Sept 15th, 2013 - control yoke, elevator pushrod, mount the stab

Kind of on again/off again the last couple of weeks.  We people coming by to do some work on the house that required crawl space access, so I'd get something started, then have to take everything down because it was in the way, then put it back.

A lot like building a plane in fact - put it together, take it apart...

Anyway, got the control yoke done, put together the forward elevator pushrod, and today got the horizontal stab drilled to the aft deck.  After that I went flying since it was such a nice afternoon.  Lovely day to fly - the haze is more or less gone so you can actually see again instead of our usual summer MVFR we get on a "clear" day.

There is no way to mount the yoke assembly into the fuse without taking it apart.  When the center section is done, Vans has you cut a section out of the two center seat ribs and fabricate some doublers with nutplates so they are removable.  This helps to facilitate installing the yoke later.  It has to be taken apart, threaded through the forward lightening holes in the seat ribs, then the bracket on each side is bolted to the angle support which is in turn bolted to the spar carrythrough.

Tight fit.

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This is where the bracket bolts to the attach angles.  The angles have bearing inserts so the movement is very smooth.  Washers are used to remove the slack so there is no side play.

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After googling around and thinking about it, it seemed much better to me to attach all the rod end bearings to the various parts ahead of time so I don't have to try to do that in this very tight spot - trying to hold the rod end bearing and a couple of washers and then trying to thread a bolt through all that, all while having it inside this tight space.

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Each stick has a bushing that goes inside the weldment, then the whole thing is a snug fit (they come a bit over size and you grind them to fit) into the bracket.  Then an AN3 bolt with washer and lock nut to secure it.  This is the left stick.  You can see the hex rod that connects the two sticks together below.  The aileron pushrods attach to the outboard side of each stick.

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After several hours of contortions, double checking, torquing and torque sealing the nuts, this is the final result.  The right stick is a press fit and is removable.  The left is not.  I'm hoping I don't have to take them out again.  We'll see.

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Next step is to start working on the horizontal stab and elevators.  The fuse is levelled, then the stab is laid across the aft deck.

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Measurements are taken from a common point on the firewall to a common rivet (I used the center indentation on the aftmost outboard rivet on each side).  Even though everything is clamped down and as square as possible, there is just enough play to work until everything is identical.

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I must have remeasured, reclamped and measured again 10 or 15 times at least.

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Funny, after doing all that, I decided to drill the elevator horns first, so I took it all off and worked on that for a while.  There is a bolt through a caged bearing at the top of the horns that creates a common bearing for the left and right elevators.

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Here's a closeup of the two horns.  You can't quite make out the center bearing.

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Once that was done it was back to the horizontal stab and measuring a zillion times again.  Once I had it as good as I could get it (each side is shimmed 1/8" since there will be shims underneath to set the angle of incidence), I drilled the attach angles to the longerons and support angles (there is about 1/4" of aluminum bar and angle under the aft deck that spans the fuselage side to side.

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Van has you use an 11/32" drill bit to shim the aft stabilizer spar up to the correct height to set the correct angle of incidence (0 degrees in this case).

The two vertical bars will be drilled shortly for the aft attach bolts.

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Sept 1st, 2013 - fuel, vent and brake lines, mount the wing

Rebecca wanted a new desk (she'd been using a really old computer desk I built about 30 years ago, and was tired of it), so I took about 4 days to do that.  I'll try to post a picture if I remember to take one.

Once the main gear weldments are mounted, Vans wants you to install the wings.  They do mention an option to do one at a time (not real inclined to do that since I want to make sure they are square not only to the fuse but to each other).

Anyway, the more I looked and thought about it the more it made sense to me to do the vent, fuel and brake lines first, since they have to attach to the wing, and there is little or no room to work if the wing is on.

I did do it that way, and it seems to have worked out for the best.  I didn't ruin any tubing, and there was more than enough to leave extra on the free ends where they will attach to the tanks.

First thing I did was start on the vent line.  It looked like it would be easier, and give me a chance to get used to working with aluminum tubing, doing the bends and flares, and generally just getting the hang of things with a relatively easy part.

First one I did was the right vent line.

There is a bulkhead fitting through the bulkhead.  I decided to start there, then work up and forward.

I used a 90 degree tubing bender I picked up at Home Depot to do some of the bends.  Once you get the hang of it it works fairly well, although figuring out where to start the bend so you'll end up where you want is a bit trickier.  I tend to err on the "too much" side then trim back if need be.

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I used the bender to put in the curve where it needs to clear the rudder cables.  Adel clamps are used to hold the tubing along the bulkheads.

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The other "tool" I ended up using even more is a spring tubing bender - you can just make it out in the lower photo.  This allows you to make free form and complicated bends pretty easily, and the spring will make the tubing keep its shape so it does not collapse.

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The box on the floor next to the tubing has all the AN fittings - these are mostly flared fittings for the fuel and brake systems.  The hardware is all aluminum, but is anodized, which is why it is all blue.  The flared fittings are 37 degrees.

Once the tubing is to the right length, it is trimmed, squared, deburred, then flared with a flaring tool.

Here's the flaring tool - Parker Hannifin I got from Aircraft Spruce.

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Here's a close up when I'm doing a flare.  There is an index piece incorporated with the clamping mechanism - with it open, you run the tube up against the index and that will ensure the tubing is in the proper place relative to the die and (mandrel?  not sure what the flaring part is called...).  You can see the tubing in the center held by the dies.

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Finished flare - all aircraft flares are 37 degrees, unlike cars which are usually 45 degrees.

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Here's the completed right side vent line.  The vent fitting exits through the floor and is angled forward to catch the slipstream and force air into the tanks.

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Left side is a mirror image of the right.

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The last part of the vent line is to make the short tube that exits through the fuse side to attach to the fuel tank vent fitting.

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Once I did those, I started on the fuel lines, which are 3/8", so quite a bit heavier and stiffer to bend.

I came up with a useful technique for running the lines.  I bent and flared the inboard ends first (notice something missing??? argh!), then ran the tubing outboard.  I installed my spring tubing bender with a curve that led the fuel line out through the gear weldment hole.  The fuel line just slid right through, bending as it went.  Much easier than trying to bend, push, bend around the corner and out through the side.

By the way, it's easier if you take the bushing out and tape the hole so the tubing won't abrade on the way out.

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Fuel lines done - test fitting the Vans supplied fuel selector.

I'm still

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Working on the right brake line.  I used the spring tubing trick here as well.  *Much* easier.

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Running the right brake line forward through the center section.

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Labor Day Becca helped me install the wing.  I'm not drilling anything, just test fitting and running through the tasks Vans spells out.  At first it was hard to get going, but I realized I was hung up on the rear spar bracket and bottom skins. Once I got those sorted out it went fairly well.  There is more dihedral than I thought.

Probably spent 30 minutes getting the wing on.  I'm sure next time it will go much quicker.  Fuel tank is not installed in this pick.

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Rear spar attach.  Looks like I have plenty of edge distance.

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Fuel tank installed.  Starting to look like an airplane. :)

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Aug 18th, 2013 - finish crotch strap, start on main gear mounts

This week I finished up some unfinished stuff in the cockpit, then moved on to the main gear weldments.

 When I was doing the left crotch strap attachment, I missing priming the right hand side, so I had set it aside until I got it primed. I did remember it last time and had it sitting around waiting to finish.

 Once I finished up the flap assembly I decided to knock it out - seemed like a good time and I wanted to clear up any unfinished stuff before I started moving on with the forward cockpit.

 The second one went in much easier. I'd figured out the angles with the angle drill and how to line it up with the left side, so it went pretty quickly. As usual with this stuff, I made all the mistakes on the first one, so the second one came out like I would have liked the first to but didn't. :)

Brackets match drilled and nutplates installed.

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The second one I had a much better clamping system to space it correctly. I used some scrap that was the right thickness and a bunch of cleco clamps to hold it tight for drilling the seatbelt attach as well as into the ribs.

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I also clamped the snot out of it when it put it into the fuse for drilling. It doesn't look accessible in this pic, but the forward side is easily drilled.  The black thing in the middle is my small square to make sure it's vertical.

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Fini

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Next thing to do was the main gear weldments.

 I'd been dreading these. When I was tired one day and fooling around I tried getting one in and couldn't - the hole wasn't big enough, and there were some other obstructions, not the least of which was the line of nut plates along the forward upper edge of the spar.

 I was having nightmares that I wouldn't be able to get it in.

 First things first - get the gear leg into the weldment.

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I worked on this guy pretty much non stop for about 2 hours.

 There were a couple of gotchas that were AHA! moments that might save some folks some grief.

 I had enlarged the hole in the floor enough with a file that I knew it would fit ok, but it kept hanging up and not going in. I was stumped until I finally saw two issues.

 One was dumb - I still had the bolt through the upper spar where the spacer goes. The nut is hidden under the flange and I didn't see it.  It was preventing the frame from sliding aft enough.

Once I took that out things improved quite a bit, but it still wouldn't fit tightly enough aginst the side like it was supposed to.

The other issue was a bit harder to see since I was doing all the work hanging over the side with the plane on supports about 16" high.

 The support bracket that is near the center section won't slide between the previously installed floor stiffener and the spar. The stiffener has to be trimmed back a bit so the gear main can slide behind.

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I did that with my Dremel. Once I did that it fit fine. Much relief when that finally happened. After a lot of fussing and more match drilling, here's the final result.

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Aug 11th, 2013 - Continuing with the flap actuator assembly

Sunday night after I got back from flying, I spent the evening going through all the parts getting them ready for priming. I knew Monday was going to be a decent day, so I planned to get out of work right at 5 and run home and prime everything.

 I'd fabbed up all the parts the previous week, so I wanted to start riveting. Flap actuator channel with attach brackets - these will screw to the cabin floor.

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Riveting the F776C plate to the channel. This is to beef up the channel where the motor mounts.

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Working on the F767 attach plate. This will rivet to the flap channel and screw to the F705 bulkhead.

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F767 attach plate riveted in place and nutplates all installed.

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Channel installed in the fuse to make sure it fits and to start test fitting the motor.

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Motor temporarily installed in place to check that it all moves freely and connects properly.

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Van has you set 1/2 travel on the motor, so I rigged up a Rube Goldberg power supply - an old dead UPS (12 volt) battery, hooked up to a battery charger (the dead battery is for ballast). I rigged up the switch (DPDT) into an old peanut butter jar and wired it all up so I could run it up and down and find center (and play a bit).

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Aug 4th, 2013 - Flap actuator, covers and motor

Started on the flap actuator assembly this week. The flaps on my RV are electric.

 There is a gear motor mounted in a compartment that sits vertically between the seats. The motor pushes an arm on a torque arm weldment that has arms which connect to pushrods that are connected to the flaps.

 The torque rod is held in place by 3 bearing blocks made from high density plastic (one on each end near the fuselage sides, and one in the middle) which is both strong and slippery.

The outboard bearing blocks were done months ago during fabrication of the F705 bulkhead.  The center one still needs to be done though.  They supply it with the hole in the middle, but we get to drill it for the mounting holes and cut it in half.

I put blue painters tape on it so I can mark it for drilling.

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So far the best method I've found for drilling (since I don't have a vise for my drill, or a milling machine like Marco), is to clamp it to something else that is vertical to give it more surface area, then clamp the whole thing to the drill table.  I then work my way through it.

It's easy to drill, but the plastic heats very easily with the drilling friction, so it tends to flow out of the way and leave a smaller hole than you really want.  I usually do the best I can, then later when it's cool I'll hit it with the drill again to clean it up.

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Once that was done, I cut it in half.

The next task is to drill the end of the flap actuator rod for a safety wire.  This is to prevent any possibility of the rod end bearing backing out and leaving the flaps in some unfortunate (and unmovable) state.

This was tough - it's a tight fit, and you have to keep away from the nut (which is removed for this shot).

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Once that was done I could work on mounting the flap actuator weldment to the floor and bulkhead.

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Next it was time to fabricate some parts - mostly angle or plates that will be used for mounting the motor in the flap channel.  This is one of them. From Fuselage This shim tube was fun.  It's only 13/32 long - to get it to length I cut it as short as I dared with the band saw, then taped it into a drill bit and squared it off and ground it to length on the bench grinder.

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Sunday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous.  We had a cold front go through, the humidity was bearable, and the temps were in the 70's, so I went flying.  Our usual summer MVFR haze was gone, and you could actually see more than a couple of miles.  What a great day to fly.

KFKN on the way past.

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Sunset passing Lake Drummond.  Inbound on a practice ILS 5 approach.

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