Removed material from the corners where they overlap and butt up against the tank skin so that they’ll lay flat. I used 60 grit sand paper. Then deburred all the edges of the skins and wing walk doublers. I deburred all the holes I drilled in the doublers too.
Dimpled the skins with the DRDT-2.
Made it through both left wing skins before my arm got tired.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 73.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 284.0 |
Peeled the vinyl from all the parts. Did the minor cutting and fabrication called out in the plans. Cleaned up and deburred all the edges with file, deburring tool, scotch brite wheel, and sandpaper. Scuffed everything with a scotch brite pad.
Assembled and final drilled the aileron hinges. The inboard hinges are from the service bulletin. I’m surprised they haven’t updated the plans yet. Had to follow the SB instructions.
Clamped the spar doublers to the spars and match drilled them.
Drilled out the aileron pushrod hole in the inboard doublers and cleaned them up with the Dremel.
Clecoed the right rear spar together with the wing assembly.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 4.5 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 59.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 270.0 |
Netflix and scuff! Sophie deburred and scuffed all the ribs while I was traveling this week. Awesome job!
I fluted and straightened all the ribs.
I assembled and final drilled #30 the torque tube bracket assemblies.
I clecoed the torque tube bracket assemblies to the inboard-most ribs and final drilled them to the rib webs.
I clecoed the flap brackets and flap bracket ribs to the inboard and outboard wing ribs and natch drilled all the #30 holes.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 10.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 34.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 245.5 |
Cut and deburred all the rib parts.
Took the blue plastic off al of the ribs.
Final drilled #40 the top and bottom flanges of all the ribs.
Sophie helping out with scuffing and deburring.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Wing Time (hours): | 24.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 235.5 |
Last night I put a layer of glass over the foam in the VS tip.
This morning, I trimmed and sanded the edges.
I filled with a thick mixture of glass micro bubbles and epoxy resin.
I set aside the VS tip to cure and got started attaching the bottom rudder fairing. I measured and marked the fairing and match drilled #40 and clecoed in place.
I used a nut plate, a #6 screw and a rivet as a drill jig.
I dimpled all the nut plate attach holes with the squeezer. I needed the close quarters dimple dies for the aft-most holes.
I dimpled the nut plates.
I machine countersunk the rudder horn bracket. It’s too thick to dimple.
I riveted the nut plates in place. I made the aft-most hole too close to the aft edge of the attach strip. So I cut one ear off of the nut plate.
I machine countersunk the fiberglass for #6 screws.
Everything went together just fine.
I disassembled and started work on the doubler for the tail light. I centered and taped it in place. I drilled the #30 holes and clecoed. I ordered a #43 drill and a 4 40 tap from amazon for the other two holes.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 209.5 |
| Total Time (hours): | 209.5 |
Sanded and fit the HS tip to fit. Before I paint the airplane, these will need to be filled and finish sanded.
Final drilled #30, dimpled the skins, and machine countersunk the tip.
I picked up a pneumatic rivet puller at Harbor Freight yesterday. I used it to set the rivets and attach the tips. So much nicer the the manual puller!
This completes the work on the horizontal stabilizer and elevators. So I’ve moved them to a safe place until I’m ready to final attach them at the end of the build.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.5 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 205.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 205.0 |
I final drilled #30 the elevator skin to the tip. Then I removed the tip and countersunk the holes.
I dimpled the holes in the elevator.
I had to remove the counterweight to dimple the forward two holes. Then reinstalled and re-torqued the nuts.
Installed the tip with CS4 pop rivets. I’m thinking I might replace my pop rivet tool. I’m getting a burr on the top of all of the rivets and I’ve had several break off in the tool. I’m careful to keep the tool perpendicular to the work but this keeps happening. A while back, a mandrel got jammed in the tool. I disassembled it to remove the mandrel and reassembled it. But I think the jaws are not grabbing properly now.
In other news, you can see that after trimming and sanding the left HS tip, it fits nicely. The right tip is another story. I think I neglected to final fit it after I sanded the foam or perhaps I seated the foam too deeply. In any event, it spread the tip about an eighth too far and now the tip wont fit between the top and bottom skins at the spar. I’ll noodle on how I might salvage the part for a while and If I can’t I’ll order a new one. My best thought at this point is to take a 1/8″ wedge out of the middle of the foam/fiberglass with a saw and then put another layer of glass over it.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 1.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 201.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 201.0 |
As much as I enjoyed looking at the aft fuselage with the tail feathers attached progress must continue! I remove the rudder, elevator, vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer. I trimmed and fitted the elevator and rudder tips using a Dremel with a diamond cutting wheel, files and 60 grit sand paper.
I also received the molex pins I ordered from Mouser so I fixed the wire I accidentally yanked out of the aft wiring harness molex connector.
Tomorrow Jared will teach me how to fiberglass and we’ll close out the VS and HS tips. I’ll need to drill, dimple, countersink and rivet/screw the rudder and elevator tips as well.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 196.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 196.0 |
I deburred, scuffed and primed all of the remaining empennage parts including the top skin and the upper side skins. I’ve just about run out of parts. Once I get my static line and nut plates from Van’s, I’ll be able to finish riveting everything.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 173.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 173.0 |
I cut the aft tail skin with the snips. Cutting .040 aluminum with snips is a workout. I thought of using the band saw but it’s an awkward part to cut straight with the saw. I trusted my skills with the snips more than steadiness of my hand at the band saw. Good result but my forearm was pretty sore afterward.
Cleaned it up with file and sand paper.
My paint cutter arbor arrived from Aircraft Spruce. So I was able to cut the remaining countersinks in the rudder stops without the cage.
I was skeptical that I’d be able to hit the right depth free hand but it worked out fine.
I also heard back from Van’s support on the holes that I thought shouldn’t be dimpled and in fact they shouldn’t have. So I hammered them flat. This was definitely an error in the plans. Now my tie down bracket sits flush.
And finished up with a marathon scuffing session.
I’ve got to be honest. Scuffing parts is my least favorite part of the process. It’s dusty messy work.
That was a lot of parts to scuff but I’m glad I fought through and got them done. This is most of the parts for the tail cone. Once these are primed, I’ll only have the skins and a few small parts left to scuff and prime in order to complete the empennage. Big priming session tomorrow. Then I can start assembling. 🙂
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Empennage Time (hours): | 144.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 144.0 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 