More work on bulkheads

Modified the bottom of the 1408 bulkhead.

Deburred and dimpled all the 1407 and 1408 bulkhead parts.

Separated, deburred, and dimpled the bell crank ribs.

I realized when I went to drill the battery angles that I somehow modified the wrong one. I could swear that I marked these parts carefully before I separated them but it appears I switched the A and B markings. I don’t think this will be a problem though. I just needed to modify the correct one. The modification to the wrong one is not consequential.

Once I fixed that, I drilled and countersunk all the nut plate holes and match drilled the angles to the bell crank ribs. I deburred and dimpled the 1406 bulkhead as well.

I think next weekend I’m going to have two solid days of scuffing and priming all these parts.

Today’s Time (hours):	4.0
Empennage Time (hours):	141.0
Total Time (hours):	141.0

Finished Elevators and Worked on Aft Three Bulkhead Assemblies

Yay! Rivets came in the mail and I was able to finally complete the elevators.

Cleaned up the edges and deburred the longerons and J stiffeners.

Matched drilled the aft bulkheads to the VS aft spar.

Countersunk the tie down support.

Dimpled the bulkheads. I think I found a problem with the plans. They called for dimpling the #30 holes in the web of the bulkhead. Note the two dimples along the edge of the tiedown bracket. they are keeping it from sitting flush against the bulkhead. I’ll likely need to undimple these holes somehow.

Match drilled the next bulkhead to the HS attach bars and dimpled the flanges.

IMG_1885-1

Likewise with the next bulkhead…

Ready for deburring, scuffing, and priming.

Today’s Time (hours):	6.0
Empennage Time (hours):	137.0
Total Time (hours):	137.0

Began Work on the Aft Fuselage

Screen Shot 2019-05-27 at 10.05.37 AM

The aft fuselage build begins with cutting and trimming parts. Separated the rudder cable guides.

Separated the various j-stiffeners, longerons, and battery angles. Modified several of the parts according to the plans. Dimpled a couple. And straightened the HS attach bars.

This was the first nice flying day we’ve had in the Atlanta Area in a week or so. So Sophie and I took advantage and did a little sightseeing in the Skyhawk around north Georgia. Absolutely beautiful flying day.

We also paid John and Bernie a visit in the McCollum control tower after we got back and things had slowed down a bit at the airport. They really had their hands full today. It was very busy with the nice weather. On the way out we were one of six flights waiting for departure and they had three in the pattern, several arrivals inbound and a transitioning aircraft all at the same time. These guys are awesome at what they do.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.0
Empennage Time (hours):	128.0
Total Time (hours):	128.0

Disassembly and Deburring

Clecoed and final drilled the elevator horns to the inboard ribs and spars.

Cut the trim tab pushrod parts and the trim tab horn parts.

Deburred everything and got about half the parts scuffed and ready for primer. Next I’ll scuff the rest of the parts, peel and scuff the skins and prime everything.

My pint of fuel tank sealant arrived from Sky Geek today. I’ll use this to glue the foam ribs in place.

Today’s Time (hours):	3.0
Empennage Time (hours):	88.0
Total Time (hours):	88.0

More Work on Elevators

Jared Solomon and Wes Greer stopped by today and helped move the elevators along. I really appreciate having experienced builders helping me out. Things went really fast and their advice is incredibly valuable. Had lot’s of fun building together, too. Thanks guys!

Today we final drilled the tip ribs to one another and to the counterweight skins. We cut the foam trailing edge and trim tab ribs. We trimmed and deburred the trim tab skins. We trimmed the right elevator aft spar. We bent the closeout tabs on the left elevator skin. We fit and drilled the trim tab hinge. We clecoed everything together and fit/trimmed the elevator trailing edges.

Jared and Wes went home and I continued building. Not even ten minutes unsupervised and I screwed up! I misunderstood the interface between the trailing edge extrusion and the elevator wing tip. I removed way too much material from the trailing edge. I didn’t realize that the wing tip would be trimmed and butt up against the trailing edge. Had I read forward to the “Empennage Fairings” section, I would have understood how this went together. Oh well… Ordered a new trailing edge from Van’s.

Today’s Time (hours):	5.0
Empennage Time (hours):	85.0
Total Time (hours):	85.0

Prepared HS Ribs

Deburred all the HS ribs with 400 grit sand paper. Sand paper seemed like the most straightforward approach because of all the segments in the flanges. I was able to get in between the segments with it.

I fluted the ribs and modified the two nose ribs and two inspar ribs per the plans and marked them.

I drilled the inboard nose and inspar ribs to the forward spar. Then I deburred all the holes in all the ribs and then dimpled all the ones that mate up to the skins. So. Many. Holes. I can’t even imagine what the wings are going to be like.

I also created a template to make cradles to hold the HS when assembling. I’ll scrounge some plywood to cut them from and some sort of square stock for the bases.

Today’s Time (hours):	3.0
Empennage Time (hours):	61.0
Total Time (hours):	61.0

Horizontal Stabilizer Front Spar

Got the font spar to the point where it’s ready to be scuffed and primed. This was way more work than it looked like in the plans. It all started with the spar caps. They had to be trimmed and deburred. Then they’re match drilled to the spar web. Then disassembled, deburred, reassembled. Then they are match drilled to the spar flanges, disassembled and deburred. There were approximately a million and one holes drilled and deburred in these things.

Then on to the spar doubler. The usual drill (no pun intended)… Deburr edges, fit, cleco, final drill, disassemble, deburr holes.

Countersunk twelve of the holes on the doubler.

And here are all the front spar parts ready for scuff and prime.

Today’s Time (hours):	5.0
Empennage Time (hours):	53.5
Total Time (hours):	53.5

Horizontal Stabilizer Rear Spar

Started work on the horizontal stabilizer today. The first part involves preparing the rear spar.

Screen Shot 2019-05-27 at 9.59.23 AM

Deburred the rear spar and the rear spar doubler with the Scotch Brite wheel, files, a deburring tool and god old fashioned sandpaper. Got all the edges and lightening holes nice and smooth. Clecoed the rear spar doubler to the rear spar. Final drilled all the holes.

Clecoed the 8 outboard hinge brackets to the spar and final drilled.

Machine countersunk the two holes in the center of the spar.

Fit, clecoed, drilled, disassembled, deburred, reassembled, and riveted the inboard hinge bracket assembly with the flange bearing in the middle.

Deburred and scuffed everything. Ready for primer. I’m only going to prime the inside of the spar. the outside will be painted when I paint the airplane. I neglected to account for this when I built the VS and rudder. I’m assuming the primer can be stripped from the outside of those spars in preparation for painting.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.5
Empennage Time (hours):	48.5
Total Time (hours):	48.5

Back to the Vertical Stabilizer

Got all my VS replacement parts from Vans and now that I’ve completed the rudder I can go back and finish the VS. Tonight I cut, fit, clecoed, drilled, disassembled, deburred and dimpled all the parts. Next I’ll scuff and prime them and then rivet everything together. I hope to have the VS all buttoned up next weekend.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.0
Empennage Time (hours):	43.0
Total Time (hours):	43.0

More work on rudder substructure and skins

Match drilled the spar to the reinforcement plates, rudder horn, shim, and bottom rib. Radiused the forward corners and fluted the counterbalance rib and top rib.

Trimmed, drilled, and deburred rudder skins. Match drilled the top rib and counterbalance rib to the spar.

Match drilled the counterbalance to the counterbalance rib. Dimpled the counterbalance rib and machine countersunk the counterbalance.

All of my back ordered parts from Van’s Aircraft arrived today.

Hopefully all of the replacement VS parts I ordered will arrive tomorrow and I can prep them for priming along with all the rudder parts over the weekend.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.5
Empennage Time (hours):	20.5
Total Time (hours):	20.5