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.