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.