Category Archives: Fuselage

Time: 10 Hours

This weekend I wanted to finish up the support brackets for both the ELT and transponder. Before I got to those I riveted the parts of the COM shelf together pretty quickly with the pneumatic squeezer and put it into its place.  Some of you might notice that the aft end, side with the notch, have an unusual rivet pattern. I did my best to lay out the rivets so as to not interfere with the attach hardware of the avionics that will be housed there. We will see how my planning is when I get to that stage!

   For the ELT and transponder I decided to do side mounts, one on each side. I started with the ELT bracket and made some marks using the actual ELT to make sure there was clearance for the antenna wire and others cables. With the location figured out I used some angle brackets to create a top and bottom bracket and two side supports.  I spaced the side supports perfectly for the screw holes in the ELT bracket that comes with it.  
   With everything lined up and marked I removed the bracket and drilled for holes, one in each corner for screws.  With the four screw holes drilled I return the bracket to the sidewall and drilled rivet holes in the top and bottom bracket.  The top and bottom bracket will be riveted permanently and the two side brackets will be removable with the screws. 
 With everything aligned I remove the bracket again to match drill the ELT’ssupport to the bracket. This support has two clamps that will hold it in place.  

   My son Chandler came to the shop and helped drill and countersink the holes for the nutplates on the top and bottom brackets. I took all the parts apart and cleaned and primed them. 
 it’s a common practice in the RV-8 to put the ELT antenna laying horizontally in the tail area.  This area is covered up by fiberglass fairing and conceals antenna. So I drilled a 3/4″ hole with my step bit and put a grommet in it for the antenna to slide through.  The aft and of the antenna will be secured with a adele clamp on the horizontal stabilizer after it is installed. 

   I screwed in the ELT’s control head in the instrument panel as well.  There’s a short cable that connects to a battery powered alert speaker that connects to the control head. There will be a cable run from that alert speaker back to the ELT itself. 
 While I was upfront I went ahead and put in the grommet edging that I had receivedAircraft Spruce in the upper gear towers lightening holes where wires will pass through.  

   I used some on the pass through for the ELT’s antennas cable. 
  After the parts were dry from priming I riveted the nutplates to the top and bottom supports. I marked out 4 holes on the top bracket and 3 on the bottom to drill for the blind rivets I would use to attach them to the mid and lower longeron.  

 I used the holes in the supports to match drill the longeron’s with my angle drill. With all the holes drilled and deburred I attached the ELT cradle to the two side supports.  

   There was a little play with the holes in the cradle so I left them a little loose and place these parts on the side wall with their screws. I tightened them down and then tightened up the cradle screws.  
 With the parts all secure now I grabbed the ELT and put it in the cradle.  

 I connected the cable that runs from the ELT to the panel mounted control through the flexible conduit I have installed. I also hooked up the antenna wire and secured it with a couple adel clamps and a zip tie anchor. 

   I still have one more bracket left for the transponder but decided to take a break from building these. I decided to work on the rudder cable fairings.  I bought these fairings from Avery tools as they look a lot better than the ones you have to fabricate from scratch. I made some marks on the side of the fuselage and came up with a design I liked for the final cut. 
 after a few minutes at the bandsaw and deburring wheel I had both the left and right side done. I carefully align them and came up with a rivet pattern that wouldn’t interfere with any of the items inside. I match drilled the fairings to the skin and clecko’ed them in place. The area that needs riveting on these fairings is pretty small and you have a potential for slipping off the faring with the rivet gun. So I used some sheet the same thickness, .032, to create a ledge to support the gun and secure them with tape.   

 The riveting went perfect on both side and I had them done in about an hour.  

    
 I decided to get the supports and sheet cut for the transponder bracket and drilled the holes for the nutplates. 

 I decided to call it a weekend and cleaned up shop. This was a fun weekend in the Hanger. I need to finish up the transponder bracket and do the smoke tank installation and I think I have most of the items wrapped up for the aft fuselage top skin to be riveted on. 
 

Time: 7 Hours

Today I started the fabrication of the shelf that will hold my two COM radio units and the ADS-B receiver, which allows me to get traffic and weather information.  I’m following Glenn’s lead on the style and placement, just forward of the elevator bell crank under the rear baggage top shelf.  

    
    
 I notched out the aft end to allow for plenty of clearance with the bell crank. The outside edges are 1/8″ wider than the radio units and will allow the attach hardware to have plenty of room. In between the part making I primed the other shelf I already finished.  

   I ran home for lunch and my grommet edging arrived from Aircraft Spruce, this will line any metal holes that wires go through that is too big for regular grommets.  
 When I got back to the hangar I cleaned up the parts of the COM shelf and countersunk the holes on the sheet for flush rivets. Once all the parts where some I started priming them. In between coats of primer I riveted the ADHARS shelf together and put it in its place.  

 When the primer for the COM supports was dry I riveted the aft pieces together. I had to make the support out of three parts to allow for the cut out where the bell crank is.  

    
 While I was waiting for the sheet to dry I drilled all the nutplate holes for the COM shelf. I had to countersink the holes using my angle drill since there isn’t much room there. The pneumatic squeezer made quick work of the riveting.  

 While I was working on the nutplates I noticed that I forgot to install the second flexible conduit on the right side of the fuselage. This side required a new hole to be drilled in the middle floor rib as there wasn’t one there like the left side. I used my step bit and had that done pretty quick. I ran the conduit and secured it with zip ties.  

 Another task I got done was to run the static air lines to the ports I had Pro-Sealed the other day. I ran from one port to a tee then to the other port. From the tee I went through a adele clamp and to a 90° elbow. Later I will run a line from that elbow to the two ADAHRS units.  

    
    
 As you can see in a couple of the last photos I have some paper templates of the ADAHRS units. I used the actual dimensions from the Dynon Skyview manual and plugged them into my vinyl cutting software. I then printed the outline and text using that software to my printer. The software also adds three registration marks that when I take the printed card stock and put it into my vinyl cutter it scans those marks and knows the exact layout. It then makes precision cuts along the edge and gives me an exact size template of the units. I used them to help build and align the rivet pattern for the avionics units. That’s where I stopped for the day. Tomorrow I will finish up the COM shelf and work on the ELT and Transponder mounting brackets.