Completed my first solo

After 21.4 hours on the hobbs I soloed the Cessna 172 for the first time! How did it go? Well It went extremely well, however admittedly I bounced a little when landing. Not hard but enough. The first thing I noticed is how different the plane climbed, descended and flared without the instructor.
In retrospect, it quite strange how foreign flying seemed to be and then all of sudden things start clicking quite fast. Initially steering with your feet is a new feeling and a bit of a challenge, especially with the take-off roll in a crosswind. It takes a little bit to remember to steer with your feet but roll the ailerons level in time for rotation, and not roll them again when that cross-wind begins to sweep you across the runway. That works itself out fairly quick as well as radio calls I found. But I never felt comfortable with landings, it just always seemed foreign. I was starting to feel a bit frustrated so I watched a few you tube videos and reviewed my Instructors whiteboard notes a few times. Then it began to click...it’s all about hitting the numbers as you turn to final. I began to concentrate on where I am and where I need to be as I turned onto base and before I turned final. Then everything started falling into place. After a few circuits....the sight picture of the runway made sense, the instrument scan felt quick and smooth and finally decisions on when to deploy (or not deploy) flaps was falling into place.
After showing Mark my Instructor a few good circuits, he hoped out of the plane and said go do one more circuit and see how you do...”Show me a good one” he said. Well I knew this was coming but frankly I didn’t have much time to think about it. I was so concentrated on what needed to be done that I wasn’t able to entertain any other thoughts of nervousness or happiness or anything else. Before I knew it I was on final and then getting ready to flair. The problem with your first solo circuit is that it’s over so fast!  
 

Finished riveting the right wing - 2 hours

A couple hours in the evening and I completed the riveting on the right wing. So glad to be done. Just the left wing left to do.

More wing riveting with a slight oops - 5 hours

As I continued the right outboard wing riveting, I found that I had skipped dimpling a couple of rib holes. Of course...I had set one rivet in the undimpled hole but on my inspections after each rivet I noticed the mistake.

I ended up drilling out the perfectly set rivet. I though for a while on how to fix the missed dimples. I was really reluctant to drill out all of the rivets in the rib that I had set. I finally had an idea of using the tight space dimple bar with the rivet set on the gun. Of course I was very concerned about marring the exterior skin. I figured that if I used the tight space rivet bar with the bucking bar, it would be very similar to the standard bucking process.

Sure enough... using this setup with the pressure on the gun dialed down a little. The day was saved and I very easily dimpled the two holes. You would never know I missed them.


A few more hours and I was nearly complete the right wing.

More wing riveting - 4 hours

More riveting. Checking each rivet as I set them. Slow progress but good progress.

Started the right bottom outboard wing skin - 3 hours

I finally managed to get back into riveting. The first step was that I clecoed the entire wing skin onto the wing to ensure straightness. Once I was happy with how it all sat. I took out the clecos and set the inboard line of rivets. Then I re-clecoed the skin down in its entirety and set the complete bay through the most outboard access hole.
 
 
 I reached the point on the rear spar where I could not use the bucking bar where the aileron stiffener was. I used MK-319 rivets instead.

The 2017 Edmonton Airshow

I worked the EAA booth at the Edmonton Airshow. Not much to report other than it was a fun filled weekend of airplanes.

Prep'd the bottom outboard wing skins - 3 hours

I prep'd and primed the outboard wing skins. Same process as before. Clean, scuff, wipe, acid etch, MEK, prime! Fun Fun!!

Finished riveting the right bottom inboard wing skin - 5 hours

Slow and steady. Finished the inboard bottom wing skin on the right wing.

Started riveting the Right Inbard bottom wing skin - 7 hours

With having the "Feel" of the wing riveting dialed in. I started in on the right wing (bottom, inboard) skin. I was eager to get this done as its a bit tricky. I'm very much stiff and sore from all the contortion needed to reach all the rivets.

For some reason I found the right side, just a bit more tricky then the left.

One of the items that I needed to do was to use some proseal on a bent rib flange. I had bent this flange when clecoing the skin on earlier.

EDIT - Tip...This method doesn't work. The proseal doesn't hold well, and trying to reach in after to re-apply proseal or epoxy just makes a giant mess. The best method I found was to use a couple of layers of cardboard on the bucking bar when you go to set the rivet. The unset rivet pokes through the cardboard and allows the flange to press tight back to the mating surfaces. When you shoot the rivet. it's perfect!

Modifying the aileron stiffner - 1.5 hours

One of the items that I had discovered was that the aileron stiffener Van's provides in a service bulletin interferes with the rivets in two places on the rear spar. I had sent Van's an email asking if it was possible to file down the interfering part to allow access for a MK-319 rivet. In my particular instance they agreed with my workaround. So i went to work with the files to make the necessary space.

More riveting bottom left inboard wing skin - 4 hours

Slowly i've worked my way riveting. All along the rear spar for one bay, then up one rib towards the spar, then along the spar to the next rib. Then repeat. Ive used a string to hold up the skin to allow me to reach in. By the end of the evening I was done the skin. Took me much longer then it seems to take everyone else, but ultimately I am very happy with the results. 

Riveting Bottom Left inboard wing skin - 7 hours

Thankfully its a holiday today so I managed to put in a good day of riveting. As I've worked my way from the trailing edge to the leading edge of the skin on the root end of the wing. I was careful to position the bar so that it allowed me to set the new rivets on the spar flange, but not so far forward that it has interfered with previously set rivets. The trick I used was to tape a large popsicle stick to the bottom of the bucking bar and the stick is cut to length so that it acts like a position stop for the bar. I slide the bar up till the popsicle stick touches the spar...and the bar is set far back enough to set the new rivet.

I continued to rivet in the Vans suggested manner of the "L" shape. Its slow work as I checked each and every rivet.


I managed to set all the rivets in the 4 ribs

Started riveting bottom wing skins - 8 hours

I woke up early and prep'd the inboard bottom wings skins for priming. I wiped first with wax/grease remover, then MEK then washed with clean-brite. After I wiped again with clean water, then final MEK wipe. It sounds like a very lengthy process but is sounds worse than it is. It's quite quick and the aluminum is nice and clean. I sprayed both inboard skins with self-etching primer and let them sit out side to dry for a number of hours. Later in the afternoon, I began to install the nutplates on the wing skins. Took a little head scratching to figure out the best method to get the nutplates set. I ended up back riveting them a little bit using my small tungsten bar. That was enough to ensure it set tight to the skin. I went back after and finished each rivet to the appropriate size with the squeezer.



I was now ready to begin riveting. Using the exact technique described in the manual. I laid the right wing upside down on the table and clecoed the entire wing skin onto the wing. Once I was happy with the fit, I removed all clecos with the exception of those on the rear spar. I began to rivet all of the holes along the rear spar working from the 4th rib to the 1st root rib. Accessibility at this point was still ok.

I found an easy way to work in the tight space was to loosely tape the bucking bar to my finger. This would allow me to get my hand in the tight spots without dropping the bucking bar.

The trademark arm torture....everyone must join this club.


I don't look very flattering....But it works. An LED headlamp works so good for viewing rivets with the inspection mirror. I figured out later that taking pictures with the iphone and then reviewing them makes for an extremely effective way of viewing hard to see rivets.

I slowly riveted the wing skin along each rib #1 thru #3 working forward from the rear spar to the front spar. I am trying to work in that "L" shape pattern that the manual describes. Once I got enough rivets in...I laid the wing skin down completely on the wing and celco'd. I then continued riveting ribs #1 thru #3 all from the root access holes. Its a little tricky to get the bar in there....its slow progress, but going way better than I thought it was going to be.

Prepped bottom wing skins for priming - 7 hours

Very long day today working on the wing skins. I began filing all the edges on the skins down to remove the shear marks. Next I rounded all the 90 deg corners. Then I 3M'd the edges so they were smooth as silk. Next I deburred all of the holes, both sides. Once that was done, I then made/filed the scarf joint on the two skins that overlap. Next I used the edge rolling tool to put a nice edge on the leading edge of the skins, and the edge that overlaps the other wing skin. Next step I countersunk the holes for the rivets that hold the access plate nutplates on. Last step of all was to dimple the holes.

Very long and tedious day in the garage....but its done.

Riveted Flap Brace and Devinyled wing skins - 3.5 hours

I riveted the flap brace onto the wings as I was on a roll with bucking AD4 rivets. Went quite quickly but getting the bucking bar into the root rib area was a bit tricky. I think i am going to enjoy riveting the wing skins....not.
 
Next I de-vinyled the wing skins. A time consuming process, but put on Netflix and the time passes easier.

Finished ground school and wrote the written exam

Well, at the beginning of July I finally finished ground school and all that I needed to do was start studying for the final exam. Part of the ground school program is that you must write a minimum of three (3) practice exams. So, I studied for a week or so and one Sunday I attempted the first exam. A three hour exam...I scored about 85%. Since there was lots of time left in the day, and feeling like a had a good handle on the exam I decided to write the second. I scored better...into the low 90's I believe. I felt like I had a good handle on the information, however there where many items that I was not 100% on like types of Fog and as well as some of the Air Law stuff. So I decided to cram and memorize. I began the task of doing flash cards for nearly all of the sections. This took an amazing amount of time, but no better way to review all of the course notes.

After which, I began studying for the P-STAR pre-solo exam. Which just goes hand in hand with studying for the written PPL exam. Studying for the P-Star was fairly easy as a good potion of the info is a refresher of the PPL course and I just needed to memorize a few details such as what the different tower lights mean (red, green, white) and some airspace heights. So I studied and memorized for a week and wrote the P-STAR exam. Managed an excellent mark!

I switched back into review and wrote more third party practice exams. The last weekend in July I managed to study three days straight studying about 25 hours total. Everything was solid in my head.

So August 1st was my scheduled Transport Canada Exam for my PPL. I passed! 89%. Nailed Navigation, but Air Law I struggled a bit. So I won't get lost, but I may end up in Jail.

In retrospect the actual Transport Canada Exam was quite difficult. Seemed like most of the questions they asked were all parts that I didn't study heavily for. And all the parts that I crammed studying on they didn't ask. Isn't is the way it goes.