Wings 3
1/25/2006 2 Hours
I went to the hangar for a couple of hours to do a few things. I got the ailerong control rod booties made. I used some Tyvek coveralls, end glued them to the rings with some E6000 industrial adhesive (AKA Shoe Goo). Seems to have worked pretty good. I'll trim away the excess when the glue has set. These are the sleeves from the coveralls. Once the pushrod is in, just tie wrap it closed and you're good to go.
1/27/2006 2 Hours
Mike and I arranged this evening to get together and finish up the wing skin and get the wings on the plane. Mike's a really usefull guy to have around, as things get done so fast with him. Here, he's the buckmeister. We rattled this skin out in no time. I didn't have any ear plugs, so he used some tissue and masking tape for ear protection. Looks kinda funny, but I guess it worked!
Here's the completed skin. Next step... Let's get the wings on!
We had some hardware store bolts to help get this all going, that the ends were tapered off. Makes aligning the holes easier. There's too much slop in them though to really set the wings up properly. We put in two proper wing spar bolts in each wing to keep them from going anywhere. Here, the wings haven't been aligned yet. It's looking like an aeroplane now!
Next was the iterative process of setting the wings sweep and incidence. The wings need to be dead straight across the plane, and with 1 degree of incidence, set up with a 3" block and smart tool angle finder. The smart tool angle finder is extremely useful here, as was Mike's laser line. We had to measure and move the wings about 4 times before we were happy with the sweep. Next was the incidence. This was pretty easy to set with the smart tool. I had to extend my spirit level though as it was too short.
Once it's all set, it's drilling time for the rear spar attachment! Here I am drilling the pilot hole. Gotta make sure its square to the surface of the spar too. Very important hole this. I opened it up to 5/16" directly with a pilot tip drill bit. These drill bits (from DeWalt) cut a really nice clean hole, and the pilot tip follows the pilot hole really nicely. It's a perfect fit for a No. 30 hole. Well, on the 5/16" bit anyways.
Here's the plane with the wings all set up! On sunday, I'll wheel it outside and take some more shots. Wow, I can't believe that the wings are finally on. I know they've got to come off again, but they'll only be off for a few hours, then they go right back on again! After this, we had a celebratory beer! Thanks for your help Mike!
1/29/2006 9 Hours
Considering the time spent at the hangar today, it didn't feel like I got much done. I worked on doing stuff that needed doing with the wings on. The first task was the flaps, and getting the flap pushrod holes cut. This meant putting the flaps on the wings, so while I was at it, I cut away two of the hinge eyelets so that the hinge pins could be inserted from the centre of each flap. It's not very easy to get them out, but it's possible! They certainly won't be coming out of their own accord.
I had to trim the inboard edge of the flap upper skin to clear the fuselage. I still have to trim a little more off this to make a nice even gap.
Using the 'string method' to make the flap hole. The string is tied to the flap motor weldment, and in each position, you can lift the flap up to the right length (marked on the string) and file the hole accordingly. Beats putting in and taking out the pushrod every time! Thanks Mike for the tip! This got the hole pretty close. My arms were aching by this stage!
Here is the flap in the full down position. It's nice to see something actually working.
Here it's fully up. I measured the travels with my Smart Tool, and I get 11 degrees of travel with each stop of the flap position system. It started at 22 degrees and went down to 66 degrees, therefore travel is 44 degrees.
I had to tweak the flap pushrod hole a little more with the pushrod in place, but not too much. Here's the final shape.
Repeat for the right side. Here the flap is fully down. I also put the aileron on.
I didn't have enough tube to make the flap pushrods. I had to make a makeshift one to do this exercise. I don't know why I don't have enough tube, but I just couldn't find any. I'll order some up from Spruce tonight, then I can make them next weekend.
Some thing that I wanted to do, but couldn't was the holes for the bottom fuselage skin to the wing. Trouble is, these quickbuild wings have rivets in all the holes along the inboard rib, and really I should've drilled out the ones where nutplates go so I could use a strap duplicator to match drill the fuselage. Maybe I can slide the wings out a bit and drill out the rivets. I'll give it a try next weekend.
I also have a sticky aileorn on the left side. I diagnosed the issue and sourced it to a tight bellcrank. I'll have to investigate this further. Maybe the bushing is too tight in the weldment.
2/3/2006 2.5 Hours
We forgot to drill out the rivets on the wings for the nutplates that go to the bottom of the fuselage skin, so I got mike to come by today again after work to help me pull the wings out, drill the rivets out and push the wings back in so I could match drill the fuselage under skin. Then we pulled the wings off again ready for me to do some more work on them on Sunday. Thanks again Mike!
2/5/2006 9.5 Hours
A nice long day at the hangar. My first task was to put nutplates on the inboard wing ribs for the fuselage skin and the wing root fairings. This took me forever! I haven't got a nutplate jig for this size of nutplate, which is a complete pain, so I had to use an actual nutplate as a drilling guide. Slow going to say the least.
I got the wing root fairings match drilled too.
Here's the wing root nutplates. It's not too convenient dimpling through three layers of aluminium either. My back was killing me after this little exercise.
Time to put the pitot tube on. I soldered the wires to the terminals and put them into the terminal block for the pitot. Then threaded it all through. The pitot uses a local earth here. No point in having a high current wire running all through the plane. I bought some stainless scres to hold all this together too. I should probably get some stainless screws for the pitot tube to mount attachment too. I think my next task for the wings will be to put nutplates on the access cover holes. I would've done it today, but I'd had enough nutplates for one day!
Here, you can see I've bent the arms for the fuel sender floats. Now then, this was a source of confusion for me, as the fuel tank drawing showed 3" between bends. On the sheet that came with the senders, it said 3 3/16" between bends for the RV-8 (the RV-7 wasn't listed). I thought the -7 and -8 wings were the same, so these seem to be conflicting. I went ahead and figured out what I needed myself and went with that.
Here you can see how I figured it out. I wanted the fuel sender to read empty before the fuel pick up ran out of fuel to pick up. Seems like the safest way to go to me. I know that these senders read full for some time on the gauges too, so I tried to make the up position be withing the 1/8" specified on the plans.
Now, you may notice that the sender body is actually pointing up in the above picture. Well, this was somewhat confusing too, as the sender in the plans is pointing down! I need to check how this is going to work out with the fuel level gauges, because if they're reading backwards, it's obviously no good! On the EFIS, I can calibrate accordingly, but I have the Van's gauges too as a backup, and there ain't no choice as to how those work! If it doesn't work, I will have to make my first call into Van's for a tech problem! Since I had a QB kit, the fuel tanks were complete, including the sender access covers. The holes all look correct to the plans, so it must be the fuel sender that has the issue.
Here's the tank drawing depicting the fuel sender. Hmmmmm.
I also cleaned the wing underside. They were filthy from sitting around for so long. Once I'd cleaned them, I tapped the holes for the wing tie downs, 3/8"-16.
