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RV-14 Tom Roberts

I pulled the trigger and sent them some money. Now I am waiting for a ship date.

I have a ship date of 8 weeks, that looks like the end of July. My serial number is #140076.
 
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Congratulations

Welcome aboard. You will enjoy the journey! Now is one of the hardest parts, just waiting for the kit to arrive to get started. :rolleyes:
 
Excellent! I am waiting for the tail kits to come out before starting. Will be a great aircraft I am sure.

Look forward to seeing your progress on here. Would love to come for a visit to your shop when you get further along.

As you know a great crowd here for helpful hints.
 
Congrats!

Have fun getting everything prepared. I'm getting ready to start a four day weekend working on leading edges. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I have.
 
I pulled the trigger and sent them some money. Now I am waiting for a ship date.

So now what Tom? You can't return that bullet to the barrel... Let's meet and talk some time. At tkatc location of course. Welcome to the adventure you will love it.
 
RV-14 Progress

The wing kit came in on July 31, and so the process begins. I am deep into the spar counter sink and prime work. I am priming the counter sinks at this point.

I also ordered the tail kit and was told 10 weeks. I guess that means Halloween.

Naturally, as soon as the kit came in I am going out of the country for a month, so things will sit while I am gone. What will be, will be. I will keep you updated on my progress.
 
The Empanage is arriving October 10th

Van's will be shipping the empange next week, and I haven't got the wing done yet! I figured I don't want to get out of sync with Van's delivery, so I ordered the tail assembly as soon as it was available.

My wing assemblies are still in deburr and drill stage. I am guessing wing skins before the end of October. (Happy Halloween) The deburring takes forever.

Everything seems to be going fine so far. :)
 
Progress 2-14-14

I have the top skins on both wings, and the outer wing leading edge assemblies complete for both wings. Now starting on the fuel tanks. Avidly reading the threads that say "tanks". My first experience with Pro-Seal. Wish me luck.
Tom Roberts
 
Take your time and start in small steps. Plan your days task well and double check your placement of parts. I has my days plan complete at supper time and breaked for a bite. When I returned I went right to prosealing. When I got to the last two attach brackets I realized they were pointing in the wrong direction. I took a while to figure out where I went wrong. Obviously before supper I must have rotated the tank on the table and had installed all the brackets backward including the tank baffle. Had to drill out all the pull rivets remove all the prosealed parts clean all the mess reproseal and reinstall. The only thing that could have been worse would have been if the parts had cured before I noticed.
What pissed me off the most is I had just read on here of someone placed these brackets incorrectly and I had gone out of my way on the planning and probably triple checked things before supper. I have to admit I don't always double check my work so when I mess up with out double checking it doesn't bother me that much because I feel it's my fault. But after triple checking and still getting it messed up really got to me.
 
Progress - Mid June 2014

By this time, both wings are ready for fuel tanks and I am fighting my way through fuel tank leakage problems. I must not have the technique down, because I had about 2 major leaks on both thanks and several smaller leaks. I am using a manometer, rather than a balloon, and I believe it is much more sensitive. Anyway, I got the left tank to track but the right tank is still a challange.

On a note about pressure testing with a manometer. The tank acts as a 25 gallon air source and it gets cooler and warmer as the temp in the garage changes. As the temperature goes up the pressure goes up, and vica versa. (Boyles Law I think.) Anyway, it took me a while to realize that I was looking for a constant pressure range not a constant pressure (high during the day, low at night and within a constant range). I guess the balloon thing is simpler.

Proceeding on to the wiring of the left wing. I am planning to run a ground ling to the wing tip and not use the structure as the ground.
 
Tanks!!!

What an experience! ProSeal is either the biggest pain in the A__ or the best stuff since sliced white bread, some days I don't know which. They came together at last. I had some trouble with the leak check on the second tank but it finally came in. Both tanks are complete and mounted on the wings.
 
Emperage Assumbly

Managed to complete the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, elevator(s), rudder and the tail cone. I am now working on the alignment of the elevator for travel. Next comes the cross connection drilling. Darn this stuff takes time.

I had to lay off work for 6 months because of illness, but I am back now and ready to get at it again.
 
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