Preparation for Kit Delivery

I ordered the 1st half of the deluxe kit about mid October. The assembly manual and prints came with in a week of the order. Delivery of the kit should be late December or early January 2011.

I have read the manual a few times and gone through the prints. Very similar to building an RC airplane. Just that this one is made from aluminum. (I borrowed Dan H's manual this summer and read it cover to cover.)

I took prints 240.001 & 240.002, sheets 1 & 2, and made copies. I cut the copies and aligned the "center" lines and glued them to some 3/4" styrofoam board.

These prints are to 1/2 scale of the side view and top view of the fuselage of the aircraft. I will use these "mock" ups as reference during construction. I will not take any measurements from these. (Measure on originals only!)

I still have a couple of more weeks of leaf pick up before I swap the mower deck for the snow blower on the John Deer. (Johnny) Moving the snow blower will give me a little leg room under the print table.

I added more lights for my old eyes. These should be satisfactory for assembly of the plane. The work/assembly bench has been holding together very well. I will look at repositioning it when the kit is delivered.

For now all I have to do is wait. I'll probably look through the prints and manual again looking for things I can improve before assembly or details I may need during assembly.

So long for now! Brian W.

Kit Ordered!!!!

All right! I have decided to continue on the plane. I should be receiving the kit in about 10 to 12 weeks. Should be just in time for Christmas! I'll add notes as the time passes before it comes to let you all know when it arrives.

Later,

Brian

Flap Kit Finished!!!

After many night shifts I was able to get back at it. I spent my first three days off reorganizing the garage. Dan H. came by for a visit & to see the project. Dan has the first half of the entire kit and is itching to get started.

I turned the bench to make more room to get around it. I also emptied out the entire east wall into a dumpster. I put my daughter's tornado machine up stairs for storage. (It is cool! That is another story.) Now I need to add more lights so my old eyes can see.

At Dan's suggestion I built a 3' x 8' print reading table. I was able to store the snow thrower under it along with some other keepable materials.

The garage dimensions are 24' x 30'. (With an up stairs.) Should be able to complete most of the construction at home.

Well, here it is. The completed flap kit. There are a few flubs. I could have done better if I knew what skills were required. I learned a lot about the Mustang II kit from this starter kit.

I've purchased most of the tools need to construct the rest of the plane. The question is, do I go on. It took me a little over 50 hours to construct. (A lot of learning hours!)

I'll be taking a break while I ponder this question. Thanks for all your interests!

Setting Rivets Part 3

This is a shot of one of the nose ribs & flap ribs that was set with the improved hand squeezer. Nice uniformed shop heads.

Here are the squeezers with the hardware handles installed. The extra leverage really made a difference. If I continue on and do the rest of the kit airplane I will probably purchase a "main squeeze" from Cleveland Tool Company.

That's it for Saturday May 8th. I'll see if I can continue on tomorrow. (It's Mothers Day!)

BWW

Setting Rivets Part 2

After setting each rivet I used the rivet go/no go gauge to insure I set it properly. The gauges are pretty handy to have and help you, the builder, to keep your rivets uniform & right.

Here is a nice row of rivets set with the riveting gun and to proper size. It took about 3 minutes to set. The lens cap is to give some perspective on size.

This is the flap spar & doubler assembly. I used the hand squeezer to set these rivets. I had to extend the squeezers handles to get enough leverage to squeeze the heads. This took a couple of hours to set!

Setting Rivets Part 1

Time to start riveting the assembly together. I made my own back riveting slab of steel by stoning a 4" by 15" by 3/8" of cold rolled steel.

I did this in between all the other work I was doing on the flap.

Next, I took the rivets and placed them into the lower skin flap dimples and held them in place with riveting tape. I flipped the flap skin over with the taped rivets pointing up.

I aligned the back riveting plate so it was directly under the rivets and placed the flap skin stiffener into place.

Then I set the rivets with the pneumatic riveting gun. This was very easy to do. The other riveting I did was really tough!

(Continued in next post.)

Corrosion Protection

The tool I needed for dimpling the flap skins rivet holes arrived last Friday. I was able to dimple the holes successfully with the new tool on Monday (05/03/10)

After dimpling, I corrosion proofed the skins and ribs with a Zinc Phosphate primer I purchased from Aircraft Spruce. I cleaned the surface with alcohol to remove any oils or contaminates prior to spraying on the paint. The paint/primer meets Federal Specification T-P-1757A for corrosion protection.

Today, I took the first steps in final assembly by Cleco-ing together the flap spar, spar doubler, ribs, & nose ribs. The assembly instructions say to rivet the pieces together using the hand squeezer.

With the jaws I have I can not reach around the spar with the squeezer, so I ordered a "C" riveting tool that will attach to the pneumatic rivet gun. The tool should be here by this week end when I am off again.

I found the AN470AD-4-5 rivets were too long and the AN470AD-4-4 rivets were too short. I trimmed the -4-5s down a little with the rivet cutting tool.

Here I am using the rivet length measuring tool to trim the rivet to proper length for riveting.

Here are the rivets, an AN470AD-4-5 untrimmed and one that has been cut in the cutting tool.

This up coming weekend I will be off and should be able to start riveting the assembly together.

Later,

BWW

Prime & Dimpling the Flap

On the 24th I finished drilling all the holes and started deburing operations. Quite tiring and very boring. My thumb and forefingers hurt from the deburing process.

Here is a picture of the flap held together with Clecos just before deburing.

I found I needed some more tools for dimpling and riveting, so I ordered a hand squeezer kit from ATS. It works great. I only wish some of the tools I ordered came with instructions. It takes a little guess work at times to figure out how the tools work, but the light goes on at the moment of discovery. I also ordered some more Clecos and some self etching primer for the final assembly of the flap.

Here is a picture of the nose ribs, flap skin stiffeners, spar, & hinge debured, dimpled, & primed. All the inside pieces of the flap will be primed before it is closed up.

Here I am, using the hand squeezer tool to dimple the lower flap skin. It works well on the edges and reaches in about 3". The rivet holes that I can not reach will be a trick to get to. I may need some other dimpling tools to reach them. I should be ready to start final assembly next week.

I have to return to work tomorrow. :(

Thats all for now. BWW

Order Clecos

I ordered 100 3/32 Clecos from ATS today. Hopefully they will be here by the weekend when I am off. I do want to continue on the flap project and see how fast the progress can be.

I know I will be needing some other tooling in the future. I am holding off in case I find I do not want to continue on the whole plane project. So far it has been enjoyable putting around in the garage.

I am signing up for another year of flying at the local club. Need to keep my flying skills sharp and ready for more fun.

Happy landings to all!

BWW

Flap Kit Continued

Between helping my father in-law and sister in-law (both are quite ill) I was able to put some more time in on the flap project for the Mustang II. Stopped by the hardware store and picked up a pair of flanging pliers. They worked great!

I was able to assemble the flap spar, flap hinge, and lower flap skin together with the few Clecos I had (need about 150 more!!!!). The Sears Craftsman spring clamps I got a couple of years ago sure helped.

Reviewing the plans and assembly instructions is very similar to building an RC plane. Only instead of wood it is made from aluminum and i

nstead of glue it is bonded together with solid rivets. (I've done practice rivets, but no rivets in the plane yet!)

Back at work tomorrow. We'll see if I can get some more Clecos by the end of the week.

My 1st rivets.......ever! Not great, but do-able.

Later,

BWW

The Flap Kit arrives

The starter flap kit arrived on Friday, April 9th. The wife found it lying in the side yard about 1 hour before I went to work.

Today, I opened the crate and took inventory of the parts and prints. They seem to have thought of everything right down to a practice riveting kit. So, after the inventory I set 6 rivets with the riveting gun. Not too bad. It felt better then I expected.

I did the first couple of steps in the instructions such as cutting the flap hinge to the correct length, marking the center lines on the lower flap skin and spar, and checking the angles on the spar and the ribs.

I found I am going to need flanging pliers and some duck bill pliers to adjust the angles of the ribs and the spar. I'll check out the hardware store tomorrow.

Later.