Category Archives: Mid Fuselage

Fuselage Skins Done

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Time: 8 Hours

I got early this morning and finished up the riveting the aft end of the fuselage skins. My buddy Glen arrived late morning after I was finished with that task and help me flip the fuselage upside down on a pair of sawhorses, man this thing is starting to gain weight. We took our time and planed the flip making sure the height was right with my adjustable sawhorses. I wanted the height to good for me sitting on my rolling stool and good arms reach will inside.

(null)From there we finished all of the remaining fuselage rivets on the bottoms and sides of the skins. It took us a couple hours but we worked pretty well together and all of the rivets turned out great. Every skin overlap was tight and no puckering. I did have a little oil-canning on the bottom aft skin behind the aft baggage ribs. This is a known issue for some builders and probably happened to me since I riveted the sides first. I will put a light weight angle on the inside of that skin to reinforce it.

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(null)After Glen left I finished up a few tasks like riveting the gussets to the bulkheads now that the skins are riveted. A couple other items I took care of like tightening the castle nuts on the rudder pedals and put in the cotter pins in place. I also fitted the two David Hoffman LED cockpit lights that I bought from Van’s into the forward roll bar angles. The holes are close to the edges of the hole but not a big deal as its steel.

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(null)I decided today to leave the fuselage in the upside down position. This is due to how hard it is to turn it over with just two people, putting the fuselage a greater risk every time we roll it. There is only a few more tasks that need to be done before I would need to roll it back upside down to do the landing gear installation. So I’m going to wait for those and do the landing gear installation next after I study and review the plans, as this is a critical task. My work schedule is quite busy over the next three weeks so I may have a break before finishing that gear installation. Until then I will take care of all the little tasks that remain now that I have the skins finished. For now I’m just going to enjoy the fact that all those clecko’s are removed! Another big mile stone in the Hangar!

More Fuselage Riveting

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Time: 6 Hours

After attending my aviation department staff meeting today I got right back to the Hangar to continue the roll I was on riveting. I needed to finish up a couple of stiffeners on the forward skins and then I could move aft working on the mid side skins and aft tail skins. I worked with my bucking bar/gun and pneumatic squeezer. I didn’t take any pictures during the process as I was on a roll. Here are some photos of the almost finished product. I still need to hit the last third of the tail cone from the middle down. Obviously I couldn’t do the bottom skins, but I will get those tomorrow when my buddy Glen helps me out.

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(null)Tomorrow morning we will flip this fuselage upside down and place on a couple sawhorses. This will make it easier to read it the bottom skins, as one of us will sit on a stool and buck from the inside and the other will rivet from the outside. Another fun day in the hanger, but boys my back sore! I have bruises on both of my upper arms from leaning and wrapping over the top of the sides.

Fuel/Brake Lines

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Time: 12 Hours

After I ran my errands yesterday morning I grabbed the left forward skin that has the NACA vent in it to prime and paint it. If you remember I had already primed the skin then riveted and Pro-Sealed the bent into position. I left the seal cure for two weeks which was today.

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(null)I also scuffed up and cleaned the seat back roll bar for priming and painting.

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(null)My buddy Glen was able to come over late morning to give me a hand at running the brake/fuel lines and a lesson on flaring the tubes properly. First up we started with part of the brake line system. These parts will be from a fitting under the dash and thru the gear towers down to another fitting exiting the bottom of the aircraft at the gear legs. This is a long task of trial and fit with a million tweaks as you fit the parts. Here is the finished product.

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(null)Next we ran the fuel vent lines. These will run from the fuel tank (I already put the line inside the tanks when I built them) into the gear towers at the bottom and run up to the top of the tower and back down to finally exit out the bottom of the aircraft. This will allow for the fuel to drain out slightly as the fuel heats up during the day and not damage the tanks. For these lines I started with the right and made an exact copy in reverse for the left side. I strayed from the plans a little with the terminating end of these lines. Van’s has you run the vent line thru a snap bushing out the floor skin and eventually the gear cover plate for an inch or so with a 45° cut on the end. I was worried that I would end up bending or damaging this end durning the rest of the build as I moved the fuselage around. So I followed other builders and terminated the vent line to a AN832-4D bulkhead pass thru. This allows me to be finished in the gear tower area and add the last bit later down the road. Here you can see the straight fitting for the vent as well as the 90° that will continue the brake line down the gear legs to the brakes.

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(null)That took me the rest of Saturday and I waited to finish the work until today, Sunday. Next up was to work on the fuel lines that run from the firewall back to the fuel pump to the fuel filter then to the fuel selector valve. From the valve I needed to run a line to each tank. Each fuel tank line terminated at a 90° just outside the aircraft sides. Normally they would just go straight out but since I put inverted fuel pick-ups for aerobatics they need to run to the forward edge of the tanks. The run from the firewall to the pump was a tight space so I copied my buddy Glen’s solution of a 360° tube bend.

(null)The stretch that runs from the pump to the filter travels thru the left gear tower via two 5/8″ holes. This proves to be a problem as the nut and flare will but fit thru the holes so you need to do one end and place it into position and flare the other end in place which is the tough part. I started with the fuel filter end already flared and worked on the S turn bend it needed. The other end would be a straight shot to the pump. This was all easier said than done! You have to work these tubes in a 3D view and each bend affects the others. I strayed from the plans that have you use plastic snap bushings for these two holes and added rubber grommets based on my buddy’s recommendations.

(null)From there I worked on the filter to valve run, the valve to the left tank and right tank. Again this was a trial and error task as I worked all the angles and bends.

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(null)I received my cabin heat cable and red anodized pull knob from McFarlane Aviation and worked on its lay out so I could have access to it will the skins were off.

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(null)Where the cable ends on the firewall will eventually be a box valve that will be open or closed by pulling/pushing that cable. The valve will be connect via a tube to a shroud that will encompass part of the exhaust pipe which will transfer engine heat to the airflow. Again this layout was stolen from my buddy since its a proven design and I like how it looks. One last task to do today was to add a copper strip from the starter contactor to the ANL fuse, this will transfer energy produced by the alternator thru the ANL fuse, down the copper strip and the hot side of the starter contactor back to the battery. I made the required bends and drilled for the two bolt holes. A few passes on the scotch-brite wheel to clean up all the edges and I put it into position. I also had to trim part of the ANL cover to accommodate the copper strip.

(null)Another great weekend in the Hangar! A few more little items and I’m ready to start riveting the fuselage back together. I’m so thankful that I have access and the friendship of my buddy Glen Vokac! He is a proven builder and always willing to lend a hand or advice. I feel privileged to be in his company and able to learn from his award winning building skills (he is one of the most modest guys I know and will not acknowledge his incredible skills). On another fun note my girl just sold her home in Omaha after being on the market for only 5 days! What this really means is she will soon be living with me in the same ZIP code and I can not wait! Congrats T!!!

Final Fuselage Assembly Begins

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Time: 6 Hours

Today was the start of the rebuilding process. All the priming and paint has been finished and parts are ready to be riveted together. So to start I grabbed the lower forward longerons and slid them into place. They each get 4 AN3 bolts that tie them to the lower engine mounts and angles. They also get 2 screws that tie them to the lower gear tower weldaments.

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(null)With those in place and torqued to the right settings I put a little or he torque seal on the nut side. This will be a visual cue to see if the nut has loosened. After doing that I realized the the 4 bolts at the forward end will be permanently covered with the bottom skin and I won’t have access to check the torque seal. I clecko’d every other rivet hole of the lower longeron and started the riveting. I used some painters tape to minimize any scuff of the new paint as well.

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(null)Next up was the mid cabin braces that get riveted and bolted to the center section. There is also a nutplate that gets riveted here as well. The bolts are AN4’s which required me to open the holes to 1/4″. I started with a smaller drill bit and final sized with my 1/4″ reamer.

(null)The plans next have to work with the forward/aft outboard seat ribs. These ribs get riveted to the aft spar attach point which has a spacer between the two parts to make room for the aft spar of the wings. I first clecko’d the ribs to this bulkhead and place the bolt into positing. I then was able to rivet all the pieces together.

(null)With that task done I moved on to the forward outboard seat ribs to the floor. I slid the fuselage so that the edge hung over and gave me access to the floor rivet holes. Since I was going to be riveting from the bottom up I used scotch tape to hold the rivets in place.

(null)That went fairly fast and I didn’t have to drill out any rivets, surprisingly since I haven’t riveted for a while. I then grabbed all the parts for the mid side skins and all the armrest/bulkheads. I first riveted the lower gussets to the forward bulkhead bottoms.

(null)Then the aftarm rest and mid armrest get riveted to the forward and aft bulkheads.

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(null)Normally the forward arm rests would get riveted as well, but since I’m doing a custom armrests I don’t do them now. With both the left and right done I grab the skins and clecko’d the armrest structures to them. I used my back rivets to rivet the armrest structures to the skin except for the aft armrest which will get done later.

(null)I was real happy with how they turned out and only a couple minor scratches in the paint. Next up was to grab the outboard Cito rib angles, the center section exterior plate in the mid side skins and clecko them into position. With all those parts in position I grabbed a long upper longerons and slip them into position supporting the aft end with my stand.

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(null)I grabbed my pneumatic squeezer and riveted the five rivets at the top of the gear tower structure.

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(null)I was able to get a couple of the rivets the tie the upper longeron to the forward upper engine mount with my squeezer. The rest of the rivets in that section will need to be done with my rivet gun and bucking bar. Since it was getting late and I didn’t want to make a bunch of noise for my neighbors I decide to call it a night at that spot. Another good day in the Hangar and it’s fun to see the parts going back together for good!

Miscellaneous Work

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Time: 5 Hours

Today I finished up the remaining priming and painting of the long longerons and the lower aft longerons.

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IMG_5425.JPGI also put the rear baggage floor nutplates in the mid aft longerons before priming and painting them.

IMG_5426.JPGIn between those tasks I worked on the forward NACA vent. I laid out the 6 rivet holes and drilled them through the vent and skin. I then deburred the holes and dimpled them for flush rivets. I sanded the surface of the plastic vent so that it was pretty smooth since I will be painting it with the skin as it will be slightly visible from the cockpit.

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IMG_5427.JPGBefore I riveted the vent to the skin I cleaned the skin and primed the surface. In between the coats of primer I took the time to make a clear plastic template of the bottom section of that skin. There is a hole on the bottom side of the skin that will be where the wing fuel line will come through. I have read that it’s kind of a pain to make these fuel lines with all their bends after the skin is in place. This template that I made will allow me to make up the lines before the skin is in place and the fact that it is clear helps the alignment.

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IMG_5430.JPGOnce the priming was done on the skin I grabbed the ProSeal and mixed up some to create a seal for the vent to the skin.

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IMG_5435.JPGI had just a couple pieces of the seat ribs that need to be primed and painted. While I was waiting for those items to dry in between coats I got to work on a couple new items I had. I had ordered a battery contactor, a starter contactor, ANL fuse base and a 24/48 tab grounding block from B&C specialty products. The grounding block will allow for 24 tabs on the engine side of the firewall and 48 tabs on the fuselage side of the firewall. I planned on putting the ANL base, starter contactor and grounding block on the firewall. The master contactor was going to go on the forward side of the right gear tower. These placements will allow for short cable runs between each of these items in the battery. I use the same layout as my buddy Glen’s RV-8. I will say drilling through the stainless steel firewall is a real pain!

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IMG_5461.JPGI also got the rudder cable guides that go on the seat rib support cleaned up and riveted the nutplates on them.

IMG_5452.JPGI then grabbed the drill and a 8″ 3/16″ drill bit and match drilled the 4 engine mount holes. From the inside drilling forward. These holes will be enlarge to a bigger bolt size but for now they just needed to be match drilled. It’s easier to do this now without the side skins on and later the larger drilling can be done from the outside in.

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IMG_5454.JPGAnother good day in the Hangar and I’m getting back into the swing of things after the long holiday break.