Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Thursday, December 31, 2009

6 hrs, 187 rivets
It was time to attach the right outboard bottom skin. First I had to bevel the inboard leading edge as per the plans. Then after getting it clecoed onto the wing, it was obvious I wanted help. So while waiting for help, I dimpled the aft top fuselage skins and started on dimpling the aft fuselage ribs. Also added a length of shrink wrap on the antennae coax leads to protect from chafing.

My Sister, Suanne, came over to help. We started with the aft spar/skin rivets, since these are the difficult ones to set, and worked down 3 or 4 rivets on each rib. Then the nephew, Max, came over. Suanne had to leave, so we took a break and Max got the riveting class. I have new people drill holes, deburr, dimple, squeeze and shoot about 10 rivets of various kinds. It's enough to introduce all the basic skills and the tools and rivet gauges.

Once we were done with that, Max and I finished the aft spar rivets, and then continued down a few of the ribs so that I could continue solo.

After Max left, I continued, getting about 2/3 of the way through. The outboard skin is harder than the inboard.

Also got the Dynon pitot tube. It fits the Gretz pitot mast perfectly. I'll probably start working on getting it fitted tomorrow.