Countersinking Wings

Through the past week or so I've been working away on getting the countersink holes done on both wings for the nut-plates. Here is a test of ONE of the different methods i tried. I ended up using a slightly modified one. This is basically a test to keep the #8 hole concentric.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Here is a pic of the way i ended up doing it...

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

For the #40 rivet holes, they were pretty straight forward and just took time to do. I believe there is about 248 of those.
The 'painters tape' is to prevent chips falling between the doubler and the spar. They are difficult to get out if they get in there.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

The #8 countersinks were a little more tricky... i read numerous accounts on how other had done these. Luckily Tad had a #21 cutter so in the end after trying different methods(using the #30 cutter with nut-plate attached), we settled on using a thick piece of wood cut down to act as a pilot guide for the bit. This method worked really well and i now have the left wing complete now minus the #6 access plate holes. I'll do those this coming week.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Next i will prime those countersunk holes to prevent any corrosion from happening. Tad dropped off the required materials for that. Things are getting close to getting some rivets in now. I hope to have some of that happening when Tad and I have a few days off over Christmas.

Wing Ribs, Rear Spar

Long time without posts:(
I have been very busy with work lately and just haven't had much time. This past week i managed to get a few hours in and concentrated on cleaning up the ribs as this is very time consuming and work that i can do on my own.
i have worked on the rear spar and doublers for both wings, as well as the tie-down 933 for the left.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

i did some organizing of the parts and hardware too. trying to get them all out of the brown little bags and labeled into a container where i can see them. half way through them now.

i think tad and i need to make some decisions about the pitot as well. we will install the wing conduit as per the van's guidelines but if we go with another type of instrument in the panel we may need to get something different for the pitot. just not sure yet.

Wings!

It's been a bit of a slow start to the wings. Tad dropped the parts off a few weeks ago after we inventoried everything. We were only missing one small bag of parts which Van's shipped out without any problems.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been cleaning up the Ribs and Rear Spars and doublers. It is a lot of repetition but it needs to be done. So while we haven't had many building sessions I've been in the shop every couple of days doing a bit of work.

Tad stopped by yesterday night and I showed him the work so far on the wings. We spent the rest of the time planning out a few details on what we want in the plane and then got all the main ribs fluted.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Emp. is Finished for now.

We have closed all the trailing edges on the tail section and they have turned out pretty good. It has taken us 148.5hrs. to get that far on the Tail Kit.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Closing Rudder Trailing Edge

Well, things got busy over the summer and August and much of September was a right off for building.
We now have our wing kit and will be starting that very soon. Last week Tad and I got the Aluminum edge fastened to the bench and pro-sealed the trailing edge of the rudder. Hopefully this week we'll get the rivets in and see how it looks. Then we'll get the elevators done.
I have also spent some time extending the shop area to accomadate the wings. I was thinking of building and closing in my carport but building inside during the cold winter months is much more appealing. Maybe next year I'll get that project done.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Right and Left Elevator

Well, it's been slowing down lately as we only have the trailing-edges left to do. Tad and I managed to pretty much finish off the left elevator and it is now ready for the trailing-edge drilling and riveting. I worked on the right elevator and got that one ready as well.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

The week before we decided to shoot some more primer inside the elevators so that they are completely primed inside now. We just wanted to be sure there weren't going to be any issues later on.
We'll be using the Pro-seal, angle aluminum method so i think that will happen on the next building session. First we'll match drill through the trail-edge, the wedge and then we'll countersink the wedge and dimple the skin. I'm thinking now that getting the dimple dies in there could be tricky.

Received the confirmation letter from Van's about the wings. should be here sometime mid-august! AND the dollar is doing better each day, in fact, the best it's been since last October. a good time to order $6800us in airplane parts!!

Finishing the Empennage

Tad stopped by yesterday evening and we finished off the Vertical Fin. We used the pneumatic squeezer but had to modify the tip of our 'no-hole yoke'. it just wouldn't fit nicely past the existing rivets on the spar. We had to drill out a few rivets as they weren't setting nice and straight. After the modification to the yoke we didn't have any problems. Spent about 2hrs. finishing that off.
I continued on with a few rivets on the Horizontal Stabilizer. there are 200 rivets on the rear 'skin to spar' so i setup the squeezer and did about a 100. Tonight i finished those off and the two outward rib-to-spar rivets. only rivets left on the stabilizer are the 6 inward ones. plans call for a 4-6 but it looks a little short.
i'm going to leave those and let tad have a look.
So, except for those 6 rivets we've got two pieces done.

Inspection PASSED!

On Friday, July 3, we passed our first pre-close inspection. Our MD-RA inspection went VERY well and he couldn't find any flaws in our workmanship. Not even a bad rivet to drill out and reset:)
SO... it's a good feeling to have that done and know that we have the abilities to get working on the next sections without too much concern. We will do the same on the wings and leave them open until the Fuselage is ready for inspection. Getting both done at the same time.
We still have the trailing edges to close up and then it's onto the wings!

Inspection Tomorrow

Well, i received a call this afternoon from our MDRA inspector and he is planning to come tomorrow to do our inspection.
This is great news as he is planning on vacation for a few weeks and is managing to get us in before he leaves. That will enable us to finish off our tail section and prepare for the wings to arrive!

Next posts should be closing up the tail sections!

Pre-close Inspection forms sent

Tad stopped by after work yesterday and we finished off a few small things. One was to get the hinge bracket bolted to the spar on the stabilizer and the other was to finish off a couple of tricky rivets on the trail edge of the elevator. We did those witht he 4x gun and back-riveted with a small flat plate centred over the rivet. Worked great.
So now we wait to hear from the MD-RA about when we can have it inspected. Wings are the next items to order.... oh and some pro-seal for the emp. trailing edgeds!

Finishing the Elevator(Before inspection that is!)

Well, we are almost completely finished with the tail kit for now. We riveted the other side of our hinge for the trim-tab on to the elevator and finished off the rivets on the elevator's top side.
A couple of small things to do before we book our inspection. Two rivets on the trail-edge of the elevator and install the hinge bearing bracket on the stabilizer and torqued to proper spec.
Also called Van's about getting our wing kit on the way. It's 25% down at time of order so i think we'll be doing that in the next week or so. They say it can take 6-8 weeks to get it crated and shipped. We'll have ours shipped to Montana and then drive down to pick it up. It's going to be a fun winter!!

Finishing the Trim Tab

On Sunday Tad and I worked on finishing the trim tab assembly. First we riveted the control horn and the bottom of the leading edge. We ended up back-riveting those difficult rivets as we don't have a longeron yoke and using the bucking bar and riveting on such a small piece would have proven difficult. In the end it produced some excellent, very consistent rivets.
Next was to dimple the end tabs for the CS4-4 rivets and drill, debur and prime the hinge. Getting all prepared before we used proseal to fasten the foam ribs inside. To finally close up the trim tab we used the pneumatic squeezer and some patience to set them. At first we used the hand squeezer but found it difficult to use. We drilled those couple out and reset them with the pneumatic.
Then we put the assembled trim tab in the v-block clamps... Done!

Next we'll need to drill the mating hinge on the elevator.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Trim Tab

Tad was able to stop by last evening and we got most of the trim tab ready for riveting. Tad built the bending break so we could complete the bend of the trim tab itself. This turned out pretty good and we just did a little at a time to make sure not to over do it. After fussing with it for a bit it turned out really good. We were both pretty happy with it.
Next was to bend the tab at either ends. We tried it first on a sample piece to gauge the bend on it and decided to sand the bending blocks a little to ease the radius a bit. Tad did the honours of slowly bending the tab down. We continued match drilling the tab and finished off by countersinking the holes where the hinge will go on the spar. The bottom of that spar has dimples that mate up with the skin.
Tad has taken the parts and will prime them... next will be drilling the hinge and riveting it together.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Left Elevator Part II

Tad and I were able to get some work done on the Left Elevator Thursday and today(Sunday). After Thursday's work session Tad took the parts home to prime and that is where we started today. Assembled the main skeleton section, minus the rear spar(trim tab) and riveted all the stiffeners to the skin. We also countersunk the rear spar where the hinge will go for the trim tab.
So, the next session will be installing the skeleton into the skin of the elevator and then working on the trim tab.
We are nearing the end of the pre-inspection work. Soon we'll have it inspected and finish off the emp. by closing all the sections.
Then the wings will be next!

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Left Elevator

Tad came by today to work on the Left Elevator for a while. About 4hours work. All parts are almost ready for primer. Still need to counter sink the T.E. Spar where the hinge attaches to the trim tab and match drill the bottom stiffeners to the skin. We have a few extra stiffeners coming as a few were cut short... neither one of us are sure why, how that happened. Anyway, we'll probably work on the T.E. Spar and the Trim tab this week, hopefully!

Elevator work continued...

Well, we had another good productive day working on the RV 9 Elevators. Last work session left the Right Elevator ready for riveting to the spar and Ribs. We ended up using a small Tungsten bar and that really did a great job. Tad has a pretty good eye for using those bucking bars now so I continued doing the Rivet gun side. It really wasn't as bad as we were anticipating it to be. Just took our time and within an hour it was done. Even manged to buck the "problem rivet" on the counter-weight skin without too much problem.
So, it is ready for inspection now and we started on the Left Elevator. Match drilled the shaped stiffeners and then deburred most of the pieces. The stiffeners are dimpled as well. We'll probably get the spar and everything else matched drilled and then send them off to Tad's workshop to have them primed.
This Elevator has the Trim-tab on it though so it will involve a little more work to finish.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Continue Right Elevator

We've had 2 good work days only in the last little while but have most of the right elevator ready to be riveted to the spar.
Yesterday we did all the rivets for the spar, skin stiffeners, nut-plates,etc. The out-board rib to spar rivets gave us some grief. They just wouldn't set straight. So we fussed with that for over an hour i think. So basically we have the Skeleton together and is ready for the skin. We decided to stop there and tackle riveting the skin on a fresh day. We've read and heard it can be tricky to do... or maybe just time consuming as it will be tough to get in there to buck the rivets. We'll see.
Of course in Canada we have pre-close inspections so we'll go as far as possible but all trailing edges will be left open. I hope by mid-may we'll be ready for those inspections and then we'll be over one hurdle.

Right Elevator Spar - Nut-plates riveted on.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Right Elevator Inward Rib - Flush rivets used as control horn covers this.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build