Productive Weekend HOBBS 358.0 hrs

Happy Halloween 2010! It was a productive weekend in the factory, the best I've had in awhile. Its kind of ironic, I was invited to two parties this weekend and turned them both down because I have been feeling a little under the weather. What a great oppurtunity to spend some quality time with the "Aluminum Mistress!" This thing aint gonna build itself after all. :) I spent 10 total hrs pluggin' away at the left aileron and the right fuel tank. Except for a 10-32 nut plate, the left aileron is done (need to order some more from Van's). And the bulk of the right fuel tank is now done. It was a lot of work, but very satisfying to see some good progress.

I had heard that as you progress in the build, Van's kind of stops 'holding your hand' and leaves more and more of the details up to the builder. Well, with the aileron I started to see this transition. I had to fill in the blanks with a few things on this sub assembly. That slowed me down a little and caused some head scratching and even a couple minor mistakes. The right aileron will go much quicker now that I know the process. Here are some pics for the weekend's work....

All interior parts acid etched, alodined and primed...you know the drill by now

Stiffeners back riveted into place, these babies really do a great job stiffening up the structure

All stiffeners are numbered and marked so that they go in their correct location where they were match drilled

One of the many fit checks...cleco it together, match drill, check fit and plan your assembly order

A shot of the nose rib interior structure with the water pipe counterbalance

Be sure to follow the instructions here, blind rivet the counterbalance pipe FIRST before riveting to the main spar...ask me how I know?

Van's was kind of vague about how to get these countersinks in the leading edge for the counterbalance. From what I could tell, they just said to install the blind flathead rivets and they would pull the material into a dimple?? I cleco-ed the counterbalance pipe (which has machine countersinks) in place, then took my dimple die...inserted it in the hole and smacked it with a soft mallet. Worked slick.

The result, a pretty flush flathead rivet considering where it is located. I can live with this.

Attach bracket in place for fit check, all systems go!

And there ya have it, an aileron. I gotta add the nut plate and tweak the trailing edge but other than that, its done.

And a shot of my right fuel tank...spent about five hours on it sunday. All interior ribs and one end rib done. Still have to install the capacitance plates, vent tube, end rib, access cover and the baffle/attach brackets but the hard part is over.

Paint Scheme Evolution HOBBS 348.0 hrs

Some of you may have looked back in the archive and seen my first paint scheme post. I have pretty much dumped that idea (too busy) and have developed a totally different scheme. I would guess it is the result of about 50 different hand sketches with colored pencils...what can I say, I'm picky! :) I have looked at it for months now without changing it so I'm thinking it is a done deal except for a few tweaks.

I have yet to find a good (cheap, easy to use and good 3D results) software package that will simulate a paint scheme on an RV...or at least one that I like. So, with my background in CAD, I am working to develop my own model. Its not a high priority right now since I am a good two years away from worrying about the details of the paint scheme, so my progress is slow. I also dont plan to release the full rendering until I am much closer to completion. I dont mind if someone copies my paint scheme after the fact, but not before. ;) So, I will release bits and pieces as time goes on. Here is release number 1...click for larger image.

Aileron Work HOBBS 346.5 hrs

Spent the weekend working on the right aileron. Cut and dimpled the stiffeners, match drilled the assembly, deburring, etc. I still have some dimpling and edge prep to do. Almost ready to prime all interior parts and then it will be time for final assembly and riveting.

Took a friend of mine, Evonne, for her first small airplane ride on saturday afternoon. I rented the DA-20 (pictured) for a 1.1 hr flight sightseeing over the city. I was a little worried we were going to have a bumpy flight as the winds were howling down the runway at 23 kts, which isn't all that unusual at BJC. But it really wasnt bad once airborne, pretty smooth actually and the fall colors were popping. Another satisfied customer, she had a blast and thanked me several times! Always fun to take people for their first ride.

Right Tank HOBBS 341.5 hrs

I'm bouncing around in sequence a little bit right now. Haven't finished the left tank, its complete except for the rear baffle but I need to order some nut plates (I mistakenly put the wrong ones in the access cover...oops) for the Z-brackets so that is on hold for the time being. So I started on the right tank, did the stiffeners, the fuel access hole and fuel drain. Same song and dance as the left.

I realized its kind of hard to squeeze in short work sessions as time permits when you are doing ProSeal. So to alleviate this, I started on the left aileron tonight. I can use that project as a work filler...its all about being efficient in the shop. Here are some various pics of my latest progress...

ProSeal fillets on the ribs

Twisting the capacitance wire around the vent line (one vent line...and a reflection, not two)

My vent line terminated in the last bay since I am doing the ER tanks. This is not how a standard tank will look.

Goop up all the wire connections for the capacitance plates

Getting the aileron parts prepped and ready for assembly...more stiffeners!! woo hoo!

Cabela's HOBBS 336.5 hrs

Because of my hectic schedule lately, its been awhile since I have been out to ol' hangar 2E at FTG to visit the boys. I ran into Scott at an IFR safety seminar wednesday night and he mentioned they were going flying saturday morning. And even though my personal schedule hasn't let up any, I decided to make a point to heading out to the airport today to join them. I just needed to get some airtime...its been about a month which is about a month too long! ;)

I'm sure glad I did. The destination for this trip was not our usual fare. Instead of the Greeley breakfast run, Gary mentioned, "why dont we go out to Sidney, NE?" What a great idea I thought. Sidney, for those who dont know this area is the home of the Cabela's flagship store. It is not the biggest or even the nicest Cabela's anymore but the friendly hospitality out there is second to none. It was one of my stops when I did my long cross country for my flight training so it has sentimental value to me. This was my first trip back since that memorable day back in 2007.

Its a popular destination for local pilots as Cabela's caters to the pilot's quite nicely. Witnessed by the fact, a nice gaggle of RV's greeted us on the ramp upon arrival. Obviously we weren't the only ones with this great idea. There is a complimentary courtesy van that shows up at the FBO to shuttle you to the store a couple minutes drive away. In fact, on this day, they took us to the local Perkin's restaraunt near Cabela's for breakfast. We then walked over to Cabela's after breakfast for shopping and browsing. We departed FTG in a flight of four...Scott and I in good ol' 339A, Gary flying solo in 99PZ, Jimmy B. in his RV6 out from Goodland, KS and a friend of his flying a Thorpe T-18. Let me tell you, 5 'red-neck' guys can kill some serious time shopping at Cabela's! I think we spent a good hour or more looking at guns, ammo and even exploding targets. haha! Good stuff.



Photo courtesy of http://www.itsallaboutusnow.com/

I logged an hour of PIC time on the way back as Scotty played with his new panel (see photo) and we shot an approach on the way back into FTG. The air was smooth as silk, the skies were blue, the sun was bright and life was good. The cares of everyday life fade into memory and nothing else matters while aloft except for the guys with you in the cockpit and flying formation off your wing. For guys/gals out there building or getting ready to build...try and hook up with local RV guys for some flying from time to time. It is invaluable if you can. I've said it many times before, but it bares repeating, it really stokes the fire to keep pounding those rivets! Its nice to see what the light at the end of the tunnel looks like...why we spend these long hours slaving away in our garage and countless dollars of our discretionary income. It will be worth it one day!

So I spent two hours flying...and about three hours 'hangar flying' having a few beers afterward. I had planned to spend some time in the shop today, which is not happening, but it was a good trade-off as I very much enjoyed the day. I also found out our next hangar movie night is in the planning stages by the women. I look forward to it.

First thing tomorrow morning...aircraft construction is on the agenda!

Capacitance Plate Continuity HOBBS 336.5 hrs

I installed and wired my capacitance plates into the left tank. I twisted the wire around the vent tube to take up the slack and secure it in place. I will goop it with ProSeal for added security before closing the tanks. I then used my new Craftsman multi-meter to test continuity in the capacitance plate system. I also checked that the plates were isolated from the rest of the tank. All systems go! I was happy to hear the continuity alarm sound, but I think it would be rather hard to screw this up...its a very simple system and simple is always good, especially in aviation.

Next step is riveting the baffle in place and finally closing up the tank with the access cover. After that it will be time to test for leaks. Its coming along, although I have gotten bogged down with the ER tanks. When you deviate from the plans, things get interesting, lots of thinking...planning, and less actual progress. I will say, the tanks arent difficult, but they are a black hole for labor....very labor intensive! A whole lot of details go into one of these.

Extended Range Fuel Tanks HOBBS 335.0 hrs

The idea of adding range to my RV has been in the back of my mind since I decided to build one of these buggers. There are a few good after-market options out there, but they all have something I dont like about them. The Hotel Whiskey Tanks are a nice design and I have heard are well built, but they only give you 9 added gallons at a whopping cost of about $1700+...thats steep for something I wont use very often! Even with that being said, I almost went with this product. Some other ideas are Turtle Pac Bladders used by Bush pilots. What I dont like about these is, #1-the fuel is in the cockpit with me which doesnt give me a warm fuzzy feeling...#2-probably not a viable solution with a passenger aboard as putting the bladder in the baggage compartment would reduce or eliminate all baggage capacity because of weight and balance considerations.

So, the only other option is to build your own auxillary fuel tanks. I have heard of guys flying with leading edge tanks with success. I wasn't sure how difficult this might be but it definitely intrigued me. So, with the help of good ol' VAF I did a search and found a great write-up explaining how to do it. A gentleman by the name of Pat Tuckey came up with his version of extended range tanks. I have looked over his design for an agonizing week or more now and feel it is a good design. This is not something I have gone into lightly, nor should you. His calculations and assumptions seem in order and I now feel comfortable adding these to my plane. At least a hybrid version of the Tuckey tanks...I plan to call mine the 'Tuckey-Duren' tanks. There are many more details that went into this decision than I am going to write here, email me if you have questions about the details of my decision.

Pat built two 17 gallon tanks...I plan to go with smaller versions. My calculations are about 9.5 gallons a side. Although I dont see anything in Pat's 34 gallon design to cause me concern...I will just feel better limiting my tanks to a little less weight. I will still be able to cover some serious ground with an added 18+ gallons onboard.

I threw together a quick graphic (click to enlarge) to illustrate the point of what these tanks will do for me. With some nice round numbers of 175 kts cruising speed and 10 gph fuel burn I came up with the following range circles. These represent range (assume no winds) with 45 min reserve. I came up with approx. 600 nm for the standard tanks (42 gal) and 920 nm on the extended range (ER) (60 gal) tanks with that criteria. The circles arent exact, but close enough to illustrate the point. As you can see, with the ER tanks, I can cover almost the entire US from my home base in Denver without refueling, including Oshkosh and Los Angeles. Thats a nice option to have.

Here are some distances from Denver for comparison....

LAX 731 nm

OSH 778 nm

LAS 528 nm

DFW 574 nm

Spins in an RV7 HOBBS 330.0 hrs

Saw this pretty cool video on VAF today, seemed like a good friday post. Looks like a blast and great scenery too...heckuva way to spend your lunch hour huh? KPR boys and girls!

Spins in an RV7

The factory has been in 'shutdown' mode most of this week by order of the CEO...me. ;) I am mulling over a change in plans for the wing. I'll post more later, have a great flying weekend!

I know some of my RV friends (Gary...Scott?) are winging their way toward the LOE fly-in this weekend...wishing them all safe arrivals and lots of good flying weather.