Reposition RV-12 in Wales with the help of an Airbus Pilot

Long day yesterday but a very worthwhile one it was time to move my RV-12 from Manchester to my parents house in Wales something I have been dreading as its a long way from Manchester and I didn’t want to damage anything in the move..... I needn’t have worried.

Got up at 6:15am and headed over to Ashton to collect my friend Rob who was to assist with the move to Wales. He’s back in the UK right now from Dohar in Qatar to get married so he’d offered to help with the move and drive the lorry as he’s an ex HGV driver turned Airbus Pilot for Qatar Airways!

After collecting the lorry we arrived back at mine around 8:30am and had a quick brew then started to pack the truck up which went well with Rob suggesting we put the wing stand on bricks to stop it moving around then tie it into the side of the truck, it wasn’t going anywhere. After that the tail cone and other finished parts went onboard along with the fuselage kit and off we went for the 2 hour 30 minute journey to my folks place in Wales.

Without the aid of his Airbus FMC (flight management computer) Rob predicted our arrival time within 8 minutes of his original estimate which was rather impressive. A quick off load and then to decide how best to store the wings, tailcone, flaperons and horizontal stabilizer outside......? Wings on the stand, tail cone on pallets and other bits carefully placed around these pieces. I have to say Rob was brilliant at this having worked in general haulage for many years he looked at the problem and had it solved and securely wrapped in around an hour. After the unload it was time to head back to Manchester for the workshop benches and tools and this time we brought my Dad back as extra help.

On arrival back in Manchester another cup of tea was required then outside in the rain to load the workshop up before returning to a very damp Wales to unload in the dark. After the unload it was time for tea and then back to Manchester to return the lorry and drop Rob off at home, after being up for 20 hours the airplane move was completed safely and I guess at some in the future I’ll be moving it again once I get another job but for now it lives on a mountain side in Wales.

Plenty of photos online at www.build12.co.uk in the general photo section.

Lovely Pair

Busy day in the garage today with the sole aim of finishing the flaperons and I'm pleased to report I managed it.

The wing kit has taken me 162 hours and 55 minutes to finish and brings the total build time so far to around 285 hours. My next challenge is to move the completed wings, empennage and associated parts to my folks house in Wales which I will do next Tuesday with the help of friends and a rather large lorry as at 15 feet+ plus long for each wing won't fit in your average transit van! Once settled in my temporary home I'll crack on with the fuselage kit and hopefully my Dad will be on hand to help as well which means thinks should move along a little quicker. Nigel my LAA inspector has also agreed to continue on the project as well which I’m pleased about as I hope I’ve gained his trust and he seems happy with the quality of my workmanship.

I will also start studying for the ATPL exams properly after the move as I've invested in Module 1 of a course from Bristol Groundschool and I aim to split my time between the two things whilst job huntint, so plenty to go at over the next few months.

Little and Often

Interesting day for me as I’m sat at hope waiting for a courier to arrive and deliver my latest wine order (which is nice) and another to arrive with my first module for the ATPL exams!!! Been considering starting to study for them since gaining my PPL and with the IMC rating in the bag and the build moving along I decided that’s what I must do next, plus the fact I don’t have any work beyond the end of October I need to have something positive to do each day and a reason to get out of bed each morning.

I’m also hoping to move the aeroplane in the next couple of weeks as I leave this house mid November so its needs to go to its new home...... Still not 100% where that is mind you as a phone call and job offer will change everything last minute - All very exciting and at times quite annoying!!

Managed a couple of hours on the build today and now have the flaperons half skinned and ready for inspection by Nigel my LAA Inspector so hopefully he’ll be over tomorrow or Thursday then it’s finish skinning them, then get them and the wings finally inspected in the daylight and I’ve done as much as I can before the move. My aim was to have the wing kit finished before the move and then its on to the fuselage which is sitting in my garage right now and I have a dilemma do I order the finish kit when I start that or hold off until the work situation is resolved? I always wanted to keep the plane to myself but grouping it may be the only way to fund the continuation of the project......... Some serious chats with my money man once everything settles down in a few weeks.

Drilling, tempoary fitting and deburring

Quick hour and 40 minutes on the build and marked the start of construction of the flaperons after all the preparation. I was a bit rusty using the squeezer on the solid rivets but all went well and I now have all the actuation brackets match drilled and ready to be attached properly.

I aim to have the flaperons completed in the next couple of weeks as the clock is ticking for my move away from Manchester and it would be great to get the flaperons and wings finally inspected and signed off by Nigel my LAA inspector before I leave then I have to find a new guy to take over the inspection process.

It’s been a busy week having driven over 600 miles in just over 24 hours this week as I had an interview on the south coast earlier this week but have nothing to report on the work front currently and I’m also considering life after radio as it seems likely that finding a decent radio job in the current climate might prove difficult. I also managed to fly yesterday with my Dad in my group C172 for the first time since its accident along with my friend John in a Eurostar, to say it was a little hazy would have been an understatement but an enjoyable and challenging time had by all and my new IMC skills came in handy as we climbed through cloud and the visibility dropped at times to around 3km especially heading into the sun.

I was in work this morning at 5.30am and home again at 10:15am although I have to head back in for 10pm tonight..... Lucky me but its the last month of my contract so have to make the most of it.

After the standard bacon and brown sauce sandwich on a Sunday I ventured out in the heavy rain and decided to do an hour or so in the workshop. 3 hours later I decided I’d done enough for today. More flaperon prep and drilling of the counter weights something I don’t think was explained that well in the RV-12 plans so decided to take a few pictures to help fellow builders that you can now see on my website as I always find it good to look at a picture or two before taking on a new task.

All the holes are now drilled apart from the flaperon connection brackets and actuation brackets as these will be done once primed and I’m confident everything will rivet together nicely when the time comes. So next job is to de-grease everything and then prime it all, I can feel a trip to Brown Brothers coming on as stocks are low on a few things so probably best to restock before I leave Manchester in Mid November and who knows where I’ll end up then?

On a more positive note my IMC training is going well and I think with a few more lessons I should be ready for test and safe to say learning to fly under IMC conditons is the hardest thing I’ve done to date in flying.

Flaperon Actutation Brackets - Done

Took advantage of a called off IMC lesson today to work on the flaperon actuation brackets...... Or should I say make them from aluminum stock!

In total about four hours work to make both brackets and I’m as confident as I can be that I’ve done a decent job, all the measurements where checked and double check so they just need priming then I can fit them. Doing these was one of the jobs I feared as I heard lots of other builders having a few issues so I read up, read up some more and then proceeded with caution.

One tricky thing was drilling the hole in the bracket as it called for a 03/16 drill that I didn’t have or at least that’s what I thought, a quick trip to the local diy shop revealed a 03/16 drill is a No.8 or 5mm in new money which I already had so a couple of quid saved on this step.

A Couple Of Hours Outside Turned Into Four

Today I decided to go out to the garage and work on preparing the remaining 4 flaperon skins which went well and now they are all ready to prime so progress made. I also decided to tackle preparing the flaperon pivot brackets and the actuation brackets from raw aluminum - Pivot brackets went well still researching the best method to do the actuation brakcets....... Don't wanna get them wrong as I've given USP and Vans enough money for replacement parts!!

Used the drill press today in anger for the first time and pleased with how it performed and held everything in place whilst I drilled out the holes prior to threading them, amazing how having the right tools makes things go better. My birthday comes up next month so will probably ask for some cash towards a band saw, bit of a luxury I know but a good addition to the workshop all the same.

I reckon today might be my only chance to get on with the build this week as I have flying lessons twice this week IMC test prep hopefully if I fly the ILS well and I have time away lined up this coming weekend, plus need to invest time trying to find another job as that's not really happening right now!

Few Weeks Off Now Back Into The Build

After about 3 weeks off from the build I ventured back out into the garage today and started work on the flaperons and after 3 odd hours I have all but the flaperon skins prepared for primer so that's the next job before making the tie downs and flaperon brackets.... Which looks like a good challenge.

Before I took a break I managed to finish my 2nd wing with a fair amount of help from my Dad and both wings now have pride of place outside next door to the shed..... No idea what next door think but I'm happy to have got this far. Total time on the build to date is in the region of 260 hours or maybe if I'm lucky around a quarter of the way through. I didn't really update the blog for the 2nd wing as it's pretty much the same process as the first wing although I have placed some pictures on my website

Please don't think I've been relaxing too much over the past few weeks, yes I went to Belgium for the Grand Prix which was amazing, stayed with mates for a few days, I also passed my IMC rating written exam (flying test coming soon), got a months contract extension at work and also passed my Class 1 Medical at the CAA Offices at Gatwick Airport so now considering starting to study for the ATPL exams once I finish work and have a better idea of where home / work will be?

If I manage to get another job in radio well the next house will have to have a garage and some space to store stuff so I can continue the build, if I don't manage to get a job straight away then I will move in with my folks for a couple of months and they have plenty of space and I have a feeling my Dad will be itching to assist with the build as he was a huge help doing the 2nd wing skins.

Fingers crossed the Cessna 172 - Victor Alpha I have a share in will go back in the sky in the next week after a 4 month lay off due to some prop damage, then I can go flying without going under the hood as all the flying I've done recently has been in a student / instructor environment and I miss not being able to see where I am going and I hope the new skills I have will benefit my day to day flying.

Left wing finished today

Good productive day and managed to close out the lower left wing tip that means my first wing is finished and stored outside in the wing stand. I need to wrap the wing a little better for long term external storage but I'm very happy to have got this far in 98 hours and 05 minutes or 69 days working on the first wing, although I haven't worked non stop as the whole process is supposed to be fun and not a race.

Clearly I have to decide if I have time to build the right wing as I maybe moving house in October depending on the work situation or lack of work situation..... I imagine the right wing build will be a lot quicker as I have most of the metal primed bar 7 replacement ribs and the skins plus I don't intend to make the mistakes I made on the first wing which led to a fair amount of repair work. I also have to consider my IMC training as that is taking up a fair amount of time and I know need to study for the ground exam but I will have a good think and decide what's possible.

One of the largest challenges of the wing build was bending the wing tip tabs to the correct angles but with a little effort and dinning room table as a flat work surface the whole process went well, very much a case of take you time and do it right. I'm learning the hard way that mistakes cost money so the less made the better!!

Tomorrow I intend to tidy the workshop some more before preparing the replacement ribs and getting the remaining skins out of there crate and blowing some primer on them. I'll probably have to buy some more JC5A as I have about a third of the first tube left (remember I'm dipping every pop rivet in the stuff around 4,000-5,000 to date) and I'll also be into my 2nd 5 litre can of primer soon.

Busy Day

Busy day in the workshop after pretty much a week off due to flying training for my IMC Rating and fair to say my last lesson this week on Thursday it all kinda made sense although it took it out of me some what!

I went out to the workshop around 11:30am and came back in around 7pm after a small break for the F1 Qualifying this afternoon. Main job today was to fit the top rear wing skins to the left wing and pleased to report I managed to get them all secure by close of play and I also managed to use up another box of 1,000 pop rivets - I have no idea how many rivets are in each wing apart from a lot!!

I also managed to cleco all leading edge skins down today and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to rivet these and the wing walk doubler then its time to build the wing tip and the left wing will be finished and my prediction is the first wing will take around 100 hours and the second one maybe 50-60 hours as I won't be making mistakes that need undoing taking up lots time, plus the bulk of the metal prep is done for the right wing.

My spare parts have arrived from America (7 rear ribs) and they will arrive next week so I have everything that is required for the right wing hopefully with just 7 rear ribs to debur, flute and prime before I can start building it up. I also have 2 thumb sized dents on the leading edge of the left wing skins which I believe will fill nicely and will decide later if its something I can do or wait until it goes into to be painting sometime in the future.

Look What I've Made!

A busy weekend preparing the lower left skins and they are now all riveted so the next step is to have the wing inspected which will happen tomorrow when Nigel comes over to have a look and hopefully he'll like what he sees.

So I've spent just over 80 hours preparing this wing but have a feeling the right one will move along a little quicker especially as I won't have to remove the rear ribs on the right wing as I had to on this one as the parts are handed and hard to tell apart or at least that's what I've found so 7 needed replacing as I'd trimmed the rear flange off them and that's required on the plans so they had to be replaced with fresh ones, so if anyone fancies some fully prepared rear left ribs let me know and we'll do a deal.

If all goes well with the inspection then I'll build the right wing and then stop the build until I'm sure where I'm going to be living longer term with the impending job change / lack of contract!! Although I'm not even a third of the way through the build I'm already thinking how the aeroplane will look when finished and have already indentified some areas that need some tlc, the odd dent and scratch etc that will need filling before final paint - More skills to learn

Little Job Takes A Long Time

Started building the stall warner today and what looked like a pretty straight forward job took 4 hours to do! The Chapter 16 plans listed washers that didn't match the part numbers I was using so a quick search of the Vans Airforce Forum pointed me in the right direction, the plans also call to use 14 washers but the picture uses 16 so I built it to the picture spec and it seems OK.

I fitted the stall warner to the correct rib and then fitted the lower skin to make sure the stall warner worked and it did after three attempts!! It was then a case of running the cables to the terminal block at the fuselage end of the wing and then make the connections and after that it still worked to my surprise. After that I ran a nice bright orange nylon string to the wing tip for the optional navigation / landing light kit which I have decided not to fit as we rarely use the landing light on Victor Alpha and night flights aren't allowed in the UK on permit aircraft so I decided to save the money, but if the build mood takes me in a few years I'll be able to fit them without too many issues.

Next job is to fit the lower wing skins and get Nigel my LAA inspector over to give everything the once over after they have been riveted. It's a good job my mate Steve is staying at the moment as I need to flip the wing over to do this, its not a one man job unless you have 15ft arms.

Tough Week But Progress Made

Safe to say I've had an interesting week starting last Monday when I had a meeting with my boss who confirmed what I'd suspected for a while my contract will not be renewed at the end of September which means 3 more months money and then nothing unless I get a new job in the mean time. Like most industries right now radio is a difficult place to find work and if I can't I will consider doing something else whilst throwing myself into the build until parts and funds run out.

OMC training is proving to be bl..dy hard work and I wonder if I'll ever get the hang of it but did some training on Friday in Echo Alpha the glass cockpit 172 and Mike Delta the clockwork PA28 on Saturday and felt more at home in the PA28 but have decided to continue in the 172 as understanding flying in IMC on a glass cockpit is an important skill to learn for when the RV-12 arrives.

On a more positive note I've done a lot of work on the left wing and this coming week I'll be fitting the electronic stall warner and the lower wing skins before inviting my inspector Nigel over to have a look at the wing work so far before hopefully getting the OK to seal the left wing up and place it in the stand outside and hopefully if time allows and by that I mean weeks before I may have to leave this house I will finish the right wing as I figure it will be easier to transport completed parts rather than semi completed parts. I guess if I do end up moving house then the fuselage will have to wait until I'm established in my new location.

Your gonna need a BIGGER drill

After a day of small disappoints, missing out on an IMC lesson as no instructor was booked and as a result missing a road trip to Aero Expo after missing out on flying down yesterday as Victor Alpha is still grounded I decided to do something positive and watch the F1 Qualifying from Valencia and then head out side for 5 hours working on the build.

It felt good to get the rivet gun back in my hand after spending a fair amount of time working out that the wing spar on my bench was actually the left wing spar and not the right one!! The only way I could turn the spar the make it fit the garage best was to walk the spar out on to the main road and walk it back in the other way - I suspect the people who live nearby think I'm a bit mad. I also managed to store the wing skins in a way that frees up a lot of space in the garage - Amazing what you can achieve with a roll of gaffa tape.

One of the scariest things I've done so far was drilling and taping the wing tie downs as I've not done anything like this since school so the pressure was on to get it right first time as the spar is no doubt an expensive part and I took some friends advice about using cutting fluid to make the tools work better. I also added the additional rivets to the spar as called out in vans plans and put JC5A on all of the pop rivets as I heard a tale of a £150,000 80% kit Spitfire that has corrosion on a lot of the rivets so don't want to take any chances with my aeroplane.

Sunday is predicted to be the hottest day of the year so far and I aim to put in some more time on my build in between the Grand Prix and England playing Germany in the World Cup. So far this week done almost 15 hours on the build so can't complain with that level of progress.

Another Big Build Firday

Another big day working on the build and it started with the remaining left wing skin prep deburring the edges and dealing with a small dent in one of the skins! Not sure I did this but its only minor and will be under the left wing so I can live with it and to be honest once I put some primer on the inside skin it wasn't quite as visible. I also created my first AD470 rivet with a smiley face!

After the wing skins were sorted it was time to rivet up four flaperon brackets, two flaperon hinges (which I did twice cause I wasn't happy with them) and rivet various other parts to each other - Plenty of photos on my website

Tomorrow I will start the wing build proper after my IMC lesson bringing the left spar up on to the work bench all 15ft of it! Then's it's time to attach the various ribs, stall warner and finally the wing skins themselves. I also need to finish the wing stand and get my fireman's hose from John my flying instructor to do this as the wings will have to live outside until final assembly as space if limited in the workshop although once the fuselage is together I might be able to find some room inside. I'm also considering what kit next if all goes to plan and think finish kit is next followed by engine and lastly avionics as I'd like to take advantage of the latest offerings from Vans.

Lots of Ribs but no BBQ Sauce!

I've not updated much recently as I am doing the same process everyday preparing the front and rear ribs for the wings - 54 in total and I've got my fluting skills nicely sorted now (same I'll have no more to do for the moment) and the debur process has gone pretty well quickly on these ribs when I started using my dremel type tool with sandpaper wheel attached - OK I've used a good amount of wheels (1 wheel to 2 ribs) but cost £2 for ten from Amazon so in the grand scheme of things not the most costly piece of equipment in the build but a handy one all the same and a great time saver.

I've 12 out of the rear 13 right ribs to debur next and then it's stall warner prep before looking at the wing skins although I have 2 repair jobs to do from the empennage build so will tackle these at the same time as the wing skins as they will need primer.

Wing stand, imc lesson, prop strike and rib prep

Busy weekend with my sister, brother in law and the the kids coming up from down south so decided to put the brother in law to good use helping build the wing stand and we did a great job using pre-sawn timber and bits of old packing cases for the corner pieces. I reckon just short of 200 screws secure this item and it's since been treated with a fence treatment as it will have to live outside due to space issues. I've also got a fireman friend sourcing an old hose to use as straps as I think carpet would rot in time. Fair to say it can take some weight with Mike and Oliver on top of it.

On Saturday I had an IMC lesson in the haze doing recovery's from unusual attitudes 60 degree angle of bank with high nose or low nose and now have Power - Roll - Pitch in my head as a recovery technique. I also need to stop looking at the turn and slip indicator on the G1000 as its misleading, so that's my homework to get that out of my head. I was much happier with flying Echo Alpha this weekend than the first time as it's a C172SP with glass cockpit which is rather different to the 40+ year old C172 Victor Alpha I have a share in.

Back at Barton I had a message to say VA was grounded as a fellow group member had left the nose wheel hitch on during start up and it hit the prop so an investigation is required by the engineers on Monday.

Sunday meant finishing the fluting on the left hand front ribs and starting working on the right ribs trimming the flanges etc. I found the dremel type drill with a sanding wheel great for deburring the lightning holes and the rest was done with hand files and scotchbrite.

I had one slight problem as the aluminum split cutting off the rear flange on one rib so a repair was approved by Nigel my LAA inspector basically I used a round file to stop the crack growing and I discovered its not best to use the tips of the snips to cut, a nice smooth action does the job well.

June is here and rib prep has begun

I started to prepare the wing ribs yesterday and discovered its going to take a fair amount of work to get them all done as left and right front ribs number 14 each with different processes to be done on various ribs so I'm keep track of my stock as I go, then the rear ribs need to be done again with different processes on different ribs required. Fluting (straightening) of the wing ribs is proving tricky as they have a machine press bend in them that will only come out when they have been rivetted in place but once again I'm happy with my efforts and will troubleshoot later if required.

From experience gained so far I'm going to do all of the metal prep before constructing the wings proper as space is limited and building is more fun that prep if I'm honest. I'm not sure if I should prime the wing skins before building up the wings proper but I guess I'll have a better idea once all the ribs are prepared for priming.

Building the wings

Back into the build proper today and started on the wing kit with some pretty serious counter sinking just short of 160, 120 degree counter sinks done this afternoon and the dimensions are as per the plans so I'm happy. More counter sinking tomorrow and then it'll be on to wing rib prep and there are a lot of those to do and various versions to make.

Yesterday brought some cutting fluid for doing 4 big taps on the main wing spars and a small spray gun which wasn't really required if I'm honest but will be handy for touch up work / small areas as and when.

Wings & Fuselage Parts Sorted

A week after my fuselage and wing kits arrived in Manchester Mum and Dad came over to help sort the contents of the crates and hopefully help me find some more space for the build.

Unpacking went well with only a couple of washers missing and 2 damaged wing ribs which Vans had issued an alert on (picture above) so these will be replaced by them and I will also order a few replacement parts I need the biggest of which is a skin for one of the anti servo tabs as I dropped it whilst building and it has some ripples in that will drive me mad once the aeroplane is finished and painted so for the sake of $22 I will replace and rebuild this part and make it 100% again. I've also had to store the wing skins outside as I've run out of space in the garage so will be covering the crate top with felt to keep the rain off until these parts are required.

In the last week I've started my IMC training which really bakes my noodle so that will form the bulk of my flying this summer. I'm training in a Cessna 172SP complete with Garmin G1000 glass cockpit all good experience ready for the Dynon in the 12. I am also going to consider changing the standard avionics com for a better one that will allow you to do instrument approaches in IMC if this is every allowed in the UK.

I guess I'll be back into the build next week and think the wings are going to take some serious metal prep!!