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