Wing Skins - Tail Wheel Support

4 Hours on wings

3 hours on tail wheel support

Today took a lot longer than I thought it would… I started off by using a soldering iron to melt away the protective plastic that is on most all of the aluminum parts to protect them. This process was a little slow as I was going at about an inch a second and I only had about 150 FEET to go =O

Before

After

In all I think it is worth it as it does protect the skins as I am moving them around and what not, I just hope to rivet tem to the wing soon so that I will be able to call that part done.= O
After deburing all the holes in the bottom right skin I then had to dimple them. Wow another hour plus just banging away.

This is what I had to do…

Didn't take a deburing picture but that it done to EVERY HOLE too!

Dimpling with the C- Frame

Close up

Video

And as you can see there are a lot of holes that need to be dimpled. Just got one skin done last night.

Well that’s what I did on the wings today, I also worked on the Tail Wheel support. I had to do a bit of filing away to make room for the support bracket.

Here you can see what I needed to do.

Once I got everything in there (yes many many trial fits) I drilled the holes for the bolt in the forward bulkhead, and the “temp” rivets in the aft bulkhead.

I tried to paint the steal support last night but because of the temps (even in the heated garage) the paint was taking too long to dry so I let it sit over night and will give it a second coat tomorrow (well today, I was tried and didn’t post this till morning).

OK back to work!

Brakes

1.5 hours

Today I assembled the brakes and got ready to cut the aft end of the plane to make room for the tailwheel spring mount. Not a lot as I was doing other things but still steady progress.

This is the rudder pedals with all the brakes

Here you can see that I don't want any dragging brakes, I used the single bolt (AN3-56) instead of the dual bolt setup as per Van's. I also added a spring to help with the return as some have done. I figured this is easiest to do now rather then later, and I think it is well worth the very little weight gain if any as I eliminated some extra washers and nuts with this whole setup.

Hope to get close to mounting the tail spring mount tomorrow, night.

Brake Pedals are Done!

8 Hours

Well today started off slow as I was helping a friends try and hunt down the door that he was house sitting, I guess it opened the fence and well you get the idea. After an hour and a half of seeing the neighborhood I had to return to the project.


I started off by washing, scotch brighting, acetoning and then priming the parts.



I made this stilly priming box that I thought would help and work and it just really sucked so don’t waste your time. I had to reprime a few of the parts, maybe I was just trying to do more than that box could handle. I was just trying to keep the parts warm as it was 35 outside while the garage is heated, it’s not 70 degrees like the primer wants.

So as the parts dried I tried to figure out how many adjustments I would like in the placement of the rudder pedals. The stupid thing is that the center support bracket has holes that are not the same distance apart as the side support blocks, this makes it a pain when you are trying to keep edge distances for all the holes. Because of this is made a command decision and let the center support get within the 2 diameters apart and decided that I would just use a washer to help.


I got to use my 90 degree drill for the first time today, without it I could not have done this.



Then I got to try the fly cutter for the lightening holes in the center support, another first and hope it’s the last, that thing is scary!





Once all the primer dried I got to rivet the brakes together. It was pretty rewarding.


This is me putting in the last rivet in the brakes =)


I found a lot of humor in this, I have been working on these brake pedals for the last 2 days and all I did was one stupid line in the instructions! Ok I have done more than just that but if you were to read it it would look like a simple task, which it is but it sure takes longer to do it than it would lead you to believe.


So here they are, tada...

I called it quits at 2000 (8 pm) as I have spend most of the day in the garage and well I need a break, now I just need to come up with a plan of attack for tomorrow =)

Rudder and Brake Pedals

5 Hours

Today I worked on the brake pedals. It’s more of that drilling, deburing, countersinking and well you get the idea. One of the tricky parts today was I had to align the rudder pedals to neutral and align the brake pedals so they were all the same so that when I drilled the master cylinders to the pedals it would all look and more importantly BE right.


I have been looking a lot at Dan Checkoway’s webpage and he did a really good job documenting his build. He showed how he centered everything up and I just followed his lead and it turned out great!


Yes you noticed that I don’t have a plumb but gravity works with about anything and this will work till I get a set that I will need for the rigging of the wings.




I just need to prime the parts tomorrow and then rivet the brake pedals together. Next is drilling the holes for the rudder assembly so that it can adjust back and forth on the forward longerons, I think I can do all that tomorrow, but things do always tend to take longer then I think.


I hope to have what this looks like in the plane for you tomorrow.

Gas Tank Braces

2.0 Hours

I finished the gas tank braces tonight, or at least as much as I can before fitting the wings. I was able to cross off a few more pages in the manual as well as I am getting closer to verifiying everything that the quick build has done.


These are the parts, dad knows that even every hole in these things take a bit of time; measuring, marking, drilling, deburing, clecoing, drilling to final size, deburing, matching to the other parts by more drilling, deburing… your getting the idea


Here is what the fuse now looks like without the floor boards/seats/baggage bulk head.


See all empty (I found 2 left over rivets in here)

Night

Lots of Screws

1.5 Hours

Tonight I drilled out the seat and baggage floors that were pop riveted in so I cold inspect the work in there and get it ready for final install. I also drilled out the rivets that will hold the gas tank bracket and the last bulkhead where I need to install the tail wheel support.

Not a lot to show but there were a lot of screws and I wanted to take things slow as not to strip any of the heads.

No pictures for now, but still moving in the right direction.

Making parts

3 hours

Today I made the rudder stops and the brackets that hold the gas thanks to the fuselage. There are a lot of angles in each and it takes studying the plans to know what you are doing but in the end it is pretty rewarding to have these complex parts in front of you that you just make (without spilling any more blood too ;)


Hard to see all the angles, but these things don't have a 90 degree cut any where

Well I will most likely try and find a few more parts that need to be made so I can do a batch for the priming and such.

Oh I ordered some stuff from Avery Tools and I just want to say that they rock! I got my stuff fast and they even discounted it cause I am in the military, great company!