Working on new site

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone.  We purchased new software designed to document the building the of our airplane for the FAA.  We are in the process of transferring everything over to the new system, I'll post a link to the new site as soon as it is ready.  - Tricia

April 16th and 17th update

Another airplane weekend.  Mark started work on the elevators Saturday morning and then went flying after lunch.  The wind was blowing and there were strong crosswinds at the airport so Mark got to practice crosswind takeoffs and landings.  He said he had fun dancing with the winds during landings, must be a guy thing.  He disappeared back into the the shop shortly after arriving back home.  I came out to help and take some pictures.  Here, Mark is dimpling the skin on one of the elevators.

Another pic of Mark riveting the stiffeners on the skin of an elevator.

This one is of Mark milling the elevator counterweight to specifications.

One of the elevators being fitted together for match drilling.

The lead counterweight for the elevator machined and fitted in place.

Sunday, we completed the last step on the rudder, riveting the trailing edge.  We have been waiting several days for some slow drying epoxy to set which would hold the trailing edge while we riveted it. This was a tricky job as the rivets are countersunk on both sides and the trailing edge must be kept very straight.  I was not sure this one would work but the rivets came out looking great and the edge was straight within .075"!  That was a tense job but we have another part completed!  

Mark holding his new rudder.

 Still a long ways to go before it looks like this.

April 9th and 10th Update

Saturday, we spent the majority of the day inventorying all of the parts from the fuselage kit - it is a bit overwhelming to pull pounds of rivets out of the packaging and imagine that we will use every single one of them before the end.  We didn't have all parts inventoried and put up on the shelves unti 3:00 PM.

Mark took a half hour break and then he was back out to the shop to work on the rudder.  Here he is hand deburring the rivet holes on the thin-walled rudder skin.

Mark went flying early Sunday morning but then was back in the shop by 10:30 AM.  Here, he is dimpling the rudder brace with a rivet squeezer.

Below is a picture of him machine counter sinking the trailing edge bracket for the rudder. 

He talked me into helping the final hour on Sunday night to get everything finished up for the next stage of work.  Mark finished priming all the parts at 7:30 PM Sunday.  I have a feeling he will be working in the shop every night after work until the rudder is complete.  Below, all the parts primed and ready to rivet together!

April 8th - The Fuselage Arrives!

The fuselage arrived today!  We met the man who delivered at the truck stop in town and offloaded it to our trailer as there was no way he could bring his 60 foot trailer down our driveway.  He helped us bring it home and unload it.  We celebrated afterwards with Mexican food and margaritas!

Now we just need to transform it from the picture above to this...

or, this....

April 2-3rd update... building the Horizontal Stabilizer

Last week we finished the Horizontal Stabilizer, this weekend we built the Vertical Stabilizer.  

After fitting everything together with clecos and match drilling the rivet holes we dimpled the skin.  This is a picture of the skin on the dimpling machine.  The skin is squeezed between a top and bottom die to form the dimple.  I've included a close-up of a completed dimple below.  The blue film is a protective coating.  If you click on the picture it will enlarge it.

After dimpling and polishing the edges of all parts Mark applies a chromate primer to protect against corrosion.

Mark is using a pneumatic squeezer to rivet the renforcement plate on the main spar of the Vertical Stabilizer.

This shot is of Mark and I riveting the skin on the Vertical Stabilizer.  I'm holding the bucking bar on the back side of the rivet while Mark uses the rivet gun to hammer the rivet.

This is the end result, one completed Vertical Stabilizer.  Mark was very pleased with it.

Lexi wasn't impressed.

March 26-27 Progress Update

Sat, March 26th - It was a productive day with many hours spent working.  We took everything apart and I helped hold the skins for dimpling.  Dimpling is pressing little tapers into the rivet holes so that the rivet heads will be flush with the skin of the airplane and not cause increased wind resistance.  It also makes the rivet joints stronger.  Mark then polished the edges of every piece.   No piece can have any rough marks, sharp edges or scratches as those can become stress points for cracks over time.  Next came painting everything with an aluminum primer and we left it overnight to dry.

Sun, March 27th - We practiced riveting together with some scrap metal, Mark with the rivet gun and me holding the bucking bar on the back side.  We finally took the plunge and began riveting on the horizontal stabilizer (still looks like a tail to me).  We were pretty nervous that we would screw it up but it came out looking great.  We measured the thickness and diameter of the rivet heads with a gauge and everything was to spec. We were pretty proud of our first rivet job and no longer nervous about bucking rivets!

Enjoy the pics!

Started off the week with a few hours of good work

With the start of daylight savings time, it seems like the evenings are so much longer after work.  We spent about an hour and a half working last night.  I am even getting pretty quick with the clecos.  Clecos are those things that look like pins sticking in the wing below.  They are used to temporally hold things tightly together as you drill the rivet holes.  They are inserted and removed with a special tool.