Went flying today… Jared and I flew his RV-14 up to Knoxville for lunch. Beautiful day and a great flight.
Finished riveting the left skin to the fuselage and firewall.
Bent the left center section channel and riveted it in place.
Riveted in the left side frame and the three forward stiffeners.
Riveted the arm rest in place.
Riveted the left flap block bracket in place.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 118.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 572.5 |
Back riveted the side ribs, center section, and forward stiffener to the side skins.
Clecoed the side skin and longerons to the fuselage and bolted the upper drag link in place. I ran a bead of fuel tank sealant between the firewall and the skin and the upper longeron and the skin. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after I put the sealant in place that I realized that I hadn’t dimpled the flanges of the firewall. In my defense, I can’t find where it says to do so in the instructions. What a fucking mess! Thanks, Vans!
Riveted the canopy latch bracket and bulkhead side channel to the left skin.
Got about halfway through the riveting on the left side. Slow going. I was hoping to make more progress than I did today.
Ran into one frigging rivet that necessitated removal of the landing gear bracket. This was a huge pain in the ass with the skin in place. There’s not enough room to get a drift in front of the main bulkhead to knock the outboard bolt out. Ended up using the short end of an allen wrench and hitting it with the long bucking bar that I have. There wasn’t room for a hammer. Once I got it started with this arrangement, I was then able to get a drift into the space and use the bucking bar to knock the bolt out. Would have saved a bunch of time had I removed the bracket before the skins went on. Burned over an hour on this.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 10.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 115.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 569.5 |
Jared came over and helped me rivet the bottom skins. Thanks again! I neglected to take any pictures. Imagine the picture below with rivets where all the clecos are. Had to remove and reinstall the landing gear brackets to get all the rivets in.
Installed the control column.
Temporarily clecoed the side skins in place.
Temporarily bolted the upper and lower longerons to the firewall assembly and match drilled the cowling attach hinges and the longerons.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 7.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 101.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 555.5 |
Constructed a support leg from scrap wood and bolted to the bulkheads. Then turned the fuselage assembly up on its side to rivet the bottom.
Put clecos in all holes to be riveted. The final drilled and blind riveted the bottom skins to the drag links. This is as far as I could get without a riveting partner.
Sealed the muffler ramp to the bottom skins with fuel tank sealant.
Dimpled and countersunk all of the parts except the skins.
Riveted the roll bar angles to the intercostal ribs.
Fabricated the seat adjustment guides and assembled the seat adjustment stuff to the cross brace.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 5.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 94.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 548.5 |
Riveted the flange bearings to the control column.
Riveted the upper engine mounts to the upper longerons. Not sure why the Plans call out cherrymax rivets for some of the holes rather than solid rivets for all. Seems odd.
Riveted the engine mounts and doublers to the lower longerons. Same weirdness with the cherrymax rivets.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 89.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 543.5 |
Applied a bead of tank sealant to the bottom flanges of the muffler shroud sides and riveted them to the forward skins. Riveted the muffler shroud ramp to the sides and added a fillet of sealant to the bottom of each seam.
Positioned the firewall assembly on the forward skins and muffler shroud. Added sealant between the skins and firewall and around the curved area where the muffler shroud connects to the firewall and clecoed everything together. Riveted the cover bases to the skin. Riveted the curved part of the firewall to the muffler shroud sides and ramp.
Riveted the firewall angle to the firewall and skins. Dimpled the cowl places and shims and riveted them in place.
Riveted the tunnel sides to the skins and muffler shroud.
Riveted the routing bracket and fuel selector bracket in place.
Riveted and bolted to forward center section bulkhead to the tunnel side. Riveted the skins to the cover ribs.
Sealed and screwed the firewall penetration fittings to the firewall.
Fabricated and assembled the cabin heat vent assemblies. Then riveted them in place on the firewall along with their control cable brackets.
Machine countersunk the battery box attach holes and riveted it to the firewall.
Dimpled the cover panel and riveted it to the forward flanges of the cover ribs along with a gazillion nut plates.
Forward Fuselage Lower Structure… Done! On to the side structures!
| Today’s Time (hours): | 8.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 73.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 527.5 |
Dimpled the bottom skins and riveted the com antenna doublers and skin stiffeners to them. I’m only installing a single com radio so I only drilled out the right side skin for the antenna. The left side I installed some rivets to fill the starter holes. I did install the left side antenna doubler in case i want to add another radio later. I can just drill out the rivets and upsize the holes to install another antenna.
Dimpled the muffler shroud parts. Riveted the doublers and muffler hanger brackets to the shroud sides. Riveted the nut plates to the fuel pump brackets and then riveted the brackets to the shroud ramp.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 65.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 519.5 |
Finished riveting the firewall together.
Reamed the engine mount attach hole to .375.
Riveted relay doubler and all the nut plates to the firewall.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.5 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 63.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 517.5 |
Riveted the angles and lower gusset to the right firewall side. Used tank sealant to Seal the top of the firewall to the sides and clecoed in place along with the top firewall angle and riveted them together. Clecoed the tunnel sides to the firewall assembly. Sealed the firewall center to the sides and top and clecoed in place. Clecoed the upper top angle and gussets in place. Final drilled the nose gear brackets.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 61.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 516.0 |
Received the new firewall angles from Van’s. Deburred, scuffed, and primed them. Then taped the holes I shouldn’t countersink and countersunk the rest.
Clecoed the angles and gussets to the firewall. Then back-riveted the left firewall side.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 59.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 514.0 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 