Aft fuse attach

Posted on by Neal

With help from my friend Simon, we were able to attach the aft and forward sections of the fuselage today! It’s amazing to see the size of the fuselage now, it is now so big that I can’t possibly move it by myself.

We didn’t get too far, we just clecoed together the parts, but they will stay together now for good. Everything went smoothly, and the holes lined up perfectly without the need to do any real finessing. I was surprised at how easily it all came together, just following the instructions. The only snag we encountered were a couple of temporary rivets that I had missed. Once we removed those, everything was great.

Rather than using saw horses, I decided to use my work benches to support the two halves. These are on wheels, and can be easily maneuvered into position. It worked out great!
Getting the two halves to line up, with help from Simon
The two halves clecoed together
Note the bulkhead has not been installed yet. That will be next, before I move to a rotisserie

Prep for fuse attach

Posted on by Neal

Tomorrow I’m planning to attach the two halves of the fuselage. This will be a big step, and it’s exciting to be at this point! My friend Simon is coming over to help me with the alignment of the parts which I’ve heard can be tricky.

Tonight I got ready for that step by rearranging the garage, and completing a few final tasks. I removed the temporary rivets holding the skins and ribs of the forward fuselage, along the trailing edge. I also bent two of the flanges of the aft fuse per the plans, and set up some safety straps, suspended from the rafters.

Forward and aft fuselage parts spend their last night alone

Finished air vents

Posted on by Neal

Last night and tonight I worked on the air vents, installing them in the cockpit tonight.

The vents (SV-6) arrived from Vans on Friday, so I got to work positioning, match drilling, and trimming the parts per the plans.

I installed some aluminum honeycomb in the vent to stop any large insects or other critters from getting access through the vent shaft. This worked out ok, and I feel slightly better knowing there is something to act as a barrier.

Aluminum honeycomb product used for screening the vent shaft
Silicone used to bond everything together. A cutout of the aluminum honeycomb. This was glued inside the vent shaft to stop FOD coming in the vent.
Assembled and match drilled
Trimming the vent per the plans. One corner is rounded.
Carefully clamping them into position
Clamped into position. Waiting for the silicone bonding agent to dry

Filling nutplate holes

Posted on by Neal

Tonight I filled some unnecessary nutplate holes with rivets, in the bottom of the fuselage. I had been puzzling over how to river these, and decided to back river them. That worked ok, except for one right by the spar, where I can’t get in snugly enough with the rivet gun to rivet straight. The ribs and spar flanges get in the way. I’m thinking I’ll pop rivet these, vs risking damage to the spar.

The nutplates are for the tricycle version, and hold the gear leg fairings.

Setting up to back-rivet the holes

Air vents

Posted on by Neal

Tonight I trimmed and sanded the air vents, and separated and deburred the aluminum brackets. I found scotch-brite worked best to scuff the plastic.

I can’t do more on this until the eyeball vents arrive from Vans, and I’m not sure on their ETA right now.

Vents and brackets
Holding in place, this is view from outside
View from inside cockpit. There is zero clearance between the panel and the vent, will check this again once I have the eyeball in hand.

Section 29 and 35

Posted on by Neal

I finished reviewing all of the Quickbuild sections today. I didn’t find anything wrong, just some missing torque seal on a couple of bolts under the roll bar bottom bracket. I noted it down and will torque and seal them

I installed a couple of extra shop lights in the garage to improve the lighting situation. It’s already excellent, but I had the extra lights and there were a couple of slightly darker spots. Now it’s very bright!

The next step is installing the cabin air vents, so I found the parts, and then ordered a few things I needed. Vans doesn’t sell the plastic ball vents anymore, so I bought the aluminum vents instead. They are apparently far superior, with a better seal. They are $140 each, so I’m expecting them to be great! I also ordered some more silicone adhesive, my existing tube is old and has gone off.

Section 25

Posted on by Neal

Tonight I started going over the Quickbuild fuse kit, starting with chapter 25.

I spent some time familiarizing myself with the overview then carefully stepped through the instructions checking the work.

Everything looks ok. I found some damage on the outboard edges of the main spar on each side. It looks like tie down strap scratches from shipping, and can probably be buffed out. I emailed Vans support since this is a very important structural part, and I will need to remove some small amount of material to repair.