Completed Structure Overview (655.25hrs)

I completed another part so it's time for an update to the big picture. I'm leaving the Fuel Tanks as "in work" until they get tested, so those are still highlighted red. I finished the ailerons so those turned blue. And I'm starting on the flaps, so I went ahead and highlighted those as "in work".

655.25 hrs Total Time Building
  214.75 hrs of the total belong to the Wings (includes tank time)
     75.25 hrs solely to the Fuel Tanks
     25.5 hrs solely to the Ailerons
  440.5 hrs is a mixture of tail and fuselage, both still have work to be done on them

 As always blue is completed and red is in work.

 

Finished Ailerons

A productive weekend leaves me feeling good again.
- Finished the ailerons
- Ran Conduit in the wings
- Finshed the Flap Gap Fairings
- Hung the wing skins in place
- Started the Flaps section

It felt good to finish up another section of the plans and to do it so quickly when compared to the tanks. The Flap Fairings have been patiently waiting to be completed for a while and I crossed those off the to-do list. Conduit needed to be ran and I finished that as well. I cut the little tabs off the 22(?) flap ribs, sanded and deburred them as well, while grilling outside. I hung the skins in place, placed the ribs back on the shelf, then cleaned the shop and put my tools away to be prepped and ready to start the next section after Memorial Day weekend.

Friday May 17 - 1.25hrs - Riveting Ailerons
Saturday May 18 - 4.25hrs
             2.0hrs - Riveting Ailerons, proseal trailing edges
             2.25hrs - Run Conduit
Sunday May 19 - 3.25hrs
             1.75hrs - Finished Ailerons
             0.75hrs - Finished Flap Gap Fairings
             0.75hrs - Cut Flap Ribs

Finished Ailerons Total Time = 25.5hrs

I was able to use the squeezer for all but the last rivet and instead of fighting to get a solid rivet installed there (and possibly bending the edge of the aileron) I just popped a blind in and moved on. I used an MK-319 rivet instead of the the AD3 rivet that is called out. The blind rivet is weaker than the solid, but in this case the material will fail long before either rivet would, so it doesn't matter.

I used an extension on the unibit to drill through the wing walk ribs. I then sanded the holes down with a dremel to clean up the hole.

I ran all the conduit through the wings. I just enlarged the standard hole that you create in the plans. Somewhere Van's aircraft has posted that enlarging this hole to 3/4" is acceptable to run their conduit through the wings. I still went with their conduit even though the corrugated edges make it difficult to pull through the holes and I've heard it's difficult to pull wires through, for three reasons:

1. It sretches, help during flexing of the wings.

2. It's made of Nylon which has a temperature range of -40 to 185 degrees F.

3. It's cheap.

 

 



A look at the finished ailerons.

Wing bottom skins hung in place.

 

Aileron Work

After completing many small little jobs around the house, including the garden (yay!), and spending a great deal of time trying to diagnose the problem with the car.....well, long story short, I went to buy the parts on Friday and they are not in stock (every project I do I have to order something; why is that?). Parts on order allowed me to get a little work done on the ailerons.

It's been easy work these last few days, nothing frustrating. I didn't build a stand for the ailerons as I never saw a need. It was simple enough to work on my flat table top. I did screw up on cutting the extruded trailing edge to the correct lengh. It still boggles my mind how I could have messed that up since I marked the parts when they were clecoed together. But, it's still long enough to be used on the flaps so I just swapped the parts out and continued on.

Saturday May 11 - 3.75hrs - deburring, dimpling, countersinking
Sunday May 12 - 3.0hrs - riveting
Tuesday May 14 - 1.5hrs - riveting

Total Aileron Hours = 20.5

Nice and straight.

 

 

I also had a chance to fly my friend's new-to-them 1963 C182 that is in mint condition! A beautiful vintage airplane.

 

 

Finished the garden. 8'x4' bed built from cedar. Includes, but not limited to: tomatoes, squash, zucchini, onions, strawberries, peas, beans, jalapeno, peppers. My next "other" project is going to be building a small, automated irrigation system.

Sometimes things just don't work out.

Someone made the statement to me "I don't see how you do it, how do you have the time to work on the plane and have the baby"

Well it's about pattern, discipline, momentum, and an awesome wife. You create a daily pattern; start your morning, feed the baby, go to work, pick up the baby, go home, play/feed/bathe/calm/whatever with baby while wife does her thing, eat dinner, clean up, out to the shop while it's Mommy time with baby. Have discipline to stick to the pattern or else time evaporates into thin air and the night/day/week is shot. Keep the momentum going; keep repeating this until something big is accomplished. If you get tired of repeat don't worry life will interfere plenty of times to keep things interesting. Last but not least, have an awesome wife that likes the daily plan and execution as much as you do and that supports you and your decisions.

Now for that part where life will interfere.
My wife created a side project for me...."I want a garden, a raised garden bed" she said. Ok, no problem, I actually really encourage this idea and am excited to grow some fresh veggies and herbs. We've had planters and toyed around with tomatoes, peppers, and such. But now were getting a bit more serious, digging up a spot in the yard, building things, hauling dirt.....you know fun stuff. This should be a Saturday's worth of work, but then....

Rain all weekend, off and on, just enough to tease you. And forecast for rain next weekend just to torment you. Plans for the following weekends just to add the pressure of getting it done this weekend. Adding in Hurricane Ayla hitting ground at our household made it an intersting weekend. I mean why does a 4 month old need to cry for hours on end with no resolution possible? To add to the mix I found leaking antifreeze under the car....crap.

So let's review, I now have: an unfinished garden, a crying 4 month old, a car that needs repair, and only an hours work on the plane. .....pattern fail, discipline fail, momentum fail, but still an awesome wife.


May
Wednesday 1st - 1hr deburring aileron parts
Sat-Sun 4th-5th  - 1hr spread over the entire weekend deburring parts durring the rain showers.


Busy all week with other obligations and now having to fix a car....will repost when able to get back at building.

Started Ailerons

I started building the Ailerons this past weekend. I stayed dry in the shop as it rained almost the entire weekend. I small break in the weather on Saturday night allowed me to sit outside and cut all the small stiffening angles while smoking a large slab of beef on the grill. A nice evening out on the back back patio, propping my feet up, cutting the 32 small angles out, and throwing extra wood on the fire to keep the smoke rolling....as if building an airplane wasn't enjoyable already.

The ailerons are a welcome change from the drudgery of the fuel tanks. Cleco, drill, deburr, rivet...no mess. It's nice. The ailerons require an extra check here and there to be sure the correct parts are in there correct places. The skins aren't exactly the same and you need to be sure you're using the correct side up, etc. I clearly marked the skins and all the parts to reduce the confusion. When I first clecoed all the parts together, as the instructions state, on a flat table, the aileron was out of alignment, kinda wavy. I set that one aside and worked on the second. This time I clecoed the trailing edge first and then the nose skin and everything lined up perfectly. Sometimes the methodology in the instructions are not the best. I disassembled the first aileron and re-clecoed in the same manner and it completely straightened out. Drilled both parts and called it a night.

Saturday 4.5hrs
Sunday 4.5hrs
Monday 1.25hrs
All hours to ailerons.

Placing the stainless steel tube counterweight into the leading edge of the ailerons.

Wrapping the leading edge skin around the assembly was somewhat difficult work. A little grunting and a shove got the holes lined up.

My deburr helper, until....

 

 

....deburr helper number two got fussy!

Backriveting the stiffening angles onto the aileron skins.

Visiting Daddy in the shop to check on the progress of her airplane.

Ailerons clecoed and drilled. Ready for deburr and dimpling.

Completed Structure Overview (626hrs)

Time for an update to the big picture. I'm leaving the Fuel Tanks as "in work" until they get tested, so those are still highlighted red. And I'm starting on the ailerons tomorrow, so I went ahead and highlighted those as "in work" as well.

626 hrs Total Time Building
185.5 hrs of the total belong to the Wings (includes tank time)
75.25 hrs solely to the Fuel Tanks
440.5 hrs is a mixture of tail and fuselage, both still have work to be done on them

 

As always blue is completed and red is in work.



Finished Fuel Tanks

Well.....I finished building the Fuel Tanks. I still need to test and then install them. But, for now, I'm done with Proseal, MEK, and the slow process of tank building. I don't feel as excited or relieved as I thought I would be when I finally finished these things, maybe I'll feel that way when they are tested and installed. Other than being a complete PITA, the tanks assembled in a straight forward manner without much head-scratching. The one hang up I had with the tanks was the very last step when installing the Fuel Drain valves. In my mind the valves should have screwed all the way in, when in reality they leave about a 1/4" of thread exposed and kinda stick out from the tanks (sorry no picture). So, in an effort to monkey torque these in I galled up the threads a little....oops. I still have plenty of thread engagement and I installed them with Proseal so hopefully no leaking issues....there is always something that leaves you nagging in every section.



Saturday April 20th - 3.25hrs - Finished Vent line install, installed fuel sending units, finished fillet seal edges on last rib.

Sunday April 21st - 6.25hrs - Scuffed baffle, spread Proseal on baffle, riveted baffle, riveted mount brackets

Tuesday April 23rd - 1.5hrs - Finished sealing baffle and shop head of rivets.

Wednesday April 24th - 1.5hrs - Cleaned shop and wiped down tools with MEK to remove all the Proseal. I'm counting this as Fuel Tank time since the tools only required that level of cleaning because of the tanks.

12.5hrs to Fuel Tanks = 75.25 hrs Total Fuel Tank Time

LH Fuel Level Sending Unit Installed. Notice the extra bend near the float I needed to create so the wire wouldn't hit the bottom of the tank.

RH Fuel Level Sending Unit. Same as Left.

 



Getting ready to install aft baffle.

Fuel Tanks complete!

 

 

I slid the fuel tanks under the fuselage for safe storage. In a few weeks, when I know all the Proseal is cured, I will test them and mount them to the wing.