I started work on the elevators tonight. I have the rudder parts ready for priming, so I tucked it away on the shelf to get the elevator to the priming stage then I will do them together to save time. Like the rudder, the elevators use stiffeners that have to … Continue reading
Tammy and Acacia headed out to do some grocery shopping so I stayed at home and decided to work a little on the airplane tonight. I only spent about 1.5 hours on it, but I ended up finishing all of the metal prep on the rudder parts. I started out … Continue reading
I only spent about an hour on the project tonight. All I have left on the rudder is to fit the counterweight and then start the process of deburring, dimpling, and edge finishing so I can get the parts ready for priming. I am seriously considering building an air tight … Continue reading
Tammy and Acacia were out of the house for the night, so I made the executive decision to go ahead and rivet on the stiffeners to the skins without priming them now. I will prime them with the rest of the parts later on, so that means there will be … Continue reading
After a short break, I started on the second work session for tonight. I had finished up the rudder stiffeners prior, and now its time to construct the rudder skeleton. The assembly starts off by clecoing R-904 rib to the spar R-902. Once its clecoed, we need to wide the … Continue reading
Tonight I finished up the rudder stiffeners. I filed down all the corners and smoothed the edges down. After that I ran them over the scotchbrite wheel to get the edges completely smooth and burr free. Once I had the edges and corners took care of, I moved on to … Continue reading
I started on the sections of the plans labeled “Building the Rudder” and more specifically, the sub-section “Fitting the Stiffeners to the Rudder”. The rudder is made of thin .016″ aluminum, so Vans uses tiny L-shaped brackets called stiffeners to help support the skin, and keep it from wobbling. In … Continue reading
Tonight I worked about 4 hours and completed the Vertical Stabilizer, except for the rear spar, which I am leaving off until the EAA Tech Counselor can come by and take a look at my work. This will give them access to view and check my riveting and assemblies. Once … Continue reading
I worked about 2 hours tonight on the vertical stabilizer rear spar. I also spent a few minutes coming up with a way to mount my horizontal stabilizer on the wall to keep it safe and out of the way. For about 2 bucks in hardware, here’s what I came … Continue reading
I was able to finish up riveting on the skins of both sides of the horizontal stabilizer. I had only planned to rivet on the right side skin to HS-702 front spar and HS-708 rib, but that only took about a half hour to complete. So, I decided I should … Continue reading