Riveted right outboard leading edge skins to ribs with some help from Remy.
Placed the leading edge back into the cradle and clecoed the J channel stiffener and the landing light bracket in place. I’ll rivet those in place tomorrow. It was getting late.
Sophie deburred the edges of all the tank ribs for me while I was in Toronto this week.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 113.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 324.0 |
Finished riveting the skin to the ribs of the left outboard leading edge. Had to lie it flat and get Remy to buck the last three rows on the top side. Just couldn’t reach.
Riveted the landing light mounting bracket in place.
Riveted the J channel stiffener to the top of the skin.
Left outboard leading edge complete.
Clecoed the ribs into the right outboard leading edge skin and drilled the 3/8″ hole for the tie-down eye bolt.
Fabricated the spacers for the landing light brackets. Painted the spacers and mounting screws. Riveted the nut plates into the brackets and shot another coat of paint over the rivets. Assembled the landing lights into the brackets.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 4.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 111.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 322.0 |
Wiped everything down with acetone and shot everything with P60G2 Primer.
Painted the outboard bays flat black so it looks decent when seen through the landing light lenses. Kinda wish vans provided some sort of reflector or housing.
Dimpled a lot of nut plates. Riveted them to the splice strips, the inspection plate doubler. and the landing light backing plates, and the landing light brackets.
Clecoed the inspection port doubler to the skin and riveted in place.
Clecoed the ribs to the left skin and drilled the tie-down hole.
Made it about half way through riveting the left leading edge before calling it a night.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 6.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 107.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 318.0 |
Clecoed the left leading skin to the ribs.
Slid the j channel into place and clecoed the starter hole. Then match drilled all the holes from the skin into the stiffener.
Match drilled the aft-most top and bottom holes in each of the ribs.
Disassembled everything and repeated the whole process for the right wing. Deburred and dimpled all the holes.
Dressed the edges of the skin with a file and sand paper. The cut-outs for the landing lights were pretty jagged. I cleaned them up with an abrasive drum on the Dremel and some sandpaper.
Dimpled the skins with the DRDT2 and scuffed the insides with a scotch brite pad.
Dimpled the rest of the parts.
Everything is ready for priming and assembly.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 7.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 101.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 312.0 |
Riveted the nut plates to the inboard rib and skin. Machine countersunk the screw holes.
Match drilled the aileron bracket to the outboard rib and rear spar, deburred, and riveted in place.
Top wing skins completed!
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 87.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 298.0 |
Awesome helper! Remy bucked and I shot.
We got the both skins the wing walk doublers riveted to the spars and ribs.
Clecoed the J-channel stiffeners to the skins.
Riveted the stiffeners to the skins.
Tomorrow I’ll rivet the nut plates to the inboard rib and attach the outboard aileron bracket. That will complete the top skins section.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 86.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 297.0 |
Remy and I riveted the J channels to the top skin.
Riveted the outboard aileron bracket to the outboard rib and rear spar. My new 7″ long rivet set came in handy here.
Left wing top skins done!
Clamped the right wing sub-structure to the benches. Clecoed the skins and wing walk doublers in place.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.5 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 83.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 294.0 |
Riveted the nut plates that will be used to attach the wing attach point fairings. I was able to squeeze all the rivets.
Machine countersunk the corresponding #8 screw holes to fit a dimpled skin.
Clecoed and match drilled the outboard aileron bracket. Then deburred everything and clecoed back in place.
It was a bit too ate in the evening for riveting so that will have to wait until tomorrow. If Remy can buck a few more rivets with me, I should be able to get the stiffeners riveted in and the left wing top skins will be complete!
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 81.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 292.5 |
Riveted the rear spars to the wing ribs. I tried to use the squeezer but it was cumbersome with several different rivet sizes and with the flanges in the way. So I switched to the gun. This was much easier.
And of course, no section is complete without a few mistakes. I used the wrong size rivets in ribs behind the doublers. I used 4-4’s and needed 4-5’s the shop heads were too thin to be acceptable. So I drilled them all out. Nine rivets in total. I couldn’t punch the rivets out because there was nothing to back them up when I hit them with the punch. So I had to drill them all the way out. I was super careful but the holes are enlarged ever so slightly. If this wasn’t a critical structure, I’d probably just re-rivet it but this area carries the load from the ailerons and flaps. So I’ll go with a larger river to ensure structural soundness. I order some -5 rivets, a #21 drill, and a 5/32″ rivet set from Spruce.
I also put in an order with Van’s for some fuel tank sealant.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 69.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 280.0 |
Did some flying with Jared today in his RV-14A. Awesome day dancing around some scattered clouds and some fun aerobatics. Thanks for the great flight today, Jared! The aerobatic training is definitely paying off. Sorry no pics. I was having too much fun!
Meanwhile back at the airplane factory…
Received the replacement parts from vans and did the little bit of fabrication necessary to prepare the doublers and attach brackets.
Deburred and primed the new parts with SEM rattle can primer. Riveted the attach brackets to the hinge.
Riveted the hinge and doublers to the right rear spar.
The mistake cost me $45 in parts and an hour and a half of build time.
Got my new 3/8″ reamer from McMaster Carr. Used it in the drill press to precisely size the rear spar attach holes. The twisted flutes cut like butter.
Clecoed the rear spars to the wing ribs. Ready to rivet tomorrow.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 67.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 278.0 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 