When we last saw our hero he was busy skinning the left wing.
And now we join the progress at the doubler.....
Mark followed everyone elses lead on the RV-12 VAF board by priming both the underside of the doubler and the outer surface of the wing to which it will be riveted. The reason for priming both sides is because the doubler skin is riveted on top of the skin that is already on the wing and considering that it will be at the wing root, there is a good chance of corrosion if the wing gets wet.
Mark had a minor (very minor) snafu with the access hatch as the instructions called for it to be dimpled for a #6 screw and no such
dimple was included in his Avery tool kit. He tried to solve the problem with the dimples that we had but the outcome just didn’t look right. He ordered a #6 dimpler from Avery, and hoped to re-dimple the holes. If this had not worked then he would have ordered another hatch from Vans, but the re-dimpling worked like a charm and all turned out well.
Remembering working on the wing-tip close-out components calls to mind those nervous moments when Mark spent time cutting the hole for the wing-tip lights. I remember Mark grumbling, "I don't like putting holes in my plane." He checked once, twice, thrice before taking the Dremel to the skin. Part way through the process, the disk shattered and flew across the garage! Good thing Mark was wearing his safety glasses. After the cut was made, a file made short work of deburring the cut-out and before too long, he was riveting the remainder of the wing close-out together. Mark decided to save the epoxy work until both wings are done so he could do them at the same time and save on the materials. With that the left wing was as complete as it needed to be and was loaded into the wing rack (fitting perfectly) while work on "my" wing proceeded.
Not all of August was devoted to wing building, Mark's mother hurt her knee (torn meniscus) and had to have surgery. It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since she was on crutches and unable to put any weight on her leg. As summer drew to a close and we headed back to work we tried to be available and help her out as much as possible. As anticipated, once the school year started, work on the plane decreased dramatically with most work only happening during the weekends in the fall. As the year progressed we simply became inundated and very little was done on the plane. Such is life, and the reason why we always tell people that we have no timeline for finishing the plane. It simply will be done when it is done.
OH MY GOSH....I can't believe I almost forgot about THIS little episode in the wing building:
While working on the prep work on the outboard and the mid skin (the usual removal of blue
plastic, filing and deburring the edges, and deburring each rivet hole) Mark noticed a creased dent
right in the center of the outboard skin! He spent time thinking about how
to deal with the crease, did some research on the Internet, and discussed the options with me, after which we came to the
conclusion that although the plane was sure to incur some hangar rash during
its life neither of us wanted our RV to START life with some! Consequently, we ordered a
new skin from Van’s setting Mark back a bit on a self imposed timeline. As stated earlier, this certainly isn't about how fast we get the plane done.
Crimping the wiring for the lights proved to be one of the small problems that need to be solved. As with most of these little things that pop up it's all about finding the correct tool to make the job easy. Amazingly, after striking out at all of the other places Mark found the perfect tool at Harbor Freight. Although it is not a ratcheting type
like his beloved terminal crimper, it did the job perfectly, even though the Molex pins were tiny! All of the necessary pins were crimped and
installed in the connectors with no problem besides making Mark nervous about ensuring the connections were perfect. As with the left wing Mark was equally terrified about cutting a hole for the landing light in the leading edge. As before he measured thrice and cut once to make the perfect hole for the landing light.
Mark's next "albatross" was to work on the Plexiglas for the landing light covers, and conveniently he kept finding other things to work on before getting to the Plexiglas work, including attaching the inboard flaperon hinge rib (the sister to the one that had given us so much grief on the left wing). Remembering the experience from the first wing, he pulled no rivet lest it was
firmly seated and made liberal use of the angled rivet puller tool. Mark even used
the offset drill that his father bought from Harbor Freight to chase a couple of
holes. With that done there was nothing left to do but get to work on the Plexiglas.
After researching how to cut and drill Plexiglas to minimize any problems Mark felt ready to attack his nemesis. He first drilled some small matching holes for the lens using
the small plexi bit. Holding the light firm against the skin, he drilled the first hole,
then held it the cover in place with a cleco, repeating this with all 8 holes to ensure
a good fit. Next, he marked the inner and outer edges of the cover where the
skin hits, then cut the cover with his Dremel, proving difficult as the plastic
would melt when the wheel cut the Plexiglas. After cutting close to the line he marked, out came the sanding drum on the Dremel to remove the rest of the material up to the line. The holes that were drilled in the first step were enlarged to
final size and the wing skin was dimpled. The final step was to countersink the holes in the plexi using the machine stop
countersink. As if all of the other parts of the procedure weren't enough to unsettle Mark's nerves this was the step that truly had him worried as it seemed like it would take
much trial and error to get it right. Sure enough, it involved working the
material a bit, stopping to check the work, and continuing until the counter-sunk holes were just right. Once Mark learned exactly the feel and the rhythm of the counter-sinking process he was able to quicken his pace. When Mark reached the last hole, as
the countersink took its last bite, CRACK! The Plexiglas formed a quarter inch crack originating from the last hole. To say Mark was disheartened is an understatement. After a few swear words he went to Van's website and ordered a replacement. Several minutes after ordering the
piece, it occurred to him that the one that cracked would be OK as the crack
merely extended a quarter inch to the edge of the cover and was effectively
already stop drilled. Nevertheless, it was a learning experience that Mark will use when working on the canopy. Work on the second plexi cover went much more smoothly and was completed successfully with nary a crack. The problem with this cover however was that when trial fitting it into the cutout hole on the leading edge of the wing there was a considerable gap between the plexi and the wing skin. Initially Mark thought that this would be acceptable, but when he looked at it again in the light of a new day he decided to try and fix the problem.
The cover was refitted and marks were made where the holes should be to make the fit snug. As it
turned out the existing holes only needed to be enlarged. Good thing for the rat tail file! Mark worked the holes,
reinstalled the cover, and checked again, repeating the process 4 or 5 times until it was right. New screws were ordered because the original ones became overworked and began to have sloppy heads. Once satisfied with the fit, Mark moved to the newer plexi now that
he was confident in his technique. The
fit on the new Plexiglas cover was never quite as good as with the first plexi so Mark decided to use the first piece keeping the newer one if ever we need a replacement.
Mark has obviously done most of the work on the plane with me only giving a bit of moral support and serving as the occasional but necessary third hand. Once he got to riveting the inboard upper skin of "my" wing (the right wing) he then turned the tools over to me. Given the opportunity for some of what we call the "glory" work I quickly changed out of my wet swim suit and began my tenure as Rosie. I worked hard un-clecoing, inserting rivets, and pulling rivets for nearly all of the holes on the middle skin. Some of the rivets close to the main spar proved to be too far away for me to reach easily so Mark had to help on those, but I'm going to say that ALL of the rivets on the middle right skin are MINE! Thanks for letting me have some of the fun!
Mark has obviously done most of the work on the plane with me only giving a bit of moral support and serving as the occasional but necessary third hand. Once he got to riveting the inboard upper skin of "my" wing (the right wing) he then turned the tools over to me. Given the opportunity for some of what we call the "glory" work I quickly changed out of my wet swim suit and began my tenure as Rosie. I worked hard un-clecoing, inserting rivets, and pulling rivets for nearly all of the holes on the middle skin. Some of the rivets close to the main spar proved to be too far away for me to reach easily so Mark had to help on those, but I'm going to say that ALL of the rivets on the middle right skin are MINE! Thanks for letting me have some of the fun!
While talking about this change in perspective Mark told me a story about the time while working on cars with his dad he cross-threaded a spark plug and was
mortified when he realized that this would require removal of the entire
cylinder head and valve train. Mark's father just calmly said to start removing it
without ever batting an eye. Mark never understood how his father managed to just move forward without even an ounce of frustration but now, after having to deal with the small problems that pop up with the plane, he finds he has the attitude “It is what it is” and is better able to deal with such
setbacks. As it turned out, Mark said drilling all of these rivets out was a piece of
cake and with the undersized drill bit, none of the holes were even slightly
enlarged. After checking about 100 times for any stray rivet pieces and having me help shake the wing while listening for rattles, he was able to rivet the skin back on in what seemed no time at all. (And all seemed well until we were ready to move the wings from the garage into the living room....but I don't want to get ahead in the story.)
By the end of September "my" wing was closed out and moved next to its partner in the wing rack. The two wings fit well and we managed to arrange the garage so that both motorcycles fit in (tandem) along with the wings in their rack, the two work benches and the Porsche. It was evident that if we wanted to make use of our motorcycles then we would need to move the wings into the house, but for the time being all fit tightly but well. The wingtip lights still needed to get put on, and the flaperons needed to get worked on, but the major work on the wings was wrapped up as October began. With the Porsche reminding Mark daily that the brakes needed replacing he moved his focus from planes to cars.
BOXSTER INTERLUDE: Mark learned a bunch
about how the Boxster is put together by replacing the brakes and the spark plugs (which are only accessible through the wheel wells) . He did the front
brakes first with no surprises at all. The underside of the car is completely
smooth with panels covering everything. The pads were nearly gone and there was
a deep ridge at the edge of the rotors so Mark was very glad to have bought all of these
pieces. The caliper weighs less than a pound as it is made of aluminum. On the
rear of the car, he started with the plugs on the drivers side. Once he removed
two panels, the plugs were easy to see and reach but the difficulty lied in removing
the coils from on top of the plugs due to limited access space. This was the
most time intensive part of the whole process which left Mark, who is not used to unique yoga positions, sore for days. The brakes themselves were very straightforward besides
having the incorrect sensors sent from Pelican Parts. Fortunately, Beasley
Porsche had two of the sensors left so I went over and picked them up. Once the job was done Mark was sore and worn out but proud of having done
both the brakes and the plugs. Mark's dad came over to offer a helping had for the fronts and part of the
backs, mostly playing a supervisory role, keeping his hands clean by sitting close by and giving helpful advice at a moments notice.
Little did we know that Mark's work on the Boxster would prove to be the last major mechanical work that could get done due to an unbelievably busy work schedule and a multitude of trips for work, fun, and to visit family. From Christmas in Colorado; mentoring a teacher in the Rio Grande Valley; a family reunion in Pittsburgh to celebrate Mark's uncle's Golden Jubilee (50th anniversary of ordination); and more trips to Colorado to help my mother sell her home and move to a fantastic new townhouse we found ourselves with limited time for plane building.
Spring and Summer 2012-
Mark did get a few tidbits done intermittently through the spring including working on the fiberglass wingtip lights. The work began with cutting along the scribe lines with shears and then sanding down what had been cut. What made this a bit challenging was the inability to see the scribe lines well once they had some dust on them. Tracing over the lines with a fine Sharpie seemed to help. The wingtip extensions were then fitted onto each wing and hole locations were match drilled. Mark kept putting off the job of building up the wingtip extensions with a little bit of epoxy and flox as he had never worked with this kind of stuff. After working with the epoxy Mark's comment to me was "boy am I glad I'm building an aluminum plane and not a composite one!" The flox is added to the two part epoxy and the whole thing is stirred together until it is just thick enough to not pour from the mixing cup. The whole idea behind this epoxy step in the plans is to provide a stronger and thicker piece to rivet to the wing. Once the epoxy is on the wingtip extension it is clecoed to the wings until the epoxy dries and hardens. To prevent the epoxy from going where it isn’t wanted, the wing gets a small coating of car wax. Similarly, a plug of wax is added to the inside of the wingtip extension where the nut for the lights will go. Once the epoxy has set (over a 24 hour period) the last few holes were match drilled, the extensions were removed from the wings, and the excess epoxy and wax was cleaned up.
Once Mark had finished the wingtip extensions it was time to move the wing rack and the wings into the living room right in front of the fireplace (the only place in the house that is long enough and wide enough). On the day in question we thought it would be a quick job, just move the car and the motorcycles out of the garage, re-orient the work benches so one wing would balance on one bench and the other would balance on the other bench. The plan was to move the rack out of the garage, through the front yard, and in through the front door. Of course the furniture in the living room had been shoved aside to make room to maneuver. All was going well, we had the rack in place inside the house, we even and moved the first wing (the left wing) into its cozy place in the rack. Off we went to get the right wing ("my" wing) and when we lifted it off the bench and tilted it to carry it inside the tell-tale rattle of a trapped rivet head was heard deep inside "my" precious wing. "RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, TINK!" You may recall that this was the wing where Mark had had to drill out the rivets in the mid upper skin in order to clear off some of the blue plastic. You may also recall that Mark had spent considerable time cleaning up inside, with me there to help ensure that there were no stray rivet heads hiding before closing the skin back up. This was the episode that had help Mark to become a more patient person and willing to accept what ever comes his way....and now after months of waiting here we were mere steps away from moving the wing inside and "RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, TINK!" There is no way to recreate how we eventually got The Little Beast out of my precious wing, but out it is. Suffice it to say there was a web cam, duct tape, a shop vac, any piece of long thin strong material we could find, and infinite hours (OK, only nine) involved. We have The Little Beast saved in a plastic baggie although the name on the baggie is not The Little Beast it is The Little F_____r, but that would be inappropriate to mention in a family blog.
With the wings situated inside in the living room we had garage space available and ordered the fuselage kit. Van's shipped the kit on April 2, and it arrived in Austin on April 13th (a Friday no less). We were out of town for some sort of work related reason so Mark's mother had to hang around the house until the shipping company dropped it off and placed it in the garage. When we returned home we shoved it aside knowing that we would need to spend some time the next weekend inventorying. When we finally did inventory the fuselage kit and break down the crates (which takes as much time as the inventory process) we both were excited to see parts like rudder pedals and brake master cylinders. It looks so much more involved then the ribs upon ribs upon ribs that the wing kit seemed to consist of.
After working out a strategy for how to best drill stainless Mark knew the next bit of work on the counterbalance tube was going to be a doozy as he needed to drill 15 or so holes in the counterweight tube, versus the two he had done the previous day. These 15 holes are where the skin can be attached to the counterbalance tube. Mark began by clecoing the tube to the spar
and then clecoing the skin onto the rib. Next, he used the spring center punch
and a Sharpie to put a little mark on the tube at each of the holes. He then
took everything apart and moved to the drill press, using the tube
drilling tool that he purchased months ago. This tool gives a nice cradle to hold
the tube while it is being drilled. Although this really helped, it was a
tedious process to go through the same “drill” that mentioned earlier. Needless to say, it took a lot of time although it was not
so bad that it made him want to “chuck” the drilling! (HA HA!) Everything was put back together with clecos to ensure proper fit and of course all was perfect. Next up deburring the stainless steel. Doing this
to the outside of the tube was no big deal but the inside was a big problem.
Not only were these burrs tough to get to, they were tough to file down. Mark's dad has imparted to Mark the ability to rig just about any needed tool using whatever is at hand and this is the skill Mark called upon to solve the newest little hitch. He took a conical grinding stone that would
typically be used in a drill and attached it to about 2.5 feet of socket
extensions using tubing that would hold it snugly. Once this was done, all that
was required was patience and elbow grease to remove all of the offending
burrs.
What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July, but to have Mark's dad come over for a fun-filled morning of fabrication of the actuation brackets. Mark's dad is a master at fabrication and with the two of them planning, watching, and
executing, both brackets came together slowly but surely. There is no way that Mark could have made these pieces as perfectly as his dad, so thanks for the great 4th of July gift.
Work now moved onto the ribs and spars for the flaperons. The typical lengthy process of deburring before priming seems to be getting a bit faster and Mark moved rapidly to match drilling the pivot brackets onto the left spar. He was also spending time reading the discussions on the Van's Air Force board about the pre-tapping drill bits and how the Q bit is a "bit" smaller than the 11/32. Having used the 11/32 bit because he did not have the Q, Mark decided he would be happier with the Q, so he ordered new tie down stock, the Q bit, and a bunch of other new bits since his were worn down from all of the drilling into stainless.
By mid July Mark was quickly closing in on finishing the flaperons. Plane building pace slowed as Mark unfortunately pulled a muscle in his back when we were busy moving furniture out of my mother's house in Colorado into a U-haul to bring back here to Texas. Then, having no time to rest, the two of had to rearrange our house to fit all of the newly acquired family heirlooms. He's recuperating nicely, but it is an unfortunate turn of events here during the summer months when he has the time to devote to the plane. As it is he does try to get out and work for a couple of hours at a time to keep the progress going. In the last week he was able to get the actuation brackets
and pivot brackets for each flaperon match drilled, and attached squarely to the spar. He even had me come and check the ninety degree angle after measuring thrice to ensure that the pieces were indeed as square as one could possible make them. Riveting the actuation bracket to the spar was next on the agenda. This turned out to
be quite the chore since squeezed rivets were called for and there just was not
enough room for the rivet die. Mark chose to grind down one of the
dies to turn it into almost a half moon using the grinding wheel. It took some
time and patience but once it was done, it made the riveting a piece of cake. He went ahead and riveted
both left and right although dealing with the right flaperon
always slows him down as there are no provided drawings of the right flaperon in
the plans. You are simply instructed to complete the same operations for the
right wing which is a mirror version of the left. I would come into the garage to check on Mark only to find him modeling
an airplane by extending his arms while looking at the drawings for the left
imagining what the right would look like. I really should have taken a picture! Once the squeezed rivets were done,
the rest was easy since the pneumatic puller could be used on almost all of the
rivets. At the end of the work session, both spars
were completed with only the skinning remaining.
As with the rest of the wings, all of the skins needed deburred, and with Mark's back needing rest it took him much longer than I'm sure he wanted to take. The clecoing and riveting (the glory work) also took a little more time than usual, luckily our nephews Hunter and Ryan and Mark's cousin Neal were in town so being generous and needing the rest he left all of the holes on the top surface of the inboard nose skin of the right flaperon open he gave the guys a quick course in un-clecoing and riveting and handed over the pneumatic riveter. They did a great job and hopefully they'll always remember which piece is "theirs".
FRIDAY JULY 19TH. The wings are DONE!!! WOO HOO! Mark riveted the last skin on the right flaperon (middle nose). We moved both flaperons inside and mounted them on the wings using plastic hardware (we don't have the correct hardware yet, and we didn't want to scratch anything with the wrong stuff).
STATISTICS: (Very rough estimates)
Little did we know that Mark's work on the Boxster would prove to be the last major mechanical work that could get done due to an unbelievably busy work schedule and a multitude of trips for work, fun, and to visit family. From Christmas in Colorado; mentoring a teacher in the Rio Grande Valley; a family reunion in Pittsburgh to celebrate Mark's uncle's Golden Jubilee (50th anniversary of ordination); and more trips to Colorado to help my mother sell her home and move to a fantastic new townhouse we found ourselves with limited time for plane building.
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| Nancy's Mom's "Old" house |
 |
| Ice Skating in Evergreen |
 |
| Christmas 2011 |
 |
| Mark's Uncle Cyril - Pittsburgh June 2012 |
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| Pittsburgh from PNC Park |
Spring and Summer 2012-
Mark did get a few tidbits done intermittently through the spring including working on the fiberglass wingtip lights. The work began with cutting along the scribe lines with shears and then sanding down what had been cut. What made this a bit challenging was the inability to see the scribe lines well once they had some dust on them. Tracing over the lines with a fine Sharpie seemed to help. The wingtip extensions were then fitted onto each wing and hole locations were match drilled. Mark kept putting off the job of building up the wingtip extensions with a little bit of epoxy and flox as he had never worked with this kind of stuff. After working with the epoxy Mark's comment to me was "boy am I glad I'm building an aluminum plane and not a composite one!" The flox is added to the two part epoxy and the whole thing is stirred together until it is just thick enough to not pour from the mixing cup. The whole idea behind this epoxy step in the plans is to provide a stronger and thicker piece to rivet to the wing. Once the epoxy is on the wingtip extension it is clecoed to the wings until the epoxy dries and hardens. To prevent the epoxy from going where it isn’t wanted, the wing gets a small coating of car wax. Similarly, a plug of wax is added to the inside of the wingtip extension where the nut for the lights will go. Once the epoxy has set (over a 24 hour period) the last few holes were match drilled, the extensions were removed from the wings, and the excess epoxy and wax was cleaned up.
Once Mark had finished the wingtip extensions it was time to move the wing rack and the wings into the living room right in front of the fireplace (the only place in the house that is long enough and wide enough). On the day in question we thought it would be a quick job, just move the car and the motorcycles out of the garage, re-orient the work benches so one wing would balance on one bench and the other would balance on the other bench. The plan was to move the rack out of the garage, through the front yard, and in through the front door. Of course the furniture in the living room had been shoved aside to make room to maneuver. All was going well, we had the rack in place inside the house, we even and moved the first wing (the left wing) into its cozy place in the rack. Off we went to get the right wing ("my" wing) and when we lifted it off the bench and tilted it to carry it inside the tell-tale rattle of a trapped rivet head was heard deep inside "my" precious wing. "RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, TINK!" You may recall that this was the wing where Mark had had to drill out the rivets in the mid upper skin in order to clear off some of the blue plastic. You may also recall that Mark had spent considerable time cleaning up inside, with me there to help ensure that there were no stray rivet heads hiding before closing the skin back up. This was the episode that had help Mark to become a more patient person and willing to accept what ever comes his way....and now after months of waiting here we were mere steps away from moving the wing inside and "RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE, TINK!" There is no way to recreate how we eventually got The Little Beast out of my precious wing, but out it is. Suffice it to say there was a web cam, duct tape, a shop vac, any piece of long thin strong material we could find, and infinite hours (OK, only nine) involved. We have The Little Beast saved in a plastic baggie although the name on the baggie is not The Little Beast it is The Little F_____r, but that would be inappropriate to mention in a family blog.
With the wings situated inside in the living room we had garage space available and ordered the fuselage kit. Van's shipped the kit on April 2, and it arrived in Austin on April 13th (a Friday no less). We were out of town for some sort of work related reason so Mark's mother had to hang around the house until the shipping company dropped it off and placed it in the garage. When we returned home we shoved it aside knowing that we would need to spend some time the next weekend inventorying. When we finally did inventory the fuselage kit and break down the crates (which takes as much time as the inventory process) we both were excited to see parts like rudder pedals and brake master cylinders. It looks so much more involved then the ribs upon ribs upon ribs that the wing kit seemed to consist of.
Although Mark was anxious to start on the fuselage kit, he knew that he needed to finish a bit of work on the wingtip extensions and he still needed to construct the flaperons. Mark decided that since the Skyview panel has replaced the original panel and the lighting options have changed he would wait on the avionics kit to actually put the extensions on the wings. He did however finish cleaning up the epoxy/flox and countersunk the holes before placing them aside to wait until he has received everything he needs to complete them.
Work on the flaperons began in earnest this summer. First, Mark tried to fabricate the
actuation brackets that will communicate the control inputs from the cockpit to
the flaperons. This being a very tricky fabrication requiring very accurate
measurements and careful cutting minding the kerf of the blade, he immediately
screwed up the angle aluminum that Van’s provided, ran inside, and ordered
another one! Mark decided right there he would get his father's help on these pieces
as two sets of eyes and hands not to mention a couple of brains might help a
bunch. Still, the new Mark was not frustrated, exasperated, or grumpy, he just got to work
making the pivot brackets from tie down stock. Since these weren’t nearly as
involved, he was able to successfully create them including drilling and tapping
them with threads and cutting off some of the piece as a weight saving move.
One step that seemed a bit surprising was the drill that was used prior to
tapping. The plans say to either use an 11/32 or a Q drill bit. Looking through all the bits provided with the Avery kit he found that he was not provided with a Q, so the choice was made for him, 11/32 it is.
After doing some research on how to drill stainless steel properly, Mark was ready to work on the counterbalance tube. The trick is to not get the steel too hot because if you do, it will become work hardened and
it will be much harder than it was originally. Mark's technique was to use his center spring punch to create a small indent before using a drill bit much
smaller than the required size with a nice coating of Boelube. Slow speeds and
nice constant pressure seemed to work well. He would then progress through a
couple more bits each getting increasingly larger until finally reached the
size 30 that is required. Once this was done for the left wing he riveted the
two ribs to the counterbalance.
After working out a strategy for how to best drill stainless Mark knew the next bit of work on the counterbalance tube was going to be a doozy as he needed to drill 15 or so holes in the counterweight tube, versus the two he had done the previous day. These 15 holes are where the skin can be attached to the counterbalance tube. Mark began by clecoing the tube to the spar
and then clecoing the skin onto the rib. Next, he used the spring center punch
and a Sharpie to put a little mark on the tube at each of the holes. He then
took everything apart and moved to the drill press, using the tube
drilling tool that he purchased months ago. This tool gives a nice cradle to hold
the tube while it is being drilled. Although this really helped, it was a
tedious process to go through the same “drill” that mentioned earlier. Needless to say, it took a lot of time although it was not
so bad that it made him want to “chuck” the drilling! (HA HA!) Everything was put back together with clecos to ensure proper fit and of course all was perfect. Next up deburring the stainless steel. Doing this
to the outside of the tube was no big deal but the inside was a big problem.
Not only were these burrs tough to get to, they were tough to file down. Mark's dad has imparted to Mark the ability to rig just about any needed tool using whatever is at hand and this is the skill Mark called upon to solve the newest little hitch. He took a conical grinding stone that would
typically be used in a drill and attached it to about 2.5 feet of socket
extensions using tubing that would hold it snugly. Once this was done, all that
was required was patience and elbow grease to remove all of the offending
burrs.
What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July, but to have Mark's dad come over for a fun-filled morning of fabrication of the actuation brackets. Mark's dad is a master at fabrication and with the two of them planning, watching, and
executing, both brackets came together slowly but surely. There is no way that Mark could have made these pieces as perfectly as his dad, so thanks for the great 4th of July gift.
By mid July Mark was quickly closing in on finishing the flaperons. Plane building pace slowed as Mark unfortunately pulled a muscle in his back when we were busy moving furniture out of my mother's house in Colorado into a U-haul to bring back here to Texas. Then, having no time to rest, the two of had to rearrange our house to fit all of the newly acquired family heirlooms. He's recuperating nicely, but it is an unfortunate turn of events here during the summer months when he has the time to devote to the plane. As it is he does try to get out and work for a couple of hours at a time to keep the progress going. In the last week he was able to get the actuation brackets 
were completed with only the skinning remaining.
As with the rest of the wings, all of the skins needed deburred, and with Mark's back needing rest it took him much longer than I'm sure he wanted to take. The clecoing and riveting (the glory work) also took a little more time than usual, luckily our nephews Hunter and Ryan and Mark's cousin Neal were in town so being generous and needing the rest he left all of the holes on the top surface of the inboard nose skin of the right flaperon open he gave the guys a quick course in un-clecoing and riveting and handed over the pneumatic riveter. They did a great job and hopefully they'll always remember which piece is "theirs".
 |
| THE LAST RIVET! |
STATISTICS: (Very rough estimates)
Time on wings: 265 hours
Total time on
plane: 435 hours
The garage is now clean and ready for work to begin on the fuselage. Hopefully there will be no more epic posts, for those of you who stuck with this novel....thanks!
Keep up the great work! That is always the tough part about Blogs: Write about what you are doing or just keep doing it!
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