Sunday, November 26, 2017

Wings start to take shape

Turkey Day week!  Lots of food, family, friends, and even a little airplane building time.  What can be better?

This week the wings start to take shape.  I'm working both wings at the same time to make sure I build one for each side instead of two left wings... I hear that it has happened!  However, for these next few steps I am working one wing at a time because I just don't have room to do both wings at the same time.  Too bad actually...I need a bigger work space....and a bigger hangar...oh and while I'm at it I might as well have a runway outside my door too!

I ran into a bit of a snag on Friday and was a little frustrated so I decided to play with the new tech tools that have been made available to us.  Namely the new 3D models for Garmin avionics and Van's recent release of their instrument panel CAD files.  This is COOL!  I can see what fits where, including all braces and brackets.  I can add or delete components as needed to make my panel what I want it to be.  Oh, the models don't come with the pretty simulated display images, I had to add those.

Check out what you can do with the new 3D tools/models!  This is a potential layout including position of my avionics...much work to do yet but this is going to be much easier to lay out and create a nice neat wiring plan!

Started out with aileron attach brackets.  The two in the middle are not by plan actually.  Last year Van's put out a Service Bulletin about some cracking on a couple of aircraft where this bracket attaches to the rear spar.  The SB outlined an inspection and if cracking was found, a repair with new parts.  I decided to order the new parts and install them now so the SB will not affect me down the road.  These parts are much beefier and have a nice backing support as well (shown on the far right).

Right wing as I begin the process of riveting the rear spar to the assembly.  You will notice the plan book sitting on top of the wings.  The number of different sizes and positions is rather complex so I'm trying to keep the plans near to minimize Oops's.
This is the aft side of the new inner aileron bracket and attachment.  Its a lot beefier than the one it replaces and if you look at the next picture you will see even more beef!

Here is the back side.  This is two pieces of very thick aluminum riveted together in a U shape to form a very sturdy back side to the aileron attach bracket.
Left wing rear spar attached.  Next up...top wing skins.


Sunday, November 19, 2017

Priming in high humidity

This week has been about priming.  Priming in high humidity is not a good thing because the air compressor tends to force that moisture out of gas and into liquid...right about the time it hits the spray nozzle on my paint sprayer.  This moisture either drips on the aluminum I'm trying to prime or it fans out into a nasty mist that speckles the aluminum.  Either way the primer will not stick to aluminum that is wet.  So, I have to go back, clean up the poorly adhered primer and then re-prime the aluminum.  It doesn't look good, which is ok for priming, but it definitely adds time to the project that doesn't need to be.  So, I did a little work to the air supply for my paint gun. I put a new moisture separator in line and I replaced the small moisture separator that I screw on to the base of my gun.  Between these two steps I seem to have got the moisture under control.  All in all it took 3 priming sessions to get everything primed.

Beside the priming marathons this week I did get a little work on the wings done.  The tie down ring attach points are riveted on.  The ribs are riveted on the right wing and I'm getting ready to put the rear spar on the right wing. 


Wing tie down mounting points installed.  Still need to attach some brackets on the back side for the aileron controls.
Round 2 of rib priming

Yea, figured a selfie was due.
Flap hinges riveted to the wing ribs.

Torque tube for control linkage riveted on the inner most wing rib.

I was having a bit of an issue with some of the rivet holes lining up so I got out the wing skin and cleco'd it in place to see if the rivets were ok...all OK.

After I riveted the wing ribs to the main spar I was looking at the rivets when I noticed this pretty cool view.  Reminds me of those infinity mirrors.


Sunday, November 12, 2017

Main Spar work

This week Amy came home so I spent a little less time in the garage and a little more time with her.  Not too many pictures this week because I've been doing a lot of main wing spar and related parts prep.  This means lots of deburring, countersinking, priming, and many other un-picture friendly tasks.  I did try something new this week though.  I have to prime the large countersunk holes in the main spar to protect the freshly cut aluminum.  Rather than try to brush or spray with my regular priming tools I decided to try a detail air brush.  I was amazed at how nicely this works for small spot priming tasks.  I used very little primer and got a nice thin layer of primer on each hole.

I managed to get all 30 wing ribs prep'd for primer this weekend.  Drilling, deburring, edge straightening and scuffing...long weekend.  I only got half the ribs primed Sunday evening so I will have to have at least one or two more priming sessions before I can move on to the wing skins.

This is a picture of the primed countersunk holes where I used the air brush.  You can see the nice even spray pattern around the hole.
Using the de-burring wheel on my p-grinder to clean up some edges and holes.  There are 30 of these little devils to work on.  These ribs alone took most of the weekend.

Using the tool I built last year to true up the edges to 90 degrees.  
A few of the ribs ready for some touch up priming.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

final tail cone details....I think

This week I have been doing a few little chores in the tail cone.  Things like install the static ports, ventilation ducts, and ELT mount. Then I loaded the entire tail cone into the back of the truck and took it to the hangar in Puyallup where it will stay until I need to attach it to the fuselage...probably at least a year from now. 

On a side note it started snowing already this year.  We have about 3" inches of snow on the deck last time I looked.  Crazy weather.

Glued in and taped so it doesn't move until the epoxy sets up.
Here it is from the outside.

Both static ports are epoxy glued in and being held in place by the wooden sticks.
Tail cone "stored" in the overhead at the hangar until I need it again.  Thanks to Harry for helping me get this thing hung up there.

And now the wings begin.  These are the main spars, an aft spar and some other misc wing parts.  The wings on the 10 are a bit bigger than the wings on the 9 so its going to get tight in this little work shop.  I may have to take my divider wall down to get enough room to work on both wings at the same time.
Just for fun I thought I would throw this one in.  This is a picture from my security camera after dark.  I do have an LED light in the corner that is showing the light you see.