Author Archives: Michael

Time: 4 Hours

I had some time yesterday after getting home from my flight to get into the Hangar to get some work done. I wanted to finish up the prep of the right side inboard skin. I needed to deburr all the edges, deburr all the holes, edge roll the overlapping edge and dimple all the holes except the outboard edge where the fiberglass tip will be installed. I also primed the inside edge of the access panel for the nutplates. When the primer was dry I installed the nutplates with the squeezer. I didn’t take any photos of this process as you have seen this plenty of times here but here is the finished product clecko’d on the wing.

I then cut 8 pieces of orange string to run through the conduit in the wings. Two of the pieces will run the entire length of the wing and two will exit through the hole I drilled in the bell crank bay. These strings will allow me to pull electrical wires through the conduit later. I tied off the ends so they will stay put until I need to use them later.

I stopped there and cleaned up the Hangar as I had a 4am wake up call this morning to fly a trip. Every bit of progress is good progress!

Today we did out weekly breakfast out at the DeKalb airport since they were having a fly-in breakfast. Unfortunately we had to drive as our planes are in some form of building, :-). Nice breakfast and a lot of nice birds. One of which was an RV-8 that belongs to our EAA chapter and is in his phase 1 flight test hours. He did a beautiful job and seeing it really helps the build motivation, as if I needed any help. Believe it or not today was the first time I have gotten to sit in a finished RV-8 and wow what a great fit, I so glad with my decision to build an -8!

I was a little tired and only wanted to do some light stuff in the Hangar today since I had 2 great days Friday & Saturday. First was to get the Cleaveland tie down rings into position and see how they fit. On the right wing it actually lined up just perfect, bottoming out just as the alignment was right, go figure. The left had a more threads in the block so I could hit the skin and pull it in before I could tighten it down. My fix is to put a threaded stop in first for the tie down ring to hit. I could then adjust the stop in it out to make the ring sit just right before touching the skin. I had to shave off a little if the length of the stop on the bench top sander/3M wheel to give me a little playing room. Worked like a charm and I love the clean look of these rings.

I then grabbed the remaining parts for the autopilot roll servo mount. I had purchased the bracket/mounting kit from Dynon leaving out just the servo. This way I don’t have a electronic part just sitting idle for a long period of time and reduce the possibility of future failures. I installed the elevator trim servo before I learned that this is a good idea and you should wait before buying them. The kit I bought has all the brackets needed and I installed those in sequence with the normal build. Today to installed the linkage that connects the servo to the bell crank.

That’s where I stopped for the weekend and I’m pretty happy with the progress.

Time: 8 Hours

What a beautiful day here in Chicago, sunny and low 80°’s with a little breeze. I got out into the Hangar early this morning to get to work. I started out making the scarf joint where the two bottom skins overlap at the forward edge. This is so they meet the fuel tank skin close to flush. I just repeated the process as I did on the left wing by removing some material and testing the fit. It took several attempts but I think I have a nice joint now. Most of the day was back breaking and tweaking riveting just like the other wing. I will say that it went a little faster but not much. It is just a real pain bucking these rivets. I used several different bucking bars to get all the rivets. I bucked all the rivets except the inboard edge and the hinge line as I could get those with the pneumatic squeezer.

After squeezing the inboard edge I quickly took care if the hinge line by removing the wing side of the hinge from the flap. Once all the riveting was done I grabbed the flap and reattached the hinge pins to both sides of the hinge and secured the flap and aileron with the blocking I made yesterday.

I then removed all the blue film to clean up the skin. I made 2 small dings in the left bottom skin so I did better on the right as I only made 1 small ding. It looks worse in the photo than it really is. Nothing a good painter can’t fix and make completely disappear.

After I finished up that task I turned to the conduit for the right wing just like I did for the left wing. I copied the hole between the ribs where the autopilot servo will sit for the control of the aileron.

I started the prep, just removing the blue film, on the right outboard skin for tomorrow’s work and put the skin on the wing for safe keeping.

The last item I did today was to finish up the access hole plates, I did 1 yesterday, so I needed to finish up the 5 remaining ones.

Another good day in the Hangar! Now off for a little mountain bike ride this evening!

Time: 6 Hours

It’s been about a week since I was in the Hangar to do some work since the Memorial Day weekend and my flying. When I got to work I decided to finish up some items on the left wing before working on the right wing inboard skin. I started out working on the CPVC conduit I’m using for running my electrical wires in through the wings. So I grabbed the pipe and slid it into position. I was real happy with the fit and it had just the right amount of tension between ribs. The holes are off just a hair which is good as it helps grab the pipe with friction and help hold it in place. I cut each end square and even with the skin overhang on the last inboard/outboard ribs. I will eventually add some ProSeal to hold these pipes permanently.

Once it was in position I marked a hole in between the ribs where the pitot heat controller will be housed. I then took the pipe out and drilled a hole with the drill press and pipe drilling jig. I then cleaned up all the edges on the hole and both ends. With the pipe back in position in the wing I inserted a rubber grommet that I got from Ace Hardware to protect the wires from chaffing. Before I permanently install this pipe I will run several strands of string from inboard to outboard as well as inboard to the middle hole I drilled. These will be used later to pull the wires through the pipe.

I was holding the left flap/aileron together with a clamp and wanted to make up something that I could leave on there for a longer period as I would need that clamp later. I will eventually buy a gust lock that will go there to hold it all together in storage but for now I will make mine. I just used 2 pieces of 1/2″ plywood cut at 2.5″ x 5″. I used the drill press to drill a single 3/16″ hole at the proper angle to correspond with the angle of the flap/aileron skins. I then used some self adhesive felt sheets to line the inside of each piece of wood. A 3″ 3/16″ carriage bolt, washer and wing nut finished it off. I repeated the process and made a second one for the right wing when needed.

I then turned my attention to the right inboard bottom skin for a little while. I need to rivet it to the wing like I did to the left wing but before I do that I wanted to tackle the vent first. There is a NACA vent hole in this skin that Van’s has you rivet a plastic NACA scoop to later in the build. This scoop will funnel air to a vent for the back seat passenger. My friend Glen said it is much easier to tackle this now rather than latter when the skin is all riveted to the wing. Off the wing it was a very easy task to complete. I just took some measurements for 6 rivets and where I wanted them to go around the edge. I then used some tape to position and hold the scoop in place on the inside of the skin after positioning it just as I wanted. I then flipped the skin over and traced the outline for later. I removed the scoop and flipped the skin and drilled the 6 holes. I then re-tapped the scoop into position using the outline and tapped it down real good. I could now use the 6 holes I just drilled as a guide to drill the scoop.

I deburred all the holes in the skin and dimpled them. I used my countersink bit with my fingers to countersink the holes in the plastic to accept the dimples on the skin. I scuffed the skin up just inside of the outline I made and on the flange if the scoop then cleaned everything up with alcohol. I grabbed a little bit of ProSeal and mixed it up and buttered the flange of the scoop, this is just to help hold it in place and seal it to the skin so all the air makes it into the cabin.

I then placed some soft 426 rivets in the holes and taped them with my back riveting tape. With the skin flipped and now resting on my back riveting steal plate I riveted the 6 holes at a low pressure since they were the soft rivets. This came out beautiful and looked very nice.

I’m going to let the ProSeal cure overnight before I start riveting that bottom skin so I don’t get it all over my arms. So I moved on to the outboard bottom skin prep. I’m not going to rivet these for a while or at least until I’m sure I’m not going to change and internal wing stuff that would need access inside the wings. So I will just deburr and dimple these skins so they will be all ready to rivet once I decide to. I also primed the inside flange of the access hole and riveted the nutplates on just like the inboard skins.

Before dimpling the inboard edge holes I formed the edge with the edge roller, leaving a small section at the aft edge undone as it doesn’t overlap the inboard skin for a couple inches. I then clecko’d the skin in place.

One last item that I wanted to do was complete one if the access hole plates. These have #8 screws around the perimeter except where it overlaps the spar and those are #6 screws. I debured the edges and drilled the holes to the correct sizes and dimpled them with the pneumatic squeezer. Pretty easy but I wanted to see how it looks in place. I will finish up the 5 remaining ones as I have time.

A pretty good day in the Hangar and it felt good to get back at it!