Author Archives: Michael

Lots of Countersinking!

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Time: 6 Hours

There are 201 holes on the upper longeron sides that need countersinking. That’s a lot of holes! Pushing down on the drill to get a countersunk on that many holes has my right shoulder on fire but it has to be done so I power thru it.

IMG_5005.JPGI did the right one first and when I was done I deburred all the holes on both sides. On each longeron there are two cut outs needed. One on the very end and one a little forward of that which allows the vertical horizontal stabilizer attach bars to stick up thru. I used a combo of my dremel, files and sandpaper to get the fit right in the first cut.

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IMG_5008.JPGAfter cleaning up the right side I moved on to the left. It took me about three hours to finish up both sides. From there I moved on to all of the loose parts and deburring everyone of their holes. I got all except a few arm rest parts deburred and will get them tomorrow. I did 6 hours of actual work throughout the day, as I took lots of breaks to give my shoulder a rest. I’m just glad to have the countersinking done on all of those longeron holes!

More Countersinking

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Time: 6 Hours

Back at the big task of countersinking all these parts. I started with center section box plate that was left clecko’d to the bulkheads.

IMG_4992.JPGThe spacers between the cockpit rail and seat back roll bars get countersunk for the 1/8″ rivets as well as the #8 screws.

IMG_4993.JPGThe lower longerons also get the #8 countersinks.

IMG_4994.JPGThe pile is adding up of parts that got countersunk.

IMG_4995.JPGNext up were the lower and middle aft longerons.

IMG_4997.JPGOn the aft middle longerons they start from the bulkhead just aft of the passenger seat and run to the tail. The forward end protrudes thru the bulkhead just a little right at the aft end of the passengers arm rests. On the left side it ends up covered up with a flap control arm cover (which is a mod I will be doing) but the right is exposed. Some after seat makers also make an arm rest pad to match your seats and this can sometimes interfere with it according to my buddy Glen. So I trimmed this portion off to avoid any problems.

IMG_4996.JPGThe last big “countersinking” items are the two upper longerons. These are long and have a lot of holes. To start you go to the ones on the top flange that mate with the cockpit rails. There are 2 holes that will get match drilled with the rails that the canopy slides in and don’t get countersunk.

IMG_4998.JPGMan these things are long and hard to manipulate in the Hangar.

IMG_4999.JPGI finished up all those holes for the rails and called it a day. I cleaned up and organized al the parts that I had out today. I forgot to mention that as I finished up drilling a part I would debur all the remaining holes and edges if needed. This allowed me to put the parts in a pile ready for scuffing, primer and paint. Overall today I countersunk 384 holes! But have all the side holes in the upper longerons left to do! I’m guessing these would go a little faster if my OCD wasn’t so bad that I have to clean up all the drill shavings up after each piece with the vacuum! I hate working in a dirty workspace! My goal is to finish up the longerons tomorrow so I can get to work on the skins and their dimpling.

Build it up, Tear it down

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Time: 6 Hours

As the title says, everything you do with this building process you first build the section with all the parts in place and do your fabrication and match drilling. When that’s done you get to tear it all down so that the holes you just match drilled can be deburred and dimpled(if necessary). But Before I got started on the tear down I had received a small package in the mail from Van’s containing 2 parts I had ordered. The first was the replacement gussets that I accidentally match drilled in the wrong place last week. The other was a replacement of the left arm rest where the rear seat throttle is. I had made the rectangular hole I cut a little bigger than it needed to be. Would the first one have worked ok, yes but it was bugging me a little. So when I ordered the gussets I added it to the order. Fast forward to today when I got it out of the USPS plastic envelope that Van’s used and this is what it got:

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IMG_4985.JPGThe aft end of the arm rest has been smashed down flattening out the 3 flanges a little. I could fix those but the flat part of the arm rest has a dent in it due to the smashing and that I couldn’t fix. So I called Van’s and sent them photos and all the info hoping they will send me another one soon. The gussets were fine and that’s where I started today. It was a quick hop to clean up the edges of the gussets and put a bevel on one edge to fit with the inside corner of the mid longeron. Then match drilled and they were done.

IMG_4986.JPGAfter that little detail was finished it was time to do the tear down. Not much to show in this process as I just worked backwards from assembly.

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IMG_4988.JPGThat took a an hour or so to tear everything down and I had a close call with the long tailcone skins as I had removed the forward most bulkhead early which gave the skins structure when I installed them. Without them there as I removed the last side clecko’s the 2 skins started to fall away from the main section of the fuselage. Basically they tried to curl outward at the aft end. Luckily they didn’t go to far and I was able to coral them before they creased themselves! Whew! I organized the parts from this year down and moved on. The next list of steps on several pages in the manual are simply countersinking the various holes that will accept the bottom skins and the side skins. I slid the main section of the fuselage to the back of my bench, with ballast in the front part, so the center section was hanging off so I had access to the two rows of holes that are on the forward and aft flanges of the center section wing attach points. I needed to counter sink those holes so they would accept the dimples of the mid fuselage bottom skin. After that I moved the fuselage back to the proper place on the workbench. I then started the fun process of countersinking all the parts I removed. The plans lay out the order and I just check each item off as I go. The items I got done today were the lower longeron, mid aux longeron and the gear tower box plates.

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IMG_4991.JPGNot a lot of cool photos today since it is just boring drilling. I use my cordless drill on its slow speed as it gives me better control of the countersinking. I’m glad I have 2 batteries for this as there are a lot of holes. Tomorrow I will get back at the drilling and keep forging on.

Tail Spring Work

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Time: 3 Hours
When I got home from work today I got a little time in the Hangar to finish up the work in the aft bottom skin cut out for the tail spring mount. It took several trial fits before I got it just right. I used several different files and my dremel to make the cut. Before I finished up that work I enlarged the center hole to a 3/4″ per the plans so that when I did get the cut just right I would have to remove it as it’s pretty tough to slide into place.

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IMG_4972.JPGAfter having that fit perfect I finished up the match drilling on the 2 aft bulkheads that the spring mount connects to. There are several tabs that have no holes in these bulkheads and need to be match drilled to the skin. You need to take caution and use a piece of wood as a backer as you drill as the drill bit has a tendency to push the tab up as you try to drill through it. From there I match drilled all the holes in the aft top skin to all of the bulkhead tops. My friend Glen stopped by after work to help me move the fuselage back into the workbench and off the saw horses. This was good as I can now put my truck back in the garage overnight as winter has showed up here in the Chicago land area. Next up will be to dismantle all the work I did over the last few weeks to debur, dimple and countersink all the holes I have worked on. Making progress!

Roll Bar & Tail Spring Work

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Time: 8 Hours

Today I asked my builder friend Glen to stop by and help me move the fuselage from the workbench over to a couple of sawhorses. This would allow me access to the center section rivet holes that are in common with the forward bottom skin, left mid bottom skin and right mid bottom skin so that I could final ream them.

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IMG_4936.JPGI then moved up to the pilot seat back roll bar. To install it I removed the cockpit rails and slid it into place and returned the rails. I have read several builders sites and also researched this part on the www.vansairforce.com forum. There are 4 holes that you have to drill up from the bottom of the steal flange up thru the spacer and finally the rail. What builders have found is that even though the roll bar is clecko’d to the support pates in the side wall it doesn’t ensure that the bar legs are flush with the rail/longeron area. What this means is that as you drill up you have the chance to drill closer to the inboard edge of the rail/spacer causing an edge distance issue. Some have had to replace several of these parts for this error. The hole is right on the edge of having an edge distance issue as it sits normally so any movement of the rail/longeron outward will make it worse. So the cure is to clamp the section tight so as you drill up you hit the right spot. So I grabbed 4 of my bar clamps and squeezed the parts as tight as I could get them. I was able to go as far as the rail would let me as it eventually hit the roll bar.

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IMG_4942.JPGOnce I really happy with the fit I match drilled the two center holes down thru the rail and thru the roll bar leg. I clecko’d as I went to hold everything in place. Then I used my 12″ drill bit to drill up thru the other holes. I was happy to see that the edge distance was fine.

IMG_4944.JPGI finished up the remaining holes and set everything in place.

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IMG_4946.JPGThere are 2 screws that will hold down this roll bar on each leg and they needed to be drilled to a #19 for the AN509-8R8 screws. I first marked the required holes and then drilled with a #21 first and final sized to a #19.

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IMG_4949.JPGI did some final drilling on several spots like the center section bulkhead caps and tail inspection panel nutplates. I then moved to the tail wheel spring mount. This steal tube assembly will hold the steal rod that holds the tail wheel. I had already drilled it to the aft most bulkhead earlier in in the tail build. Now I needed to create a shim for where the mount hits the next forward bulkhead. The space can vary and just needs to be filled. What I did was to put the mount in place so I could eyeball how think of shim I needed. I used the mount to trace the outline for the shim.

IMG_4950.JPGIn these next three photos you can see the area to the right side where the shim goes between the mount and the bulkhead. The plans have you look down the tube from the back and sight in the spacing by looking at a small tooling hole in the bulkhead. I just lined it up so the hole was in the center as best as I could tell.

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IMG_4952.JPGOnce it set and clamped in place I drilled 2 holes thru the bulkhead holes into the spacer and the mount. Those will get enlarged later for bolts. This mount now angles down as it goes aft and descends below the bottom skin line at the aft end. For this Van’s gives you a template to remove some of the skin. I transferred the template to a piece of paper and placed it in the skin to mark. I took it to the bandsaw and made the first cut after drilling a hole at the leading edge of the tracing.

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IMG_4957.JPGWhat I found was that this cut was a little narrow and hits the welding of the mount so I will need to remove a little more.

IMG_4958.JPGThat was another 8 hours in the Hangar and a great weekend of building. I cleaned up shop, put the tools away vacuumed up all the aluminum shavings from the day. I have a fairly busy schedule this week but should be able to get some time building in.