Tailcone - 1

I realize it's been a couple of weeks, but I haven't been goofing off- just really busy. I have been working on the tailcone, but the work hasn't been terribly exciting. A LOT of surface preparation. I started with the many skins and prep includes edging and deburring, Each of the skins are about 9-feet long, so plenty of surface area that requires work and attention. Here are some examples.

 Not a very good picture below. I am trying to illustrate an edge bend. I'm using a device that looks like a hockey puck with two rollers. You roll the device along the edge with just a little inward bend. This will help all the skins fit together later in assembly, or so goes the theory.

 After I completed the main skins it was onto the small assemblies like the tail tie down bracket.  This is actually my second bracket. I messed up on the first attempt and had to order a replacement. I was rushing and made some dumb mistakes. Replacement cost me $5.40 plus shipping, but I gained some good lessons-learned. The little notch on the side is for a bulkhead feedthru. And the radiused courner- don't know what that is for but should find out soon.

Then it's a matter of match drilling a couple of 1/8 holes, template provided, and then using a 1/4 inch drill to create the proper radius. Then mark and cut away.

Then in the other end of the bracket it is necessary to cut off material, 1-inch from the end of the bracket, angled down towards the mounting surface. The reason this is bracket number two is because I made my cut on the 1-inch line not leaving myself enough room to file smooth. Plus I used a power grinder to smooth the surface. Lesson 1- aluminum is very soft.....comes off quickly!!! I need to stop working when the brain stops computing....step away from grinder!!

Then it was time to tap 3/8 - 16 threads. The instructions say 1-inch deep, but I followed the advice of some other builders and went to a depth of 1.5 inches. I marked the drill as reference.

The Tap 3/8- 16

 The tap at work!

 The result!

 And then the finished part. I enjoyed this part- the drilling, cutting, filing, shaping and finally tapped. Feels like I'm building an airplane. And I'm learning!

 No bad!

Then it was into the smaller piece-parts like bulkheads, stiffners, mount assemblies. So, deburring, sanding, counter-sinking and dimpling. Sound familar?

Finalling started to prime some of the smaller parts. I'll have to give some thought to priming the skins. No more spray cans for the skins. But that will be a project for next week!

All of the above work was performed in roughly 16 hours, which I believe brings the total time on the project to 101 hours. Getting close to the fun part. Putting all these pieces together. Oh by the way- the wings are scheduled to ship from Van's on 5/15/2013. We'll see how my timing works!

Horizontal Stabilator - 5

03-22-2013 thru 03-24-2013
At the end of the day, Sunday, I'm about 80 hours into the project. It was a prabout 3-hours of work in each day. Slowly the individual pieces are beginning to resemble an airplane. The stabilator really makes it feel like I'm making progress. The stabilator has an eight foot span, so it really begins to give one a sense of the scale of the airplane and the project as a whole.

Friday- ember of EAA Chapter 81 here in Tucson. I thought it was a good idea to have a technical councilor over to look at the stabilator before I 1put the skins on. It was time well spent. The councilor thought the workmanship was good and had some great ideas on how I might speed of some of the operations. Maybe a bandsaw and bench grinder with a polishing wheel are in my future.

I then proceeded with the final drill of all the holes, and a little clean-up.
Bottom surface cleco'd for final drill.

 Picture of the box-spar and assembly with the skins temprarily installed.

Saturday- I continued with the final drill and begant process. Must be close to 400 rivets installed- just guessing, I didn't count.

I decided to take some pictures of the stabilator skeleton prior to button-up- future reference I suppose. I guess the important area of assembly during this process is to ensure that the upper skin flange needs to be on the outside. Makes sense to keep the moisture out.

 Top-skin riveting complete!

Sunday- Today I finished riveting the main skins, installing the left/right splice, and installed the hinge brackets. 

One side complete

 Left and right hinge brackets for servo trim installed.

 Now I'm and little concerned about the aft skins HS-1217 left and right. Look at the tailing edge and the way it curves down. Anyone following this blog- what are your thoughts. Is this normal?

So, I'd say I'm 90-95% complete with the stabilator. Still need to install the counter-balnce arm and weights, and the actuator yokes. The stabilator has an 8-foot span-this is where I stop for the weekend! 

Friday April 5, 2013- Okay- new aft skins installed. Removed prior set and replaced with replacement items from Van's. Van's indicated that the prior set may have been bent incorrectly and offered to send replacements. Drilled out a total of 56 rivets on both sides. I used a magnet to retreve the rivet heads from inside the closed stabilator- all accounted for, no rattles. Installed the aft skins with cleo's and checked the fit. They look good- no droop. I also installed the upper and lower control arms. I'm done with the stabilator and 85 hours into the project. The only thing I didn't install was the counter balance arm and weights. Easier to store without. The tailcone is next- the wings are on order.

Horizontal Stabilator - 4

03/17/2013 I did not make nearly the progress I made last week-end. This weekend it was final prep prior to installing the skins. So the first order of business was to match drill the final three holes in each of the servo-trim tab hinges. I did this per the illustration in the Van's instructions. I used the right skin to celco and match drill the remaining holes. The hinges are temporarily celcoed to the lower inside aft edge of HS-1201.

After the match drill above, it was time to once again deburr, eadius the corners of the skin and then sand. I use 320 grit followed be 400 grit wet paper to smooth all the edges. It was then onto cleaning and scotch-briting the inside skin prior to applying primer. Step 1; clean with acetone, 2: scotch-brite, 3: alcohol clean and the prime. I only applied primer 2-inches beyond each rivet hole pattern versus the entire skin. Photos of inside prep and scotch-brite areas.

4-hours over the weekend is about it! 72 hours Total!!