I know I have been dragging my feet lately. This week was supposed to be the week I got back on track. However our dog, Bella, had become very ill and was hospitalized on Wednesday, July 1 due to high liver enzymes in the blood. We brought her home for the weekend since the vet was closed for the holidays and kept up a strict fluid, food, and medicine regiment. We took her back in yesterday morning for a progress blood test, and the test revealed that her liver was failing. In the matter of about 3 weeks, our happy little girl had wasted away, losing all of her energy, and losing more than a third of her body weight. We made the impossible decision to have her put down yesterday morning. I buried her in my dad's back yard in a nice little spot between some Crate Myrtles. We didn't even have her for 3 years, but she brightened our lives so much. I so looked forward to flying with her. It didn't help that yesterday was also the anniversary for my younger brother being killed in a car accident three years ago. I will try to resume work on the airplane next week.

Last night I got all the fittings installed in the end rib. One more proseal session and I should be done with the nasty stuff! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I don't want to handle my camera with that stuff all over my hands.

Last night dad and I finally got back at the tank. We got the last rib installed. This is the inboard rib, so we squeezed the rivets instead of bucking them. We also installed the tank attach angle and reinforcement plate. Next time we will install all the plumbing fittings, flop tube, anti-hang-up bracket, a few other small parts, then the baffle. After that it will be time to leak test. Then the rest of the wing goes together quickly. Then it's on to control surfaces. Then I'm out of money and will be waiting until I can afford the fuselage... =D

I borrowed Vern's bending/cutting/flaring tools and fabricated my fuel return line and vent line for the tank.

This is the inboard end of the tank, where the lines will pass through the inboard rib, which is not installed yet. The large line is the fuel return, the small line is the vent.


This is the outboard-most bay of the tank, and is where the vent line terminates, since this will be the highest point in the tank. If you think about it, it makes sense to have the place where you fill the tank and the vent line at the highest point.


This is the center of the tank, and is where the fuel return terminates. I didn't terminate the fuel return in the inboard-most bay, even though it would be the shortest run. Why? Because I want the warm returned fuel to have a chance to cool back down before it gets to the fuel pickup.

Last night dad and I got the last interior rib and the outboard end rib installed. We also installed the cover plate for my misplaced hole on the baffle.

Last night dad and I got four of the five interior ribs installed.

Last night dad and I had our first proseal session on the left tank. We got all the stiffeners, the filler neck, and the drain flange installed. Ahhh, the smell of proseal and MEK, and the mess it makes...I had almost forgotten... =D

Last night I got all the last minute things done to prepare for tank assembly. I started by dimpling the tank skin.



After dimpling the skin, I used a scotch brite pad to rough up the inside of the skin where the ribs and stiffeners will go, then wiped down the inside of the skin with MEK. After that, I drilled all my holes in the ribs for fuel return and vent lines. I also match drilled the T-410 nose rib stiffeners for the two end ribs in the tank. I fabricated the anti-hangup bracket for the inboard most end rib, and also the trap door for the second most inboard rib. I should have everything lined up to start attaching parts next time. Next session should include proseal and rivets!

Yesterday I got in a little time. I match drilled the holes in the tank attach angle and the inboard rib. I also match drilled the fuel cap flange. I machine countersunk the holes in the fuel cap flange and the holes in the access plate stiffening ring.

Last night dad and I worked on the tank. Dad deburred ribs, stiffeners, and skins. I finished fabricating the tank attach angle. I put notches in the edge to clear the rivet heads for the skin to rib joint, because on the right tank, I ran into an issue at assembly with this!



I borrowed Vern's fly cutter and cut the hole in the inboard rib for the access plate and in the baffle for the fuel level sensor. I ended up cutting the hole in the wrong spot on the baffle, so I made a cover plate that I will rivet in place to cover my mistake. I then cut the hole in the proper location and transfer drilled the hole patter from the old cover plate for the nutplates.









I then transfer drilled the hole pattern from the stiffening ring onto the inboard rib for the nutplates.



Ribs and stiffeners are ready to go!

This past weekend I was able to get a few hours in on the tank. The first thing I did was disassemble the tank so that I could cleco on the stiffeners for match drilling. This also allowed me to cleco the z-bracket on from the inside, so that I could mount the entire tank to the wing. It took about an hour to disassemble and reassemble the tank. I match drilled the stiffeners, then bolted the tank to the wing so that I could match drill the tank skin to leading edge joint plate holes.





After that I machine countersunk the line of holes on the tank skin where the rear baffle attaches. This wore my elbow out!



Finally, I disassembled the tank for deburring and started fabricating my tank attach angle. My bandsaw is junk and won't cut 3/16" aluminum angle, so I had to make the rough cuts with my cutoff wheel / die grinder. That took forever. I called it a day.

Saturday afternoon I was fortunate enough to get to sandbag a seat (ie - be a freeloader) in Vern's RV-6A for a flight from Peachtree City, GA to Pell City, AL for a "$100 hamburger". The flight was fun, and we had 6 RV's in formation for the flight over. On the way back, we practiced an emergency landing and performed a power off stall - scary stuff! Vern let me fly the whole way and made me think I did most of the work for the takeoff and landing. He was gracious enough to sign off my log book again as well.





The rest of the photos can be seen HERE.

Last night dad and I got a good night in working on the tank. We started by assembling the tank - ribs in the skin, then attaching the baffle to the rear of the ribs. Then we set the tank on the wing and clecoed it in place. The gap between the tank and leading edge was perfect this time, so we didn't have to file down the edge of the skin like we had to do on the right tank.

We used Dan Checkoway's method for drilling the z-brackets on both wings. As of the last time I came to the shop, the z-brackets were already bolted to the wing. With the tank clecoed to the wing, you only have access to the inboard most z-bracket - I drilled (with my 12" #30 bit) and clecoed the holes to attach the bracket to the tank. The next step is to pull the leading edge assembly off the wing. Easier said than done, as the joint plate is attached to the leading edge assembly and it is stuffed under the tank skin. We got the leading edge off, but ended up bending up the rear flange of one of the ribs pretty bad. I was able to straighten it out with my flanging tool, and it is fine. With the leading edge assembly off, you now have access to the outboard most z-bracket. Again, drilled and clecoed. Now, I took the skin and interior ribs off the wing, leaving only the baffle and outboard ribs of the tank still attached to the wing. Now you have access to drill the remaining 5 z-brackets. This is an involved and lengthy process, but it ensures perfect alignment of the tank WRT the wing.

My final task for the evening was to match drill the tank skin to the ribs and baffle, and to match drill the z-bracket/baffle/rib joints. While I was doing this, dad fabricated all the stiffeners for the tank. I will match drill these next time. I did get the leading edge assembly back on the wing before closing up the shop.

Tank in the cradle being match drilled:


Z-brackets attached to the tank:

I snuck in one hour today on the airplane and got all the nutplates riveted to the z-brackets, and all the z-brackets bolted to the spar.

Yesterday I ordered another quart kit of proseal from Van's for my left tank. I also stopped by Aircraft Spruce and picked up some more K1000-3 nutplates since I ran out assembling the z-brackets. I was going to just buy like 100 nutplates, but they were over $0.50 ea! I settled for 20 nutplates. I also checked Spruce's price on proseal - it was $111 for the qt. kit! Van's was $50 shipped. Building an airplane ain't cheap! It's amazing to me how much I've already spent.

Last night dad and I worked on the Z-brackets for the left tank. We are using Dan Checkoway's method again (we did on the right tank as well) for drilling the z-brackets. For more on Dan's method, see my entry for the right tank z-brackets HERE.I ran out of nutplates and will have to run by Aircraft Spruce tonight to get some more, so we called it a night early.

Yesterday I put in a good day on the airplane. I finally got the wing level and straight. I had to do a lot more tweaking, but eventually got the twist out of the wing. The picture below is of my DIY plumb bob made from a clevis and some fishing line to measure twist.



Here is the left wing clamped down.



Next, I got out the main skins and made my wing walk doubler. Here is a shot if the doubler being match drilled to the skin.



Then, I installed the main skins (top and bottom) and match drilled them to the ribs.



After that, I built the leading edge and installed it on the wing for match drilling.



The inboard most rib comes with no rivet holes drilled. You have to install and align it, then cram the tank attach strip in between the skin and the rib. The tank attach strip is the thin piece of silver metal extending past the blue plastic covered skin. Once you have everything aligned, you drill the holes.



Next, I enlarged the hole for the tiedown. The hole was off center, so I enlarged it with a carbide bit on my pencil grinder, then rounded the hole out with a sanding drum on the pencil grinder.



Lastly, I cleaned up and laid out some of the left fuel tank components. It's time to get dirty with proseal again!



PS - the weather was FANTASTIC yesterday - it made it up into the 70's, so I had the shop doors open.

I still go help my buddy Vern work on his RV-10 nearly every Tuesday night. He sent me some pictures he has recently taken - the plane is really coming together and will probably have a first flight by summer.

Me installing the autopilot roll servo in the wing, taking my time to read the plans carefully!


Steve Castlen posing with the RV-10 (sans wings) outside the hangar. Steve is actually 1/3 owner in the plane.

Well, I have broken the spell after a nearly 2 month hiatus. I made it out to the shop and actually put in 3 hours. It was good to fire up the compressor and kerosene heater.

I started by cleaning up the shop. I put away all my tools that I had left laying out and straightened up my plans area. I got out my tools to drill the rivets out on the main rib on the tip that I prematurely set. I shouldn't have set these until the tip ribs were also in place. It was a little difficult, as the rivet heads were on the rib side of the joint, so getting in there with a drill and keeping the alignment was tough, but I got it done without significantly enlarging the holes.



Next I finished riveting the few ribs we didn't get to on the rear spar. I was able to get these with a squeezer - good thing because I was alone in the shop!

Next, I attached the bracket to the outboard wing rib that will help hold the wing in the jig. In this picture, you can see the clecos are now in place where the rivets were to hold the end rib to the main spar. Also, I ended up flipping the bracket upside down to help level things out in the jig, so it isn't attached how it is shown in the picture. After that, I set the wing in the jig.



Getting the wing level, straight, twist-free, sag-free, and plumb is a tedious job. You go through and work on getting each thing right, then you go back through and check again and have to make minor corrections. You keep doing this until nothing has changed and you're happy with everything. I quit tonight on my 4th iteration of the process, but was very close to getting it nailed down.

First, I installed my "jack" under the middle of the rear spar to take the sag out of the wing. The jack is just a piece of all-thread with nuts, washers, and blocks of wood. To check for sag, I put a cleco in each end of the wing and ran some fishing line between them. Your wing is sag-free when the line goes through the center of all the holes in the wing (if you line up the fishing line correctly).



Next, I checked the wing for level from root-to-tip. I used my 4-foot level set up on 1-2-3 blocks to clear the rivets and tiedown attachment. Since the wing is about 11 feet long and my level is only 4 feet, I moved it up and down the wing checking for level. I corrected for level here by shimming between the root end of the wing and where it sits on the wing stand.





Next, I checked for level side-to-side (top surface of the wing to bottom surface of the wing) at each end of the wing (root and tip). Getting both of these level gets the twist out of the main spar. To correct for this, I adjusted my wing jig - each stand has a piece of all-thread supporting the piece of angle the main spar sits on. By adjusting the length of this, you can change the twist.





Next, I checked the wing for square. To check for this, I simply put a square on the aft side of the main spar and moved the rear spar until one of the ribs lined up with the square. Each end (root and tip) of the rear spar gets clamped to the jig.



The last thing to check for is twist along the entire wing at the rear spar. To check for this, I dropped a plumb bob from the main spar and measured from the rear spar to the string. You do this at each end (root and tip) and move the rear spar until both measurements are within 1/64". No picture of this process.

So then after you dial in all that, you start over and check everything again. Something always changes and you have to tweak. Like I said earlier, I was on the 4th iteration and was checking twist along the entire wing when I quit. I was close to finishing, but wanted to call it a night. Next time I will get it dialed in and clamp everything down. It's great to be back!

Well, I didn't make it out to work on my airplane this week, but last night I did go out the the Falcon hangar to help Vern pound out some more work on his RV-10. We got the second to last skin on for good - the rear deck skin. I had to crawl up in the tail, got proseal all over me, and dropped a tungsten bucking bar on my chest. I had a ball and can't wait to get dirty and beat up by my project. This time I'm serious - Monday night I will be out in my shop, be it by myself or with my dad!

I promise I'm not dead. I've just been...unmotivated for the past 2+ months. I'm hoping to get out in the shop tonight and start making progress again.