Vertical Stabilizer Installation Complete (4/26/14)

1.0 Hours –

Today, I finished installing the vertical stabilizer by drilling holes for the three bolts that hold the lower portion of the vertical stabilizer’s aft spar to the fuselage and tailwheel mount.  For the most part, this was a pretty simple task.  However, there is always some hesitation when you are drilling through this much material and one of the major parts isn’t visible or easily measured.  In this case, the aft flange of the tailwheel mount sits behind the fuselage bulkhead, and envisioning where it begins and ends is difficult.  Fortunately, following the measurements in the plans worked for me.

Next up, I want to install the rudder, fit the lower rudder fairing, install the tail light, and install the main empennage fairing.

Three bolts connect the lower portion of the vertical stabilizer to the fuselage and tailwheel mount.

Tailwheel Installed And More Cowl Hinges (10/27/13)

3.2 Hours –

When I went into the garage, I saw my tail wheel assembly sitting under my work bench, and I decided today would be a good day to install it on the fuselage.  There was no rhyme or reason to doing this now…I just thought it would be cool to see 1/3 or the landing gear installed on the plane!

Installing the tailwheel was relatively easy.  It slid into the mount with ease, and I had no problem lining up the bolt hole either.  The only problem that arose was that the cut out on the bottom of the fuselage for access to the nut was slightly off-center from the nut itself.  This made it difficult to get a socket on the nut.  Not a problem though, I just ground down the edge of the socket until it could go through the access hole and seat on the nut.  Once the nut was tightened, I stood back to admire the wheel, and I was happy to see that it was perfectly straight both vertically and horizontally.

1/3 of the landing gear is installed! Unfortunately, this makes the fuselage so long that I have to push it back to get to my workbenches and pull it in to close the garage door.

Another view of the tail wheel.

Next, I reinstalled the engine mount in order to double-check that the gear legs would have enough clearance with the firewall.  It only took a few minutes to get the engine mount reinstalled.  The clearance for the left leg was good, but the right leg needed a little bit more material removed from the firewall.  i was able to squeeze my Dremel plus sanding drum into the gear leg recess without removing the engine mount, and quickly removed any excess material.

I then turned my attention back to the hinges for the engine cowl.  Again, I’m doing the hinges now, but hoping it doesn’t come back to bite me later.  I don’t think there will be any problems when I go to fit the cowl, and it is easier to fit the hinges while removing the engine mount is simple (no main gear or engine installed).  However, if there is a problem later on, drilling out a few rivets won’t be a big deal.

Today, I worked on the side hinges for the lower cowl.  As with the lower hinges, I made shims from .020 aluminum strips, match-drilled the shims to the firewall and then match-drilled the hinges using the shims as a guide.  Access to rivet the hinges was next to impossible with the engine mount installed, so the mount had to come back off.  With the mount off, I could easily squeeze all rivets.  I managed to finish the right hinge completely, but the left hinge still needs to be riveted.

All of the hinges for the bottom cowl have been cut. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me later.

A closer view of the left side hinge for the bottom cowl.

Tail Spring Mount Work (2/5/12)

4.0 Hours –

Today was another day where I spent a lot of time on the airplane, but didn’t seem to get much done.  The instructions for the fuselage have become so vague, that I spend more time studying the plans or looking at other build sites on the internet, than I actually spend building.

I wanted to start by trimming the ends of all the J-channels.  However, after looking at the plans and looking at the assembled bulkheads, I was having a hard time figuring out which ends get trimmed on which J-channels.  So, for now, I decided to hold off on doing any trimming until after I start assembling the aft fuselage and can see exactly where the channels go.  In the meantime, I used a piece of scrap J-channel to make a template for trimming the ends.   I should be able to lay the template over the end of the J-channel and mark the trim pattern.  This will save some time over measuring every single time.

I used a scrap piece of J-channel to make a guide for trimming the ends.

Next, I located the F-779 skin and started trying to cleco the F-711 and F-712 bulkheads to the skin.  I say “trying” because this was a real pain.  Pretty much every other build site I’ve looked at has a complaint or two about the fit of these pieces.  My kit is no different.  The bend in the skin doesn’t match the bulkheads very close at all, so I spent a lot of time trying to add a little more bend where needed, and messing with the bulkhead flanges to get the right angles on them.  Eventually, I got to the “good enough for now” stage, but I may work on it some more or even add some shims.  I’ll wait until the aft fuselage is assembled for the first time before I go too far on this though.

Once I got the F-779 skin to bulkhead fit reasonable, I took the assembly apart so that I could make the cutout on the skin for the tailwheel spring.  I traced the cutout drawing from the plans, taped it to the bottom of the skin, and marked the area to be removed.  I then used my Dremel to make the initial cut.  I didn’t spend much time finishing the cut at this point, because it will likely have to be widened once I see how the tailwheel spring mount fits.

The F-779 tailcone skin needs to have a cutout made for the tailspring. I traced the template from the plans.

The rough cut for the tailwheel spring is finished, but this will probably need adjusting after I see how the tailspring mount fits.

Next, the WD-409 gets bolted to the F-711 bulkhead.  The two open rivet holes in the bottom of the F-711 are used for the bolts, but the plans don’t mention anything about how to position the weldment on the bulkhead for match-drilling.  Fortunately, Brad Oliver’s great website explained that the bolt holes needed to be positioned 12/32″ below the top of the weldment.

Once I knew the location, it was easy enough to mark both the weldment and the bulkhead.  I drilled the first hole in the weldment to #30 while the weldment was on the bench.  Then, I clecoed the weldment to the bulkhead, aligned some marks, clamped it down, and drilled the second hole using the holes in the bulkhead as the guide.  I then gradually enlarged the holes until I hit 1/4″ for the AN4 bolts.

The WD-409 tailwheel mount is drilled to the F-711 bulkhead. The plans are pretty vague here!

The WD-409 to F-711 holes get enlarged to 1/4" for AN4 bolts.

After bolting the WD-409 in place, I re-clecoed the bulkheads to the skin to check the fit of the cutout.  The cutout needed to be enlarged a bit, but I also couldn’t get the F-712 bulkhead to seat properly.  After a lot of fidgeting and swearing, I finally realized that the “mouse hole” in the bottom of the F-712 wasn’t big enough and was interfering with the weld fillet on the WD-409.  Once I realized this was the problem, it was easy to enlarge the hole and get everything to fit properly.

I had to do a little trimming of the cutout in the F-779 skin in order to get the tailwheel mount to fit.

With everything in place, the next step in the plans called for drilling two holes for “keeper rivets” in the F-712 bulkhead and the aft face of the WD-409.  Again, there is no guidance in the plans for determining where to locate these holes.  So, it was back to the internet for some researching.  Eventually, I found the consensus is that close is good enough in this case, but to wait until after the aft fuselage is clecoed together.  So, I’m calling it a day because I’ve had enough fun with the tailwheel for one day!

The F-711 and F-712 bulkheads sandwich the WD-409 tailwheel mount. Now I need to figure out how to drill the WD-409 to the F-712 bulkhead.

Right Aileron Final Assembly Started (3/9/11)

2.0 Hours –

Even though my birthday isn’t until the end of the month, I received a birthday present from my girlfriend today.  She asked me what I wanted, and then chipped in for a JD Air Parts tailwheel link.  This link will connect the rudder to the tailwheel and replace the steering chains and springs provided by Van’s.  Like her present to me last year, a pitot mast, I probably won’t be ready to install this until my birthday next year.  Oh well, at least I have my first tailwheel part!

The first tailwheel component I've received! This tailwheel steering link from JDair.com will replace the chains provided by Van's.

After inspecting the tailwheel link for a few minutes, I headed to the garage to get some quality time with my aileron parts.  I focused on the right aileron today, and started by dimpling all the parts.  Almost everything could be dimpled with the squeezer, but there were a couple of problem areas that required other tricks.

The first problem area was the aft most holes on the aileron ribs.  The top and bottom flanges are too close to get the squeezer in, and I couldn’t manage to get my pop-rivet dimpler in there either.  I rummaged through my tool box to figure out another method and saw the small piece of steel with countersinks in the corners that I made during empennage construction for just this purpose.  The countersink is the female die, and the male die is pounded into the piece with a mallet.

I had to use my steel dimpling plate, made during empennage construction, to dimple the aft most holes in the aileron ribs.

The second problem area was the leading edge skin holes that are used to attach the counterbalance pipe.  Because of the curvature of the skin, you can’t use a female dimple die on the inside.  In this case, the plans direct you to cleco the pipe in place and use the countersinks as the female die.  The male die was then hit with a mallet from the other side.  These dimples weren’t perfect, but the plans explain that they don’t need to be because the rivet and skin are soft enough to conform to the countersink when the rivets are set.

To dimple the leading edge's counterbalance holes, I used the counterbalance as the female die and then pounded the male die with a mallet.

After everything was dimpled, it was finally time to start final assembly of the aileron.  The first step was to rivet the nose ribs to the counterbalance pipe using a single pop-rivet on each rib.

The first rivets set in the aileron attach the nose ribs to the counterbalance pipe.

Both nose ribs riveted to the counterbalance pipe with pop rivets.

Then, the leading edge skin and aileron spar are clecoed to the nose rib assembly and the nose ribs are riveted to the spar.  These rivets (3 per side) could be easily reached with my squeezer.

The second group of rivets set attach the nose ribs to the spar.

Finally, the aft skin is clecoed to the top of the spar/forward skin, but the bottom is left open for access to rivet.  I started to rivet the top side of the spar, but after the first few rivets, access started to get a bit awkward.  My Dad is coming over on Sunday, so I’ll try to get the left aileron to this same stage and then have him help me finish riveting the top sides.

The third group of rivets to be set attach both skins to the top of the spar. I set a few, but will wait for a riveting partner for the rest.

Where To Put The Third Wheel (11/27/10)

Wait...the third wheel is in the wrong place!

I’m getting close to placing an order for my fuselage kit.  Throughout the entire planning/building process, I’ve been planning on building an “A” model (nosewheel or tricycle gear).  However, I’ve recently started thinking about building a tailwheel model instead (standard gear).  There are a few reasons for my nose gear doubts:

1. Van designed the plane with a tailwheel.  The tricycle gear model came out later.  If the plane was designed to be a tailwheel plane, why mess with that design.
2. The nose gear, even though it has been redesigned, still looks weak.  There is still the occasional report about it failing after hitting only a small bump or digging into a hole.  The new gear design seems to have fixed many of these problems, but it is still happening occasionally.
3. Related to number 2, the tailwheel allows you to land on many more “unimproved” runways than the nosegear would allow.  Tailwheel aircraft are just better at landing on grass, gravel, etc.

Of course, the tailwheel also has its problems, with my main concerns being ground loops and prop strikes.  In order to see if my concerns were legitamate, and to get some flying in, I scheduled a tailwheel intro flight in a PA-18 Super Cub based out of ProMark Aviation Services in Burnet, TX (KBMQ).  When I arrived at the FBO, I sat down with the CFI, Ken Wittekiend, and we talked about my concerns, and tailwheel flying in general, for about an hour before heading out to the Super Cub.  The main points of the discussion were that ground loops aren’t a problem if you use good technique and keep the plane straight at all times, and prop strikes are unlikely except during heavy braking…as I later found out, you really have to push the stick forward hard to get the tailwheel off the ground during the takeoff roll and the nose doesn’t want to dip much lower than level attitude when the stick is forward.

As soon as we took off from Burnet, the controls were handed over to me.  I had not flown for close to 2 years, so I immediately did a little over controlling and mild wing rocking…I’ll blame it on flying an airplane with a stick for the first time.  However, I quickly returned to level flight, gained some altitude, and then did a few turns to get used to the airplane.  After some slow-flight and a few, incredibly mild, power-off stalls, we turned towards Llano, TX (KAQO), where they have a very wide grass strip.

First, we did a low approach, where I just tried to keep the airplane close to the runway and straight.  The CFI handled the throttle so all I had to think about was keeping the nose up.  Then, we went around and started over.  This time, we actually landed, and I was very surprised how much rudder input was needed to keep the plane straight (good thing that was a very wide runway).  We did two more landings, with each one getting a little better.

Finally, we headed back to Burnet.  The Super Cub isn’t the fastest airplane, but it was fun to do some low and slow sight seeing from about 500 feet.  I’ve never actually had to climb to get to pattern altitude, but as we approached Burnet, I did just that.  We made the final landing, parked the plane, and talked a bit more about getting an endorsement.  I’ll likely finish the endorsement as I decide how to build my airplane.  However, I don’t know that the tailwheel fears are justified.  If anything, having to use the rudder more makes you a better pilot and I now realize how much a tricycle gear airplane, like a Cessna 172, lets you get away with.

The mains are huge! Too bad the door isn't a bit bigger, at 6'2", this was not an easy plane for me to get in and out of.