprised. These really long nosed plier were bought for a couple of bucks at Harbor Freight and worked like a charm to slide the washers on and then hold the nuts while I turned the bolt until the threads caught. Truly, no problem doing any of them. I still need to drill the bolts and screws that attach to the side of the fuselage.

Finally I started repainting the flap housing. With a little luck I'll finish it tomorrow.

This evening I simply worked on checking a rechecking the fit of the gear weldment. Getting some of the bolts back out is a challenge but I did it without cussing so it couldn't have been too bad. The right gear mount appears to fit well now and the left one is close. It may be OK but I think there's still a little interference but I can tell where.

At one point I installed both of the 1 7/16" spacers that hold the 704 center section halves apart at the inboard most gear mount bolt hole. The left one was a very close fit, which I'd expect. The right one was tighter than I'd have expected. I'm not sure what is causing the difference. I remeasured them and they appear to be the same length and correct. Before I do the final bolt up I want to look at this closer and triple check the fit of the weldments.

I've noticed on some other websites that the AN4-12 bolts may be short but from what I can tell they will be fine. Certainly along the top edge I expect they'll be long enough. It appears I may need a spacer on the inboard bottom bolt (between the weldment and the center section) and if so, I may need to go with a longer bolt.

If the cheap hardware store bolts are any indication, the top 7/16" close tolerance bolts will fit snuggly and the bottom ones may be really tight fits.

I will have photos when the weldments are in place.

How many trips does it take to Home Depot to buy 2 spark plugs? If you guessed three and one to Lowes you're right. My 30 minute lawn mower tune up took 2.5 hours and I never could get the damn oil filter off. It's positioned so you can't get a filter wrench on readily and when you do there's about 10 degrees to work with turning it and the wrench will slide or twist but it won't turn the filter. I finally decided the old filter *looked* just fine on the outside and it would serve a bit longer. I didn't go in the shop in the greatest of moods.

The first thing I did was attack the flap motor housing with methyl chloride to get the paint off. Two coats got 98% of it and then I washed the parts in clean water and then scrubbed them in hot soapy water and let them dry outside for about 6 hours. Maybe I'll reprime them tomorrow. Next I looked at my gear weldments and decided I better drill the 5/16" hole (who makes a 0.311" bit as called for - 5/16 is 0.3125" which is pretty close. All the numbered and letter bits are further off). So I wrestled the weldments out of their semi-close positions and mounted the gear legs in them and drilled them. I oiled and scrubbed all the bare metal and then re-read the directions for installing the weldments. Its one line - basically saying install them per the drawings. I'd asked about trimming the F904 flange on VAF board and got mixed answers and had decided I'd call Van's Monday morning. Someone said the instructions OK'd trimming the flange. The instructions are one sentance long and don't even mention the flange. I took another long look at the drawings and off in the corner I saw a note that showed the bottom skin with the hole cut and the flange intruding (no gear weldment) and there was a note that the F-904 flange needed to be trimmed for the weldment to fit. My error for not thoroughly reading the plans. About 10 minutes with a Dremel tool and a carbide bit made short work of the flange. I just opened it up to match the hole in the skin. Voila', the weldments appeared to fit. I'm going to take a better look tomorrow and if I still like the looks of things I'm going to bolt those puppies in place. Other that doing a little more priming, that was the total of my day.

What a frustrating day. I had high hopes for progress this weekend but almost everything I did, starting out with painting set me back. The paint on the flap motor enclosure blistered for the second time. The primer had gone on beautifully but the finish coat had some flaws (wrinkles and blisters). I'd fixed wrinkes before by sanding out the flaws, priming again, and then painting. This time it fixed the wrinkles but it blistered worse. Today was my second attempt to fix it and it was making matters worse.

I spent about an hour trying to fit the gear mounts without trimming the 904 flanges. This just added frustration to an otherwise irritating build session. Somedays are best spent drinking beer or fishing. I gave up beer for lent and the fish are not biting well yet, so I decided to try another task. The F-656 gussets needed to be deburred and primed - finally, a task completed without a screw up. The top skins needed to be dimpled and primed and I got both of them dimpled and primed one and decided to call it quits. No joy in the shop today.

It was a short night so I tried to do a couple of simple things. I started by applying the finish paint to the flap housing. I have no idea what the problem was but I got a lot of wrinkling so I'll be sanding and redoing the work. Next I went to work trying to fit the right gear weldment. It appears this is going to take some time as the part fits against the sides of three parts (fuselage side, bottom, and the center section of the main spar) and fits just inside two other parts (a rib and a stiffener). Its difficult to see exactly where the interference is and what each change will do to the fit of the weldment. My plan is to go slow and get a good fit.

Riveted all the flap motor housing parts together and install a myriad of platenuts on both the flap motor housing and the center of the rear seat floors. I did a little more priming and I'm ready to do the finish paint on these parts (except the side panels). I still need to install the motor and connect it to the flap actuator weldment.

I test fitted both gear leg attachments. There's significant interference at this point. I marked what I thought would need to be ground off (bottom skin mostly but some center section flange on the left gear mount). Considering I wasn't working particularly sharp today I decided to call it an evening and look at it tomorrow or Friday and see about grinding it then.

It appears that I'll be fitting the wings this weekend. My guess is Sunday afternoon. I don't want to rush the job of fitting the gear leg attachment points and there are a dozen or more small tasks that can be completed plus the aft top skins still need to be dimpled and primed. And, the grass is growing so I need to get the lawn mower ready for the grass cutting season - new plugs, filters (oil, fuel, and air) and an oil change.

Disassembled what I had put together for the flap housing, drilled the hole in the flap extender arm for the safety wire (the trick is to remove the jam nut, then mark the starting spot on the flat and drill slowly). I then prepped and primed the parts and began installing platenuts.

I am starting to run out of parts in the fuselage kit. Van's said they'd be shipping my finishing kit toward the end of this month (12 weeks not 8 weeks as advertised - no problem though). They also want a release because I'm using an O-360 cowling (to allow for the fuel injection, not because my engine is bigger) and I'm not getting the spinner. Sounds like lawyer issues to me.

The Virginia EAA Fly-In was moved from October at Dinwiddie field to June at Suffolk. There won't be a Fly-In this year so my goal now is to fly my RV-9A to the 2008 Fly-In.

It was a shorter work day than I had hoped for. After church and a quick breakfast I changed clothes and went to work. I made or finished making the F-766C plate, F-766B angle, F-785B attach angle, the F-766D spacer, and the F-767 attach plate. For the most part I skimmed the directions and worked off the plans. By now its pretty easy to figure out how to assemble complex parts so everything fits well and looks like the drawings. I did find a discrepancy between drawing 33 and the photos included with the flap instructions (not the manual). It has to do with the placement of the F-766D spacer. I went with the plans. I also noted that I believe Van's included an incorrect bolt and when I attach the flap motor I have a 1/4- 3/8 inch gap under the castle nut. I'm pretty sure the correct AN bolt would have been close or correct. Nothing is riveted but most everything other than the nut plates has been drilled in place and the F-748 tunnel cover has been notched. I'm still scratching my head over how to drill the safety wire hole in the flap motor extension arm. My guess is I'll need to remove the rod end bearing and the jam nut and then figure out how to clamp the part to my drill press to get the hole at the correct angle.

Photo 1: This just shows the flap motor housing more or less in place. All the little parts I was building are inside somewhere.

Today started off with finishing (or nearly so) the riveting of the aft seat floors. I then removed the top skins to prep them (deburr, dimple, and prime) and spent an hour removing the blue plastic. I'm getting very weary of pealing the blue plastic off every part. I fit the forward seat floors. Next I finished fitting the tunnel cover supports and cover, riveted the parts together, primed and finish painted the part. I was pleased with the fit.

I then began a new task by installing the flap actuator weldment. The RV-9 has electric flaps as a standard item. The motor is in an enclosure between the seats. There are a lot of parts associated with the flap weldment and a good many of them need to be made. I studied the plans and the parts and it appears fairly straight forward. I'm probably missing something.

Photo 1: Tunnel cover and supports after final paint.
Photo 2: Flap weldment in place.
Photo 3: Shin protectors for the steps. They have not been a problem yet but I can see where they could be.

I got off to a slow start today. My first task was to replace a section of air hose that had burst on me twice. Cheap Goodyear material from Harbor freight. I spent 30 bucks and got better quality at Home Depot. Getting the fittings on without a leak took more time than I'm willing to admit. However, the Home Depot connector ($2.79) certainly feels a lot better than the Harbor Freight equivalent and it hardly leaks any air when switching tools. On to work.

I finished priming and painting the seats and aft seat floors. Riveted the seats together and riveted the hinge material to the aft floors. Eventually I even riveted one floor in place. Also prepped, primed and installed platenuts on the fuel valve plate (F-983A) and installed it.

Midway through all this I called Van's about a problem I've been worrying over. A few weeks ago I installed the shoulder harness anchors and misread the plans (it was the last thing I was going to do and I should have stopped before drilling as I knew something was wrong). I drilled a 3/8" hole where I should have drilled a 1/4" hole. Anywhere but in the longeron and I doubt that I would have given it much thought (not that I've done this before) but the longerons are a serious part of the structure. The loss of 1/8" of material in most places wouldn't matter. Looking at it, the hole had plenty of edge distance and looked OK to my eye. Joe at Van's gave me the standard Van's advice - "Doesn't sound like a problem to me, keep on building." I'm starting to trust my eye a little more.

Photo 1: The seats riveted together and set in place.
Photo 2: Me riveting the piano hinge to one of the seat floors.

My day started out unexpectedly poorly. I needed to have blood drawn for some routine tests. Thanks to our highly deficient medical system this 10 minute procedure typically takes 2 hours. Sometimes more, if you're not one of the first 2 or 3 people in line. How I hate LabCorp, let me count the ways. When I got done my car had a flat tire. It was 11:30 am and in 3.5 hours I had gotten blood drawn and replaced a tire on my car. I decided this was a sign that I shouldn't work and should take annual leave and work on my plane. If the logic isn't clear, don't worry about it. It made sense this morning.

My son-in-law was interested in helping so I had him disassemble the seats and scuff the parts for priming and painting while I worked on a couple of fitting issues with the forward seat floors and marked and drilled the tunnel cover supports. Boring and time consuming work but the paint is drying and hopefully I'll be ready to start final assembly on Friday. We also assembled the F-982E Access Plate to the F-982D Heat Baffle to the F-981C Center Cabin Cover.

Tonight was a mish-mash of tasks. I finished making the F-741A left and right tunnel cover supports but did not drill in place. I'm thinking there might be a way to do this with a right angle drill attachment and someone holding the part. I have help coming over tomorrow night. I bent the F-741B tunnel cover and it looks like it'll fit well. I was thinking about attaching the wings, which is coming up soon and I pullled out the F-996A's which had not been bent yet. Dwg 38 shows a 2.7 degree bend. I've been pondering an elegant way to do this precisely. Tonight I changed tactics and mounted the parts in my really big Harbor Freight vise and walloped the crap out of them with a dead blow mallet and then measured the bend with the Smart Tool. I think I've got it within 0.1 degrees. Finally I started fiddling with the gear mounts. They fit tight and I expect I'll need to do some relief work on the holes I put in the bottom skin. The main interference seems to be the web on the spar center section.

 

It's been close to a month since I made an entry here. Until now I had been almost religious about updating the site when I did work. Hopefully I'll find my religion again because this is too much work, eventhough I did keep pretty darn good notes. The fact is I've been making a lot of progress and I've been more interested in keeping the momentum going than making entries here.

I finished installing the baggage compartment floors, which allowed me to put the last few platenuts on the rear of the panels where they attach to the F-706 bulkhead. Leaning over the fuselage with all the clecos sticking out of the longeron is painful. I'm just guessing but I'd figure I spent more than 2 hours bent over fitting the two side panels and riveting them (or screwing the forward panel) and getting the upper and lower F-706 bulkhead on. Though I might whine, it looked really good.

I finished the evening by cutting the F-741A brackets. I'll need to trim and drill these parts to fit next.

Photo 1: The baggage compartment mostly done.
Photo 2: The cockpit current status.

Today started out with double checking my layout on the passenger seat parts. I figured things might go a little faster now that I'd done one seat and knew what I was doing. Things probably would have gone a little faster if I hadn't checked my brain out before entering the shop. The pax seat is done and I'm satisfied it's safe and durable but I'm pretty sure it weighs less than the pilot's seat. I've decided to call the extra holes lightening holes and I'm trying to forget the whole frustrating mess.

I also finished up the painting on the baggage compartment parts and started installing the baggage compartment floors. I also installed (finally) the wear blocks on the bulkheads.

After double checking the layout I drilled and deburred the pilot seat. It amazed me that this took nearly four hours of constant work. I have also been working on painting and sanding and repainting the baggage compartment parts.

Photo 1: Your's truly finally sitting in the cockpit. I can't deny the "RV grin" but I really didn't make any airplane noises.

My son-in-law Dennis came over and we riveted the steps on. I was tired and figured this was enough for the evening. Now I can get serious with the baggage compartment.

Before I quite last night I had a hunch I was too tired to be laying things out. This morning a little rubbing alcohol had the parts clean in a hurry and with a fresh mind, laying them out right was a snap. I basically finished making the seat parts for both seats and most of it marked.

I spent more time working with those seat back braces and making the F-337B angls for the seats. Each of the heavy angle stock needs to be relieved on the lower end so a piece of piano hinge can fit between the aluminum seat back and the angle. I'm sure there's a simple, easy, and quick way to do this. What ever it is it escaped me. I used the 3M wheel, the grinder, and a belt sander at different times trying to remove the material. Fortunately, the results won't be visible but they're satisfactory. I also started cutting piano hinge. Marriage must agree with me because I didn't cuss, rant, or rave when I made a particularly stupid cut. It was a matter of miss-measuring and outsmarting myself. Instead of saying ugly things about someone's dog I figured a way to salvage the part. I'll show you later (maybe). To wrap up, I started laying things out for the seats and figuring how to drill the parts efficiently.

I started by priming the wear blocks and washers and then I began painting the baggage compartment components. Based on a suggestion by another RV-9A pilot I went to the Aviation Paint section at Wal-Mart and found some textured speckle paint (Carribean Sand was the color) and a light primer for it. I'm not sure whether I'd recommend this or not. It looks good, in my opinion but it took some work to get an even color and it was easy to apply to much. When the paint is applied to heavy it runs and cracks when it dries. I sanded quite a few mistakes out before I was happy with the results. While the paint dried I riveted the platenuts to the F-706 bulkhead and I fit the F-724 aft seat floors and drillen them in place.

For a week I've been eyeing the seats and trying to understand the drawings. I got my courage up and cut the side seat angles and layed out cuts for the F-638 seat back brace. The side seat angles are cut from 0.125 (i.e., heavy) angle material and Van's gives you about 3/4" more than you need, so there isn't room to err. I did fine - it's just a matter of cutting to length and then measuring for a few simple cuts. I even made 2 right and 2 left pieces (perfect for two seats).

I finished laying out the F-652 bulkhead for cutting. Cut the piece and then drilled it in place. It really makes a difference having a back to baggage compartment. Finished drilling the F-751 bulkhead (cover) then deburred and primed both the upper and lower bulkheads. Next I spent what seemed like an eternity bent over the fuselage locating platenuts on the F-706 bulkhead. These platenuts let you screw the upper and lower bulkheads on so they're removable for maintenance (or installing a fly rod holder). Finally, I made the F6114 B&C (two each) wear blocks and the 8 0.5x0.5 inch washers. The wear blocks protect mostly the lower bulkhead but also the upper from wear. The wear blocks surround the cable that holds the shoulder harnesses where they pass through the bulkheads. Making washers seemed like busy work but they're easy. They may have taken 10 minutes to make but when I started I'm guessing they would have taken more than an hour to make. Maybe I'm learning something.

I spent most of the evening fitting the F-752 lower bulkhead and drilling it to the F-706 bulkhead and then started laying out the cuts needed for the F-652 upper bulkhead.

Completed mounting the steps. Bending the steel plate to fit the curve wasn't a big deal. I heated one step with a torch and beat the other into submission without heat. If I was doing it over again, I probably wouldn't heat the part. The steel gets real soft when you heat it but the steel is soft enough that heating isn't necessary. If you're a builder reading this, I don't think it matters whether you heat or not. Laying the holes out was pretty easy. Pay attention to the second row of rivets back and be sure it lines up with rib behind it. I had to shift the row a bit. None of the 5 rivets in the step interfered with the three rivets in rib but I was sure one was going to. I'd decided not to worry about it if it did. Next I primed and painted to steps black. The look good clecoed on. Finally, I installed the baggage compartment floors, drilled them in place and deburred.

While planning all this I decided that I'd paint my baggage compartment, to the extent I can, before installing the parts.

Started off making the F707B clip, drilled it in place, deburred, prepared it for paint, primed and installed it. Next I fit the F-611 ribs. The trick seems to be starting at the bottom, drilling the holes where the part fits and then bending and twisting (mostly twisting, it turns out) to fit a bit higher, then drill, cleco, observe, remove, twist and bend, and repeat until you get to the end. Next I drilled the F-750 aft baggage side covers in place and prepped them for paint. Finally I started on the steps. I couldn't find the directions, which oddly are not included in the manual, but a post to VAF and an hour later someone pointed them out to me on Van's website and someone else was kind enough to email me a set of directions they wrote up to supplement Van's, including color pictures.

Fun times in the shop tonight. I fit the F-7112 top forward skin to the F707 and F-708 bulkheads. As previously noted the F-708 bulkhead is floppy and somewhat free form so there was some fitting involved. The J stringer need to be aligned, there's a stiffener rib to be inserted (F-787) and a gusset to be installed. After fitting everything together to my satisfaction, I drilled the parts. More clecos showing now but darned if this thing isn't looking like a real plane more and more each day.

Photo 1:

Tonight was another fairly easy night. It started out with drilling four gussets (F-656) to the left and right F-706 and F-707 bulkheads. These parts are already manufactured and just needed to be properly located, which is a snap since the bulkheads and the gussets are match drilled. With this task done I drilled the F-775 rear skin to the bulkheads and J-stringers. Not being quite ready for be I finished the cuts on the F-688 gusset and marked the centerline for installation tomorrow.

Photo 1:

This evening I was tired and decided to solve a small problem. The F-708 bulkhead is floppy to say the least. For folks following along floppy is technical jargon used by airframe mechanics to describe flexural issues where one wonders if the part belongs on the plane in the first place. Floppy parts move, bend and warp very easily. It is somewhat reminiscent of a dog's ears or a sleeping child. Anyway, I spent the evening fluting the F-708 bulkhead and trying to get it to conform to the shape shown in the plans so the holes in the top forward skin will match the holes in the F-708. The closer the holes match up, the happier the builder generally is. Likewise, when holes don't match the grumpier the builder becomes.

I was partially successful. The F-708 looks a lot better but is far from perfect.

Photo 1: coming soon

I completed the F-635 bellcrank, installed it, tested it for side play, decided it was fine, then removed and stored it. This bellcrank converts the fore and aft motion of the control stick into up and down motion in the elevator. It's beginning to feel more like an airplane! Next I cut, trimmed and installed the top fuselage skin stiffeners. These are J stringers just like on the lower fuselage. And finally, I installed the F-775 rear skin.

 

Photo 1: coming soon

Another good day building. I wanted to get the top aft skins on but I didn't make it that far. Nonetheless, it was a satisfying day. I riveted on both F-721B aft canopy decks and the F-695B gussetts to the longerons and firewall. The next step was to remove the F-728A and rivet the F-728B to it. The trouble was when I was riveting the fuselage before flipping it, I riveted the four rivets where the 728B attaches to the bottom of the fuselage. I didn't feel like drilling them out and I didn't see any reason for removing the part anyway. Every thing was easily accessible and except for have to reach a little bit while riveting, the process was easy. It also gave a nice workout to the triceps. <g> Even riveting the 728A to the bulkhead was easily done. Finally, I prepped the parts for F-652 bellcrank assembly and make the F-653B spacer. Before quitting for the evening I riveted the parts together.

Tomorrow I should be able install bellcrank after making two spacers out of 3/8" tubing and then I can put the skins on that were my goal for this weekend.

Photo 1: Aft canopy decks (F-721B) riveted on.
Photo 2: The right F-695 gusset riveted in place.
Photo 3: F-728A riveted to the F-728B and to the bulkhead.
Photo 4: The F-652 bellcrank assembly laying on the plans showing how its assembled and where it fits on the plane.

Today was spent doing lots of prep work getting the parts for the aft deck ready to rivet in place. Drilling, deburring, fitting, scuffing, cleaning, priming, and reinstalling the parts for the most part. I also did this with the F-695 gusstes and F 721As and F-721Bs (which go in the cockpit area of the fuselage). My daughter Rachael came over for dinner with her husband Dennis so as you might imagine I enlisted Dennis to help riveting a few parts together. He's becoming a skilled rivet gun operator and tried his hand at bucking once for the first time yesterday. He's very intriqued with how the pieces fit together and the building process in general (he worked at KOFP in several capacities and is interested in aviation).

Photo 1: Parts for the aft fuselage ready for final installation.
Photo 2: Dennis helping me rivet.
Photo 3: Another shot of Dennis rivetting and me bucking.

I adjusted the angle of both F695's by about 1-2 degress so the side exactly matched the longeron and the forward edge exactly matched the firewall. Then I marked the holes per sheet 23 of the plans. I hate to admit I searched that page for at least 30 minutes last night before quiting to find the rivet size and spacing. I called Ray Swanson and he assured me it was there and tonight it only took a minute to find it. My grandmother would have said, "If it was a snake it would have bit you." She probably would have been right but I'd have been 30 minutes ahead and less irritated with myself. I then drilled shoulder harness anchors to the longerons and reviewed the plans for my next work session, which will probably be on Saturday.

Photo 1: F-695L before adjustment. It fits fine along the firewall but it isn't square to the firewall. Note how the gap increases.
Photo 2: F-695R showing the fit corrected.
Photo 3: F-695L drilled in place.
Photo 4: Shoulder harness anchor clamped in place and drilled.

Cut the slots in the F-721B (right and left) side rails. The mill should have done a fine job...too bad it didn't. Lots of filing and some time with a die grinder (yikes!) sort of smoothed things over. Humility is good for the soul, or so I'm told. I then drilled the F-721B to the F-757 gussets and the bent the tabs onthe F-721Bs to mate with the F-721A's (canopy deck) and then drilled the F-721A's in place to the longerons. Finally I test fit the F695's which are gussets that join the longerons to the firewall. I spent 15 minutes trying to find the rivet size and spacing for the F-695s but I couldn't find it and decided it was time to quit.

Photo 1: One of the F-721Bs in the vise on the mill ready to have the slot cut to allow the F-757 to fit.
Photo 2: Level across the F 904 bulkhead.
Photo 3: Level across the right longeron.
Photo 4: Level across the left longeron.
Photo 5: Aft fuselage level across the lateral axis.

The day began with the careful assemble of a new sawhorse to set the working height of the fuselage more reasonably. I dropped the front of the fuselage to about 18" off the ground and the rear is 10-12 inches higher depending on where you measure. My new Smart Tool arrived today. Some folks call this a digital level. Well, it is but that's only a small fraction of what it really is: a digital protractor. It measures angles and one of those angles is 0.0 degrees, or level. It took about 90 minutes and a lengthy break but I eventually got both longerons read 0.0, the F-904 bulk head reads 0.0, and the aft fuselage is reading 0.0. Getting it to 0.0 or 0.1 was a snap and I'm guessing that's all a bubble level an do (and maybe not quite that in many hands). So I'm guessing Van's wouldn't care at all about that minor discrepancy. I didn't call I just pondered what to shim and finally added 16 sheets of paper to the right edge of the saw horse under the F-904 bulkhead and that fixed all my readings.

Next I scoured the shop for the F-711D, a little piece of angle I made in 2003 (probably) and eventually found it and installed it on the F-711 bulkhead. I then made the F-711E and it came out beautiful, if I do say so myself. I also scoured the shop for a piece of AS3-0.125x1x13 and only found about 6" of it and I needed 10". I'm not sure where I used it but I need more so I ordered some just before Van's closed. I hate buying small stuff like this because Van's has a minimum order and shipping eats you alive. So I bought some RV-9A nonskid wing walk stuff, too. Finally, I started setting up the vertical mill to make a cut on the F721B (R&L) so it'll fit on the longeron without interfering with the F-757s. I ran out of time trying to recall how to shift power from the lathe to the vertical mill. I'll figure it out tomorrow...and if there's time I'll post photos.

Photo 1: F-711D clecoed in place.
Photo 2: Another aft fuselage spacer (forget the number).

What a day! My EFIS (a dual Grand Rapids Horizon 1 with their EIS and most of the bells and whistles) arrived today. If that wasn't excitement enough my neighbor Scotty came over again and helped me rivet for a couple of hours. We got to the point where we "flipped the canoe." I'm celebrating being able to work on the plane alone again at my own pace and in my own time. So, about 300 hours of work on the fuselage to flip it and from what I can tell there's another 12-18 months of work to get it airworthy. I'm feeling the urge to finish it! There's plenty to left to do too.

Photo 1: Dual EFIS (electronic flight information system) and EIS (engine information system)
Photo 2: EFIS, EIS and probes, wiring, and manuals.
Photo 3: Scotty helping with the riveting.
Photo 4: The fuselage right side up.

Another good day riveting. I'd guess about 6 hours today was spent riveting. A neighbor came over and helped me. Who could refuse an offer to learn to rivet? Well, Scotty Hurst, a neighbor and fellow fly fisherman, took me up on my offer and we came dangerously close to finishing the riveting necessary to flip the canoe. I expect one more session and it'll happen.

I'm pondering how short to cut my sawhorses. I'm looking for comprise between too low and low enough to fit the rudder and vertical stabilizer with the existing ceiling. Also, reading ahead and it looks like I'll start connecting parts soon, which is exciting. From what I can tell I'm 12-18 months from flying. Now that though puts a grin on my face!

My other son-in-law, Dennis Stewart, came over today and gave me a big hand. As work days go this was one of the most productive days I've had since starting the project. The first thing I did was correct a couple of problems and omissions that Ray pointed out Thursday when he was over and Friday when I went over and helped him. The first thing was a goof that required removing about a dozen rivets and remaking a small strap. Over Christmas (and prior to that) I had not noticed that the F970 side skin got tucked under the bottom skin of the center section where the side skin is bent. Photo 1 has a red arrow pointing out my mistake for those folks who have not reached this point yet. As soon as Ray pointed at the part and before he opened his mouth I recognized my goof. Fortunately, I had only started riveting one side. I had to fix both sides but most of it was just pulling clecoes and rearranging things to match the drawings. Note to self, pay attention to those dotted lines on the plans, which means the part is not on the top. Photo 2 shows the fixed part. Actually, it doesn't look bad at all.

Last night Ray noted that I hadn't made or installed my F757s which are flat pieces that go between the main longeron and the F904 bulkhead at the rear of the F727. The 757 is apparently part of the canopy attach and/or operating system. He noted that it isn't mentioned in the plans, which is how I missed it. I made and clecoed the parts where they belong. Photo 3 shows the parts made and laying on the plans that describe them. Photo 4 shows them in place. Later on I did find mention of these parts but the discussion occured after I "flip the canoe." I'm not sure whether it's important to install them now or not but the can't hurt. It would be a shame if there wasn't room for them later. So, both problems fixed.

Next Dennis and got in 4.5 hours or so of hard core riveting. I'd guess we're 80% of the way toward "flipping the canoe." He has a very nice touch with the rivet gun and the quality of the work is first rate. I'm ready to try him on some round head rivets now. Photos 5 and 6 show us riveting skins. Photo 7 shows what he left for me to do to finish up before I'm ready to turn it right side up for the final time.

Photo 1: The F970 side skin incorrectly installed. I wonder how many are flying like this?
Photo 2: The F970 side skin installed like Van designed it.
Photo 3: The F757 made per the plans.
Photo 4: The F757 clecoed in place.
Photo 5: Dennis driving and me bucking rivets on the fuselage.
Photo 6: Another shot (hey, you gotta recognize your volunteers)
Photo 7: A shot of the fuselage showing the current status.

I've reached a point in the building process where a riveting partner is necessary. Between my work schedule and the availability of a partner, progress is slow. Fortunately, Ray Swanson, another RV9A builder in Richmond stumbled on to this web site and dropped me an e-mail. The short version is he's at almost exactly the same building point I am and Thursday evening he came over and helped rivet for a couple of hours. It is amazing how much progress can be made with two experienced people working. I riveted and Ray bucked. We finished the stiffeners in the forward fuselage floor, completed the rivets on one of the side skins and riveted the F904 bulkhead to the bottom skins.

Yesterday was Christmas and I figured after the gifts had been unwrapped Matthew and I could pound a few rivets but it just didn't work out that way. It was probably just as well. That one rivet was still bugging the dickens out of me. So this morning I called Van's and spoke to them about a couple of issues including the F-719B. The guy was nice and said not to worry about it and keep building. I suspect he's right and I'm took his advice. I also asked about substituting flush rivets for round head rivets where I'd done more dimpling than I should on the F-970 side skin. That wasn't an issue at all. So, today Matthew and I riveted the forward part of the left side skin and then I riveted the two center floor stiffeners to their internal supports and we but the forward bottom skin on and started to rivet it in place. About 2pm I suggested it was probably time for him and Amy to hit the road home for Moresville, NC. It was great having him as a riveting partner and we got a lot done. I'm sure we both expected to "flip the canoe" but it wasn't meant to be. I encouraged his return to help put the wings on and the tail surfaces after that.

Photo 1: This is view down on the auxilary longeron that the F719B connects to. You can clearly see the two holes don't even come close to matching up. This baffles me. The other side was nearly perfect, yet this side, which was drilled in place and had been reassembled once without problem, didn't come close on the final assembly. Failing to figure the problem out I made a new F719B and drilled it in place using the holes in the auxilary longeron for guides.
Photo 2: The new F719B. In all honesty, I was astounded at how quickly I could fabricate one of these. It went in a fraction of the time it took to make the first two.
Photo 3: After drilling the old part out and match drilling the new piece in the holes in the auxilary longeron were a bit out of round. It wasn't a lot but I was being picky and remaking the auxilary longeron didn't seem necessary so I made a backer plate for the rivet heads out of 0.032 sheet metal and added it to the sandwich. This shows the new F719B and the backer plate.
Photo 4, Photo 5, and Photo 6 show my son-in-law Matthew and me riveting this morning. Note that Photo 5 should get a Sam Buchanon award since the rivet bag cleverly hides my face from view.

All six photos above were taken by my daughter Jennifer.

Not a very productive or fun day. I didn't sleep well and part of it was worrying about one rivet on the left F-719B. So, I started by drilling out rivets on the F-970 side skin so I could drill the offending rivet out and try again. I'm pretty good at drilling rivets out (if I do say so myself). Part of the skill came from a good foundation that an A&P at Aero Industries (based at KRIC) gave me and part of it was practice gained on this RV project. So, with little or no damage to the side skin I pealed it back and drilled the offending rivet out a @$%#-up the replacement rivet. I drilled it out and replaced it with one that was only slightly better.

I decided it was time for a coffee break. There's nothing like fresh ground French Roast coffee to improve one's perspective.

When we went back to work I decided to leave the F-719B angle alone for the time being and work instead on the center section of the fuselage. There were two corner ribs there that I had replaced because I didn't like the way I'd cut the holes out for the steps. They were reinstalled after the center section had been riveted. There didn't appear to be any reason why I couldn't install these later. There are straps fore and aft that I made and remade trying to get the edge distance to the first holes acceptable. Bucking the rivets was a real exercise in working in tight spaces. I ended up grinding a perfectly good bar into a new and not-very-useful-shape just for a few of these rivets. We got one of these corner ribs about halfway riveted in when I decided I had endured enough frustration for one day. Matthew was a champ and may have learned a couple of new words.

Matthew and I spent most of the day riveting until we ran into a problem with the F-719B on the right side. The short version is when we attempted to rivet it to the stiffener the result was unacceptable and I wallowed the hole out drilling the unacceptable rivet out. I'm guessing we spent Four or more hours farting around on this problem. Eventually I wised up, made a new F-719B and drilled out enough rivets on the F972 side skin so we could peel it back and install the 719B angle bracket correctly. What a pain in the posterior. What a collosial waste of time.

If that wasn't enough I discovered I'd dimpled some #4 rivets that were supposed to be round head rivets. I debated whether to fudge and use round head rivets but I decided to move ahead using flush rivets and just order exras.

Maybe tomorrow we'll finish riveting the forward and mid sections of the fuselage to the aft section. And then again, maybe we'll finish and flip the canoe on Christmas. Photos tomorrow if time permits.