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.
