Category: Fuselage

May 11, 2014 – Finally got some free time between work and the home projects, and got the F705 bulkhead assembled.

I attached the seat adjustment pieces to the top channel of the bulkhead. I need to start paying attention to the plans where it calls for parts to be countersunk. I had to countersink these holes after the parts were painted. That left some small tooling marks, so I went back and repainted the top when the riveting was done.

Then I started putting the bulkhead together starting at the bottom. I clecoed the side channels in place, then riveted them, paying attention to where other parts would attach later.

I put the lower spar strap in place and put clecoes where I could not rivet right now. There is one rivet on each end that would be covered up, so I installed them before the smaller straps went into place.

I finished that by installing the small spacers:

I installed the doublers in the side channels of the bulkhead, taping off the fastener holes that will go in later. There are several notes on the plans for different configurations whether you are installing a slider or a tip-up canopy. Mine is a slider, so I followed the notes for that configuration.

I installed the flap torque tube blocks and the seat belt anchors.

And here’s the completed bulkhead:

Time: 3:30

April 23, 2014 – Well, this has been depressing… I took on some projects around the house and my garage and worktable have been taken up with paint cans and other detritus. Well, I got one part of the project cleaned up and the open table was calling my name, so I took a break from the house and got me some therapy. Not much, but I cleaned and primed the parts for the F705 bulkhead.

Time: 2:10

March 19, 2014 – Well, there’s nothing like having work done in the house to chase you out into the garage to do other things. What a shame.

After drilling the strap that goes all the way across the bottom of the bulkhead, I needed to drill the two small spacers. I marked their centerlines and placed them over the hole in the channel and the strap. In the picture below you can see the crosshairs of the centerline marked on the spacer:

Once the centerline was verified, I moved the spacers to the vise and drilled them:

Then it was time to drill the F605C straps. These form the “fork” that will attach the wing aft spars at the fuselage. The plans call for trimming these to length but I waited until they were drilled, so I could ensure good edge distance for the holes. here they are clamped in place, with the previously drilled spacers.

The outboard ends needed only about 1/4″ removed:

After they were drilled, they needed to be tapered. I took them to work and put them on the bandsaw there.

Before and after trimming:

Then I drilled the seat belt anchors. The plans say to drill the left ones of each pair, then drill the right ones in place. I used the dimensions on the plans as a guideline. I needed to have the anchors flush with the bottom of the strap, so I marked edge distance and drilled the left ones to the strap.

The anchors need to be 3/16″ apart, so I made up a contraption to hold that 3/16″ spacing so I could drill correctly. I used a piece of .187″ bar that came with the kit to give me that spacing, then clamped that in place. I clamped the right anchor in place, and used a bolt to make sure the bolt holes between the two anchors lined up.

Once they are all in place, you have to trim the outboard sets due to fastener interference.  I marked those and cut, then deburred them.

I also had to drill two 5/8″ holes for snap bushings to accommodate wiring. There are other holes in this area, so I made sure edge distance would be good, then drilled the holes.

That takes care of the bottom part of the F705 bulkhead.

The top portion of the bulkhead has structure for seatback adjustment.

I started with the two angles that mount to the back side of the top of the bulkhead. These are 16 1/4″ long, and get 9 fastener holes drilled in them. I’ve never used a rivet spacing fan; never really needed to. It’s just a little math… I marked the centerline for the rivets, then 1/4″ off each end for the end fasteners. Located the halfway point between those (7.85″). That’s the center fastener. Then divide that by 4 to give you the rivet spacing (1.975″). That works out with Van’s  suggested spacing on the plans. I piloted those holes in the angles.

The plans call for these angles to be 1/9″ off the top of the channel. I used a piece of angle that was 1/8″ think and clamped it all together. Drill it, remove the spacer, and ta-da!!!

There are two pieces of strap that you have to bend to 4 degrees down the centerline. Kinda wish Van’s provided these pieces, but hey, I’m building an airplane. The least I can do is make some things… I took the pieces to a friend’s hangar and bent them on his brake. 4 degrees isn’t much, so of course I bent them too much, but it can be adjusted.

I located the fastener line on these per the plans, then stacked them with 1/2″ wide shim stock, and drilled them all.

I clecoed the entire bulkhead together. This is very cool.

There are doublers that go into the side channels up at the top. I placed them in there and found that the holes were about 1/2 hole off. I finally called the Van’s tech support people. They were and are very helpgul and patient. We determined that even tough there was a small disparity between the holes when I clecoed the side holes, it would come out when I drilled to final size. And that’s pretty much the case. I just kind of freaked out because I’ve never seen holes not match up on these kits.

The last thing to do was to drill the flap bearing blocks. These are black plastic blocks. I decided to mark the centerline and the hole locations on both sides of the blocks.

I manually drilled using a #30 bit partway through on each side and hoped the holes would meet up. They did. Then I clamped the blocks in place on the side channels so the holes would line up. You can just see the smaller hole in the block there in the second picture:

I ran a .189″ core drill through there. Perfection.

Time to take everything apart. I removed the blue plastic, and now I have a pile to deburr and paint.

Time: 5:55

March 11, 2014 – After finishing the F704 bulkheads, I gathered up the parts for the F705 bulkhead. Spent a little time studying and highlighting the drawing because there are several notes to pay attention to.

I started by making the little 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ spacers. I cut them to size, and started working on the 3/32″ x 1/64″ edge. I think I read this to be more like a slot or a joggle. Now that it’s done and I start fitting a few pieces together, I think it’s more of just a chamfer, since these spacers seem to fit right at a joggle in another piece. Oh, well. Not a problem. I only lost a little time. More pictures on that later.

The next step is to start lining up bars with a part of the bulkhead so they can get drilled. I drew a line down the center of a pretty substantial bar, and clamped it in place so you can see the centerline in the fastener holes:

The drawing and the instructions indicate that several pieces should be stacked for drilling, but I’m going to do one piece at a time. First this bar, then each spacer, then the joggled bars on top of those.

I need to drill these holes, but it’s getting late, and Mama didn’t sleep well last night, so…

Time: 1:40

March 11, 2014 – I rough-cut the control stick brackets on a bandsaw at work. Brought them home to clean up and paint.

On the forward bulkhead, I riveted the vertical plates and the cover brackets and stiffeners. I’ve read where some people use a c-frame to install the vertical plates. I just riveted them normally with no problems.

Moving to the aft bulkhead, I installed the control stick brackets and the vertical plates.

I still have to cut the spacers from tubing, but I can do that when I am ready to put the two bulkheads together. I was able to borrow the wood spacers from a friend at work who has a RV-6 and is building a -9.

Now on to the F705 bulkhead…

Time: 4:20

March 3, 2014 – I realized that I didn’t have a picture showing what these bulkheads look like and how big they are, so here ya go:

I started by countersinking the rivet holes in the F704G blocks.

I drilled the F633 control column mounts that attach to the forward bulkhead. Then I marked where the brackets will be trimmed for weight savings.

Nutplates are installed on the top flanges of both bulkheads. I countersunk the rivet holes and installed the nutplates.

I drilled the F782 and 783 support ribs. Here they are clecoed in place:

The F782 ribs (the smaller ones) are backed up on the opposite side of the spar by stiffeners. I cut those stiffeners from angle stock. I drew a guide line on the backside of the angles to help to locate them correctly. You can just see the guide line centered in the hole in the photo below:

Here one of the angles is in position and drilled:

These angles get nutplates installed. Here they are drilled, and countersunk for the nutplate rivets:

The last thing I did today was to do a couple of things on the F782 and 783 support ribs. The outer flange will have nutplates, so I countersunk those rivet holes. Fluid lines and wiring also pass through these ribs, so I enlarged the holes for snap bushings. I Pete-proofed it by writing the hole sizes next to the appropriate holes.

I need to deburr, then clean and prime these parts before installation.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I figured out today that when I drilled the center snap-bushing holes in the forward bulkhead, I mislocated one of them by about 1″. I don’t believe it will be a problem because these appear to be just for wire pass-through, and I think that little jog can be dealt with.

Time: 3:05

February 27, 2014 – Today I opened up the center wing spar, or F704 bulkhead. This package came with my wing kit back in 2010, so it was nice to finally open this package. This center part of the wing spar is match-drilled to the outer wing spars. There are two large spar structures that will sandwich together to create one large beam that the wings will attach to, so this structure is big, heavy and important.

The first thing to do is to enlarge (or drill) holes for snap bushings. These holes will accommodate wiring or cables that will run through this structure. They will all be 5/8″.

Some of these holes are started:

…and some you have to drill. The plans call for two holes to be drilled on both the forward and aft bulkheads.

There are two blocks or spacers (F704G) that are match-drilled to the aft bulkhead. They come with bolt holes already drilled, so I just had to temp-install them with bolts and drill the rivet holes. The instructions say to cleco the vertical plates to each bulkhead, then place the large wing attach bolts so make sure everything is precisely lined up. The large bolts are the bolts that will eventually hold the wings on. The smaller bolts you see below with the washer stack and the castle nuts are holding these blocks in place for drilling.

You only drill two (#30) rivet holes, but these blocks are 3/4″ or so thick, so I had to use some BoeLube. The holes get countersunk for flush rivet installation on the forward side, so I marked these holes.

Time: 1:35