Right elevator assembly, elevator trim tab progress

We flew in a bunch of help for the Thanksgiving weekend; first Natalie had to train the new recruits.

 After Uncle Benny passed her inspection (clecoing, drilling deburring, riveting on practice material), he set to work riveting the right elevator counterbalance skeleton together. He really leaned into it.

The flange-nosed yoke I bought was essential here, as I only had 1 flat die that was long enough.

 Next he & Dad riveted on the spar reinforcement plates and nutplates for the control bushings.

 With those on we installed the root rib with flush head rivets; these were a bit tricky to get to but all 4 rivets turned out pretty well.

Our lead helper came back to check on us & attach the right elevator horn.

Skeleton complete!

Per the suggestion of the Van's instructions we installed these two rivets to avoid having to install blind rivets later.

 That done, the skeleton slid in easily, the counterweight fit nicely and we proceeded to rivet the skin to the skeleton. 

 After finishing the bottom skin I remembered that we hadn't applied the black RTV at the intersection of the stiffeners inside the skin; access was tight, so we made a bit of a mess, but we got it in just the same.

 While the guys set some of the skin rivets and prepared to roll the leading edge I worked on bending the left elevator trim tab tabs.

 These were easier to bend than the tabs on the elevator itself, mostly because I used more double-sided tape and was able to clamp them more securely.

 We headed in to carve the turkey with a nearly complete elevator! We got the leading edge rolled, match-drilled and ready for deburring. Man, these things go together fast with lots of help.

 Dad picked up right where he'd left off after helping start the horizontal stabilizer last fall, and Ben picked it up quick. It's just a shame we're a thousand miles apart!

 

Empennage: 5 hrs

Toy plane

With travel coming up, I didn't want to start into a new part of the plane. Instead, the girls & I decided to make something out of the scrap spar I'd mangled. 

I wanted to try to make a toy with the girls' help that allowed them to do almost everything, each step of the way that mirrored the steps in actual plane construction. 

First we mocked up parts in cardboard, cutting them to the shape of the spar. 

Then we marked off cut/bend lines. Tape was a good stand-in for Clecos. 

We trimmed along the lines & bent the windscreen tabs inboard and down. 

Then we scored and bent the lower "cowling" tab up. 

A couple other pieces sketched, cut & secured, and we had our model!

Next up, I measured our reference points, and the girls connected the dots with a straight-edge and sharpie. 

Then both got a turn with aviation snips cutting on the lines. 

All our rough cut parts!

  I did all the deburring on the bench grinder to speed things up...kid attention spans are only so long. 

After making the initial bends for the fuselage, we Clecoed the assembly and marked the windscreen cut/bend lines. 

Being .032" aluminum, the bends were tough to get precise...thus our plane's "Elvis lip."

All parts ready for drilling!

Back in the garage we clamped the landing gear strut to the lower wing for match-drilling. 

Gear/LW Clecoed to the fuselage (seen near our unfinished rudder). 

Remember what I said about bending thicker aluminum? We ended up with less than ideal wing cant. Thankfully this is just a prototype. 

All pieces match-drilled and Clecoed!

We assembled the pieces one at a time using homeowner pop rivets (pulled rivets) that were very easy for the girls to install. 

Next we added the landing gear; a couple of matching buttons and some small gauge steel wire threaded thru:

Rollin'!

With the cardboard model; not bad for under-five construction

More power! Finally added a pipe cleaner propeller fastened with thread pulled through the fuselage & tied to the hole in the vertical stabilizer. 

I had fun with the girls, and it was great to see their confidence build as they worked on each step. Not long before we'll be putting them to work on the real thing!

EAA RV Assembly Workshop

 This weekend I had the pleasure to attend EAA's RV Assembly SportAir Workshop, hosted by Chapter 524 in Frederick, MD.

 

There was some academic instruction by the excellent Jack Dueck (who's book Sheet Metal Building Basics is excellent, as are his Hints for Homebuilders videos), followed by lots of hands-on time with 2 practice projects.

EAA, with the support of Vans Aircraft and Aircraft Spruce, provided tools, prints and practice kits. The tools were adequate, as to be expected with those used by dozens of unskilled novices. Materials were exactly the type I've encountered so far, and perfect for making mistakes.

 We 16 students paired off to work on our airfoils; Pat & I made good progress, learning about countersinking, back-riveting, pop-riveting, the importance of a good air compressor, and lots of practice with the rivet gun (and how easy it is to mangle aluminum!).

 

I can see the value of a high-speed air drill over the 20V Li-Ion I've been using (weight, speed), but it was hard to get a good feel with intermittent air available.

 

EAA Chapter 524 had 3-6 volunteers circulating throughout the weekend, answering questions, offering tips & encouragement. Their help was invaluable.

 

After we completed the airfoil, Jack reviewed our work and offered suggestions to improve as we dive into our airplanes.

All in all, the workshop was worth every penny. I highly encourage anyone interested in sheet metal work or building an airplane to try to attend.

 

Thanks to EAA, Vans, Jack, @ Chapter 524!

Toolbox

Due to the fact that I was unable to attend a couple of Sport Air workshops as I'd planned in order to mangle aluminum & rivets that won't be part of an airplane, I ordered the Van's toolbox kit.

 

 My parents were in town for the week, and my sister for the weekend, so everyone got to experiment with the DRDT2 and rivet gun. 

 Natalie demonstrated blind riveting.

 Since I've never done any sheet metal work, having a project to learn from shortened the learning curve.

Some things I learned: familiarity with new tools, how to remove vinyl coating without scratching the alclad surface, how to identify a bad rivet, how to drill out a bad rivet, how to feather the rivet gun trigger to prevent it dancing across the surface with a flat set, and how to  better organize the shop.

At $28, this is some of the best money I've spent so far.

Toolbox: 7hrs