ENGINE START!!!

WE HAVE FIRE!!!!(pronounced 'far' in the South)... Yesterday, we started the engine...after the 4th attempt. We loaded in our ten dollar-a-quart motorcycle (3 quarts), purged the system, and cranked 'er up. It seems as though our battery wasn't charged completely, so we hooked up the lawnmower battery along with a charger, and it managed to spin the prop a couple of times, which was enough to get it started. We didn't have any leaks, except for the antifreeze leak, which was fixed with a flick of the screwdriver on one of the connections. Now we need to readjust the throttle control a little, sand some more on the cowling, rehang the front radiator, and we're ready to take The Puppy up to the airport, where we'll await the return of our registration materials.
I took a non-event video of the whole process and will try to post it later.
Meade and George
RV120016

Novmber 12 Working on the canopy and cowl

A lot of head scratching, emails to Marty and Vans and some 'reconstruction' have brought our 'karma' a little closer to resolution on our canopy and cowl issues. Yesterday, a friend of ours came over and helped us rework the front portion of the canopy to keep it from contacting the side skins. We looked at some of Marty Santic's photos and figured it was ok to trim the forward portion of the canopy. That also coincided with Van's template,so we figured it was ok to trim some more off. We also filled in some of the gaps with flox, so today we'll probably sand the fiberglass smooth.
Today, we'll reevaluate the stripping that goes between the rear radiator and the cooling shroud; Marty took his off and replaced it with a narrower strip. We also had some problems with the muffler placement, so we had to loosen the exhaust pipes and do some repositioning of the muffler so that the exhaust pipe was more centered in the exhaust port.
I hope that next week, we can put in the 'bodily fluids' into the plane and crank tht bad boy up; that should wake up the neighbors...

Finishing up...some more...November 6

Over the past couple of days, we worked on putting on the turtle deck, rear window, gas tank, and engine cowling. Installing the top cowl was a little hairy, in that one side fit, but the hinges were way out of place on the opposite side. But with a little patience and a larger plastic mallet, we managed to get everything back on. There were some scratches on the instrument panel cover, so we smoothed them out and sanded down some of the rough spots on the cowl. George filled the holes in the bottom cowl where we had drilled to put in clecos to hold the parts together.
We rerouted some of the red hoses on the engine to make them fit a little better, and we tie-wrapped more of the hoses together.
We installed the seats and seat belts and reworked the flapperon handle to make it work a little smoother.
We decided that we'd order the upholstery kit (the wives are paying for it for an early Christmas present)because it kind of makes a nice finish to the project. We sent in the request for the registration paperwork so I guess we'll get that back in about a month.
Next step is to finish working on the canopy so that it clears the front a little nicer.

Oil Cooler Installation...attempt

On 11/30, George and I finally got the gas tank in...again but one of the nutplates wouldn't align for a bolt but we did get a screw to fit. We also almost got theoil cooler installed. We were able to get it up just so far and then the kink in the front of the cowl kept us from getting the thing in. ALSO, in one of the photos, you'll notice one of the hoses coming out from the side of the engine that was supposed to go up to the oil cooler. We didn't like it, so we turned it back in and under the right side of the cylinders and forward. We didnt' quite get it in so I went out tonight and noticed that me and my long arms could reach forward from under the lower cowling and line things up...but I need another pair of hands to do it.
Tomorrow we should be able to get the oil cooler attached and tighten the gas lines going into the bottom of the gas tank. I think we may try to attach the canopy and put the top of the 'dashboard' back on. I faxed the blank forms to our DAR for tentative inspection.

Section 49

For the past couple of days, we've been working on the cowling and cooler box assembly and the oil cooler. Yesterday, we did the fiberglassing for the cooler box and today we put on the VA213, 14, and 15. It involved routing the hoses in and around the engine mount.
We are beginning to "...see the light at the end of the tunnel." and tomorrow, we'll put the gas tank in, put the instrument panel cover back on (we finally received one of the 'clamshells' for one of the 26 pin connectors), and possibly put the canopy on. We checked on prices for getting the plane inspected and it looks like it'll be about $400.00. We may actually get to get the engine cranked next week, so we need to start bringing in the oil and coolant.
You'll see photos of the inside of the bottom cowling showing the fiberglassing of the cooler box and the plumbing on the engine.

Gas tank fun!!!10/22

We got the tank assembled a couple of days ago and tested it yesterday. It leaked...
We took it apart and cleaned it up. It was pretty messy. We reasssembled it today and patched the leaks. We'll check it tomorrow. We did the heater cable today and some work on the oil cooler.

Sealing and unsealing gastank 10/21/09

October 21st, we sealed the gastank. This has got to be one part that Vans sends as a completed unit. It took the both of us about 4 hours to do and then we let it set overnight. Today, we did the pressure test, and it failed. We saw it was leaking around the NEW visual gas tank fuel gauge. George and I both think it was because Vans tells you to only snug the screws securing the glass. They should have had us tighten the screws more. We were thinking about drilling out the 82 rivets holding the top, but we decided to open the round cover on the side and attempt to simply remove the leaking part from the arge flot hold.
Tomorrow, we'll reseal the components and reassemble the tank.

Engine Installation, etc..

Again, we haven't been that productive of late. We were waiting for VA216 for about a month but much to our embarrassment, we already had it; the depiction completely fooled us and we weren't looking for a rubber hose with a metal piece in the middle.
Anyway, today, we finally epoxied the top of the gas tank in place, we pulled the gas lines and corrected the bend in them, we ran the heater control cable ( a pain in the butt) which should have been installed before some of the hoses were installed). Earlier last week, we installed the oil plumbing and and some of the cowling.
The photos today include heater cable routing, and George being eaten by the instrument panel while re-installing the auto pilot light.

9/22 and 9/23 Engine and Prop Installation

Yesterday we routed the plumbing for the fuel and water and struggled with the fact that we still are missing some parts like the VA216...and is anyone ELSE missing that fuel connector? Today we worked on the spinner, pitot tube and putting on the blades for the prop. Tomorrow, we'll put on the nutplates for the spinner and backplate.

9/18/09 Engine Installation

Naturally, I didn't have the camera out in the 'hangar' with me, but we got the engine attached to the front of the airplane. I screwed an eyebolt to the ceiling, attached a come-along, wrapped a strap around the engine and hoisted away. We had to open up the large washers that attached to the engine mount, but that was about it. We're still waiting for the VA215 that's been backordered, but I called Vans and they said it'd be sent out in about 2 weeks and that another CARE package is going to be sent out on Monday. We can move around a lot better since we rearranged the garage.
More tomorrow.
Meade and George RV120016

9/18/09

9/17 'Dashboard light-up'...

George got everything to work on the panel today; small glitch with the radio but pulling out the squelch button seemed to make everything ok. After that, he fine tuned the 'pots' and made everything work the way they were supposed to work.
We rearranged the garage a little in order to have the plane in at an angle, so now we can hang the engine. I took a photo of the front of the garage so you can see the engine and the position of the plane.

Finishing Kit Adventures 9/16/2009

Since our last entry, we've been finishing up miscellaneous parts from the canopy. George felt it prudent to have someone with more experience do the fiberglass work on the canopy,so he had one of his EAA buddies come in and help us out. While our friend was working on the canopy, we continued with 'fine-tuning' the instrument panel and getting out the kinks of the instrument installation.
We also received the engine a couple of weeks ago and we have completed the modifications called out by Van's. We're at the point now of having to reposition the worktables in the garage so we change the position of the plane so that it will fit in the garage with the engine mounted.
One of the more perplexing problems I've encountered is the interior paint; it's flaking off. Before I started painting, I checked with the paint shop and I followed their directions but I was given some bad information. SO, now I've got to figure a way of dealing with the interior in terms of getting rid of the paint and repainting.
I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping a daily log of keeping up with daily work from here on out.

July 7- Cowl Work

We ordered our Avionics kit today and opted for everything except the XM Garmin. While we wait for word on the gas tank, we waded into the cowl. We planed off a little more of the seam where the two halves meet and got it to fit a little better. We made our marks for the 6 holes in front, now, if only we could find the fiberglass bits...
We cut the hinges for the cowl today and made the hinge pins for the cowl.
We finished tapping the holes for the 'rear' glass and I finished respraying some of the areas with our 'spatter paint'. I DID manage to overspray something and got some spatter on the instrument panel. I guess I'll have spatter to remove... It's really amazing how easy it is to get paint where you don't want it.

July 4 - Canopy Frame problems

We had to use the change that came down on the canopy frame, and put the extra washer inbetween the frame and the fuselage. We also used some widenose pliars and bent the instrument panel cover down to facilitate the opening and closing of the canopy frame.
The strap that we put on the rear glass seemed to really help conform the glass to the rollbar, and that was really an easy overnite fix.
We put on the canopy attach angles, fluting them slightly to conform to the shape of the longeron, and then proceeded to use a 40 drill bit to make the holes. We then pulled them off and primered them. I'll spray them with the spatter paint later.
After we matchdrilled the rear glass, we pulled the cleco's and took off the turtle skins along with the glass. We're going to leave them off until Van's reaches resolution on the gastank, then we'll put the tank in with the luggage compartment exposed.
We used a 40 drill bit to match drill, but when we get ready to tap the holes, we'll use a 36 bit since my engineer-partner said that bit is more compatible use a 6/32 tap. If you use the 40 bit, the 6/32 tap won't fit very easily.
The photos today are of the clecos sticking out of the rear glass, and of George in the process of tapping the holes...and breaking the tap in the process...

July 2 and 3 progress report.

On July 2nd, we finally got the fiberglass tailcone installed on the rear, but we discovered that a portion of the stabilator was scraping the fiberglass cone so we had to loosen the screws on the cone and enlarge the holes in order to get the cone to fit properly. We also took off the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer in order to flatten one of the edges...which we had bent a little. We also put in some of the floor paneling in the luggage compartment.
JULY 3RD, we pulled the plane out today to make the final fitting of the wings. We discovered that you need to be VERY careful when installing and removing the wings, or stand a chance of denting-or-worse the side skin of the a/c. We got everything on ok but the flaperon on the right was binding on some parts so we took out the
wing to figure what we were going to do. We used the file and took off some of the offending metal. We then loaded the wings on a traier and then headed up to Cartersville to put the wings in our hangar. When we got back, we took out the rear glass that we had sitting in the sun, and draped it over the rear of the turtle deck.
We tried to install it, but instead we put it in position and tried to get things lined up but the plastic was still a little brittle so we sashed it up with a small turnbuckle type strap. We'll finish it up tomorrow.

RV 12 Build January 24

JANUARY 23, we started back on pg 11=03, and today was a need for very small fingers. We had to get the proper number of washers in the stabilator attach. We used masking tape to hold washers in place while we ran bolts where they were supposed to go. Page 11-04, we installed the AST assembly. We had a bit of a hard time fitting the AST onto the hinge and running the hinge pin. We did all of the items on the 22nd, while someone else was doing another part of the assembly process. Page 11-06 was doing a lot of small parts assembly. Note that the K1000-8 called out in figure 1, is a UNIQUE nutplate and can be found in the bag with the other servo parts.
JANUARY 24, we finished wiring the servo mechanism, on page 11-06. We worked on page 12=02, and used a belt sander to get the right measurements on the fairings. Went pretty quickly using the sander.

RV 12 Building Beginning January 21

Well, I'm doing little better; only two days since I entered our progress.
JANUARY 21, we picked up on page 10-06 and put on the bottom skin. I only pulled 3 bad rivets; it was easier with two people to hook the skins into the 'J' channel. We went on to page 10-07 and 10-08. I think I may be repeating myself because this is where we installed the static port. We went on to page 10-09 and didn't have any problems. We ran an extra string in case we have the ability to put in a strobe.Page 10-10 was ok; we filed a little off F-1210C, alittle too much as it turned out. We didn't have anything to rivet the outside skin to on the outside edge of the flange pictured in Figure 2. We had to break the edges of F1278, using a 2x4x8 on the floor and running a wood block on the edge of the skin. It worked pretty well, as we used this same method before and we attained a satisfactory seal.
JANUARY 22, page 11-02, we mounted the V-stab assembly and had a tought time putting on the bolts on the lower hinge assembly. We used masking tape to hold the washers in place while we threaded the bolts through their appropriate holes. We found that we had to use a file to plane down the surface of the rudder assembly, as it nearly comes in contact with the V-Stab assembly when swung to either side. It would DEFINITELY contact the mating surface, if you paint your plane. It took a long time to file down the surface; I'm still not sure we took off enough.We're going to pick up with page 11-03 tomorrow.

Resuming on January 8th building

You'll have to forgive me if I'm a little out of sequence; I think my last entry was for January 8th, so I'll start on January 9th. This was page 08-03, and the only problems we had on this page was locating the HS-1223 Drill Guide, which we eventually found.
JANUARY 10, we started on page 8-04, the horizontal stabilizer. Just make sure you've got the right side up. Be carejul on page 9-02 and lay out your spars in the right orientation, and count your rivet hose carefully, and use the correct rivets. We had to open up some of the holes with a #40 bit before we could countersink them. Page 9-03, another page requiring reading and re-reading. It helped me to use a yellow highlighter at the beginning of each direction. (had my LD students do that a lot in high school.)
JANUARY 14, We started on page 9-04. While one guy was layng up the work, another person did the counter-sinking. Be careful on this page in regards to your hole selection for the nutplates. Page 9-05 required a lot of clecoing, drilling, unclecoing, deburring and refastening. I notice that we did page 9-06 on January 13.In figure 3, I fluted some of the ribs, especially the longer ones. Back to January 14, on page 9-07, count your eyelets carefully and pay attention to the un-notched edges on the drill guide. I drilled one too many holes when I drilled right through a piece of masking tape that was supposed to mark the hole I wasn't supposed to drill... Page 9-08, we went through step 3 and quit for the day.
JANUARY 15 we picked up on step 4 on page 9-08. Make sure you leave the bottom row of rivets open on step 5. Page 9-09 went pretty quick, just had to remember to remove some parts to deburr.
JANUARY 16 we started on page 9-10; note that the lead weights are tapered and flat on one side, so they can be put together, face-to-face. Note that the counterbalance are final assembly will be completed during section 11. Most of the work on page 10-02 was stripping the plastic and cleaning up the edges. We went to Harbor Freight and bought a bunch of those rectangular sanding sponges and used them; they really worked well. Step 3 called out for fluting the edges, but it was really tough to do, so we didn't think we needed to do it. We completed page 10-02.
JANUARY 17, we started page 10-03, and if there was ever a page that needed a hydralic squeezer, this was it. My thumb is still store from using the hand squeezer on this page. We did each type of rivet (like all the AN426AD3-4's) at one time, and marked their location on the F1211 assembly. DON'T rivet the F1211C-R@L onto the assembly!
JANUARY 21, page 10-05, we started assembly of the stabilator. We used the superglue on the washers, after we put a light coat of oil on the bolt, in case some glue got on the bolt. We pulled off our plywood table top and suspended the F1282 L&R between our two sawhorses and started laying up the tailcone (YEA!). Make sure you've got smoothe edges, otherwise they'll show up when you're all assembled. It took 2 people to align the notches with the skins, because we're both pretty clumsy when it comes to that stuff. Make sure you've got the flanges on the 1208 frames going in the correct direction. Page 10-07, A LOT OF RIVETING!!. page 10-08, we did the wiring and tying up of plastic tubing. We couldn't get the pin out of the static port, so we used a Dremel to saw off the end, then it came out easily.

RV 12 building, beginning 12/19

Well, I'm only a month behind this time; let's see if I can make sense of this. My last post was on 12/18 and we were hindered by awaiting 'care packages' from Vans, and the holidays, we skipped around a good bit. I hope you'll excuse some of the gaps, or seemingly, out of place steps.
I'm going to start with page 28-03, bending of the fuel lines. I wasn't happy with my work on the fuel line, so I bought another 24 inches and rebent the big line you see on pg 28-03, or more accurately, GEORGE rebent it and did a beautiful job. ( I have a hard time drawing a straight line, let alone bending pipe.)
On 28-05, we did steps 3-5 on 12/20. The big thing here is remembering to put the nut on BEFORE yu do he flaring. On Pg 28-06, we completed steps 1 and 2 but left the rest of the page as George thought it would be easier to wait until we got the fuel tank in to make the match-up. We DID do step 9 as it didn't need the fuel tank for an exact matchup. We completed pg 29-02 over to step 3; we also tried to dimple everything we could ST THE SAME TIME from this page; it seemed to make it easier.
December 23 we did steps 5 through 9.
On December 24, we did pg 20-03, steps 1-4 but MAYBE we should have done seps 2,3,and 4 before we did step 1...would've made it easier. One of the advantages of having two people working on a project like this, is that while one person is doing a "one person" job, the other one can be setting up parts for the next step or separating and deburring or drilling parts, which is what was going on here. There were a number of pieces that needed to be separated, so those were the steps that were ususally done out of sequence. We continued over to pg 29-04 doing steps 1 through 4.
We quit for Christmas and started back up on the 26th with step 5. We stopped with step 12 as we're going to try to do most of our sealing on the same day. If you'll look at the bottom of fire 4 on the left side where it says to use 'AN426AD4-5, 14 places", we thought maybe we should be using 4.6's instead.
December 12/27, we did pg 29-05, skipping steps 2 and 3 for later (a big mistake, as we had to rivet from inside the firewall instead of from the engine compartment side.) George thought the space for the battery was too small, so we waited to confirm.
On 12/30, we (George) built the glove box kit...without reading the instructions. WE had to do some modifications and remove some of the rivets and move the door over to cover the gap that resulted. that was one of the FEW mistakes that George made...as he reminds me, as opposed to the INNUMERABLE mistakes that I've made...
WE finished up the map box on January 3rd.
We finished up with step 1 on pg 29-07 and left the instrument panel resting peacefully on top of the cowling for later assembly. We continued on with pg 24-05 finishing up steps 3,4 and 5 and commpleting steps 1-4 on pg 24-06.
January 7 we did pg 06-02 and the next pages went quickly. Most of one persons time was spent on finishing the edges of the metal and separating and deburring parts of the stabilizer.Pages 06-03 and 04 were uneventful and we completed steps 1 and 2 on pg 06-05.
January 8th we started on step 3 and finished the rest of 06-05 and 06. IT'S TIME TO BUY A PNEUMATIC SQUEEZER!!. My thumbs are about to give out from all the squeezing. We completed steps 1 though 6 on pg 06-07. Make sure you have the ribs facing in the direction indicated otherwise the flange rivet holes won't align.
We're going to start up again tomorrow...more to follow.