4 hours total 616

Nothing much happened recently.

I've cleaned up the canopy frame and done a few test fits.
I still need to trim the canopy and drill it to attach to the frame, but that's best done when it is warm and the plexi is a bit more flexible. Drilling and cutting plexi when it is cold can make it crack and that would be expensive!
And winter has arrived, the temperatures are lower and so I think I'll wait for a hot day before I attempt that.

There's plenty of other misc. tasks to get on with and I'll do those over the winter.

But a bit of good news: the interior arrived !
I have leather seats, sidewalls pockets, stick boots, a nice carpet etc.
I temporarily dropped it in to see how it looks ! (yes I did get in and make airplane noises...)

Unpacked:

test fit !

12 hours total 612

This weekend I put together the canopy frame.
The frame is a pre welded part but there are lots of edges to debur and a few extra pieces to make.
But this is a rewarding job, the big canopy really makes a difference and it's starting to look like an actual cockpit now.

Attachment angles have to be fabricated and the curve matched to the frame.

Then the frame needs to be secured in place using wood blocks as spacers.

Next week I'll match drill the canopy bubble and add the finishing touches.

Lots of work, not so much blogging about 100 hours, total so far 600

Well it's been a while since I updated this blog.

It has been a busy summer, first a trip to Europe and then as usual work took all my time over the summer.

Having the ACW (aircraft construction workshop) in my garage has been a real benefit, I can pop down there anytime and do an hour's fiddling about. So plenty of work has been done, it's just been in very small doses.
Until the last couple of weeks, when I finally managed a few weekends and even some weekdays off of work.

The Finish Kit arrived in early July, but that was a busy time at work so all that got done was to open the box and take inventory, there were actually some missing pieces.
The RV-12 kit has just undergone a major upgrade, the new kits are now using a totally different avionics system and that also includes a rework of the wiring harness and a few other related items like the wing root connectors. My fuselage kit was designed for the old system and my finish kit for the new, so there was supposed to be an "update" kit to convert my fuselage, but that was missing.
No problem, a quick call to vans and they sent the missing kit.

This kit is quite different from the previous kits, there's a lot less aluminium sheet and a lot more "bits and pieces" like tyres, wheels, canopy plexi bubble, and pre-formed metal components like control sticks and landing gear legs.

The blue covered metal sheet on the right is the fuel tank, one of the only bits of aluminium construction left !

The Bubble canopy, better not scratch this !

And it all still fits in one car space even with the big work table:

The missing conversion kit:

 Tyres, wheels and control sticks stored under the work table:

I also ordered the optional wheel pants, these are plastic fairings that will be added last:

The wiring harness:

The finish kit is mostly made up of lots of little tasks, which was perfect for my limited free time over the summer.

Here I am making the wing spar retaining pins which contain magnets to activate safety switches that will be fitted later.

The switches prevent the engine ignition from working unless the wing spar pins are fully engaged, seems like a good idea :)

One of the "conversion kit" tasks is to drill extra cooling holes and mounting hardware in the avionics bay:

Not part of the finish kit, but here's a small task I had from way back in the wing kit that never got completed, fabrication of the activation arms for the flaperons:

And some more flaperon components, might as well get those done while I'm at it...

The first big task in the finish kit is to install the wiring harness

This was done with the fuselage on it's side while it's still light and open enough.

First I fed the wires down from the avionics bay:

Over the rudder pedals and into the center tunnel:

From there they route out to the wing connectors, the autopilot servos, control sticks, headset jacks and some wires continue further to the rear and then either up through the center channel or into the tailcone.

I also drilled a hole for the OAT probe:

Now this was a beggar of a job !

Getting the wires for the push to talk switch through the control sticks.

The sticks have a 90 degree corner and an EXTREMELY small passageway around a bushing.

I tried with all kinds of string and wire and using the air gun and everything I tried failed.

Eventually I found a length of cord that was not too floppy and not too stiff, in fact it was the cord from an old window shade, and that did eventually work by sucking the cord through with a vacuum and then carefully pulling the PTT wires with the cord.

But crikey that was a pain !

I think I spent a whole day on that job, many thanks to my father in law Barry for help with that one and many of the other tasks here too.

Here are the buggers finished:

Then it was just a case of tidy up.

Adding zip ties to the wire harness to keep it all neat.

And fixing down all the brackets etc.

Just a few small peices to prepare for the avionics bay and a few little brackets here and there:

Then the cover panels.

All that needed to be done here was prime and paint, these panels will be screwed into place not riveted.

These are access panels and will be removed each year for the annual condition inspection, and for any updates and repairs that ever need to be done.

Access panels all in place, it's starting to look nearly complete !

ELT bracket

Vans has issued a service bulletin "SB" that requires a modification of the landing gear attachments.

This is a perfect time to modify the brackets since I am about to add the landing gear.

I ground off a 1/4" 45degree bevel on each corner as directed.

These are aerospace steel and it took quite a bit of doing with some lovely sparks like plot night around the grinder !

And the landing gear was easily attached, and wheels and tyres assembled.

No real fabrication work here, just follow the assembly directions.

Pretty easy stuff, except you always need an extra couple of hands. I think a spider might be better off building airplanes sometimes...

And just to get another job done, and actually, mostly just to get everything tidy in the workshop, I installed the rear window again this time with the actual attachment bolts and properly drilled and tapped holes.

Next job is to disassemble the big worktable, I won't be needing that anymore, and that will free up space on that side of the garage to get everything back into that one space.

The next assembly task is the canopy, and that will be done mostly in-place on the airframe.

After that the fuel tank, which is just a 2 foot cube.

That will be mostly it until I can afford to buy an engine.

I'll probably put the cowl pieces in place temporarily, but I can't really do final work on them until the engine is installed.

I have the wheel fairings, and a few odds and ends to finish up, but I am seeing the end in sight here !

I've honestly lost track of total hours at this point, I did a lot of just "going down the garage for an hour" over the summer, and a few solid days of work while my father in law was in town.

I estimate I have another 100 hours into the project now.

Fuselage complete. 40 hours, total 500 hours

The last few weekends have been taken up with a few last bits and pieces.Mostly just a lot of small jobs of every kind, priming, match drilling, Test fitting, demurring, painting, and final assembly etc
But that was all worth it when I got to put all the big bits together and for the first time see what looks like a real airplane :)

The tailcone is not actually attached yet, in the photos it is just placed there for effect, I'll leave that attachment for later when I have everything moved to the airport.

The wings on the RV 12 are detachable so putting them and off can happen at any time.

I have ordered the finish kit, and that should arrive in about 8 weeks.
The finish kit contains a mix of things, landing gear, canopy, fuel tank, wiring harness and control cables etc.
Not a lot of metalwork left really, just bits and pieces.


It was really a great feeling to actually sit in there and make airplane noises !

60 hours, total 460

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy.
The fuselage is nearly complete, I just have the upper firewall and the rear bulkhead to rivet this coming weekend.

A lot of the time recently has been painting. Unlike the rest of the build so far, the fuselage is not hidden structure, so I have been deburring, then scuffing, then cleaning, then priming, then finish painting nearly all the parts.

The seat backs are complete, the roll over bar is complete, lower firewall completed and the fuselage all riveted together.

I have also fabricated the fuel lines and run the brake lines from the rudder and brake pedals.
The metalwork is nearly done, most of the rest of the project is finish work like controls and cables, wiring, plexiglass canopy and fiberglass fairings etc.
There's still a bit of metalwork left, like the fuel tank and some closeout panels, but not that much really.

Here's how a setup a jig for drilling the brake pedals:

Completed Rudder and Brakes:

Completed seat back (there's 2 of these)

Fueselage all ready to rivet:

Fuel shutoff valve:

Fuel and brake lines:

Gascolator with my first attempt at safety wiring:

Fuselage bottom skin riveted:

Here's a part not in the plans.
There are rollers that the wing spars ride on when you insert the removable wings.
Those rollers have a cutout in the fuselage floor so they don't bind.
That leaves a gap into the under floor area of the aircraft structure.
Now, no one has ever mentioned this being a problem, and the gap is fairly small.
It's also behind the setback and out of the way, however, Sods Law states that I will definitely drop my keys down that hole and never be able to get them back, that's just how life works.
So, I designed and fabricated a closeout tray to fit under that area. Now there's no gaps anywhere in the floor area (except for the control sticks, but they will have boot covers)