Category: Fuselage

Completed the fuselage!

I started prepping the the fuselage for painting the rollover structure. I noticed that the flush blind rivets on the top of the canopy deck had little burrs sticking up. So I filed them off. Then the burrs were gone but I didn’t like the way they looked. So after some head scratching, I decided to fill them, and sand them, and repaint. I’ve never done any body work before and I don’t think I’ll quit my day job.   It tuned out pretty well though.

This completes the fuselage!

Today’s Time (hours): 6.0
Fuselage Time (hours): 227.5
Total Time (hours): 714.0

 

 

Riveted the rest of the roll over structure

I got the rivets I was waiting for and that let me finish riveting the rollover structure. I got the countersunk rivets in the roll bar and then riveted the bushing doublers and covers in place.

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Just need to mask everything off and shoot some paint to officially complete the fuselage.

 

Today’s Time (hours): 0.5
Fuselage Time (hours): 221.5
Total Time (hours): 701.0

 

So close!

Today was a bit of a shit show. Last night I worked on the roll bar after a fun day of flying with Jared, Wes, and Scott. Realized that I didn’t have enough AN426AD4-5 rivets to complete the roll bar. So I put in an order with spruce. I need a bunch of stuff anyway.  Drove down there this morning and picked everything up. So far so good.

Here’s a picture of Wes’ beautiful RV-7 on the way back from NC yesterday.

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Last night I riveted the brackets to the roll bar brace. I temporarily mounted the left and right forward roll bar parts to the fuselage as a jig to rivet the splice plate. Then did the same for the aft half of the roll bar. Then I clecoed the forward and aft halves together with the inboard and outboard straps and window shims and final drilled everything. I deburred all the parts and countersunk the ones that needed countersinking. I riveted the forward roll bar assembly to the inboard strap with the AN470 rivets called out in the plans. That’s when I realized that I didn’t have enough AN426AD4-3 rivets to do the next step which was to rivet the outboard strap.

 

Segue to today… Went to Spruce. Got the rivets and a bunch of other goodies… Ignition switch and toggle switches. Then back to work… I riveted the outboard strap to the forward roll bar assembly. I joined it up with the aft half and used the LP and CS blind rivets to assemble the whole thing. I also riveted the bushings and doubles in place on the aft sections.

 

And then… Disaster! The little arrow in the picture is pointing the wrong way. I misread the plans last night. I had to drill out three quarters of the hundred or so rivets holding this whole thing together so that I could reorient the outboard strap to face the proper direction to properly mate to the roll bar brace. I lost about 2.5 hours to this. Plus a lot of frustration. Stupid mistake.

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Once I got through reassembling the roll bar, I was able to mount it on the fuselage and match drill the bases and get everything riveted in place. But to add insult to injury, I’m now short a number of CS4-4 and LP4-3 rivets due to the error. So I can’t actually finish the section. But I did get as far as I could and placed an order with Vans for the rivets. There’s only about half an hour of work to finish it up once I have the rivets.   I’ll move on to something else but it sure would have been nice to have been able to paint it up this weekend and call the Fuselage complete.

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Today’s Time (hours): 6.0
Fuselage Time (hours): 221.0
Total Time (hours): 676.5

 

Completed Aileron and Elevator Systems (Section 36)

Checked the fore and aft travel of the control system with a digital level using the top of the cover rib as a reference. Filed the control column bracket stops until I achieved the specified range of travel in each direction and the control column hit the stops on both side simultaneously.

 

Installed the control sticks and measured the distance between them. Thy were spot on so I guess I measured the control stick tie rod correctly. No adjustment necessary.

 

I double checked that I torqued all the hardware properly and marked everything with torque seal. I decided to wait on installing that aft elevator push tube until I reinstall the tail feathers at the airport.

 

Today’s Time (hours): 1.0
Fuselage Time (hours): 215.0
Total Time (hours): 670.5

 

Primed the control system parts and began assembly

Primed all the parts.

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Bolted the elevator idle arm in place.

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Assemble the stick link pushrod.

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Riveted the elevator pushrod ends into the rods and added the rod end bearings.

 

Bolted the forward push tube to the control column.

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Put together the elevator bell crank assembly. riveted the bell crank halves together with the flange bearing in the middle. Machine countersunk the the nut plate holes in the bell crank bracket and riveted in the nut plates. Bolted the bell crank angles to the bell crank and then to the bell crank bracket. Machine countersunk and riveted together the yaw servo bracket. The match drilled it to the the fuselage and installed the bell crank assembly together with the mid elevator push tube, pitch servo bracket, and yaw servo bracket.

 

Connected the forward and mid push tubes to the idler arm.

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Final rilled the control stick bases to the control sticks. The installed the bases into the control column. Bolted the stick link to the right hand stick base. I’ll bolt up the other side after I’ve checked the alignment of the sticks.

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Today’s Time (hours): 6.0
Fuselage Time (hours): 214.0
Total Time (hours): 669.5

 

Began work on Roll Over Structure (Section 37)

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Picked, inspected, and peeled all the parts. Cut apart the pieces that needed to be separated on the band saw. Deburred and scuffed all the parts.

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Today’s Time (hours): 1.0
Fuselage Time (hours): 205.0
Total Time (hours): 659.5

 

Began work on the Aileron and Elevator Systems (Section 36)

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Picked, Inspected, and peeled all the parts. Cut the parts on the band saw that needed to be separated. Deburred, and scuffed everything.

 

Used the template from the plans to drill the ends of the elevator push tubes. Match drilled the rod end fittings to the tubes.

 

Everything ready to prime.

 

Today’s Time (hours): 2.0
Fuselage Time (hours): 204.0
Total Time (hours): 658.5