The nut plates and new static line that I ordered from Van’s showed up today. I installed the static line.
Riveted the nut plates in place.
Riveted the aft stiffeners.
Countersunk the upper cover plate attach holes.
Installed the left cover plate. The other one is on it’s way from Van’s. I bought some stainless screws to install the cover plates.
I riveted the aft deck in place.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 180.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 180.0 |
Broke the edges of the top skin with the edge roller. Peeled the vinyl from the rivet lines and dimpled the top skin on the DRDT-2.
Dimpled the top rib with the squeezer.
Dimpled the top skin doubler with the squeezer.
Dimpled the stiffener and back riveted it to the skin. Back riveted the doubler and riveted the rib with the gun and bucking bar.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.5 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 174.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 174.5 |
Finished riveting the side skins! Remy came down and bucked that last row that I couldn’t reach solo.
Ran the rudder cables, wiring harness, and ELT antenna cable.
Remy helped rivet the rudder stops.
Installed the rudder cable guide blocks.
Installed the nut plates along the longerons. I didn’t rivet the nut plates for the cover plates because I decided to use countersunk screws and needed to order the correct nut plates from Van’s.
I installed the static ports. Here’s one from the outside.
…and from the inside. The static ports are actually pop rivets. I set the rivets and then used the broken off part of the mandrel to drive out the part that remained in the rivet. I drilled a 1/4″ hole in a piece of scrap wood and used it as a backing block and tapped the mandrel out with a small hammer.
After I took this picture, I added a fillet of silicone around the tube and fitting per the instructions.
While preparing to install the static system, I wasn’t paying attention to the instructions and cut the polypropylene tubing instead of the clear tubing. So I ordered a replacement from Van’s along with my nut plates.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 8.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 170.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 170.0 |
Got all the ones on the left side that I could reach solo.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 162.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 162.0 |
Finished peeling the vinyl from the right side.
Remy helped my shoot some rivets so we got the aft bottom skin riveted to the bulkheads.
Then since I had his help we riveted the side skin to the bottom skin. I figured we’d start here while I had his help as I cannot reach those by myself. Unfortunately I read the note in the plans that said to start on the flats and work around the curve after we riveted this. I think If i just work around the curve and work my way up the side it will be fine. I’ll do the other side in the correct order.
All in all good progress today.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 160.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 160.0 |
Scuffed and primed the side skins.
Machine countersunk all the holes in the longerons.
Dimpled the remaining stiffeners.
Dimpled the skins.
Clecoed everything together.
In my excitement over putting all this together I neglected to peel the the blur vinyl from the rivet lines. I’ll have to remove some clecos and do that before I rivet.
I also riveted the aft bulkhead to the aft bottom skin.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 4.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 157.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 157.5 |
Almost riveted all the holes that I was supposed to on the bottom skin. I even managed to not rivet all the holes I wasn’t supposed to.
These two holes were blocked by stiffeners.
I can’t fit my bucking bar in there. Maybe time to invest in some more bucking bars.
Update: I just ordered this from spruce… Hopefully it will get in there. If not, I’ll stick a couple of pop rivets in there and call it a day.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.5 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 153.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 153.5 |
Clecoed and riveted the F-01412 aft bulkhead and tie down bracket.
Clecoed and riveted the F-01411 bulkhead and aft horizontal stabilizer attach bars.
Clecoed and riveted the F-01410 bulkhead and forward horizontal stabilizer attach bars.
Clecoed and riveted the F-01407 bulkhead.
Clecoed and riveted the F-01408 bulkhead and rudder cable bracket. Also added the stiffener clips to the bottom of the bulkhead. I believe that these were added to revs of the kit that came out after service bulletin 18-09-17 was issued to address cracking in the forward bottom skin.
Riveted nut plates to the battery angles. So why are these called battery angles when they have absolutely nothing to do with the battery? In fact the battery isn’t even located in the tail. My guess is that these parts were originally part of the RV-10 kit. The RV-14 borrows parts from other RV’s. So while in the RV-14 they are part of the aft bell crank assembly, in the RV-10 I’ll bet they formed part of the battery box and simply retained their part number and name when they were introduced to the RV-14. If anyone knows for sure, please comment.
The forward nut plate holes do not get nut plates as they are not applicable to the RV-14.
Riveted the battery angles to the bell crack ribs.
Riveted nut plates to the F-01406B bulkhead. Note the discolorations at the bottom of the bulkhead. I managed to scratch the primer moving the part before it was fully cured. So I touched it up. Apparently re-shooting P60G2 creates this discoloration. It seems to have dried properly and doesn’t seem to be problematic; just unsightly.
Riveted bell crank ribs to the F-01406B bulkhead.
Clecoed and riveted the F-01407 bulkhead to the bell crank ribs.
Dimpled the forward bottom skin with the DRDT-2
Lots of dimples!
Dimpled the stiffeners.
Clecoed the bell crank ribs, bulkheads, and stiffeners to the bottom skin.
Ready to Rivet!
| Today’s Time (hours): | 5.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 152.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 152.0 |
I started off the day by taping the trailing edge to the bottom right elevator skin with the 3M VHB. tape.
I also completed the trim servo assembly. I need to order a crimper to terminate the wires from the trim servo with the supplied micro molex connector. I also need to get a label maker to label all the terminations.
Then my new squeezer set from Aircraft Spruce showed up. It’s nice having them relatively local. If I order by 4:00 they’ll ship same day and shipping via UPS ground gets it here next day from Peachtree City.
With the new squeezer sets I was able to complete the riveting of the hinge portion of the skin to the aft spar.
I essentially completed all of the steps that I did to the right elevator yesterday to the left elevator today. So now both elevators are ready to have the aft ribs glued and the trailing edges riveted.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 6.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 118.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 118.5 |
Unfortunately Jared was unable to make it over to work with me today. I’ll be docking his pay. 🙂
Work on the the left elevator is still halted until I have a means to rivet the hinge portion of the aft spar. To wit I have ordered a complete range of squeezer flush sets from Aircraft Spruce. They should be here tomorrow.
Significant progress to report on the right elevator however…
Riveted the rear spar and rib assembly to the bottom right skin.
Actually some progress was made on the left elevator. I was able to rivet the ribs to the bottom skin as well as the trim doubler assembly.
I riveted the skin to the rear right spar using the special bucking bar to reach the shop heads.
Side view of the special bucking bar in action.
I fabricated the tool called out in the plans but didn’t actually need it on the right elevator. Maybe it’s necessary on the left?
I blind-riveted the top and bottom halves of the ribs together. I was able to reach the aft rivets with no problem.
Here they are all riveted.
I riveted the forward spar to the ribs.
…And then riveted the skins to the spar with the squeezer.
I riveted the skins to the and root ribs as well.
Next I’ll glue the aft ribs in place with Pro Seal, install the trailing edge, shoot the last few rivets in the root and tip ribs and she’ll be done!
I had one oops today and a gripe with the plans. They remind you that the counterweight skins go under the elevator skins after you’ve already riveted the aft spar and the ribs. This made it impossible to correct. I tried to carefully pull the skin out and bend the counterweight skin up as little as possible but it left a bit of a permanent bend. Nothing tragic. Just annoying. It would have been more helpful if the plans provided this warning when they had me cleco in the forward spar assembly.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 4.5 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 112.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 112.5 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 