This week I received some parts that I ordered last week, including:
a replacement trailing edge
some rivets for the service bulletin I needed to fix, which I promptly lost
and parts for a service bulletin that I didn’t order last time
So this week I started off by taking the aileron off the left wing and relocating the clip that I had talked about last week. After that I started drilling out the rivets to put in the correct rivets for the service bulletin for the aileron hinge. This is where I promptly discovered that I had lost the rivets that I had just received. I ended up ordering some new ones from Aircraft Spruce and I also ordered some wire at the same time. While I was waiting I ended up putting all the exposed wiring into some wire loom so that I didn’t have to worry about it rubbing on things and getting torn open and causing a potential short
So the next day the wire came in with the rivets that I needed so I ended up replacing the landing light wire that I had originally run. It was number 18. I replaced it with number 14.For some reason I started to really read into what I had chosen and I don’t know why. I went with number 18. Everything for these particular lights said to use number 14 that I could find, mainly because they are HID lights and they’re not LED. I might end up changing these out for some LED ones if I could find a ductworks compatible lamp but that’s to be seen in the future. I just put connectors on them and I believe I called it a night for that day.
So I also worked on 3D scanning the NACA ducts that came with the kit so that I can put them in the rear tail cone of the airplane when I’m ready for doing that. I also came up with some AI-generated paint skis and I’m going back and forth between, I believe, the first one and the third one but I’m open to suggestions.
This week I started off by designing a little jig to hold the VA-140 training wing edge so that I could make sure that I was just working on a nice smooth flat surface. Once I got to the shop, I went straight to town on one of the VA-140s that I had to work on and got that all drilled out.I did pick up that I need to make some modifications to the design because the chips were getting in the way so I’m going to add some holes to this jig for when I do the flaps.After making sure the holes were the correct size and countersinking everything, I used some VAB tape to hold it to the inside of the aileron. This is definitely way easier than using pro-seal.Once I got everything cleco’d, I pretty much ran out of stuff to do because I’m just waiting on things. I decided that I was going to add an outlet near my drill press. That took quite a bit of time but I’m glad that it’s done.
On Monday the mailman quickly dropped off my delivery from Cleveland Tools with the trailing edge squeezer set so I went to town and got the trailing edges of the ailerons all squeezed in. This was a great purchase. I’m really glad I purchased this. I wish I had it when I was working on the elevators and the rudder. While working on the second aileron for some reason, and I don’t know why, the skin would just pop up on the last three rivets. It just wasn’t looking good so I decided to drill out all the rivets and I ended up having to replace this one particular piece of trailing edge. It looks a heck of a lot better than it was originally going to.
Once I had the ailerons done, I started mounting them into their final positions and using the hardware. I was hoping that it would force something away from another spot because I was having rivets that were hitting the inside of the ailerons. I just assumed that it was a washer issue. I ended up pulling up the service bolt for the aileron bracket and discovered I had used the wrong rivets. I ended up having to order some rivets and drill them out and just redo it.
Since I was back to not having anything else that I could do, I decided to extend our airline from the loop over to the drill press so that I can have an air hose over there. This is definitely a nice thing to have right next to the drill press.Later that day I ended up getting a nice box from UPS that said Dynon all over it. I opened that up and had my Dynon heated Pitot and my Autopilot servos had come in. That was nice. I ended up putting Deutsch DT connectors on the servos and the Pitot.
The next day I came back and pretty much didn’t really have much I could do other than trying to figure out the Pitot heater controller situation. Some of the ideas that I was able to come up with were:
Installing some 6-32 rib nuts into the main spar but I’m going to have to call Vans to confirm that I can do it
I also checked with one of the Facebook groups and some people had suggested using click bond fasteners.
I’ve also had suggestions on mounting it to the wing ribs, but I haven’t seen any decent ways that I really liked that I thought would be easy to remove the controller if I ever had to.
Some people mentioned mounting it to the access panel, which I’m not sure if I’m a fan of that either but we’ll see how that goes.
I had also developed some 3D printable conduit clips that I printed with PA12-CF. I took some time and installed all the clips and then ran my RF conduit. I ended up discovering after I ran the RF conduit that I put it too close to the top skin and that was going to interfere with some of the control linkage for the ailerons. I was able to move that one clip to the opposite side of the wing rib and it created enough room.
This week was mostly about finishing up the ailerons, plus a 3D printing side project and a little excitement courtesy of Mother Nature.
The storm that kept me home on the 4th dropped a tree at the shop. The branch broke off about 25 feet up and managed to land directly on the main disconnect switch, killing power to the whole building, so the generator ran a good 12+ hours for absolutely no reason, and got knocked off its pad in the process. All things considered we lucked out, because that tree was on track to do real damage to the building. Now I just have to clear it all out, and I’m sure wood chipper rentals will be astronomical this week.
So I started this week by continuing work on the right aileron, I was struggling trying to get the rivets that hold the topskin ribs to the spar. I tried every tool that I had, which would only not fit or would only hit part of the shop head, so I really struggled with this. None of my tools would really fit into the gap on one side but I did find one of my bucking bars of wood. I ended up reversing the flow of the rivet and I was able to make it work.Once that was completed I was able to rivet on the bottom of the skin. I’d also countersunk the trailing edge wedge but I didn’t have any pro seal as I was still waiting for that to come in. I’ve discovered since I started this project that VHB tape tends to be the way to go. I had ordered some of that and that came in during this week and I was able to get that on pretty quickly. While double-checking on how to squeeze those rivets I discovered that there is a rivet tool that is now available that I could use so I got that on order and that should be here sometime next week.
Since I was pretty much at a standstill with that particular aileron, I decided that I was gonna go through a couple steps ahead and figure out what I needed for hardware. I just kind of set them aside so that everything was there and I didn’t have to worry about finding them later.
I did struggle to find some washers and two of the screws that I needed. After I was reviewing the parts list, I was like, “There’s no way that I’m missing this many washers.” It turns out I’m just blind and stared right at them and didn’t even realize it.
Also this week I ended up ordering the Quick Build fuel tanks and a skin for the, I think it was, the right bottom wing skin that I had damaged earlier in the week. Since I had to order all those parts, I figured I might as well order the screws that I needed as well.I also ordered some tank sealant and two tank repair kits because I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to cut open the top tank so that I can install a fuel return line as well as possibly swap out the fuel cap. I won’t know until that actually shows up.
Also this week I found some extra conduit that was laying around for my coax runs that I wanted to do and I did not want to drill holes into the wing ribs anymore. Now that I own multiple 3D printers, I ended up designing some mounting clips that would work and the conduit snaps right in and holds pretty well.I ended up designing these originally in PLA but I knew that wasn’t going to work for the long-term solution just due to temperature and the fact that it’s going to hold stuff for the life of the aircraft. I debated going back and forth between ASA PA6 and PA12. Ultimately I settled on PA12 since it absorbs the least amount of water and I believe has the highest temperature rating out of them. Although I think PA6 might have a bit higher rating. PA6 tends to absorb a lot more water and in theory could eventually bend over time and drop the conduit.
Also this week I received a package from Vance Aircraft. I had ordered a bunch of service bulletin’s kits two or three weeks ago, and that had finally shown up. I went through that and set it off to the side. Fortunately some of the biggest of the service bulletins in there are part of the fuselage project, which I haven’t even started yet, so that will save me some rework time.
Since I was once again at a standstill and I really had nothing I could do, I ended up working on the left aileron. I ended up just making sure I had match drilled everything. I took it apart for the 70th time or so and did all the typical dimple, deburr, sand, acid, and ash. I ended up priming it. I forgot how heavy that squeezer gets after a while. My arm was just killing me.
I was also running into an issue with my 1/2-inch die. I don’t know what it was but for some reason it would always get stuck in the press arm to the point where I would have to take it off, put it in a vice, and use a punch and beat the crap out of it to get it out of there. I just tossed it and ordered a new one.So I ended up finishing the day by effectively finishing the left aileron. Top and bottom skins are all riveted on. The only thing I really have left to do is dimple the trailing edge or countersink the trailing edge and secure that. Once the tool comes in, I can also rivet that together as well.And right as I got done doing that, Miss Daisy stopped by to inspect my work, even though she has her own bed in the shop. She tends to hang out on her favorite couch up in the lobby so it was nice to see her stop by and visit.
Once the ailerons are wrapped up, the flaps are next. I really don’t want to start those until I have everything else done prior to this. I’m not really so worried about the service bulletin aspects yet because to get to the elevators it’s going to be a huge hassle for me. I might do those parts before I start doing the fuselage. I want to make sure that everything that I had skipped forward is now brought up to date and that I’m actually supposed to be starting the flaps before I actually start doing the flaps.
Also I’ve been doing the YouTube videos where I just kind of do a summary of my week or just a recording of everything that I’ve been doing all week and breaking it down. I don’t know if I will continue doing it on a weekly basis or if I will just do it on a per-section basis, like section 22 flaps, section 23, whatever that may be. I don’t know maybe I’ll just do a mixture of both where I do it once a week but I just make sure I stick to one area at a time.
This week I got the first of the bottom skins riveted on the left wing and made a start on the ailerons.
Before riveting the bottom skins I marked up all the rivet callouts with sticky notes and a highlighter so I could tell at a glance which rivet goes where. This made the whole job much easier and I’d recommend it. Riveting went slow at first while I got the hang of it again. I checked every rivet with the gauge until I trusted my technique, then just spot checked each row after. A few had to be drilled out and replaced, and a couple holes earned oops rivets, but overall the first skin came out great. It took several sessions spread over a few days thanks to the heat.
I’m holding off on the outboard skin because my pitot heat controller hasn’t arrived yet, and it mounts right in that area. Getting to it after the skin is on looks like a pain, so that side waits.
When I pulled the skin off the other section, I found my long-lost tape dispenser and a pair of pliers living inside the wing. So that’s where those went. After cleaning everything out, I confirmed the autopilot bracket was already swapped in, so nothing was stopping me from riveting this section.
Then came the big one. While drilling out a rivet I didn’t like, the bit slipped and punctured the skin. Way too big, so that skin is getting replaced. Fortunately I had only done the top row of rivets, and it’s the smaller of the two skins. I also decided to order the quick build fuel tanks this week, so the replacement skin goes on the same order and saves me shipping. I nicked the rear spar getting the rivets back out, I think it’s fine, but I may add a doubler on the back side with longer rivets for peace of mind.
With that on hold, I moved to the ailerons. I tore the right one apart thinking I had skipped steps, but it turns out I just never checked them off in the plans — so I got to reassemble and match drill it all over again. Countersunk the #30 holes in the leading edge and found the counterweight was already prepped from whenever past-me last touched this thing. Then it was the usual wash, acid etch, and prime routine. At 100 degrees outside the primer was drying about as fast as it hit the parts.
A tip for other builders: I got tired of mentally flipping the plans while working on the right aileron, so I downloaded the PDF and mirrored the pages. Now the drawing actually matches the part sitting in front of me. Wish I’d thought of this a long time ago.
I got the ribs riveted to the spar and the top skin riveted on minus one rib I had to drill back off because its tab was facing the wrong way, which I of course noticed only after half the skin was riveted. The last thing standing between me and a finished right aileron is tank sealant, which I can’t order until Monday. I need a batch anyway for when the quick build tanks show up, since I’ll likely be opening those up to sort out the fuel caps and add a return line for my fuel injection.
While waiting on primer to dry I also started a shop upgrade: mounting a cord reel in the corner that has no usable power. There’s still a conduit running back to the panel, so a junction box and a new outlet will finally fix that.
