Empennage kit unpacked & inventoried

 Lots of grunt work involved in unpacking Van's kits!  The other night I unpacked and inventoried the major items and was very happy that none were missing.  It took a little bit of creative engineering to find places to store everything in the garage / shop, but it's all on shelves or standing behind other shelves.  I will need some help taking down parts of the empennage kit to get to the R wing spar, but that's a solvable problem for another day.

Today I inventoried the "small stuff".   The shipping company didn't pay attention to the "UP" arrows on the crate and it was actually on its side on the first day they tried to deliver it.   As expected, a few of the small parts shifted in their parts bin and were in the wrong bins.   it only took about 30 min to sort everything out and I can't complain too much more than I already have.    

EMP Bin #1 -- lots of 'small stuff' !

I'm about $6 short in parts that weren't in the kit.  I'm not even going to 'claim' them, I just put them into my cart for my next purchase.

Cutting up the crate for disposal was by far the most difficult part of the process.

Cut up crate parts & a pile of sawdust

3rd time was not the charm 😤

 Well, I had high hopes.   As my flight partner, Ed, often comments: "Hope is not a strategy."   Despite pre-smearing the adhesive on the mating surfaces, both tanks continue to leak.   The good news is that both are leaking in exactly the same place -- the electrical connection at the top right of the fuel senders.

Bubbles, Bubbles, everywhere! 😩

Since both tanks leak at the same place, and that place is where there are 3 stacked components, I clearly need to up my game in that location.  On Tuesday, I will pull off the fuel senders and the inboard access ports (again; for the 3rd time).  On Thursday, I will make another valiant effort to get these damn things on and air tight!

This time (next time?  Anyway, on Thursday) I'm going to repeat the technique of pre-smearing sealant on both of the mating faces.  I will then insert the screw for alignment.  I will place the first star washer on the screw and coat it with sealant until it is completely 'submerged' in the goo.  Then goes the electrical lug which will again be 'submerged'. and finally the 2nd star washer and its immersion.    Finally, I will place an absurdly large bead of sealant on one of the faces and finally install it.  Hopefully, that will be the final time.  

§22-08 thru -11 Inboard Aileron Bracket Assy Right

 Somewhere along the way, I lost a W-15015A-001 and couldn't finish the remaining aileron bracket.  The part was reordered and arrived last week.  It was pretty straightforward to press the bearing into the bracket and then rivet together the rest of the pieces.   The finished subassembly went back onto the shelf to await its installation on the right wing.

I also received a bearing that I had ruined and was planning on finishing the push rod that was affected, but doing so requires access to the front of a spar for measurement.   Steve & I put the R spar up in storage in a place that isn't convenient or safe for a single person to remove it, and the L spar now has nose ribs attached.  No big deal (except for my OCD).   It's a 5 min job and I can do it when I get access to the spar again.

Cool Picture

This is a pretty cool picture.  I just like the effect of staring down the perfectly aligned holes in the ribs after they are attached to their spar.  Check out December 5, 2013 for a similar shot of the RV-12 wing being built.

Empennage kit delivered

 Van's shipped my empennage kit (vertical & horizontal stabilizers, rudder & elevator) on the 5th.   It arrived in Columbus last Monday and I made an appointment for its delivery on Weds 12th.  When it showed up the driver spent about 10 min in the back of his panel truck, then came over to tell me he couldn't deliver it because it needed a fork lift and he didn't have one.   That's exactly what happened on May 9th when the first crates of the wing arrived!   That day, I enlisted my neighbor & his friend and the 4 of us manhandled the crates to the ground.  This time, I stood my ground and insisted that they re-deliver it.  Then I looked at the crate:

You'll notice something odd about this arrangement.  See the arrow?  Typically, that means "this side up", but the crate is on its side, not right side up.   

Yesterday, they arrived with a flat bed and attached parasite forklift. 

He got the crate off the truck and into my driveway and I pulled it into the garage. 

There was some minor damage to the wood and the paperwork is partially outside of the box.  I signed the e-receipt stating 'accepted with damage noted and not inspected'.  The driver/delivery guy was totally cool with that.  I'll file a claim with them if there are any damaged pieces when I get around to inventorying it next Thursday.

3rd time might be the charm ?

 Well, here's to hoping that I am capable of learning.  Specifically, this is the 3rd time I've sealed the fuel level senders & inboard access plate.   I have learned one thing -- I neither like nor am skilled with working with Proseal.  (BTW, Proseal is a brand name and I'm using generic products but will continue to abuse the name because I'm lazy.)

I'm pretty sure the access plates are not an issue because they are horizontal and straightforward.  The fuel senders are oriented vertically, so gravity is not my friend.  They also have a wrinkle in the installation:  one screw is fitted with an internal tooth washer, an electrical spade and a second internal tooth washer.  This stack-up is designed to have the angled teeth of the washers cut through the layer of sealant and ensure a good electrical connection from the tank itself to the electrical spade that will later be used to measure the fuel level.

On the previous installations, I had a lot of trouble holding the spade such that it didn't fall into the goop and I ended up making & breaking the connection of the sender's plate and the tank.  I suspect that didn't help the smooth, careful and uniform distribution of the sealant.

Rubber band as 3rd hand

I used a small rubber band to hold tension on the spade connector and trusted that the 'top' washer wouldn't go anywhere if I treated the arrangement with any delicacy.   In this photo, the connector is on backwards and would have dug into the side of the tank, but I installed it correctly after this dry run.

Sealant under electrical hardware

I smeared a small dab of sealant under the location of the hardware, then inserted everything and held it with the rubber band.

Smeared Sealant prior to installation

I then applied a bead around both the tank and the sender and smeared the beads into a relatively uniform bed.   Finally, I used one of my favorite tricks of inserting awls through two of the holes in the mounting plate and then into the corresponding holes in the tank and sliding the fuel gauge sender along the awls and into position.  I had a screwdriver at the ready to manipulate the screw (that was holding still because it was held by the rubber band) into its nut plate, then quickly inserted another screw into its nut plate. With two screws to hold orientation, the awls came out and the remaining screws were started, then evenly tightened.

Mounted Fuel Level Sender

As you can see in the final picture, there's a nice bead of sealant oozing out around the entire circumference.   It's a little thin at 12:30, but there is visible sealant. :)    BTW, I did both tanks at the same time, but only published pictures of one side.

I think the next time I'll have time to do a leak check is next Thursday, the 20th.   Fingers crossed!

§29-11 L, Nose Ribs to fuel tank

 Recall from a recent post that the Wiki community mentioned that getting the 6th rib attached requires two people because of the skins that are already attached to the tank making it impossible to hold the bucking bar and the rivet gun at the same time.  Steve B is a fellow RV builder and also an A&P.  In fact, he is the lender of the rivet gun I'm using to do this build.   He came over yesterday and used the gun while I assumed a very awkward position and held the W bucking bar.  Steve also noted that the FAA likes to see pictures of the builder and not just of the work done, so he offered to snap this:

Getting my head into the game!

Here's the photo of the rivets in question.  Even with the highlight, they're hard to see.  Imagine how hard it was to hold the bucking bar.   While I was in position, I had Steve hand me the go/no-go gauge and I discovered the top rivet needed a few more hits to meet spec and all the others were good.  I was really pleased! 

AN470AD4-12 shop heads

This completes page 29-11.

Busy & Productive Day!

Yesterday was a busy & productive day.  I got a descent amount of sleep after I got home at 8:30 AM.   In addition to the RV-15 stuff shown below, I also cleaned up the kitchen, trimmed all of the grass around the house where the lawn robot can't reach and installed the wall mount for a monitor in my wife's dance room.

• Got help & installed 6th nose rib
• resealed the tanks (again)
• received the empennage kit
• completed Right inboard aileron bracket

Rather than cramming all of that into one post, I'll make a separate post for each item.  Keep reading!