23 FEB 15: Page 20-5 step 9 (right), pg 20-6 step 3 (right): 2 hours

Finished deburring and dimpling the right wing skin and bottom rib flanges; riveted the nutplates on the right wing skin access holes – no pics.

24, 26, 27 FEB 15: Page 20-5 steps 11-12: 7 hours

My friend, and fellow RV builder, Mike came over several nights this week and helped me finish riveting the left bottom wing skin.  He has worked at Gulfstream for 17 years and is a master on the bucking bar.  He chose to do the bucking – which I was very thankful for.   All of these rivets are bucked blindly and some at a far reach.  Due to his experience we ended up only needing to drill out a few rivets and finished with no dings in the skin.  After the first evening – finished the inboard skin and the aft spar on the outboard skin:

All finished with the left wing after the 3rd evening:

25 FEB 15: Fuselage Delivery

Well, I’m just past the 1 year mark and tonight the fuselage was delivered – it was a huge crate – about 550 pounds.  Just as the truck showed up it started pouring.  Oh well, for the size of the crate, the driver pretty easily unloaded it and had it in the garage in no time.  Pretty big!

Most of the space is used by the cabin top.  A lot of fiberglass work in my future:

28 FEB 15: Finish-filing pitot mast, page 21-5 step 5 (right redo): 1.25 hours

Did some finish filing of the pitot mast and did the final install.  Looks pretty nice:

I had Van’s throw the replacement aileron skins into the fuse crate – if you remember, I dimpled and installed the stiffeners onto the incorrect side of the right aileron skins.  Deburred the stiffener holes and edges.  Priming to follow.

16 FEB 15: Page 21-09 step 4, Prosealed control rods: 3 hours

Prosealed the TE of the left aileron:

I also prosealed the ends of the control rods to make them air tight.  I have no clue if this will help – I primed the inside – but I read somewhere about doing this to prevent rust – no oxygen, no rust.  I had the proseal from the TE, so why not:

Finished the session by drilling out the rivets to remove the stiffeners off the aileron skin that I messed up.  New skins coming with the fuselage kit being delivered on the 23rd:

17 FEB 15: Wire runs in the wings: 1.5 hours

Ran strings to eventually pull wires in the wing conduits.  I read where people used the compressor to blow a string through the conduit.  I thought it would be really tough to do, but I just tied a small piece of foam to the end of the string and it blew through the whole conduit with ease.  This should make pulling wires a breeze.  Cut a hole in the conduit for the exit for the autopilot wires:

Taped off and marked the strings at the end of the conduit:

 18 FEB 15: Dimpled and deburred wing ribs and spars: 1.75 hours

Finished dimpling and deburring the bottom wing ribs and spars – no pics.

19 FEB 15: Dimpled inboard bottom wing skins: 2.25 hours

Finished dimpling and deburring the bottom wing ribs and spars, and dimpled the bottom inboard wing skins – no pics.

21 FEB 15: Page 21-09 step 4, dimpled left bottom wing skin, page 20-6 steps 1-3: 4.5 hours

Riveted the TE of the left aileron after letting the proseal cure for about 3 days.  Hard to tell from the pic, but it turned out very nice.  Arrow strait and nice rivets.  This is always a nerve wracking part of construction!

Dimpled the left, bottom, outboard wing skin and attached the nutplates for the access covers.  Also dimples all the access covers:

22 FEB 15: Page 20-5 step 10: 4 hours

Started to rivet the inboard bottom wing skin.  I helped a friend shoot the bottom skins on his -14.  He bucked and I shot.  It looked pretty tough for him to buck – took us about 7.5 hours per wing – so I wasn’t looking forward to trying this solo, but I wanted to see how it would go.  Who said scrawny arms aren’t an asset ;)

This was tedious and slow going, but the results were excellent.  I only did the inboard skin down to the j-channel.  I’ve decided to do the rest with the help of my -14 builder friend.  It is doable solo.  I’m glad I did this much, just to try it out.  Have no desire to do both wings solo, however.  Looks really nice:

8 FEB 15: Pg 20-4 steps 4-6 (lt), page 21-05 steps 5, 7 (rt eff up!), pg 22-6 steps 1-4: 8.5 hours

Finished riveting the left wing flap gap fairings.  Got all the way to the end and then this:

The good news is that it came out very easily – I caught it in time before it bent over too bad.  Riveted the stiffeners on the skin of the right aileron.  While putting the aileron together, I realized that I had dimpled and riveted the stiffeners on the wrong side of the skins!!  After the anger wore off, I got to work removing the stiffeners from one of the skins:

I realized the skins were top/bottom specific, but did not pay attention to the inside vs. outside of each skin.  Luckily, I randomly selected the right side for both of the skins for the left aileron.  I called Van’s and caught my fuselage kit the last day before it was crated up, so I was able to get two new skins thrown in the crate.  So the mistake only cost me $50 for the skins and time drilling out rivets.  All and all, not a huge deal.  Finished up the session by riveting together the flap hinge assemblies:

9 FEB 15: Page 22-7 steps 1-2: 3.75 hours

Riveted together the left flap structure:

 Clecoed the nose skin to the skeleton:

10 FEB 15: Page 22-7 steps 3-5: 3.25 hours

Riveted the top skin to the spar and to the ribs.  Outside:

Inside:

11 FEB 15: Page 22-8 steps 1-2: 2.25 hours

Back riveted the end rib rivets to the top skin and installed the bottom skins:

12 FEB 15: Page 22-8 steps 2-3: 2 hours

Finished riveting the bottom skin to the spar.  This flap is done for now until I rivet the trailing edge:

13 FEB 15: Page 22-8 step 3, page 20-4 step 6: 3.5 hours

Finished installing the blind rivets in the nose skin of the left flap.  Finished riveting the flap gap fairing on the right wing.  No pics.

14 FEB 15: Dimpled right flap skin/ribs, page 22-7 steps 1-3: 5.25 hours

Riveted the right flap skeleton together.  Smeared a universal head pretty good:

Much nicer the second time ;)

So, I get all the way to the last rib and this nut plate isn’t looking quite right.  Mmmmm…. That is supposed to be on the opposite side… of the the rib next to it!!!

Luckily, I only had one rivet set in the flange, so it was quick work to remove:

Back where it’s supposed to be!

The rib back in place:

Skeleton all riveted together:

15 FEB 15: Page 22-7 steps 4-5, page 22-8 steps 1-3, dimpled wing parts, installed right tank: 9.5 hours

Finished up the right flap.  Riveting the top skin:

 Both flaps ready for the trailing edges:

Installed the right tank on the wing.  Glad to get both of the tanks installed.  

1 FEB 15: Rear NACA vents, finished priming: 7.75 hours

Finally got around to getting the NACA templates from a fellow -10 builder and cut the rear NACA vents for the rear passenger overhead air.  Rough cut:

Final after filing and sanding.  Looks pretty good:

 Spent the rest of  the session finishing up all the priming.

2 FEB 15: Page 23-2 steps 3-4, installed left tank on wing: 3.75 hours

Installed threaded rod ends into torque tubes and installed rod end bearings and jam nuts:

Installed the fuel tank onto the left wing:

3 FEB 15: Page 23-3 step 4, OP 38-2 step 3, OP 38-3 steps 1-4, OP 38-5 step 1, page 21-02 steps 6-7: 5 hours

Installed rod end bearings and jam nuts onto the AN490-HT8P threaded rod ends.  Riveted the nut plates onto the Gretz pitot mast:

Assembled the W-1033A-L/R aileron trim actuation assembly:

Riveted the A-1006-1A outboard hinge brackets to the A-1004-1R/L nose ribs and riveted the A-1007-1A inboard hinge brackets to the A-1015-1R/L ribs:

4 FEB 15: Page 21-03 steps 1, 6, &7: 1.5 hours

Dimpled the aileron main ribs, riveted the inboard and outboard hinge brackets to the ribs, and dimpled the left aileron skins:

5 FEB 15: Page 21-05 steps 5-7: 2.3 hours

Finished dimpling the left aileron skins.  Back riveted the stiffeners to the top and bottom skins:

Clecoed together the aileron assembly:

6 FEB 15: Page 21-06 step 1, page 21-07 steps 1-6: 2.75 hours

Finished clecoing the aileron assembly, final drilled #40 the trailing edge of the left aileron, finished dimpling the skins and spar, countersunk the trailing edge.

7 FEB 15: Page 21-07 step 7, page 21-08 steps 1-4, page 21-09 steps 1-3: 8 hours

Riveted the A-1008 doubler to the A-1003-1L spar, riveted the nose ribs to the nose skin.  Bottom:

Inside:

Blind riveted the nose ribs to the A-1003-1L spar:

Inserted then riveted the top skin assembly to the spar.  Things were going great until I got to the end and saw this:

Yup, that tab on the rib flange is supposed to look like this:

With the tab on the outside of the spar, it creates this alignment problem:

So, easiest thing to do was to remove the rib:

Rivets quickly removed and rib reinstalled correctly!

Riveting the bottom skin to the spar:

All finished except for the trailing edge: