Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

It was a reasonably productive weekend for aircraft building. I started off by match drilling the top main wing skins. This was quite uneventful, just a lot of holes to drill. Tanya was gracious enough (as always) to move clecos for me. Next up was to mark a centerline on the J-stringers after they were cut to length with a 3″ cutoff wheel (only after briefly trying a hack saw). The idea is to be able to see the stringer centerline through the pre-punched holes in the skins for final drilling. I slid the stringers into place and drilled about four holes by myself just to prove I could do it solo (I do this often). Then Tanya came to help hold the stringers while I drilled them. The effect of having help on this simple task was that it would have taken me about two hours solo, and we did both wings in about fifteen minutes. There is no substitute for reliable and willing help.

Side note: Somewhere in there, there was a visit by the “garage dog”. Watson makes an appearance whenever the garage door is closed, but only briefly, as he is outta’ there as soon as somebody picks up an air tool. Usually he attempts to depart the garage with great excitement with a stolen rag or small block of wood found on the floor.

While I waited for Tanya to return from a shopping trip to help (I don’t remember what she bought, but it surely reduced available airplane funds), I decided It would be best to get started on building jigs for construction of the leading edges and fuel tanks. I made two jigs. I screwed the four end pieces together and cut them out on the band saw all at the same time. This was amusingly efficient.

Next, we clecoed on the bottom skins and match drilled them. After everything was match drilled, we removed the bottom skins and prepared them for a long hibernation. All of the blue plastic (both sides) was removed with the broom handle method. This removal method is nothing short of genius. I’m not planning on riveting on the bottom skins until all electronics and auto-pilot equipment is done. This will be more than a year from now. I don’t want that protective plastic sitting on the skins for that long (trapped moisture concerns), hence the decision to remove it. Before storing the skins I decided to deburr all of the holes (both sides) and deburr the edges. Bottom skins all match drilled, deburred, and stored. Time to move on to leading edge construction.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

It was finally time to install the top wing skins for the first time. This was pretty cool as they really start to look like wings. I prepared the wing walk doublers and on went the skins. It is amazing to see all of those pre-punched line up. Tanya helped a bunch with all those clecos. After the top skins were clecoed on, we match drilled the skins. This is fun! A neighbor dropped by and snapped some pictures and commented that it looked like we would be riveting again soon. I explained that it may look like that but we are a long way away from final riveting of the wing skins (leading edges and fuel tanks have to be built).

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

With the wing skeletons back up on the stand, it was time to stabilize the rear spars to be sure I didn’t build any twist into the wing. I actually stood around and looked the problem at hand for the better part of an evening trying to figure out how I was going to jig it up. The pictures tell the story. After I had the rear spars clamped, I used a couple of plumb bobs and measured and adjusted for no twist.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

We made it back from Sun-N-Fun. That was quite an event. There were more airplanes in one place than I could ever have imagined. I visited with some vendors that I am planning on purchasing from. The most important thing that I came away with was to not fret too many of the details. It was great to see the mistakes and bad rivets in other people’s flying airplanes. Tanya and I were commenting on all of the rivets that we saw on the Vans Quickbuild on exhibit that we would have drilled out. The trip was well worth it.

The next event we are planning on attending is SWRFI in hondo on May 13-15.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Tanya and I are off to Sun-N-Fun 2005 tomorrow morning. We are going to be at the show Friday and Saturday. I hope to visit with a number of vendors who’s products I am planning on using. Specifically, we are planning on checking out the Eggenfellner Subaru engine packages, Blue Mountain Avionics EFIS/One, and Oregon Aero seats. More to come on this when we get back.