3 hours.
Made the brackets attaching to F-631A, clamped the F-631A channels down, and did a whole lot more measuring than anything else.. I was able to commandeer the tabletop from Shelley’s potting table, which is actually just a piece of plywood left over from the bathroom project. It’s just a little bigger than the vertical dimension called out on the plans for the roll bar, so it was easy to get clamps along the top edge and almost halfway to the corner bends. The channels are cut to fit, but this was only after lots and I mean LOTS of measuring. The plans call out a width for the roll bar, but that’s not set in stone. The roll bar, plus the F-631 angle brackets, needs to be exactly as wide as the fuselage. The QB boys built a straight ship, it’s only about 1/32 wider than it’s supposed to be. Not only that, it will come into line when the skin is riveted down. I did leave about an extra 3/64 of an inch extra, because the outboard angle brackets will have to be contoured to match the curvature of the longerons after they’ve been fit and drilled. I got the F-631B straps cleco-clamped in, but the cleco-clamps don’t grip tightly enough, so I had to run to B&B Hardware for a bag of clamps. I got a bunch of little C-clamps, and a bunch of spring-loaded alligator-style clamps, which will hold the straps tightly against the channels while I drill them. I got the F-631D plates drilled, and the one for the aft channels drilled in and clecoed to the wood surface below. Then there was a lot more measuring. To have proper edge distance, the holes to attach the straps to the channel need to be 1/4″ from the edge of the channel. But of course, I didn’t mark that distance before clamping them down, so I had to do that, which took some time. Then I had to do the spacing for the holes. the only hole that has a distance specification is the one lowest on the channel, to keep the fastener clear of the angle bracket. Rather than calculate the distance for each hole, I got a thin 1/2″ strip of aluminum from one of the trim bundles (I’m pretty sure these are reinforcing strips for fiberglass emp tips), measured the specified distance, and spaced out holes from there with my rivet fan. This strip bent to fit the curvature of the channel, so I clamped it to the edge of the channel and transferred the hole marks along the 1/4″ line.
I need to be finished with this process by the weekend, because shelley’s going to want her potting table back.
More roll bar work
Roll bar
.75 hours
Worked on the roll bar this morning. I radiused the inner bands so they fit nice in the F-631A channel, then trimmed the channel so the ends were exactly the dimensions called out on the plans. I’m expecting this thing to float around a little and stiffen up when the rivets go on, but I’m desperately trying to avoid the headaches experienced by so many other builders with regards to the fit with the skin, etc. The big angle brackets called out on DWG39 mount the roll bar to the fuse. I made those and after seeing how it works on dwg 40, it’s going to be…. interesting to get them totally flush with the skin on the outside. The thickness of the angle bracket also looks to be similar to that of canopy plexiglass. I get what they’re doing, but this is one of those things that would make lots of extra work and maybe a parts order if I screw up even slightly.
Frigging Rigging done.
3 hours.
For real this time. Last time, I torqued down the AN4 bolts and found that the side-to-side motion of the stick was… resistive. as in, not “free and correct. After checking VAF, it seems that it’s a fairly common problem for the control column parts’ fit to suck. I just ground down the stick and the bushings and threw the column in a vise and bent the ears outward a little. Not a big deal, and by all reports, the right thing to do. Also, the usual solution is to ream out the tube welded to the stick, grind it and the brass bushing so they slip fit between the ears on the control column, which I did. It still didn’t work. I was still getting friction after the bolts were torqued down. So then I had a thought. What if the surface on the end of the bushing wasn’t ground perpendicular to the bushing? Would that not create a side-load and cause friction inside the tube rotating around the bushing? In a word, yeah.. It would. So how the frak do I make the end of the bushing square to the side? The answer seems obvious, but it escaped me for a bit: Chuck the bushing into the drill press, then lower it onto a file resting on the platform of the press. Bingo. perfectly flat bushing end. Sure enough I torqued it down and it move freely, just like it’s supposed to. These shots are of the stick moving the whole kaboodle back and forth without error:
And here’s the control column assembled:
Of course, i’m skipping the less than complimentary things I said while trying to get all the bolts and washers in before final torque and application of torque seal, most of which would get you fined if you said them on TV. But once that was done, it was time to move on to the roll bar, or ‘cabin frame’ as Van’s calls it. I got the aft cabin frame halves drilled for the access holes, then started on the F-631x angles, which will eventually hold the roll bar to the fuselage. I still have more work to do on these, but they’re getting there. Oh, and a shot for the FAA, just to show, yes, it’s me building this thing.
… and more rigging.
1.5 hours
Thought I was going to be done with the control column, but no, still had to remove more metal from the lightening holes of the seat ribs for clearance. Now it’s all good, and the control column is bolted in, torqued, and torque-sealed. So little appreciable effect for an hour and a half of work, but now it’s in and done. I still have to drill holes in the sticks for later switchgear, but they can come out easily. I had hoped to get going on the roll bar, but if I can finish this rigging task, then I can call it done until it’s time to actually bolt the wings on. I’ve also decided to get the trio autopilot servo and mounting kit, which i’ll put in the wing before I close it up, rather than under the seat floor in the most outboard bay. I’m saving that spot for the strobe kit, and the trim servo has to go somewhere as well. It’s going to start getting crowded in there soon. I still need to rig the rudder, so I’ll probably do that while i’ve got the tail on. I can pop the cable grommets out for painting.
Another thought about painting the interior: There’s not a lot to paint in there; aft seat floors, sides, armrests, and the forward part of the aft top skin. The rest are all detachable and will get painted separately. It’s a full weekend’s work, I think, painting all that stuff. I want to get the roll bar done before I paint, and ideally I’d like to have the finish kit so I can paint the canopy frame as well.
Not that it matters. A lot of this will have to wait until the weather gets better and I have some time. I just hate having too many irons in the fire at one time, especially with limited space.
Rigged.
1 hour.
I got home from work yesterday and my replacement VA-101 had arrived in the mail, so I decided to sort out the aft push tube and see if I couldn’t rig the elevators. Long story short, my theory was correct, and I was able to get more thread on the forward pushrod’s end bearings, but something was still kind of weird. I still could only move the elevator to one stop or the other, but not both. Adjusted for maximum clearance in full forward stick, the rod end bearing would bind on the control column when pulled all the way aft. When adjusted the other way, the control column would contact the insides of the lightening holes in the ribs before the elevators hit the stop. It didn’t really matter how much adjustment I did, one of those two situations would always occur. If you look at the seat ribs in the area of the control column, you can see there’s a definite cutout for the arc of the control column. I mentioned before that the control column’s fit sucked, most likely due to warpage during the welding process, or badly formed parts. I suspect this is also responsible for the few thousandths of aluminum making the stick rub on the ribs. This was compounded by the fact that the two center ribs, the ones wich have the access notches cut out, didn’t have all the metal removed that was supposed to be removed. Long story short, I was able to take off a couple thousanths of an inch from the lightening holes and the access notches to allow the column to move freely through its whole range. I have plenty of thread inside the rod end bearings, and the elevator now moves all the way to both stops unhindered. Just for kicks, I got the panel and subpanel assembly out of the loft and clecoed it into place on the fuselage. The stick doesn’t hit it and there will still be plenty of room once I install whatever stick grip I eventually choose.
And the best part? I sat in the hull, moved the stick back and forth, and watched the elevators go up and down in the reflection in the sliding glass door.
Always with the fiddly bits….
4 hours.
Finally got a chance to finish up the tail section. I fabricated and installed the rudder stops, hung the rudder and verified it has 35 degrees of travel both ways. This was slow going because once again, there was a lot more measuring and confirming than actual work. If you’re doing the slow-build flavor, you can do these before you put the aft deck or the top skin on, which would make it a little easier, but it wasn’t too bad. My main concern was having enough edge distance in the F-712 bulkhead flanges and the j-stringers after drilling. What you can do though, is use the vertical rows of existing rivets on the skin/F-712 to extend a line down to where the rudder stop rivets will go, then extend a line back using the rivets in the skin along the j-stringer. Doing that will get you where you need to be. This picture stinks, but what you’re seeing is a view under the horizontal stabilizer. The little black nub in the middle of frame is the rudder stop. The weird stuff in the background is the plumbing from when we ripped out the sink.
After that, it was time to do the canopy latch plates and finish the seat back bulkhead crossbar that only gets a cursory blind-rivet at the factory. the holes for the latch plates are OK, although they could be better. However, at this point, I’m filing them under “if it bothers me later, i’ll redo them then.” There’s also a little cut you have to do to what on a boat would be called the gunwale, I don’t remember the part number right now, but you have to slice off enough to let the tipup canopy frame ride on the structure below and latch into the square holes in the plates. There’s also the matter of the reinforcing angle holding the whole dingus together. The way it is, you’ll never rivet the side skin to the main longerons. So I notched (smooth, round, 1/8″ notch) the reinforcing angle enough to get a CR-3214 rivet in there. Then I riveted the whole mess together. I gotta tell you, my skills with the double-offset cupped rivet set are rusty as all get-out. There are two rivets I find…. questionable, but there are eight others in that area that are just fine, so I’m not going to mess with it and risk mangling the metal or enlarging the holes too much. So here they are, locked, cocked, and ready to rock. Although I have to check, those 3 on the longeron might be AN426 and not AN470, like I did them.
After that bit of business, I got all the parts for the rollbar (what Van’s calls the cabin frame) out of the hayloft and started laying them out. I went over the drawings, and this stuff is starting to get harder. At this point, it’s expected that you can measure and cut things to 1/64th-inch accuracy, something I still have some problems with since my finest Sharpie has a 1/32″ tip. Fortunately, no part is more than a Scotchbrite-wheel pass away from blueprint spec, assuming I leave enough metal for adjustment.
Some rigging, and Finish Kit on the way!
1 hour.
The last week has sucked big time. I had one of the top ten worst colds of my life last week, which put me out of work for two days and down for most of the weekend. The only bright spot was Saturday. A friend from MI was in town and rented a new Corvette, so I loaded up on antihistamines and we went hooning around the desert all afternoon. Sunday was a little better. I was able to temp-install the control column and the left stick so I could hook up the pushrods and check rigging. I’m not sure, but I think my aft push tube is too long. I have the rod-end bearings in almost to the stops, and I think the forward push tube is shy of minimum thread coverage on its bearings. right now, the only way I get stop-to-stop motion from the elevators without hitting the ribs with the control column is to extend the forward push tube bearings as far as they’ll go. They might still have acceptable thread coverage, but I don’t like being on margins if I can belp it. I might wind up shaving 1/4″ or so off the aft tube and redrilling or ordering a new end bearing fitting. This needs to get done, pronto, because I need to do the roll bar and get that out of the way so I can paint like mad and actually start installing systems.
This morning, I spoke to Tony Partain about the finish kit shipment, and Partain Transport will be delivering my finish kit sometime in the next month or so, which means i’ll have to find a home for the canopy, cowls and other fiberglass bits. the good news is, I’ll be able to use the crating for another project at home, and/or shelves for the incoming bits. The loft in my shop is getting crowded with things I’ll eventually need to paint and screw back on.
Bones connected.
4 hours.
Cut, primed, drilled, deburred, riveted, and temp-installed elevator pushrods. I’m now working on temp-installing the control column because, dammit, I want to see the elevators go up and down when I move the stick. I’m also re-thinking my original position on cutting access notches in the two ribs 2nd outboard from center. But another disadvantage to making these post-QB stage is that there’s no way in hell the platenut for the cover attach screw is ever going to line up again. The solution is probably to make a drill jig from a strip of .032, bent to the contour of the rib and cover, and matchdrilled through the cover. This sounds like a pain, and I think maybe time would be better spent getting really good at installing the control column the way Van intended.
Nor is the fiddling done on the stick bearings themselves. The way I understand it, the steel hinge in the stick base rotates around the brass bushing, rather than the brass bushing rotating around the bolt. That’s nice, but the bushings are still a very tight fit in the tube. My guess is, whatever person or machine welding control columns that day left his/her/its juice turned up too high and warped the work just enough to make the fit suck. So I have to pull the bushings out, chuck them into the drill press and sand them down a couple more microns so they slide into the stick bases easily. Now, given the fit of everythign else on this column, I’m expecting a fight when I have to bolt the main control bar to the bearings on the spar. After that, I have lots of crawling around back there to do; I have to run conduit aft for the strobes and antennae, autopilot servo, and AHRS sensors, plus install the static port kit I got from SafeAir1 many moons ago. I also have to manufacture the access covers for the tail and the rudder cable fairings. the fun bit on that is convincing a helper to crawl down the Jeffries tube and buck the rivets for them.
More good stuff on the fuse.
Finished drilling the VS, finished the elevator stop (primed, installed), but still need to finish riveting it to the aft deck.. Bolts are in and torqued though. Not a lot of actual metal work, but lots of measuring. When it says “DOUBLE CHECK EDGE DISTANCE” on the drawing itself, you can take that as a hint that it’s pretty important. So I was doing my best to make sure I knew exactly where I was putting the drill on both sides of the sandwich. With the elevators horns in the way, it’s really hard to judge anything vertical on F-712, so there was a lot of measuring, then some measuring, followed by more measuring, then the actual 1/4″ holes. It’s important to get this right because the load from the tailwheel spring gets transferred into the airframe via WD-409 and some of it gets picked up by the VS and transferred to the HS, which spreads it out into two big bars attached to F-711. After this was done, there was a lot of bolt torquing and application of torque seal, fiddly bits like that. Still on the to do list is the rudder stops, but I’ll do that after I get the pitch push tubes done and I can pull the HS off and actually work back there. As it is, I’m crammed in with the fridge and stove and every time I have to get to the workbench or the tool box, I have to duck under the stabilizer.
But after that, I started on the control column. This is my first beef with the quality of the stuff coming from Van’s. The powder coated stick assembly sucks. I wound up bending the tabs outward, then grinding off a good 1/16″ from the sides of the stick bearings and bushings. Now all the stuff fits. And fits well. But it still chaps my hindquarters that I had to do so much work on a part that’s supposed to be done, finito, that’s it. But I got the stick assembly together, and I got the forward elevator tube drilled, aft elevator tube cut to length. I wanted to get the tubes done, but that’s as far as I got. We’ve got Santa Ana conditions all week though, so it’s conceivable I can prime the tubes this week and get it rigged by Friday. For those of you outside Los Angeles, those are the hot winds from the desert carrying dirt and charged particles that make everyone in the city crazy and fakes the classic Southern Calfornia summer for a week or so. I havent’ actually installed the control column yet. I was thinking about cutting removable sections in the next two outboard ribs near the control column so I can drop it in without much contortion, but it seems to me the savings in work from ease of assembly of the control column is offset by having to fabricate the new cutouts and fiddle with the hardware. But as of now, I’m trapped in paint-land, and the worst kind fo paint-land, priming the inside of aluminum tube. And better yet, I have to do it in the morning before work. I’m going to try to make it happen with the spray can, so I can keep cleanup to a minimum.
Onward.
Mounted the VS!
6 hours.
Mostly. I still have to drill the lower holes in the VS/F712/tailwheel bracket assembly, but today I finished the up elevator stop and drilled the VS to it. I did the forward attach bracket as well, and based on the plumb line down the holes in the rudder attach brackets, it’s pretty dang straight.
I also finished bending the tubes for the boost pump. Making tube bends is a dark art, and I’m by no means a master of it, but I got everything cut and bent and it all lines up without any stress on the fittings, and none of the lines rub together. All the covers fit too, which is a bonus. The new tubing bender performs really well, but it’s a little unwieldy in some situations and I did a few hand-bends where I couldn’t get the right angle with the bender.
The control column got some work today, which was more pain than fun, because the powder-coated parts don’t fit together well at all. I wound up filing the stick bearing down so it would fit in the yoke on the main bar, along with the brass bushing. But that gets to wait anyway, I need to finish drillng the VS.