Safety wire the Aerobatic fuel pickups. - 1 hour

I've been a little zapped motivation wise. I'm not loving the proseal process. So I am not eager to blaze through it.

I did manage to get some help from my friend Mike who's not new to the safety wire world and he has taught me some tricks of the trade in the past. He was kind enough to help me with safety wire the fuel pickups.


After we did that, I gave him a hand on the S51 Mustang project and we really made some great progress on his elevator hinge.

Torquing the Aluminum fittings. Setting up for the right tank - 3 hours

One of the jobs that needs to be done is to proseal and torque the aluminum fittings. This information is a bit tough to find. Information is located throughout the Forums, Van's Website, Van's manual, the AC43.13.1b, etc. Its not easy making heads or tails of it. For example some torque values listed in the vans manual is for the AN is for the AN818 nuts that attach the soft aluminum tubing to the aluminum fittings. But that wouldn't apply to the jam nut. Of course there is a multitude of information on the forums....almost too much information and many varying torque values.

Many hours of reading and researching go into the build and are not tabulated in the build log.

Basically what it boiled down for me is that I finally found some published torque numbers for an AN924 jamnut. That will allow me to install the Aluminum fittings onto the rib. I used proseal before I sandwiched the pieces together. Then I torqued the fitting, ensuring the correct alignment of the fuel vent elbow. I used tape on the fitting to ensure no proseal entered the fitting. Once I had smoothed the proseal. I removed the tape. I did both end ribs this way.


I was ready to cleco the right fuel tank together

 Next on the agenda was to torque the aerobatic fuel pickups to the Aluminum bulkhead fittings. Again... bit of a research session to figure out what is the proper torque value. I finally settled on the Torque specs found on Van's Website for hoses with aluminum fittings.

Using the crowfoot adapter at 90degress I torqued the fittings to spec.

Left rib #7 - 4 hours

With a renewed sense of zeal from the flight on Saturday, I wanted to tackle getting another rib done. I was looking forward to doing the rib #7 as I could use the squeezer, rather than buck the rivets. I prep'd the parts same as before. MEK, acid etch, MEK. I then Mixed up proseal and stated in on riveting the T-410 plate onto the Rib #7. Then, it occurred to me that I didn't mask off to apply the fuel level lines that Eugene had recommended I install. Well I wasn't too far in, so I went to work.


I then applied proseal to the vent line grommets and installed them in each rib. Next I cleco'd the rib in.


I had taped off the fuel vent line to ensure that I did not get any sealant in the vent line. I then carefully slid in the vent line.

Well. Long story short....I much prefer squeezing rivets than bucking them. It's not a complete breeze. You really have to pay attention to the what you are doing as the proseal has a tenancy to lubricate the dies and when squeezing (if there is too much proseal) the squeezer wants to slip off the rivets when squeezing. So as a result, I did have to drill out and replace 5 rivets, but I soon learned that things go much more smooth when you constantly clean the proseal from the dies as you go. And like that I was done.


Once I was satisfied with everything, I then mixed up about 20 grams of proseal and thinned it with 10% of toluene. I scooped it into the large syringe and put a dollop on each rivet head.

A little more time in the RV7A

What a beautiful day. Nice and warm and just the odd cloud in the sky. Eugene had invited me out to his hanger today. I had a ton of clean-brite that I wanted to give away as I just didn't need 5 gal of it. Since Eugene was working on restoring an Ercoupe, he needed it for cleaning up the tarnished aluminum panels so I was happy to give some away.

Eugene was kind enough to offer to take me up in his RV7A. Well no way on earth that I would ever pass up an opportunity like that!!!

Soon we were in the plane and taxing. Eugene had asked if I wanted to taxi. I was apprehensive about it as there was another plane in front of me and I really hadn't wrapped my mind around it. But...it's just like everything else. Better to just jump in with both feet. I did ok....totally not used to the feel of the plane. I turned it around at the run-up area but like an amateur didn't straighten the wheels out. Strike 1.

We were soon in the air and Eugene again kindly offered me the controls. Yup...without hesitation. We needed to maintain 4400' with a heading to Killam-Sedgwick CEK6. Once we were in proper airspace it was up to 5400'. Since it was hot there was a lot of turbulence, and it really took my concentration to maintain level flight with the proper heading. So up to 7500' where the air smoothed out. A quick touch and go by Eugene and we were back on our way to Cooking Lake CEZ3.


 
Funny how you soon make all the rookie mistakes over and over again. I'd be concentrating on keeping altitude, but my course would off...Strike 2. Or I would get up back on course and my altitude would rise/drop 100' feet. And thru the whole flight...I need to keep the ball centered. Darn P-Factor. Kept forgetting about it when climbing...Strike 3. I can see straight off that I just need to put in the hours to make the basics become natural. Many thanks to Eugene for extending the opportunity to me to not only ride in his plane, but also take the controls. The experience gained is invaluable.

No question in my mind that I need to get started on my license. I need to sign up with a school and make it a regular routine to get up in the air.

Left Rib #2 - 4.5 hours

Well...this proved to be the biggest pain in the butt rib I have dealt with. For some reason, this one just gave me brain damage start to finish. I must have had about 8 rivets to drill out and try to re set. at the end, 3 were the devil (top three rivets from the leading edge) I just could not get them to set properly. I must have drilled them out three times. A very pain stacking process so not to get shavings in the tank. took me forever to get it done. It's totally zapped my will to build. I bet it's because I got to work late about 8:00pm and I wanted to get finished early to go to bed....yup....I bet that's why things where difficult.

Left Rib #3 - 3 hours

This rib is very similar to last, unfortunately riveting was just a bit more tricky this go. Had to drill out two to three and try again. Darn you tank rivets.... Not to mention that riveting was a bit more difficult do to the position in the cradle. Had to rest the tank half off the table.

Left Rib #4 - 3.5 hours

Not much to report. Riveted in the left rib #4. Same process as before, but things just clicked. The entire assembly went to together really well. Pictures are just after riveting just before cleanup.


At this point, I found it extremely difficult to clean up the flanges on the ribs of proseal. Since I have not yet encapsulated the rivet heads I decided to slather proseal on the top of flanges. I had never liked the look of it on other builds but in the end, I decided it was better to go slightly heavy rather than try to get cute with the proseal. I'm awfully terrified of having a leak and this is one way that I will sleep better at night about it. Proseal cleanliness and quality is really tough to do in tight spaces.