Shop
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Yay - the boxes have arrived. I can inventory and organize.
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Another photo - cause its fun.
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I've labeled all of the HS parts to prevent confusion.
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The HS spar stiffeners need to fit inside the spar with the prepunched holes lined up.
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Getting ready to drill the spar.
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The HS spar gets match drilled.
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The HS stiffener needs to be radiused to remove tooling marks and fit against the spar.
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Before priming I use a scotchbright pad and alumiprep to prepare the surface of the aluminum parts.
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Now the HS parts are primed.
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Match drilling the HS fore spar.
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Now that things are all primed the HS411 bearing can be assembled.
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Done drilling.
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The bearing is now match drilled to the spar with the AN3 bolts.
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A shipment from Avery arrived, so I can use my pnuematic squeezer.
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I needed to make a jig to measure the 7 degree bend I need to make in HS710/714.
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Bending HS710/714 per plans.
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I drilled the holes at the end of the bendline slightly outboard of the specified location. I sent email to Van's and they say it is fine.
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A close-up photo of my mistake.
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HS404 needs to be trimmed to clear HS710/714.
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The VS spar reinforcement and brackets are match drilled to the spar.
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The ribs are match drilled to the VS spars.
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The skeleton has now been match drilled.
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I've now match drilled the entire VS skeleton and skin. Ready to disassemble, debur, dimple, prime.
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The optional lightening holes are drilled in the VS reinforcement - per plans.
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The VS spar gets dimpled to match the counter sunk holes in the VS reinforcement.
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My pretty lightening holes. I used a fly cutter to make these holes.
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I have no idea why I took so many of these damn pictures.
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The HS 405 to spar holes need to be drilled based on dimensions in the plans.
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The inboard rib is not fully prepunched, it must be lined by using a sharpie line and the holes in the skin.
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The right skin goes on for match drilling.
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The right side gets drilled ver much like the left.
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The right side of the HS now gets drilled. I forgot to take pictures/record time for all the rib fluting and straightening - so I'll make a note here.
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Taa daa! The right side has now been driled.
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The left HS has now been drilled.
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I match drill the left elevator skin to skeleton.
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This is beck disassembling the match drilled left HS.
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Another photo of the right HS drilling.
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Still more match drilling.
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Why did I take this picture? I don't remember.
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Everything comes apart for deburr, dimple, prime.
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Beck looking cute while we rivet the HS aft spar.
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About to rivet on the hinges.
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The forespar is clecoed together for riveting.
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The fore part of the skeleton is now riveted.
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A photo of the pretty dimpling table I constructed.
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Lots of dimpling! HS and VS skins. Ugh.
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A photo of the HS708 blind rivets.
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Ugh - we made a painful mistake. Beck accidentally removed the bucking bar while I was driving a rivet. This really tore up the left HS706 bulkhead. Van's says I can still use it if I add a doubler.
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One of the holes is screwed up because of our mistake.
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I purchased an installed but unused Terra transponder on eBay. This will go in storage for a while. I've placed connector diagrams elsewhere on this website.
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At this point I've placed the rear spar assembly into the Horizontal Stabilizer. The next step is to squeeze the rivets holding the spar to the skins.
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Another shot of the rear spar installation process.
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Ugh. I realized I inadvertently installed a few rivets in the left stab that should not be installed until the fairings are being attached. I've drilled these rivets out and a couple of the holes are now slightly oversize - I may need to use 'oops' rivets here. I've also marked one rivet which is a little undersqueezed, I'll buck or squeeze it to have a correct shop head.
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Taa daa! Really pretty! The HS is done (except for fiberglass).
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I've installed the blind rivets called out for a couple of the ribs.
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The VS skeleton has now been primed (forgot to take pictures of the priming). I'm riveting it together per plans.
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Cleco the skin on so it can be riveted.
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Part way through riveting - the fore spar is half done.
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I've now riveted the fore spar and the middle rib of the vertical stabilizer.
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The aft spar is now riveted in - pretty! The VS is now basically done.
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I had some time so I've fabbed the spacer needed for the rudder.
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Now cleco in the rudder horn/spacer and bottom rib per plans.
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Cleco in the nutplate reinforcements, top ribs, and counterbalance skin. Match drill the various skeleton parts.
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The forward edge of the siffeners must be trimmed so they will come close to the spar (but not too close). I've marked reference lines on the skins so the trimmed stiffeners can be placed.
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Assemble the right elevator counterbalance so it can be match drilled to the skeleton/skin. Also get ready to drill the holes in E714.
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Install and match drill the right elevator skeleton parts.
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Now time to match drill the stiffeners to the rudder skin. I was careful to place a flat/smooth board under the skin. As we drilled we stuck clecos into the plywood. Beck is so cute!
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The elevator stiffeners need to be match drilled much like the rudder stiffeners were.
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This is the left elevator skeleton coming together for match drilling.
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The left elevator E714 holes are now drilled. Not quite as straight as I would have hoped, but acceptable.
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The right elevator inboard skeleton match drilling.
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Match drilling the rudder horn assembly.
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I've made a smooth table with a recessed hole for my back riveting plate. Damn that router sprays out a lot of sawdust!
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This is Beck in an action shot - squeezing elevator stiffener dimples in her bathrobe.
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I've assembled and match drilled the brackets/plate that make up the electric trim assembly. Unfortunately I later learned that the placement of the brackets was too far rear on the (non prepunched) cover. I ordered a new E 616 from Van's and rebuilt the assembly.
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Misc elevator and rudder parts getting ready for priming. Priming happened later out in the garage, after alumipreping.
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I arranged to meet a flat-bed towtruck to pick up my QB kit at the San Jose depot. They didn't show until 6 hours after our appointment.
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Depot picture. The folks at the depot were amazed it was an airplane in the crates.
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All loaded - notice how things are getting dark.
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My picture in case the trucked crashed on the way home. Fortunately things turned out okay. Rus, Beck and I worked until nearly midnight unpacking the crates.
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I hate using the C-Frame dimpler, but had to go dimple all those rudder stiffener holes.
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Spent a long time organizing QB parts - these are just the rivets.
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Spent a bit of time doing the Duckworks landing light preassembly. I.e. taking apart the car lights.
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This is just a picture of the careful flap/aileron wrapping by Van's.
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Begin work on the dreaded trim tab. Here I'm match drilling the brackets that attach to the trim servo.
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Match drill the trimtab hinge, spar and the upper elevator trimtab. Doing this now will allow me to back-rivet the bottom rivets later (a good idea from the mailing list).
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The trim servo reinforcement plate is now primed so I can rivet in the various nutplate for the access cover. Later on I realized I needed to grind off a small amount of this plate so the complete servo assembly could be installed once the elevator is closed.
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Here is a dumb move. For my first back riveting, I was like - hey this is great! Very smooth. Till I realized that I hadn't put the stiffener on the rivets. Dumbass. I later drilled out the four rivets I screwed up.
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I also screwed up one rivet - I must have missed some burr under the stiffner. I drilled out the rivet and replaced. I've labeled the stiffener in this photo so that if this rivet ever starts smoking I'll know why.
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These are the four screwed up rivets I mentioned in the first photo.
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Now that the stiffeners are in, the skeleton can be match drilled to the skin. I'll still need to disassemble, deburr, dimple, prime.
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This is Beck making funny faces while she back rivets the left elevator stiffeners. Beck is a really good riveter.
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The rudder skins have now been deburred/dimpled.
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I wanted to work on something different for a while, so I started assembling the wing aileron brackets. Lots of scotchbright wheel/drilling action.
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It took the good part of a morning to break down all the QB boxes and take them to the dump. I kept some pieces that can be used for scrap wood.
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The right elevator now has all of the stiffeners back riveted in.
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The skeleton gets clecoed on so that it can be match drilled to the skin.
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I felt like working on something different, so I started fabricating the brake peddals.
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The aileron brackets and elevator trim cover are now primed and I just did the riveting.
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Now that priming is done I can start riveting together the elevator skeletons.
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Damn this is fun, the nutplates are in, the rivets turned out real nice.
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Detail photo for the inboard inside of the right elevator. Notice the primer on my fingernail. ;-)
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Yay! The right elevator is now nearly completely riveted.
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I've completed the rudder spar now riveting on the counterbalance. The sequence is important if you want to build the rudder without needing to use any blind rivets.
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A detail photo of the bottom rib of the rudder riveted onto the spar.
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The inside of the rudder spar - detail on the nutplate.
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The rudder counterbalance weight is installed and the screws are torqued.
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The other side of the rudder has been to the skeleton, and this side is now half riveted.
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Another angle on the rudder riveting.
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A photo of the inside of the servo. Cause it is kinda interesting.
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The left elevator is clecoed together so I can match drill the skeleton to the skin.
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Another photo of the left elevator.
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After waiting for the proseal to dry for a couple of days, I can finally rivet the rudder trailing edge. I'm very pleased with how the shop heads look. Also of note is that somehow during storage I've scratched the skin, though I think it can be polished out.
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The left elevator has been primed. Now I can assemble the skeleton now.
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A photo of the inside/inboard photo of the left elevator skeleton.
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I've started the dreaded elevator trim tab bend.
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The trim tab turned out 'okay' almost perfect trailing edge - I'll do better on my next plane. ;-)
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I really hated the process of bending the leading edges on the rudder and elevator. But it is now done, with only a couple of small dents.
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The trim tab is now riveted to the left elevator. Per plans I've used a bit of aluminum angle to make sure the trailing edgs line up.
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Beck is actually much better than I with the leading edge bends. Here we bend the left elevator LE.
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I'm tired of bending leading edges so I spend a bit of time fabricating the tail tie down bracket.
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I also make the tool I'll need for safely installing the Heim bearings on the trailing edges.
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I install the Heim bearings placed per plans.
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The Aircraft Spruce catalog contains Heim dimensions so I can use the proper gap from the spar.
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The HS can now be removed from storage so I can mount the elevators.
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I converted a couple of AN3 bolts into drift pin so we can install the elevators more easily.
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Now I've drilled the holes for the center bearing on the elevator.
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A square aluminum extrusion is attached to the AEX extrusion and rudder trailing edge.
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After building wing cradles I was able to remove the access plates and begin installing the servo bracket.
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Per a warning letter from Van's I checked each of the bolts length and torque of the fuel tank attach brackets.
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I've now match drilled the aileron brackets to the wings.
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The access plates I've remove from the wings.
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I've now cut the aileron/elevator pushrods to length.
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I've now rivetted the aileron brackets to the wing. Getting the bottom flush rivet riveted was a huge pain in the ass. The problem is that I couldn't use the mushroom rivet set - I had to use a smaller/crummier flush set.
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I need to use a rasp to expand the AN3 holes on these brackets and remove some of the welding bead from the inside of the shaft.
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The aileron brass bushings have to be drilled out so the bolt can fitted into the bushing. This is all per plans.
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The left aileron bracket has now been installed. It fits perfectly and has been torqued to spec.
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The right aileron bracket/belcrank has now been installed and torqued.
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I've now drilled the pushrod ends to the pushrod. I then went and primed the inside of all pushrods.
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The flap reinforcement needs to be trimmed so I can cleco it to the trailing edge.
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The aileron gap fairings are clecoed into place so I can match drill them to the wing.
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Beck clecos the flap reinforcements to the wing.
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Becky is drilling the aileron gap fairings to the wing.
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A bunch of small parts collected for priming. I've switch primer to the PPG 1792 self etching wash primer.
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The bottom rivets of the aileron brackets are flush - so I need to counterskink the hole. Unfortunately the microstop csink set doesn't fit this close to the bracket, so I have to do it carefully by hand.
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The parts have been primed and dimpled, so I can now rivet in the aileron fairing.
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As I mentioned the flush rivets were a real pain without being able to use the mushroom rivet set. I smilied one of the rivets and one other is a hair to high.
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I've attached the Heim bearings to the aileron belcranks.
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All of the pushrods are nicely primed on the inside.
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The right bearings are now installed installed into the belcrank.
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Becky is drilling/pop riveting the pushrods ends.
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Another action photo of assembling the pushrods.
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More pushrod fabrication.
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The ailerons are match drilled for the aileron bracket.
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I've decided to assemble the Gretz pitot bracket.
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The outboard aileron brackets are now installed. I'll need to ask someone how to get a torque wrench on these puppies.
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The nutplates are now riveted to the pitot bracket.
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I've modified the right aileron bellcrank so that I can attach the roll servo.
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The aileron pushrods are now riveted.
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A new box from Van's the passenger grip, wingtip nutplates, and flap positioning switch.
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The nutplates are now installed on the inboard side of the ailerons.
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A blurry picture of the nutplate.
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I've fabriated the spacers for the aileron brackets. (Beck's alternate description: The photographer of this picture was clearly all about sex. The juxtaposition of the slightly curled hand and the long straight ruler and that fat sharpie - on top of screws - lots of screws. There is no question this is a highly sexually charged photograph.)
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Beck is now drilling the aileron trim servo bracket. (Beck's alternate description: This scene describes an immigrant woman who has been enslaved by her evil overlord husband. She is clearly forced to work in sweatshop conditions - after coming home from a full time job. She still has to cook dinner.)
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The drilled servo trim bearing.
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The ailerons are now mounted to the hinges, with appropriate spacers. A couple of the spacers are too loose - I'll probably need to remake them.
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Detail photo of the aileron pushrod connection.
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The ailerons are lined up using the tooling holes in the wing. After being sure the end of the aileron is inline, the pushrods to the aileron bellcranks can be adjusted by using the Van's supplied jig.
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This is the right pushrod installed and tenatively adjusted. The roll servo is also temporarily installed - I need to get drilled head bolts before I can permanently install and safety the servo.
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A shipment from Steinair arrived - they have great prices on milspec wire. They even through in a bunch of small things for free.
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The skins get clecoed on so they can be match drilled to the skeleton.
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The flaps need three of the center eyelets removed so the pins can be inserted and eventually safetied.
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The flap reinforcements get match drilled to the spar.
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Before drilling the flap hinges to the wing, I needed to carefully ensure 1/4" of clearance between the flap and the aileron. Thus the little cardboard guages. I also used dental floss stretched from the outboard tip of the aileron to ensure that the fore to back placement was correct.
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Now I'm midway through drilling the right flap to the wing.
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I turned the flash off for an arty self portrait.
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Of course I must get a picture of the beautiful cobuilder.
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Removed flaps for deburring and countersinking of the flap reinforcements.
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Damn - drilling all these holes took a while. Lots of cleco moving. In this photo I'm part way through removing the clecos from the drilled wing.
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Deburring the flap reinforcements.
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The left wing skins are now drilled.
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Following the Gretz pitot bracket directions - adding a bit of angle and drilling to the rib and spar.
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Drilling the recommended pitot bracket rivet pattern to the wing.
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Done drilling.
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Closeup photo.
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Done deburring the gretz mount holes - still need to deburr the rest of the skin.
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Drill the access panels to the final sized holes. 4 came finished with quickbuild - I just finished the remaining two.
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Dimple all of the ribs and spars in the left wing.
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The finished access plates - now dimpled.
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Dimpled and countersunk the flap reinforcements - now they go to the garage until priming day.
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The aft wing spars need to be countersunk for the three countersunk pop rivets called out in the QB plans.
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I started fabricating the roll servo wiring harneess so I can close up the wing.
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My friend Shannon was over yesterday - she is an A&P and shamed me into fixing a couple of smilies on the aileron bracket rivets. This photo shows me half way through replacing the rivets. I drilled off the heads then punch the shaft out.
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Pretty. I've now repaced three ugly rivets - no hole enlargement involved.
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My neighor Joe helped me move the wing rack and left wing down into the garage. This gives me space to do finishing work on the right wing.
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This was scary - cutting into the wing to install the Duckworks leading edge light.
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I've now bent the right and left fuel level floats. For the right wing I've used a nylon tie to make sure that the float can reach empty and full.
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This is a detail on the tie I used while measuring the travel of the float.
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After futzing for a while - I realized there is no good way to attach the servo wires without possiblity of rubbing against the control system. I'll drill a new hole for the wiring closer to the top skin - at least for the rib closest to the right aileron bellcrank.
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I went ahead and fabricated the left fuel tank sender/float.
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Becky is using the scotchbright wheel to carefully shape the landing light hole. Nice reflection.
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Folloing the Duckworks directions - I've installed nutplates into the right wing and now I'm fabricating both the left and right landing light brackets.
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Eww - I hate proseal. However, I needed to mix up a batch in order to seal the right fuel tank sender onto the tank. I also decided to add proseal on the fuel tank inspection hole cork.
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A photo of the finished fuel tank.
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Countersinking the duckworks light brackets.
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Following the duckworks directions we used gaffer's tape to pull in the right lens and drill it. Becky is so cute!
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Countersinking the duckworks lens nutplate brackets.
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The usual soldering iron dance to remove parts of the outboard bottom wing skins that I will soon be dimpling & riveting.
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Done removing plastic.
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Today was priming day - I try to do priming in big batches. Did the light fixtures, some misc. small parts, flap reinforcements, pushrods, and spotty - our cat. ;-)
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I've now riveted the nutplates into the light fixtures.
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I riveted on the flap reinforcement and hinge for the right wing.
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The right wing reinforcement being pop riveted to the aft bracket.
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The access plates for the outboard skins need to have nutplates installed. However, the nutplates do not come dimpled for the rivets, so I've dimpled them so they fit a bit better.
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Riveting on the nutplates.
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I don't like using the dimpling table - but I needed to dimple the various holes in the left and right wing skins.
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This shows the conduit brackets clecoed into the right wing lightening holes.
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I've cut and drilled 5" long brackets to mount conduit in the right wing. This turned out good, but it was a bit over engineered. For the left wing I think I'll just use nylon ties - per Van's latest service letter.
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Pretty. The Duckworks landing light brackets are now fully assembled. Riveting is fun.
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The conduit brackets now have nutplates riveted in place.
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Beginning the right wing riveting task. I've made a point to mark rivet lengths to prevent accidentally using the wrong sized rivets. It will be tricky to make sure there is no gap over the outboard spar - the skin tends to 'walk' outward as it is riveted.
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Max and I have started riveting the bottom outboard right skin. Really nice so far.
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The first part of the day Max drove the rivet gun while I bucked. Beck finished the job in the evening. This is Beck making a silly face as she is about to drive the last rivet.
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Starting on the left wing - the flap reinforcement is clecoed in place.
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The left landing light hole cut begins - I'll wait for beck to finish this up, she does a better job than I at the scotchbright wheel trimming.
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Yuck. Proseal again - Installing the left fuel level sender and access port.
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Pretty. I'll do a leak test someday.
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I had some time to kill so I began the axle nut mods called for in the Avrey jack kit.
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I've begun the preassembly on the control sticks.
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I don't remember why I took this picture... ;-)
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I brought in the long .75" x .75" angle from the garage so I could precut all the fuse pieces that are made from this piece.
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The brass bushings inside of the control sticks need to be ground down until they are short enough to fit into the horizontal cross piece. The plans recommend using a drill press and a flat file.
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The QB builders installed too many rivets. I used the plans and marked the rivets that must be drilled out.
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Becky does a real nice job with these landing lights.
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Per plans I needed to grind down the aft spar. The stock spar is for an RV-8 and needs to be trimmed to fit the RV-7.
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I've drilled out the extra ring rivets. I use a slightly undersized drill bit and a punch to break off the head.
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I've finally gotten around to making the passenger brake peddals.
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For some reason I don't really enjoy countersinking. However, I had to go countersink a zillion holes in the brake peddals.
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To kill some time I fabbed the rudder peddal bearing blocks.
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The control sticks now fit together nicely.
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I'm going to ask Van's about this. It seems like there is room for one more 960-10L washer in the control sticks. It also seems like we are not given enough of the special AN3 sized washers.
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The rudder blocks are now fabricated.
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After a trip to Home Depot for a 1" bi-metal hole saw the ends of the axle nuts can get cut off.
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I don't have a manual mixture cable so I'm able to cut off the big mounting bracket from the fuel selector plate.
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I used a bit of scrap 0.063" 2024 to fab the spacer that gets installed into the elevator bellcrank.
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Per plans I've made a handle out of tape to install the left wing duckworks light.
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I used a tap to add a bit more thread to the wing tiedown holes - so the eyelet can fit close to the skin and be parallel to the airstream.
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Not too bad - I can put the eyelet away until painting time.
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The left wing flap reinforcement is now riveted to the skin. I used 4.5 length rivets, the plans call for -4, but that was too short according to the gauge.
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The flap reinforcement gets pop riveted to the trailing edge.
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Bonus picture. Nothing to see here. Move along...
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The right wing top TE skin was not fitting to the flap. The underlying problem was that the QB folks didn't bend the aft spar flange sufficently. Fortunately Van's kicks ass and sent me this great custom tool to fix the problem. I'm done with it now, so I'll send it back tomorrow.
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I bent a short length of tubing and flared it so I can test my tanks for leaks.
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More fuse pop rivet removal and checking off plans to mark parts already completed.
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Assembling the fuel valve assembly - unfortunately it looks like I'll either need to mount the fuel valve with an odd rotation or fabricate my own fuel valve plate. The Andair valve doesn't quite fit in the Van's enclosure.
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Disassembling the valve so that I can change the fitting orientation.
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Valve serial #5175.
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This is what I mean about rotated - I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do.
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Riveted the pitot bracket reinforcement to the nearest rib.
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Drilled the holes for the left landing light.
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Countersinking the landing lens for the screws. I think I might have used the wrong dimple dies on the hole in the wing - FIXME - redimple with a #8? dimple.
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Begining the wing riveting.
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The vent openings are fabricated.
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Did a bit of riveting.
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Drilled the landing gear to the bracket per plans. Had to borrow the neighbor's 3/8" chuck drill.
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Installed and match drilled the brake flanges.
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Drilled the first hole in the flap brackets. The other hole is match drilled in the fuse.
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Placed a bit of aluminum screen on the vent openings with some JB weld. Per plans.
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Drilling lightening holes in the seat back braces.
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Deburring the braces.
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Max helped rivet today - finished up the left wing.
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Part way done.
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This crummy picture is my attempt to show where I needed to add an extra rivet to the inboard bottom skin of the left wing. This skin was tending to lift up, because I over countersunk a hole on the flap reinforcement.
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Since I decided to add this hole after the wing was assembled, I needed to countersink rather than dimple. It worked out okay because there is extra material behind the hole.
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Pretty - the gretz pitot mount is installed. I'll remove it again someday.
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This is about half of what I fabricated today.
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Drilled and dimpled the forward skin/instrument panel supports. This will allow me to match drill that whole portion of the fuse.
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A little more tha 8" from instrument panel to bulkhead. These support arms eat away up to 3.25" of space if you go 8" back. I'll need to be careful on instrument placement.
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Playing with ideas on the instrument placement.
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Drilled out four rivets so I can match drill the pitch servo for the auto pilot.
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Fabricate F741B - a small bend is needed.
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Match drilling the upper flap bracket.
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Drilling lightening holes in the rudder peddal support.
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Lots of cutting aluminum brackets, sheets, and hinges. Here I'm cutting the Z channel for the seat cover.
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Drilling holes in the Altrack bracket. Later on I used these #40 holes to match drill the skin on the fuse belly.
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Transferring hole patterns from one seat to the other.
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One seat is now all drilled.
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Finish drilling the second seat.
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Drilling the seat braces to their hinges.
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Two complete seats with braces, ready to rivet. I'm going to wait until I have the floors in before riveting these seats, Dan Checkoway mentioned that the plans hinge location left inadequate clearance. I think I'm okay, but I want to check before riveting.
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I got this strobe on eBay, just checking to make sure it works. It is a 28V model, so I was expecting to need a DC-DC converter, however 14V looks to work fine. I'm going to take it to a lab at work so I can compare 28V with 14V.
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Match drilled holes for the aft bulkhead.
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Done drilling the Altrack bracket to the floor. I need to dimple the skin and prime the bracket before riveting.
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Match drilled the F-824B covers and accidentally screwed up the aft bulkheads. This is the second part I'll need to replace in this project (the first was the elevator trim tab cover). My mistake was the QB bulkhead had shifted on the bottom before I match drilled, and I didn't realize the bottom of the bulkhead was already prepunched. I drilled holes that overlapped with the bottom bulkhead holes.
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Max came over and fabricated these rudder stops. Later on I finished them up.
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A bunch of misc brackets fabricated per plans.
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Match drill the seat back support channel/socket thing.
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Align and drill #19 the ELT bracket. By placing parallel to this bulkhead, I'm within 2 degrees of level flight. The ELT manual requires 10 - so we are good to go.
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ELT brackets installed and torqued. I'm using torque seal from now on to mark bolts that are torqued, better than my old purple paint marker.
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Drill out the nutplates per plans for the electric aileron trim bellcrank.
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These two brackets go at the top of F-705, but they need a 2" diameter shape cut out for the slider plans. I used the flycutter.
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This was fun, putting the aileron bellcrank into the block of plastic. Per plans.
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Drilling and dimpling the aileron bellcrank bracket - now it is ready for priming.
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Match drill the heat baffle.
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Finally rivetting the brake peddals.
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Match drill the F-824 covers, rudder stops, and the electric flap pivot.
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Counterskink the electric flap reinforcement.
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Rivet the flap breinforcement to the central flap cover.
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I've gotten tired of accidentally leaving the air disconnected from the shop. So I've put together this manifold so air can both go to the shop and garage.
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Drilled and installed the static ports.
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Install static tubing and seal it to the ports with RTV.
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Drilling the flap pushrods to the correct inner diameter. However, in the process I screwed up one of the pushrods by letting it spin in the vice. I'm going to order a bit more of this aluminum tubing.
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I fabricated the electric flap spacer - just testing the fit.
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The bottom angles for the electric flap cover are ready to rivet now.
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I used the hand seamer to bend the center cabin reinforcement flanges - the stock bend was insufficient to tightly mate with the skin.
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This is me being dumb and spilling wine on my plans. Doh!
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A bunch of center cover parts are straightened and ready for match drilling.
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Using hole saws to drill access holes in the skin.
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More center cover parts ready for match drilling with the skin/fuse.
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Riveting the nutplates on the forward baggage covers.
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Match drilling the baggage floors.
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Match drilled the F-724(?) covers.
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I don't remember what is going on in this picture.
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Drilling holes for conduit under the floor of the baggage compartment. Eventually I'll be routing static line, strobe wires and ELT control wire.
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I considering using these tubes for my wing conduit, however they are crap - too inflexible.
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Begin drilling the main landing gear holes.
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This could be bad. Both of the bottom firewall weldaments are cracked between the four bolts and the five rivets. I suspect the QB folks broke this weld on purpose to make it fit the angle of the bottom longeron. This picture shows the right weldament. Update: Van's says that seam is not intended to be welded - it is just cracked power coat - all is well.
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This picture shows the other bottom weldamnt, on the left of the firewall.
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An accidental extra picture.
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One more picture.
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Not much happened today - because I needed to get parts out of storage for my EAA tech visit. Irwin came by and seemed generally happy with the work. He will do the paper work on his next visit. He has been quite helpful with my various evening phone calls.
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Rivet the electric flap cover.
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A blurry picture of dimpling the baggage floor and aft cover.
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Today I began rivetting the baggage floor/aft covers.
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Part way through the floor.
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Showing the conduit that passes under the baggage floor and seats. One on each side.
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Pretty - the floor is done. It took a lot longer than I expected - mostly due to keeping nutplates aligned.
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Since I was permanently attaching the aft baggage covers, I needed to install the rudder cable. This was a bit of extra trouble because the QB folks forgot to drill two of the bulkheads to full size for the plastic inserts. Now that the fuse is together I can't get a drill in to fix the mistake, so I used a dremel grinding tool.
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Pop riveted the right seat in place. Damn - all this installing nut plates and pop riveting really took longer than I expected.
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I began riveting the seat backs together. I had planned to disassemble for priming, but I'm just going to prime the assembled piece.
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Position the aileron trim servo midway (per plans) so that I can temporarily install the bellcrank and drill holes for the servo (underneath the left aft seat cover).
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Everything is clamped in place and I can use the angle drill to drill the four holes for the servo screws.
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Drilled now.
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Now the left seat bottom can go in.
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All of the seat back rivets that can be squeezed are done. The rest will need the rivet gun (i.e. noise).
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The flap weldament is temporarily installed so I can drill the three flap bearings.
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Started the painful process of drilling the skin holes for the landing gear. This turned out to be a real pain in the ass - cause the template was a bit too small and you are under the plane with a dremel tool getting covered in aluminum shavings.
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The left gear hole is part way drilled - lots of grinding, fitting, grinding, fitting...
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While these EF-661 bearings were in the plane I drilled a small amount of the second hole. I removed the bearings and moved to the drill press to finish the hole cause I wanted to make sure the hole was square to the surface.
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Bent the seat back channels so that the support can easily slide in.
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The seats are finally done. I dinged one of the upper hinge rivets pretty good, but a repair turned out to be reasonably effective.
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This fuzzy picture shows me drilling a hole for safety wire at the end of the electric flap mechanism. The safety wire ensures that the assembly can not unscrew itself if the jam nut gets loose.
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For some reason I don't enjoy countersinking. However, I needed to countersink the tops of these seat back supports - cause they are right where people rest their hands entering the plane.
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After a fair amount of nutplane futzing, the flap mechanism is permanently installed (at least until interior painting).
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The forward elevator pushrod is in - to insert you slide in from the aft, between the seat back and backage bulkheads. Also, the center seat back support is drilled for nutplates at the top.
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Begining the flap motor channel install - so I can drill/rivet the upper flap bracket in place and attach to the seat back channel.
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This install took a bunch of clamps and drilling various holes (per plans).
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I used a 14V bench power supply to test the flap mechanism - cause it makes cool noises.
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Match drilling the flap control electronics to the back of the seat channel.
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The various bits of the flap channel are riveted in place - now ready to prime the whole assembly.
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Installing nutplates into the upper side of F-785A.
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Reassemble enough of the flap channel so that F-785A can be match drilled on the side for nutplates.
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The F-785 seat bulkhead support is now drilled for nutplate install. Joy - more nutplates. Ugh.
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Max trimmed the F-7109 rib reinforcement.
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Max drilled a hole for the ELT antenna, but he was a bit careless. I needed to slightly move the hole to the correct location. This will work out okay, because the antenna will hide the boo-boo.
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I've countersunk the longerons where the seat bulkhead attaches - per plans.
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More work installing the landing gear. At this point I needed to stop and remove the gear - because the QB folks incorrectly used a AN470 rivet where a AN426 was called for.
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Pretty.
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I've replaced the incorrect rivets - notice the countersunk pop rivet.
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The landing gear is now drilled to match the fuse.
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Wow - look at this pile of tools. This is an example of how a little thing like drilling and mounting gear can equate to a lot of work. I needed all of these tools to perform this task.
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This is an example of 'making lemonade cause you have lemons' - I needed to install a shim for the area my helper messed up. By using a bit of alclad I can ensure a good ground plane connection for the ELT antenna.
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Drilling and installing the side nutplates on F-785A.
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Match drilling the F-7109 stiffener to the center forward rib.
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Cutting a bit of clearance for the center rudder peddal support.
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Match drilling my replacement aft bulkheads.
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Match drilling the aft bulkhead to the fuse.
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Today is priming day - look at this mountain of stuff I've fabricated and been waiting to prime.
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The aft bulkhead is now riveted together, the aft side must be flat so that the vertical stab can be attached.
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Now I'm attaching the side nutplates to F-766A.
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Install the top left handed nutplates on F-766A.
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More nutplates - installing F-983C.
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The rudder stops are ready to install after the tail is on.
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This is cool - now the electric aileron trim is fully assembled.
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The seat back supports are now riveted in place.
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The central control weldament is installed - at least temporarily. At each bearing I needed two -10 and one -10L washers.
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Drilled a hole for control stick wiring - per max size specified by Van's.
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I've finished the rudder pedal assembly. Pretty. Nothing tightened all the way down, but enough to put into the fuse.
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Drilling the brake pivot holes in the rudder peddal 'ears.' I've angled the brake peddals slightly forward to prevent accidentally applying them during landing.
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The peddals are now drilled to the brakes.
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Measuring instruments and marking holes on the 'affordable panels' subpanels.
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Over the last few weeks I've been building this audio panel during lunch at Apple.
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This is my lame attempt to record my Dynon serial number - it didn't work out so well.
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I cleaned the garage and shop - brought up a bunch of tools I had scattered.
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I've drilled pilot holes in the panel for the various holes I'm going to punch out.
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I went over to Leland's house in Pleasanton - he was kind enough to let me use their EAA chapter's instrument punch. This tool is really cool.
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A beauty shot of Leland and his plane.
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Drilling the rudder peddal bearings to the side of the fuse.
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Drilling the center rudder support to the firewall and central bearing block.
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Previously I had copied the screw hole locations to these forward tunnel cover pieces. Today I drilled the tunnel covers.
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The forward tunnel covers fit well.
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I've dimpled and riveted the firewall recess. The dimpled stainless fit the rivets better than I expected.
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Drill pilot holes in the F-741B tunnel cover, so I can match drill with the Z channels already screwed into the fuse floor.
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Using the unibit to make holes for mixture, throttle and carb heat cables.
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Dimpled the F-982D heat baffle so I can prime it.
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My firewall forward kit arrived, this is just part of the shipment. It took a while to inventory.
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I purchased this great Dotco angle drill on eBay. Only $90! The going price new is $500. This drill is a real joy to use, much better than that crummy angle drill kit that clamps onto my Sioux air drill.
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Another photo of the firewall forward kit.
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I finally completed all the prep needed to match drill the center top bulkhead to the firewall. I've also match drilled all the other holes in all the top bulkhead components.
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I've drilled the forward tunnel cover so I can countersink and rivet.
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For some reason I don't really enjoy countersinking. However, the panel needs a bunch of countersinks for various 5 and 3 size rivets.
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The countersinking of the tunnel cover is complete.
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I've now riveted the vent portion of the subpanel. It can now be primed.
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The forward tunnel cover is now done - so it can be primed.
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I've drilled and dimpled the battery box. Here I'm drilling lightening holes.
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The battery box is now completed. Squeezing the last few rivets needed some extra washers underneath the rivet set - to prevent bending the bottom flange on the box.
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Drilling the battery hold down plate lightening holes.
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Marked the rivet positions on the F-7172D solenoid reinforcement plate, trim the F-688 top gusset.
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Painting the battery box with Rustolium high temperature black paint, so the lightening holes I drilled won't rust.
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Assembling the belcrank to the fuse. After fitting, I remove the spacers for priming.
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Match drilling the VA-161 gascolator reinforcement bracket to the firewall.
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Part way through the firewall drilling.
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Drilling the F-782C floor cover to the stiffeners - per plans. Btw: I love this eBay drill!
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Match drill the firewall recess so I can install nutplates to F-782C. I was sloppy and let the rightmost drill hole 'wander' but I think my boo-boo will be covered by the screw head.
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Using a 2 1/8" hole saw to drill the heat vent opeing. The plans call for 2", but I don't have a hole saw of that size - but it will fit the heater box just fine.
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Temporarily bolting the heat box in place. Before final assembly I'll add some high temp RTV, but this will need to wait for the recess riveting.
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Dimpling the bottom skin for the auto pilot servo bracket.
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This is my 'art' photo - from the bottom of the skin after riveting the four auto pilot bracket rivets. Beck was bucking from the other side.
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Done riveting the autopiliot bracket.
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The last two rivets on this longeron had to wait a couple of weeks ago - cause I didn't have the correct sized rivets. The correct rivets arrived from Van's - so I could finish up the riveting today.
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The battery box is totally finished now - i.e. I just installed the nutplates.
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The nutplates for F-782C are now installed in the firewall recess.
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I've countersunk all the holes in the VA-161 gascolator reinforcement.
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Drilled the remaining nutplate holes in F-782C - now this goes to priming.
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Bent the heat baffle openings.
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Drilled the right forward seat cover to #19 and installed a nutplate for the forward tunnel cover to attach.
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I did a pretty crummy job riveting these nutplates into the firewall recess, but stainless is such a pain in the ass - I'm not going to replace them.
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This morning before work I temporarily installed the battery box.
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I finally cut the schedule 125 tubing that my tech advisor recommended for wing conduit.
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After fitting the 'snowboard rack' angle, I marked approximate rivet locations as a prelude to match drilling.
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Match drilled the various stiffeners to the forward center rib.
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I deburred and dimpled a bunch of misc. forward fuse parts.
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Soon I'll be installing these vent inlets, I used a scotchbright pad to remove various molding marks.
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Marked the screw holes for most of the instruments in the panel.
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The screw holes are now drilled to #21 size - some may need enlarging or slight adjustment.
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The F-688 gusset is supposed to be quite beveled to the aft, this was my first attempt. After drilling I decided I needed to remove a bit more material.
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The F-6111 skin stiffeners have been trimmed to fit. On the Matronics archives a bunch of folks said this took a long time, but mine fit in rather easily.
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Pretty! The turtledeck is now match drilled.
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A shot of how the F-6111 stiffener turned out - I think I might need to twist it a bit more.
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The various turtledeck related holes are now dimpled.
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Getting ready to bevel the various turtledeck and forward fuse covers.
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Part way through beveling all the edges that have lap joints with other skins.
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The 'easy' dimples are done - i.e. things I can reach with the squeezer. Tomorrow will be dimpling table day.
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I was thinking this dimpling would take a while, but I'm definitely faster at this stuff. Here, I'm doing the turtle deck.
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A bit of fuellube and the gascolator quickdrain is installed. I discovered Van's is one plug short for an extra gascolator output, I'll order that someday.
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Today was priming day - I primed a bunch of parts (including the inside of the skins), here are the parts I chose to take back upstairs.
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A photo for the record: The inside of the gascolator is nice and clean. I'll check it again after running some fuel through the system.
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I started riveting the bottom piece into the heat baffle, but I had to stop cause the primer is still too fragile.
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Installed fuel and oil fittings on the transducer manifold.
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Riveted on the gascolator refinorcement bracket.
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Riveted on the center rudder pedal bracket.
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A photo of the installed gascolator - pretty.
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Countersink the front main gear mounting brackets.
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My Garmin GNS-430 and CDI arrived today from John Starck avionics. John did a great job with the harness.
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The right gear is bolted in place, however I need crows feet before I can torque where the gear attaches to the spar.
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I've made cardboard templates for the areas on the floor and side where I'll lose access once the gear is installed - this should make cutting sound proofing easier in the future.
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The left gear is now bolted in place.
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Installed the brake fluid resovour.
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A bit of high temp RTV to prevent CO leaking in from the firewall.
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Installed the elevator bellcrank. I noticed that my autopilot servo had been damaged in shipment, sent it back to Trutrak - they did a great job of sending back a new servo without even waiting for my damaged servo to arrive.
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Installed the polyflow fitting onto the brake resovour.
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Installed nutplates (per plans) for the oil pressure hose.
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Installed the brass polyflow fittings onto the brake cylinders. Used a bit of peramtex #2 on the NPT threads.
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To make room for the fuse I needed to ditch some old shelves from the garage.
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Uh - this is where the roof that our house builders installed leaked. Dumped a bunch of water on my instruments, fortunately everything was sealed in bags.
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The static tubing is now installed - this was a royal pain in the ass. Needed to use hot water to expand the tubes for the T fitting.
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The four rivets in the middle were only installed as pop rivets by the QB guys for some reason. I drilled out the pop rivets and installed the rivets in the plans.
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The horizontal stabilizer is now installed. Pretty F'n cool.
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The rear snowboard support is now bolted in place, as are the seatbelt cables.
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More pretty pictures.
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I made this cool aluminum drill block to hold the two arms perpendicular and drilled the two arms.
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The aft spar is drilled - I used a 3/16 bit as a spacer.
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Now that the elevators are temporarily installed I can install the elevator pushrod and set the exact length, per plans.
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I've drilled the back of the stab.
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I used a 12 inch #30 drill bit to help ensure that the hole is perfectly perpendicular.
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The plans say to trim 5/8 inch off the bottom of the VS front spar. I'm a plans following monkey.
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Clamping the front VS spar bracket in place.
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Drilled, countersunk and riveted the aft tiedown bracket.
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Countersunk the top two aft skin holes so I can rivet this someday.
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Clamping the elevator stop in position - I needed to trim a bit off of the longerons so the VS would be able to sit flush with the bulkhead and this stop.
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Pilot drilled the front VS bracket.
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Damn - it kinda looks like an airplane.
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After lots of measuring I'm ready to drill the bottom four bolt holes for the VS.
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Also after centering the VS on the offset front bracket, I could drill the holes for the rivets. I was only able to reach seven holes while on the fuse. The others will have to be drilled later.
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Oops - that previous entry was wrong, now I'm preparing to drill the bottom four holes.
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The bottom VS holes are now drilled.
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Now the front VS bracket can be drilled to full size and removed.
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The top four rivet holes needed to be drilled off of the plane.
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The plans call for adding two rivets to the bottom hinge bracket, so I drilled and countersunk these holes. Later I riveted these two rivets.
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Pretty - However, the middle bearing needs to be adjusted slightly.
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I used a unibit to expand the openings for the VSI and altimeter.
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Turned out pretty good - I needed to cut a slot for the CDI knob as well. This picture makes the holes look kinda rough but they are really quite nice.
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Started mating the rudder bottom fairing by first trimming to the lines on the part. This was kinda a mistake, cause the cutout they have marked for the rudder horn isn't quite in the right place.
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Installed a few MK 319 pop rivets on holes that were inaccessible for bucking. About four on the rudder.
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Trimmed the bottom fairing.
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Fortunately my old composite airplane tools included a long angle aluminum sanding block.
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Today went to fly in my friend Hedley's Pitts. Alas, had to bail cause a couple of the plugs were severely fouled.
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However, I did notice a Grob at the field, it has the ELT remote control mounted on the back of the baggage bulkhead. Exactly where I had been considering it for my RV. If my DAR has questions about this location, I'll point to this Grob as an example. You can dimly see the ACK control panel through the canopy.
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I could have done a better job jigging the fairing. However, this is my first time mating fiberglass to metal - I picked this part cause it won't be so visible. A bit of micro and all will be well (I think).
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Mating the filler pieces to the panel, match drilling per the Affordable Panels plans. Very fun.
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Drilled first with a #27 bit, then expanded to #19 after using the filler piece as a drill jig for both sides.
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Countersink for the screws.
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Countersink for the rivets that hold in the nutplates.
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I match drilled the NACA air inlets to the fuse walls.
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I made a bunch of these little aluminum 'washers' to go behind the pop rivets when they attach the NACA ducts to the fuse. Otherwise the pop rivets would pull right through the plastic.
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Eww - the dreaded proseal. Used to seal the NACA ducts to the skins.
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Done - it turned out real nice.
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The plug I needed for the unused gascolator outlet arrived a few days ago, so I installed it with a bit of fuel lube.
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All the various battery box bits are now fully assembled. I had been waiting for the last parts to get painted.
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The pitch servo can now be bolted into place. I used drilled head AN3 bolts - I'll safety these later.
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In order to fabricate the flap pushrods I needed to make a jig to hold the rod while tapping. I drilled a slightly undersized hole then cut this block in two.
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Taping away...
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Two finished pushrods.
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The pitch servo pushrod is now installed - I needed to fabricate a spacer first. The adjusted length of the pushrod still isn't quite right. I'll need to make sure there is no way the controls can jam.
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Pretty.
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Test fitting the Dynon mag compass bracket I have fabricated.
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Begin rough triming the fiberglass end piece for the hstab.
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Expanding a hole in one of the aft bulkheads so I can route wires to the tail.
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After much net reading I chose this location to install a plastic grommet for the tail light wiring.
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Began installing the rudder stops (per plans). Some filing will be needed later.
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Beginning to install the crotch strap kit.
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I removed the VS so I could squeeze the aft two rivets on each rudder stop.
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Drilling the crotch bulkheads for nutplates.
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Countersunk the various rivet holes in the crotch kit.
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Fabricated the PA-1 panel stiffener, match drilled, and countersunk holes for the 1/8" rivets that hold the stiffener to the panel.
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Drilled the panel filler pieces for the headphone/microphone jacks.
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Match drilling the radio stack brackets to the panel.
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A bit of scotchbrite action was needed to let the garmin tray fit into the radio stack opening.
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Just making sure the radio fits in the opening.
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I've just match drilled a couple of rivet holes in the switch panel for the angle that mounts it to PA-1 stiffener.
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Cutting openings for the vents into the switch panel bracket.
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Drilling the switch panel brackets for the skin holes. Later I installed these brackets then match drilled these holes into the skin.
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I don't remember what I was doing in this picture, but damn that is a nice job of riveting.
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Drilling #40 holes in the switch panel stiffener for the rivets that will hold this stiffener to the panel.
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Match drilling the stiffener to the switch sub panel.
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Not a bad job of riveting. I've learned that for best apperances you should err on the side of countersinking a bit too deep rather than too shallow.
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Begin fabricating mounting brackets for the strobe powersupply. I'm going to mount the supply just aft of the baggage compartment, but I want to raise it up from the floor to make room for nutplates. I did a bunch of other stuff today, but it was down in the garage and I forgot to take pictures (mostly panel install stuff).
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Match drilling the air panels.
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Match drilling the side brackets to the panel.
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Getting ready to rough cut the subpanel for the radio stack.
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Subpanel now cut for the radios - I'll add angle to stiffen things back up.
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Almost looks like a radio stack.
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Drilling the strobe mount bracket.
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Cutting the boost pump stiffener panel.
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Fabricating the parking brake bracket by match drilling from the standard bracket.
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The parking brake bracket is now countersunk.
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Drilling the wheel nuts for the axle lift.
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A bunch of parts ready for priming.
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The panel brackets are now match drilled to the fuse and can be countersunk.
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Countersinking.
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Adding screw holes for the PA-1 angle.
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Drilling the nutplates for the switch panel support.
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Pretty - the center support for the switch subpanel is attached.
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Adding nutplates to the PA-1 panel stiffener angle.
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