June 13, 2020 We had our first tech advisor inspection and overall it went well. He was happy with the general quality, but almost all of our 3/32 rivets are undersized according to our standard measurement gauge. Van’s says in Section 5.0 that they use smaller rivets than normal and that smaller shop heads are... Continue Reading →
June 12, 2020 Today was a few different items of miscellaneous wing work, starting with a service bulletin (SB) to reinforce the aileron mount bracket that we missed a couple days ago. It was shipped with the quick-build kit but it languished on the shelf when we assembled the aileron brackets the first time. It... Continue Reading →
June 10 & 11, 2020 Today was about pedals, starting with making the brake pedal assemblies. They went together easily except for the one rivet where the squeezer slipped and I messed it up. Not a biggie though. I found yet another point where the drawings don't match up with reality. The drawing for the... Continue Reading →
June 9, 2020 The tailwheel spring mount came back and it looks pretty good with a 20% exterior gloss black. I asked them not to paint the two surfaces that mate up to the bulkhead so that I wouldn't have an issue with it being too thick of a layer of paint to fit. Once... Continue Reading →
June 3, 2020 Before we can powder coat the tailwheel spring mount there's two more holes I need to drill. These holes are for 2 "keeper rivets" to help align the spring mount with the aft-most bulkhead. Frustratingly, the plans don't dimension the location of those holes in any useful way. After speaking with Van's,... Continue Reading →
June 2, 2020 Today was spent jumping all around the fuselage and started with finding all the parts to put the control stick together. It took a while to get the bushing in the mount without it binding. I think one tube may have warped a little with the welding, so I took a Dremel... Continue Reading →
June 1, 2020 No photos today because it went a lot like yesterday. The bell crank on this side was smooth from the start, so that was a bonus. That counted as the last of the work that we could do on the wing for now so we moved on to the fuselage. The quick... Continue Reading →
May 31, 2020 Today the right aileron went on the wing for the first time. This required fabricating a spacer and sorting a variety of washers. Once we got it everything bolted into place it moved freely though and was exciting to see. Using the jig included in the kit, I centered up the bell... Continue Reading →
May 29, 2020 Turns out, when I riveted on the flap brace I was looking at the wrong rivet call-out. Today I found the correct rivet callout for the flap brace and I spent the entire day drilling out over 100 rivets. The instructions say "QUICKBUILDER’S NOTE: The W-721 must be attached to the rear... Continue Reading →
May 28, 2020 Today I started the first piece of the flight control system by making the aileron pushrods. These will be the method of driving the ailerons and are critical to be done right. Unfortunately, the plans are wrong and by following them I cut the tubes that run from the fuselage to the... Continue Reading →
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