Dodging Showers and pulling rivets

Today began full of promise, cold but quite clear in Angaston and  the Jabiru 230 booked for 8.30. The weather at the airfield was overcast but dry. Pre-flight completed, harnessed up and about to press the starter, down it came. 5 minutes later and dry again, fired up, turned on the avionics and heard..................absolutely nothing. Shut down and jumped our to check the headphone jacks which were not plugged in - quite a logical explanation for no sound. Back in and harnessed up again to find another shower overhead. 5 minutes later its dry again. This is the point at which common sense probably says retire, but no, other aircraft are buzzing around the circuit so Jabiru and I lift off in light misty rain. The cloud level was low but I just managed circuit height for a touch and go with a pretty neat landing. It looked much better to the north west so I head that way under a cloud base at about 1000' AGL  In no time I'm out from under that and  in blue sky and smooth as the proverbial. I cruised out to Palmer and turned for home. It looked very ordinary over the airfield so I contented myself with one touch and go that turned  into a go-around due to excess height. By this time I am at 700' under cloud and drizzling rain, not having fun and landing and stopping for sure. Good plan as it turned out seeing it hosed down right through the drinking of a very welcome cup of coffee and beyond.

Most of my recent flying days have been like this. If you need rain at your place, let me know and I'll come right over, rain guaranteed.

Back home to the ACF for an easy but enjoyable couple of hours pulling blind (pop) rivets on the vertical stabilizer skins while listening to both volumes of Hot August Night at some volume. Way to go! Is there anything better? Probably but it won't get a plane built That completes the stabilizer, I need to find a home for it as it won't be needed for a while.

This is it with the forward skin yet to be fitted to those beautifully dimpled holes with nutplates behind.   

And the complete item.

Now you have to admit that is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Apart from that it's a milestone, being the first completed section of the build. A small but significant step.

After I've read through the plans for the next section, the rudder, I might even retire to the spa to see if that works some kinks out of the back, and perhaps gloat a little.

Satisfying Satuday

This has been a productive day in the Angaston ACF, with more vertical stabilizer work.

I began by riveting together the front spar, the lower and upper main ribs and (of course) some nutplates.

 
I am pleased to report that the nutplates went in well (sorry no photo), not to get too optimistic, there are more of these little suckers coming before the day is out. I then riveted the left and right lower spar caps to the rear spar omitting some holes covered by the blue tape. This was the the first mass riveting of blind (pulled or pop) rivets, thankfully by pneumatic puller which I love! All went well.

Next I riveted the upper,  lower, mid ribs and rib tip to the rear spar. It looks like this and is known, surprise surprise, as the skeleton.

On to page 06 now.  This is the forward stabilizer skin. It needs to be trimmed and edges and holes match drilled and deburred. With great excitement I embarked on learning a new skill - dimpling. This involves inserting  dimple dies in the rivet squeezer that when squeezed make a depression in the skin so that the countersink screw (in this case) when inserted, finishes flush with the skin surface. This was superbly completed and this is the finished product. Neat eh!

 The next part to see the light of day is vertical stabilizer main skin. This is a moderately large piece of aluminium.After deburring the edges and holes, joy of joy, you get to install some......................................nutplates! More dimpling was required as part of this process and this went almost without a hitch.  These nutplates will receive the screws to affix the aforementioned neat forward skin. I can very cautiously tell you that these went in without any drama. While  practice and experience does help, I can tell you I am still a long way from loving nutplates but warming to the task. Here is the product.

This is the complete main vertical stabilizer skin (with nutplates installed) ready for the skeleton, previously constructed, to be inserted.

The next step invokes inserting the skeleton (above) into the main skin to form the almost complete vertical stabilizer. This is the skim clecoed to the skeleton. This has a quite trendy hedgehog-like appearance.

The clecoes are now in on both sides ready for riveting.  The stabilizer will then be complete save for the fitting of a fiberglass fairing (cap) at the top.

Then on to the rudder. I retired from the ACF at 6.00 PM well pleased with the days work. I think I am going to enjoy this! A glass or two of fine Barossa red wine served admirably as a celebration.  

A stab in the dark and nutplates

I can't tell you how cold it is in Angaston at the moment. I moved the heater into the shed and made a little progress on the vertical stabilizer last night.

I final drilled some holes in the front spar as directed, then moved to my first experience of countersinking for flush rivets in the rear spar. It's pleasing to report that all went well and another skill is learned. Immediately I got more practice at this with more countersinking in the spar caps and in the front spar. I (carefully) did these using the deburring bit given that a number of them were tight against the flanges and the countersinking tool would not have fitted.

I then riveted the left and right upper spar caps to the rear spar. Note to self -take more photos so this will make more sense! This was followed by the riveting of nutplates to the rear and front spars. We need to have a word about nutplates, they look like this and provide a fixing place for screws or bolts:

 

I'm struggling to develop any affection for nutplates. It's probably my technique but for me just now they are a right pain in the a..e. Hopefully practice and experience will ease the pain. I see there are plenty more to come. Onwards and upwards.

The rest of the session was consumed by preparing parts for riveting ribs to the spars. This involved radiusing some corners, much deburring of all edges and holes and some fluting to straighten ribs. These parts are now ready for riveting.

Small Steps

The counting is pretty much finished with only one part missing and a few washers. This is pretty amazing really considering the number of parts. I now need to give Vans the bad news and they will send the absent items. The fact that I have yet to do that is actually a good thing as will become evident in just a moment.

The urge to build is hard to resist, so naturally I dived right in. Construction of the empennage/tailcone is the approved starting point so being a obedient soul, that's where I started. The first part is the vertical stabilizer, that's the bit at the back that sticks up in the air.

The first parts to be built are upper and lower hinge assemblies. These are the attach points for the rudder and allows it to turn left and right around a vertical axis. This is a reasonably important control mechanism for any aircraft. I'd like to be proudly showing off the first completed parts, they look like this.

The components of each hinge assembly are connected by 5 solid rivets which with trembling hand I squeezed, (the first of many). Nine went in beautifully, not so the tenth. No problem, there is a technique for bad  rivet removal that involves drilling through the head of the rivet, removing the head and driving the rest of the rivet through with a pin punch. Drilling and head removal went beautifully however there is no pin punch in this ACF (Aircraft Construction Facility). Various other devices were tried with absolutely no effect. Apparently a pin punch really is necessary........... Of course instead of waiting until one is to hand, the constructor decided to drill the rest of the rivet right out, carefully using a drill bit the same size as the original hole. This worked a treat and the replacement rivet was duly inserted and squeezed. To my horror it pulled through the newly enlarged hole. This is not good and certainly not up to standard. I figure there are two options: a larger rivet if one can be found or a new part to be ordered to keep company with the missing parts. It seems buggering up a rivet or two is virtually a right of passage in aircraft construction and its sad to know that I'm no exception. Yet another lesson or two learned.

Undaunted, the intrepid constructor  proceeds with the next phase which is preparing the left and right upper and lower spar caps that will eventually mate with the vertical stabilizer rear spar. This involves lots of deburring of edges and holes and match drilling. People say these activities form possibly the greater part of the construction process so it is good to get early practice. It is also good to be able to report that all went well and tasks called out on pages 6-02 and 6-03 are complete. This is the product.

 

Time to call it quits and reflect on the highs and lows of building. While they are small steps the journey has really commenced.

Kit Arrived and Counting

The great day has been and gone. A hire trailer and a trip to Adelaide and some assistance from Tim saw 5 crates safe and sound in the shed.

 The crates arrive in perfect condition, obviously treated with great respect which is amazing given the distance they have traveled with multiple handlers. Note family cat providing close supervision.

Vans give you 30 days to check all components are present and correct and advise of anything missing which they will replace.

I've been at this unwrapping and checking for a couple of weeks among other commitments and am thankfully approaching the end. I have to say the kits are a marvel of packaging that has ensured that every part (and let me tell you there are plenty) has arrived in perfect condition. So far I have only found one part missing which I think is pretty impressive given the number.

Hopefully by the end of this weekend that phase will be complete and all parts will have found a temporary home. Perhaps even a start to construction......................we shall see.