| Entry Date | Summary | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Entry Date | Summary | Description |
| 0000-00-00 | Finished HS! | Rose sent me off the hangar tonight to finish the Horizontal Stabilizer.... got it finished up - Looks good! Strong!!! Photos to follow.... |
| 2007-05-23 | Here's my planned paint scheme.... | This is how I plan on painting/striping 612RB.... Since I'm a graphic designer by trade, and have done several aircraft trim schemes, I couldn't wait to design the scheme for my own plane! :-) www.bindersign.com |
| 2007-05-23 | Empennage Kit Ordered! | May 29, 2007 - My birthday - Check's written, form's filled out, I'm mailing it then, come heck or high water....! :-) Update:..... Couldn't wait! Sent off the order on 5/25! Plan on picking up the Empennage Kit at Van's on Friday, 6/1, since I'll be in the neighborhood heading to Eugene for Synergy Air's building class! |
| 2007-06-02 | We have a tail!!! | It's Official!!! I'm an RV builder!!! Picked up the Empennage kit yesterday from Van's - actually, brother Tom swung through on our way to meeting in Eugene for the Synergy Air class (highly recommended!!!) www.synergyair.com Couldn't resist, and opened one of the boxes in the hotel room - what a nice job of packaging - and I was surprised by the amount (and weight!) of rivets!!! :-) Didn't unwrap anything but the fiberglass rudder bottom - decided I'd better get it all home before digging too deep! Sunday, June 3.... I got home - only took 5 hours from Eugene to Touchet! I think that's some sort of record.... But I just had to get home and get this stuff unpacked! :-) Got everything out on the table, inventoried, and went in the house and took a nap.... I'll have to order a few more tools that I'm needing, then I can get started! |
| 2007-06-03 | Inventory | Inventoried, and organized all the parts - everything was there and in good shape - next, after a few more tools/clecos get here, I'll start removing the blue protective film around the pre-punched holes with my soldering iron - then work will have officially begun! :-) Picked up some really nice plastic organizer bins from the Home Depot - with rounded bottoms, so you can easily pull rivets out of them. Separated all rivets and put them in the plastic bins - marked each section with the rivet's designation. There's lots of rivets - and lots of different types of them, too! |
| 2007-06-04 | Removing Blue Plastic | Used my soldering iron and started removing the plastic where the pre-punched holes are.... It was fun!!! Very easy to do, and with medium heat on your iron, your merely "scoring" the plastic, and it is easily removed..... no scratches underneath! |
| 2007-06-13 | Started Horizontal Stabilizer! | Clecoed together the forward and aft spars - fabricated the HS908 attach angles - not too difficult, just worried alot about making them as "pretty" as possible.... They'll work fine. Clecoed them to the forward HS spar. Match drilled everything.... |
| 2007-06-14 | More Horizontal Stabilizer work.... | Ran the ribs across the Scotchbrite wheel - that's it this morning - had to go fly N5603F! Then I had to get to my job.... :-( I'll do more tonight! |
| 2007-06-15 | Built Horizontal Stabilizer Skeleton | Tonight I clecoed together the HS skeleton - 904 and 905 ribs to the front and reat HS spars. Everything went together pretty well! Match drilled all holes.... now I'll build my wing skin jig using the supplied wood templates.... |
| 2007-06-16 | Now we're building!!! | Finally got to spend an afternoon with the HS.... ! :-) What a day it's been so far.... Got up, flew the Aircoupe for an hour or so..... went to work at the Hobby Shop for my required 6 hours, and headed for the hangar to get to work on the Horizontal Stabilizer! Found it's true what I've heard about "buildig the plane 3 times..." Seems you build the HS skeleton, drill it, tear it apart, re-build it in the skin, drill it, tear it apart, de-burr, dimple, countersink, then re-build and rivet it back into the skins. Makes you feel like you really know each individual part, and how it's supposed to fit into the structure. Really rewarding. After making up the HS templates and screwing them to the table, I checked them with a level and a square. Perfect right off the bat! Brother Tom did an excellent job building the work tables in the hangar - they're dead-straight and level..... which leads me to a story.... My first bulding-related faux-pas. I needed a 2 x 4 to cut up and attach to the HS templates so I could screw them to the table. Went to my workshop in the back room of my shop, and found a perfect-length 2 x 4, set next to a perfect-length 2 x 6. The back door was ajar.... I grabbed the 2 x 4, since that's what I was looking for, measured it, marked it, and cut it up....It was a very hard 2 x 4, and the saw really seemed to struggle with it... Went about my business, went to the hangar, spent 4 hours working on the HS, with no problems, and was really happy to get some work done. Came home after an intense building session, went to the shop and noticed the back door of the shop was ajar.... It's held closed by two large steel "hooks" and a perfect-length, very hard, 2 x 4.....needless to say, I CUT UP MY DOOR LOCK 2 x 4. Now there's a few things I promised myself I wouldn't say in this log, since I've seen them on other RV builder's websites...and I really have a problem with them... The words "duh", or "dumbass".... but the latter is all that comes to mind. No real harm done, though - i just used the 2 x 6 to hold my door shut! :-) Anyway, back to building - I did everything mentioned in the first paragraph - assemble, drilled, dis-assembled, re-assembled into the Left HS skin, drilled, dis-assembled, and then to the Right HS skin- same routine. Now I'm ready to de-burr, dimple, countersink all the parts. This will be my first experience with dimpling and countersinking on this project, and I'll have to practice a bit on some scrap.... Father's day RC fly-in is tomorrow, so I've got to get the field ready - hopefully, I'll get to do some more work Sunday evening - maybe sooner if the wind keeps up. We may just have to cancel the fly-in! :-( |
| 2007-06-17 | Finished up drilling Horizontal Stabilizer... | Today we had our Father's Day Fly-In - see www.froghollowrc.com - Went well, even though the wind blew all day - we manged to get some flying in. After the event, I headed for the hangar, and finished up assembling and match-drilling the right horizontal stab. I also dis-assembled the left horizontal stab. Now, all parts are ready for de-burring, dimpling, and countersinking. My DRDT-2 should be here on Wednesday, according to Fedex, so I'll plan on getting the deburring done tomorrow, and starting on dimpling on Wednesday.... |
| 2007-06-18 | Deburring, dimpling & machine countersinking.... | Deburred, dimpled and machine countersunk..... Used an Avery speed deburrer.... works pretty good, but my old carpel tunnel acted up, and I was glad to be done - or at least half done! Did the left HS skin, ribs, and spars. Dimpling went very well with the main squeeze - I'll dimple the skins when the DRDT-2 comes on on Wednesday. Not too sure about the countersinking - but it went pretty well...No photos tonight, not much to photograph. More of the same planned for tomorrow night. |
| 2007-06-19 | More deburring.... | Did a little more deburring and cleaning up of the HS parts - waiting on primer to show up, and my DRDT-2 dimpler which should be here tomorrow! :-) |
| 2007-06-19 | Started Vertical Stabilizer! | While waiting for my dimpler and primer to show up, I decided to start in on the Vertical Stabilizer - Wow! Not much time in, and it's clecoed together - this thing went together easily after doing the HS. Just gotta drill it all out, and start deburring, dimpling, and countersinking..... |
| 2007-06-20 | DRDT-2 IS HERE!!! :-) | The DRDT-2 showed up today! Paul Merems at ExperimentalAero must be commended for his quick service! Looks like a fine piece of equipment, too - I'll put it to work tonight! |
| 2007-06-21 | DRDT-2 works great! | Spent a couple of hours dimpling the HS stab skins - DRDT-2 is just what I expected - works great! I had countersunk the forward and aft spars for the horizontal stab a couple of nights ago - wasn't too sure about my job, and I've decided to order new spars (just for the left side) since I think I countersunk them too deep..... better safe than sorry, and now would be the time to fix the problem. New spars are on the way from Van's - and were only $24 ea., so it's a reasonable fix. Probably would've been OK with the original spars, but I think it would've dented the skin a little too much when they were riveted.... I dunno. My first replacement parts! :-) |
| 2007-06-21 | Final drilling on Vertical Stabilizer | Finished up final drilling on VS - now it's ready to dis-assemble, deburr, dimple, and countersink - it'll probably be the first structure I get to drive rivets into, at this point! |
| 2007-06-22 | More deburring, dimpling.... | Finished up deburring and dimpling the HS skins and ribs. Just waiting on a 2" scotchbrite wheel, then I can start cleaning up these parts, get them primed, and start riveting. Everything's supposed to be here Monday (6/25) |
| 2007-06-25 | And even more deburring, dimpling, countersinking.... | Just hours and hours of deburring, dimpling, and countersinking.... This is the part you never hear about when thinking about building an airplane.... You see the videos - they have parts, then BANG! They have prepped parts, then BANG! They have primered parts, then BANG! They start riveting..... You don't realize that there are hours and hours of prepping each part, doing all that's required to get them primed and painted... But I'm starting to see daylight - I may even start primering HS parts tomorrow! :-) |
| 2007-06-26 | Disassembled Vertical Stabilizer and started parts prepping.... | Yup - tore it all apart, carefully marked everything, and started deburring, dimpling, and countersinking parts - I'm cleaning everything up with Lacquer Thinner, being sure to make sure my orientation marks are not disturbed.... Tonight, I prime!!! |
| 2007-06-26 | Cleaning and final finishing of Horizontal Stabilizer and Vertical Stabilizer parts | Used lacquer thinner to clean all HS and VS parts - being careful not to lose orientation markings..... |
| 2007-06-27 | Priming! | Shot my first Primer today - using the Sherwin-Williams P60G2 primer. Everything went well... shot the insides of the skins, with a light coat and did extra coats over the rivet lines.... Now I can start riveting!!! |
| 2007-06-27 | Alodining & Priming.... | My first attempt at using Alumaprep and Alodine. - Followed directions, dipped the HS-908 Attach Angles.... Went pretty well, me thinks.... |
| 2007-06-27 | Priming! | Primed all VS and HS parts..... |
| 2007-06-28 | Finally! Started Riveting! | Riveted together the forward and rear horizontal stabilizer spars, hinges, doublers and attach brackets.... Went very well with my Main Squeeze hand squeezer! Pretty rewarding. Placed nose ribs in the skins, and squeezed rivets in the end ribs - I'll need a bucking assistant to get the middle nose ribs. Also riveted the HS-904 ribs with no associated nose rib to the front spar. That's all I can do on my own.... now I'll need to find that elusive bucking partner, and spend a couple of hours putting it all together! |
| 2007-06-29 | Riveting Horizontal Stabilizer.... | Spent a good deal of time riveting - had several people lined out to buck rivets for me, but in the end, only one person showed up at the hangar.... the one person I can always depend on.....ME!!! :-) I did fine, though - and riveted/bucked 90% of the HS tonight - used the tungsten bucking bar - really nice.... The main squeeze from Cleaveland was really nice - perfectly consistant rivets. Now we're building - I left about 11:30 p.m., and could've worked another 5 hours! More in the a.m.... |
| 2007-06-30 | And more Riveting.... | Finished riveting skin to forward spar and ribs into HS.... now just need to rivet in aft spar, and it'll be done! This morning, I flew the Alon for 45 minutes, then took off with brother Tom in a Bonanza flown by a guy named Bob who whisked us off to Portland (Hillsboro) - took just about an hour.... then we immediately hopped into a Bellanca Super Viking, and flew back to Martin S95 - all this before noon! Don't know if I'll get back to the hangar tonight to finish up the HS.... :-( |
| 2007-07-01 | Horizontal Stabilizer DONE! | Finished! Had to drill out two rivets that had smiley's on 'em.... replaced 'em, and they look much better now. On to the Vertical Stab! |
| 2007-07-02 | Riveted Vertical Stabilizer skeleton... | Today I riveted together the aft vertical stab spar, and the ribs to the front vs spar. The forward spar/ribs were clecoed into the vs skin. |
| 2007-07-03 | Riveted Vertical Stabilizer.... | Spent an hour and a half flying this morning.... then started in on riveting the Vertical Stabilizer skin to the skeleton. Everything went well, and it all looks good. Clecoed the aft vs spar into place. |
| 2007-07-04 | Vertical Stabilizer DONE! Started Rudder | Came back last night and finished up riveting the rear spar assembly onto the Vertical Stabilizer - It's done! This morning, I flew for an hour, a beautiful morning. After my flight, I cut the rudder stiffeners, and marked where they'll go, as well as shortening them to fit on the rudder skins. Next trip I'll plan to clean 'em up on the scotchbrite wheel. Now, it's off to the mountains to celebrate 4th of July at a friend's cabin in the Blue Mountains - it's beautiful up there today - already scouted it out in the Aircoupe this morning! :-) Happy 4th of July!!! |
| 2007-07-06 | Cleaned up Rudder stiffeners.... | Ran the Rudder stiffeners over the scotchbrite wheel - match drilled and clecoed the left side stiffeners to the skin/table.... That's all for a few days - off to Denver, CO .... |
| 2007-07-18 | More rudder work... | Finally back at it after a week off for a funeral and the EAA airshow at Arlington..... What a great show! :-) Figured out where I left off, and finished match drilling the rudder stiffeners to the skins, then I started deburring and dimpling the stiffeners. Figure I'll need to go ahead and build the table for the DRDT-2 to keep the the rudder skins from bending too much..... A trip to Home Depot is in my future....! Next I plan on assembling the rudder skeleton..... |
| 2007-07-19 | Even more rudder work.... | Tonight I got a lot done.... Finished dimpling, primered the rudder skins, and backriveted the stiffeners onto the skins after everything dried. Looks good! (If I do say so myself....) |
| 2007-07-25 | Match drill rudder | Today, I clecoed together all the rudder parts, match drilled, installed the skins and drilled them. Next, I'll fabricate the R918 rudder bottom attachment strips, disassemble the whole beast, and start deburring, dimpling & countersinking.... Came back in the evening, fabricated the R918 rudder strips, disassembled the entire rudder, and deburred, dimpled and countersunk where required..... Good Day! |
| 2007-07-26 | Rudder parts prep begins.... | Today, I flew a litte in the Aircoupe, practiced landings..... nice morning for flying! Countersunk the R916 trailing edge wedge - then took the R405PD home with me, and alumaprepped and alodined it - looks good! Also, I took home the E614-020 counterweight and R912 rib. I countersunk the weight, dimpled the rib, and installed, then removed the weight. Think I'm ready to primer again! :-) Maybe tonight(?) Made it back in the evening - brought Rosie with me - first time the wife's been in the hangar during construction... hmmmmm.... She organized the bench while I cleaned the Rudder parts and primed them. Tomorrow, I rivet! |
| 2007-07-27 | Riveting.... | Rudder was riveted together tonight - everything except the trailing edge - purchased a 1 1/2" aluminum angle at Home Depot - $37 - ouch! |
| 2007-07-28 | Rudder trailing edge.... | Doesn't matter what you've heard = everyone talks about how nasty proseal is..... and like everyone else who's ever worked with it, I now understand how true it is... It's ooey, gooey, and will ruin your new $6 Aerosport Power T-shirt that you just bought at Arlington a couple weeks ago..... Rudder trailing edge wedge was prosealed, and clecoed into the rudder skins, down to the aluminum angle. Now, I'll leave it for 3-4 days..... On to the Elevators!!!! :-) |
| 2007-07-29 | Rudder leading edge "roll"....and starting the Elevators.... | Used a 3/4" black steel pipe I got at Home Depot the other night.... and a fresh new roll of good and sticky duct tape to roll the leading edge of the rudder. Worked well - and I blind riveted the rolled edge together. Still waiting on the proseal to dry on the trailing edge - probably be able to finish up riveting the rudder on about Tuesday.... So I grabbed the aluminum angles that are cut for elevator stiffeners, and using my tin snips, cut between the dots, and started cleaning them up on the Scotchbrite wheel..... |
| 2007-07-30 | Elevator stiffeners.... | Started cleaning up the elevator stiffeners on the scotchbrite wheel. Got 'em all done, and removed the blue plastic from the inside of the elevator skins. I hope to get back to the hangar tonight and start match drilling the stiffeners to the skins. |
| 2007-08-01 | Riveted Rudder Trailing Edge.... | Well = I figured the proseal was dry enough after 4 days to give it a shot riveting the Rudder trailing edge - one of those things you hear many builders having difficulty with..... I'm glad to say, everything went well, and the trailing edge is now riveted, straight and true.... Looks great! :-) I riveted about every tenth rivet, like the instructions say, then I went back and did the rivets in between. Used a large mushroom head and my back riveting plate - technique learned at Synergy Air class worked great! |
| 2007-08-02 | Elevator stiffeners.... | Rose and I went to the hangar and while she held the elevator skins open, I match drilled the stiffeners to the skins. I looked to see how other had accomplished this, and decided this would be way easier than clamping aluminum angle and holding it all open with safety wire..... and I was waaaay right. We got them all done in about 2 hours, and started deburring the holes. Rosie actually liked deburring and asked if she could come back and help me with more of it! :-) We have a date tomorrow night at the hangar for more deburring & dimpling! |
| 2007-08-03 | Elevator Counterbalances.... | Started clecoing and match drilling the Elevator Counterbalances this morning - too windy to do any enjoyable flying, so I worked these babies over..... Got them all drilled, deburred and dimpled. Tonight, Rose and I will meet up at the hangar and start deburring and dimpling the elevator skins and stiffeners. Don't know if we'll get much more done than that, since I promised her a movie at the drive-in when we're done! :-) |
| 2007-08-04 | Dimpling Elevator Skins.... | Rose and I met up and dimpled elevator skins for a oouple of hours last night - once we figured out the right angle on the skins on the DRDT-2, it was a snap. Then it was off to the drive in movie.... Transformers and Shrek 3. I slept through Shrek.... :-) This morning, I went for a flight in the Aircoupe, had a beautiful morning - a little smoky from wildfires. As soon as I finished shooting a few landings, I started in clecoing the right elevator parts together, and match driiling the skins. Tommorrow, I'll dis-assemble the whole thing, deburr, dimple, clean up and prime the parts. |
| 2007-08-05 | Lots of right elevator work! | Pretty much finished up the right elevator today - Started out with a flight at about 7 am in the Aircoupe, then it was back to the Empennage....since the wife was housecleaning today, and it's best just to stay out of the way, I planned a full day of work on the Elevators! :-) Disassembled, deburred, and dimpled all the parts for the right elevator. Got the primer all mixed up and shot all the parts, including stiffeners for the left elevator, too.... figured I'd have 'em ready for later.... Also did the inside of both right and left elevators skins while I was at it. Doesn't take the SW primer long to dry, and after a little workbench cleanup time, the parts were dry enough to start riveting. I started with the doubler and nut plates for the spar, and also riveted the control arms on. Then the spar assembly was riveted into the skin starting on the bottom. It was a little tough doing it by myself, but I figured out an angle, the the small but heavy little tungsten bucking bar worked it's magic.... I chose to used both solid rivets where I could get the main squeeze in, and blind rivets on the bottom spar/skin. I really like the blind rivets!!! They look good and are pretty flush with the skin - don't know why people don't like 'em....? The pneumatic rivet puller worked wonderfully! The instructions for the elevator were a little vague in spots, but I managed to figure it all out.... I made notes in my instruction book of things I thought were omitted, or just generally wacky..... nothing major, they just didn't tell you when to rivet a couple of spots, and told you to rivet some other parts a couple of times.... like the end rib to the 902 spar. Only had a couple of tough rivets to deal with, and only had to drill out a couple.... Got as far as the trailing edge, got it all drilled out to the aluminum angle, and ready to un-cleco and deburr, dimple, and countersink the trailing edge wedge, in preparation for prosealing.... I've learned since working with the rudder that it'll be best to wait until I have the other elevator and trim tab done before I mix up that stuff again... ! :-) |
| 2007-08-06 | Left Elevator | Started in on the Left elevator this morning - got it all clecoed together, disassembled, deburred, dimpled, countersunk, and now I'm ready to prime the few remaining unprimed parts. I'll come back tonight and get that going, then start on the last remaining part - the trim tab! Figure I'll only have to mix up one batch of proseal to do both right and left elevator trailing edges and the trim tab wedges..... Came back in the evening, and primered the remaining left elevator parts - then went for a flight in the Aircoupe. When I got back, I found my friend Rocky at the hangar, ready and willing to help rivet! We back-riveted the stiffeners to the left elevator skin, then the 903 and 904 tip ribs together. Finally, we riveted on the 913 counterbalance skin. Sure was nice to have an extra set of hands! |
| 2007-08-07 | Finishing up Left Elevator.... | Tonight, I riveted the whole Left Elevator together.... Everything went together well. The instructions kinda went sideways again - on the E921 gusset - it just popped in there out of nowhere.... But, I fabricated it, hit it with a shot of primer, and installed it. Drilled my finger, too.... ouch! Once the bleeding stopped, I continued riveting on the counterbalance, and skin... Got it to the same stage as the Right Elevator - ready for proseal on the trailing edge - which I'll wait on until I build the Trim Tab (next!). Then I can do them all at once... |
| 2007-08-10 | Started Trim Tab.... | Clecoed in and drilled the trim tab skin - dimpled the trailing edges of both Elevators in preparation for prosealing.... Also, masked off and roughened up the inside of the Trim Tab skin for prosealing the ribs in..... I took the foam for the trim tab ribs home so I could do a nice job cutting them out in my home shop. Also, I took the plans for the trim tab clamps - I'll cut those out, too.... Couldn't help - fit all the Elevators and horizontal stabs together on the table - just to feel like I have an airplane part! :-) |
| 2007-08-14 | Trim Tab work | Tonight, I deburred and dimpled the trim tab skin, then started figuring out how to do the bends on the end tabs. Using the directions, and viewing several other builder's websites gave me a pretty good idea of how to accomplish the bends. Still screwed it up..... not happy with the first bend, although it ain't over yet.... I'll work on it some more and try to make it look nicer, but I've ordered a replacement Trim Tab skin from Van's, just in case! Cut the foam ribs, clamp blocks, and some big wood blocks to hold the trim tab skin while making the bends. Starting to think "wing!", though..... gonna have to keep filling the piggy bank and get that thing ordered! Now, to decide whether I want to build the tanks or order them pre-built..... Ahhhh.... I'll probably just build 'em.... I think I can pull it off. |
| 2007-08-15 | More Trim Tab work.... | Finished up the bends on the ends of the trim tab skin - made it useable, but I'll probably try again on the new skin I ordered before I go any further.... I went ahead and primered the inside of the skin after I dimpled it, and also primered the trim tab spar. |
| 2007-08-16 | Killed the Trim Tab | REALLY WINDY today - so no flight in the Aircoupe.... Today, I began riveting my E917 and E918 Trim Tab control horns to my trim tab skin after bending the tabs. Wasn't really happy with the bends, and I'd actually already ordered a second skin.... Good thing. Instead of just squeezing the rivets in the control horns, I had a mind-freeze, and tried to buck them......after drilling two rivets out TWICE, on the third try, the rivet gun slipped off the back of the rivet, dented the heck out of the skin, then things got really ugly. My wife says I need anger management, but I disagree..... I took out my anger on an in-animate object - the Trim Tab! Not much else to say, but nobody got hurt (except the trim tab skin) and I felt much better after jumping up and down on the skin a few times, then tossing the wadded up piece of junk against the wall a few times..... :-) Hopefully today the FEDEX man will bring me a new skin, and in a couple of days, new control horns should show up, too! :-) See? I'm not an angry person! |
| 2007-08-17 | Elevator Trailing Edges.... | Rose and I went to the hangar tonight and mixed up a batch of proseal and glued up the trailing edges of both right and left elevators, since I killed the trim tab, and am waiting for a new one to show up. I also ordered a 1 ounce batch of proseal so I can use it to finish up the trim tab - gluing in the foam wedges. Sure is nice to have the wifey's help.... we sat and admired our work, and daydreamed about interior colors of our plane, shades of red we could paint it, and where we'd fly in it..... It was nice. |
| 2007-08-18 | Fiberglass Parts Prep.... | Started filling and sanding fiberglass vertical stab and rudder tips today - shot of grey primer, and some spot-filler putty... sand, sand, sand......ground out and fit rudder bottom for Whelen light/strobe. |
| 2007-08-20 | Prime, sand, prime.... | Finishing up rudder and vertical stab fiberglass parts - got 'em all sanded, and primed again - they look good. Good enough for final fitting, which will happen way on down the road after I build the wings/fuselage.... :-) Still waiting on the new trim tab skin, which is the last thing I have to do before I can say I have a complete Empennage! |
| 2007-08-21 | Started riveting Elevator Trailing Edges.... | Today the new skin for the Trim Tab showed up - still waiting on a new control arm for it.... So on the way to a movie tonight, Rose and I stopped in and riveted up the Left Elevator trailing edge. Looks good! After the movie, we stopped by S95 and watched brother Tom land the Aircoupe after flying it round trip to Ephrata, WA today on business. A well-lit example of an Aircoupe! It was about 9:30 p.m., and Rose and I watched every blinking light we saw on the horizon.... finally one got brighter and brighter... and the runway lights came on.... nice landing, Tom! |
| 2007-08-22 | More Trailing Edge riveting.... | Finished up riveting the trailing edges for both left and right elevators this morning, then went for a lovely flight in the Aircoupe.... Tonight I plan on (re)starting work on the Trim Tab..... wish me luck! :-) Came back in the evening and completely rebuilt a new trim tab. Got the bends a lot nicer, but had some other difficulties.... What is it with me and trim tabs?!!?? Nothing bad enough to do yet another tab, but I dented the bottom of the skins pretty good with the bucking bar..... even though the instructions warned me about just such a problem. Also fitted my newly primed fiberglass rudder and VS tips - they fit pretty good! |
| 2007-08-23 | More Trim Tab work.... | This morning I closed up the trim tab - Spent the evening wondering if I should build another trim tab, since I had some pretty good dings in the bottom of the newest attempt..... and this morning, I actually worsened the situation when I drilled through the hinge and further dinged up the bottom with the drill bit..... So I'm on the fence as to whether I'll try attempt number 3. And by the way..... What's up with the trim tab hinge in the instructions? It's kinda thrown in there as an after thought. It mentions riveting the hinge onto the tab out of nowhere.... nowhere did it mention fitting, or doing anything with the hinge until that step.... Hmmmmmm..... Anyway, being a reasonably intelligent human (this coming from a guy who has to build the trim tab 3 times.... :-) I figured out the hinge. Using cleco clamps, I clamped half the hinge to the tab, and drilled it out (that's where I damaged the bottom tab skin....) Fortunately, everything lined up good when I joined the hinged parts and pinned them together. Looks pretty good! Ralph from work came by and helped me fit the foam ribs into the skin with proseal, then the whole assembly was riveted together, and fit into the clamping blocks where it'll sit for a few days to cure. Then, all I'll have left is to join the surfaces, and fit the remaining fiberglass parts! Tonight, I'll take the night off and spend it with Rosie.... Wing Wing Wing Wing Wing......! |
| 2007-08-25 | Joined Rudder/Vertical Stab.... | This morning was too windy - had a cross country planned to Joseph State in Oregon, but decided to do a little fitting instead.... Also started priming and filling the Elevator Tips and Horizontal Stab tips... |
| 2007-08-28 | Empennage (essentially) DONE! | Here it is.... my pretty-much finished Empennage. Trim tab is dry and attached to the left Elevator - just gotta finish hinging elevators and finish up fiberglass work. I NEED A WING!!! :-) |
| 2008-01-18 | FOR SALE.... | Plans have changed..... circumstances will prevent me from continuing on the RV-9A project - The Empennage and tools are for sale - contact Scott at bindersign@gmail.com for info! |