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RV14A - N225HK

kiljoy

Well Known Member
Hi Everybody,

So finally after years have gotten the universe aligned up just right and have
started my RV14 build. The stars aligned, I found a hangar and friends to help and my wife approved.

I couldn't be happier and I only wish I didn't sleep so that I could spend all night working to get her in the air sooner.

I've got a few pics of the empennage arrival and the very first clecos. Most of the time I'll just be uploading time compressed raw video log of the build along with some voiced over commentary. Its mostly so that when I build my next plane I'll have myself from the past there to help me not make the same mistakes twice. I'll be posting these on here as well.

Continued thanks to the Vans Airforce community at large. I couldn't do this without help from such a helpful group of good people.

- Kilroy

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Gotta be a rough neighborhood when you have to lock the toolbox. :D

Congrats on the kit!
 
Paraphrasing Tony Curtis from the movie Operation Petticoat in describing the rough neighborhood where he grew up; It was called Noah's Ark.....if you didn't travel in pairs, you just didn't travel! :D
 
Paraphrasing Tony Curtis from the movie Operation Petticoat in describing the rough neighborhood where he grew up; It was called Noah's Ark.....if you didn't travel in pairs, you just didn't travel! :D

LOL. The neighborhood isn't bad. Its just that I don't trust people. This is an open hangar to my flying club and I'd like to keep all my tools on my side of reality.
 
DRDT-2 for the win

I needed a desktop dimpler. I've tried the c-frame and it was more than adequate. Were I able to fashion up some kind of solenoid triggered pneumatic hammer mechanism for it I'd of gone that way. I'm sure with repeated practice I'd get proficient at it but with the drdt-2 it's set and forget and I need all the help I can get.

Here is a video of me building mine along with the explanation that you see above.
https://youtu.be/ieOapnzlJZo

- Kilroy
 
What rattle can?

Yea I am switching sides just wanted to know what rattle can did you went with?
 
Yea I am switching sides just wanted to know what rattle can did you went with?

I tried a few but I liked Duplicolor. It takes a few light passes to get a nice color on it but dries VERY fast and after a few days is very hard. Easy to touch up.
 
Here is the vertical stabilizer in riveting prep:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1088.jpg


And a pic of her all done up:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_108d.jpg


And here is the video feed with commentary of said riveting:

https://youtu.be/W4xq7qnUbLg

Naturally the memory card filled up RIGHT as I was finishing the last two rivets and you miss my victory dance. Trust me the victory is all yours. :D

- Kilroy
 
Please take this as constructive criticism. From the pictures I would say that your dimples are not crisp enough. Try to find a local multiple builder, of good repute, in your area to give you a bit of help.
Also, wipe some 100LL on your primer, let it sit for a while then see if the primer will wipe off with a cloth before you do the whole aircraft. Fuel does occasionally get spilled on flying aircraft when fueling.
 
Please take this as constructive criticism. From the pictures I would say that your dimples are not crisp enough. Try to find a local multiple builder, of good repute, in your area to give you a bit of help.
Also, wipe some 100LL on your primer, let it sit for a while then see if the primer will wipe off with a cloth before you do the whole aircraft. Fuel does occasionally get spilled on flying aircraft when fueling.

Yes all I've been afraid of is that outside of countersinking none of my dimpling or metal working will meet muster. The pics don't do a very good job of showing it but they are pretty tight and I've had 3 A&Ps and two RV veterans look at it and give it the thumbs up.

And I'm only planning on using that primer initially for contact surfaces and internals. The outside is going to get the royal treatment once build and my wife has decided on a color scheme.
 
I agree with Tom, I would increase the pressure on the DRDT. Mine looked exactly like yours on my fin / rudder and passed inspection by a tech counselor plus several guys and are perfectly safe as is but then I saw the video from Cleaveland Tools on dimpling and increased the pressure on the dies and the dimples improved markedly. Not trying to nit pick your work as they are fine but most of us are looking for the best result possible for our builds. Give it a try, you can always adjust it back if you don't think it helps.
 
Here is the first part of the rudder chapter. It's a pretty straight forward piece. The only thing is that the skins and stiffeners are very thin. I'm assuming its to save tail weight. Thus they are more delicate and after getting to man handle the thicker vertical stabilizer pieces you have to be careful.

Pics and video feed:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_4520.jpg


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Video feed:
https://youtu.be/YD2EmP1FkIA

- Kilroy
 
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Mistakes Happen

So the rudder skin is very thin. its .016". I understand you want the rudder to be as light as possible but the skin itself is a delicate, little flower...

While back riveting the stiffeners to the rudder skins I made a small F up. I don't have my back rivet plate set into the top of my workbench like I'd like so its sitting on TOP of the workbench that has a slick, linoleum type top.

Anyways, I got distracted from what I was doing and when I went to rivet on the last rivet of a stiffener I had the rivet in a bad position hanging off the edge of the back rivet plate. The first buck of the rivet gun caused the skin to slip enough that the next shot of the head cracked right through the rudder skin where the stiffener is.

Long story short the skin is useless and I had to get my first replcaement parts from Vans. It's not exactly the 2nd rudder club. Its the 3rd rudder skin club!

Anyways here's a pic of the moched up rudder:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_451e.jpg


And three rudder work videos:

https://youtu.be/8lh3j2J_w0Q

https://youtu.be/Yv3jHvbVPWM

https://youtu.be/1q3NrCOlWy4

- Kilroy
 
If we all collected our "oops" parts and came together we could build a couple (more?) of "Frankenstein" airplanes. Some doublers, extra rivets, baling wire, and duct tape, good to go....
 
With the replacement rudder pieces on order I've started work on the horizontal stabilizer. Lots of deburring on this one. That includes parts of all sizes, thicknesses and levels of deburring irritation.

Here's the template for the cradle which I made out of the the empennage crate:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_10e3.jpg


Work proceeds with first prepping and riveting a few things to the rear spar then the same to the front spar. Here is a pic of the front spar in mid riveting. Do note the taped areas where rivets are going to go later:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_10e4.jpg


After both spars were completed you begin work on a substructure of ribs and stringer doublers as seen here:

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_10e6.jpg


Here are the first few compressed videos of the horizontal stabilizer build:

https://youtu.be/jKqOxCFr6IM

https://youtu.be/NWSaaj1iMEU

https://youtu.be/8UPG7W9n9sM

- Kilroy
 
Ugh... apparently photobucket doesn't like third party hosting anymore after 14 years. Gee thanks Photobucket. I'll find a fix.

SO... continued work on the horizontal stabilizer... Once I finished the spars and got all the ribs deburred and primed I started with the riveting of the inner stringer and rib web and ribs to the front spar. I'll let myself talk about in video form:

Video:
https://youtu.be/MErMB07OAOU

https://youtu.be/EyzoZvQfEc8

https://youtu.be/vIJGmZdgsPk

- Kilroy
 
Hi all,

Had myself a nice week of vacation followed by a week of pneumonia. It's just what I've always wanted.

In real time I'm in the middle of the elevators. I've moched up all of the pieces and am now in the middle of cleaning and deburring all of the parts. I appreciate how Van's has the elevator chapter setup where you fabricate all of the parts that you need, moch up the structure of the part and THEN you break it back down and do all of the cleaning, deburring, etc in one fail swoop.

I've put a deposit down on the wings. I'm not planning on building any of the tailcone/fuselage until I'm ready to do the entire fuselage at once. I don't have the space to store a large, cross-sectioned object like that so I'm holding off.

So I'm very backed up with media but here are a nice large set of videos on the horizontal stabilizer that I've been meaning to release. I have 6-7 more after this that I'm going to try to get out in a couple of days.

Videos:
https://youtu.be/gnXz3Ish-mY
https://youtu.be/p_imds3nar0
https://youtu.be/Lv6baBhkf-o
https://youtu.be/viIE6VUKAn0
https://youtu.be/aQp8eXPya3k
https://youtu.be/mP1uShYsVF4

- Kilroy
 
Kilroy,

Thanks for the 21st century version of the build log. I enjoy watching your project substantially more than any Netflix series. Sorry about the rudder, it was painful to witness in live action, but now engrained in my mind.

Regarding production, the voice over makes the videos. If I wasn't watching, I'd swear the intro was the beginning of Mike Rowe's podcast.

Keep it up,

Steven
 
Thanks Steven. Glad you like them!

Here are the final 4 videos from the horizontal stabilizer build. It's all very riveting. I had a couple of club members help me out along with an A&P friend who gives my work a look over from time to time.

https://youtu.be/idRtVHasKuo
https://youtu.be/GywGTI7E8Kk
https://youtu.be/G2GE2gLwZM0
https://youtu.be/cGehvWNZTlY

The horizontal stabilizer came out pretty and straight! There isn't any mention in the plans about straightening, etc. It's such a large piece but just small enough that if you have it cradled properly and align the skins right (they are nice and thick like the vertical stabilizer) I don't think you could really twist the piece. Thank you vans!! Now onto the elevators.

- Kilroy
 
The first and a half rudder club

It's Oshkosh week... I'm not jealous... not in the least!!

Lies. Complete and total lies! I'd rather be at Oshkosh than home working on my plane. Now that is saying something! It's like the once a year family reunion that you actually look forward to. My goal... and I know its ambitious is to fly this RV14 to Oshkosh 2019! I hope everyone there is having a great time, that the weather behaves and the VAF people have taken control Airventure without a shot.

Anyways, here are the first 4 videos of the rework of the left rudder skin I
gloriously had screwed up a few weeks back and had to get a few replacement
parts for. There's 9 more clips to go after this that I'll post later this week. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/zAwdklteWAk
https://youtu.be/tarZQVj7SRk
https://youtu.be/5tY6PoIIaog
https://youtu.be/gCkhTet0saY

- Kilroy
 
Rudder metal work DONE

Hi everybody,

So I've finished with the rudder's metal work. I hadn't gone into the fairing work yet.
I'm not going to start touching fiberglass until everything else is done and I can do
all of it at once. Been there, too messy.

Things I've learned from the rudder:
- Thin aluminum is thin. Respect it and treat is as such.
- Bending leading edges and riveting them is a pain.
- Trailing edges aren't that bad.
- Shipping replacement parts sucks!

Here are the rest of the compressed build feeds with commentary. Enjoy.

- Kilroy

https://youtu.be/VYMgTnxp5F0
https://youtu.be/yhrZtBZERZQ
https://youtu.be/oMvazTFDM9A
https://youtu.be/7CDf1_03HvM
https://youtu.be/t1Q8xrhV5Dw

Edit: I had to reupload the last two feed videos as I'd accidently uploaded the ones with no sound. Oops
 
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Shipping replacement parts sucks

I feel you.

Bending leading edges and riveting them is a pain

Use PVC and duct tape and a vise grip, makes short work of this. Note that when you get to the elevator it's a bit easier since you can do the entire run all at once (they aren't different sizes).

Also, regarding the elevator, golden lesson learned here, you need 1 5/8 from the elevator control arm to the rolled skin for proper clearance. Note that if you don't get it "just right" don't think you have to re-roll the edges, you will just need to shim the elevator rod bearing. This will make more sense when you get to that step, just trying to save you from a mistake that a few of us have made.
 
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Use PVC and duct tape and a vise grip, makes short work of this. Note that when you get to the elevator it's a bit easier since you can do the entire run all at once (they aren't different sizes).

Oh I did. I found doing them in sections from the top down was the easiest. To me the really hard part was getting the two skins overlapping by hand to cleco them together.
 
To me the really hard part was getting the two skins overlapping by hand to cleco them together.

This could be a sign you have some rolling left to do, it should be fairly easy to hold them together.

If this is the case I wouldn't bother trying to fix, mine was the same way. On the elevator though get a good roll and it won't be hard to hold together.

Also, I used a 1.25" OD PVC on the elevator, the 3/4 didn't seem to do it for me.
 
Get to the ELEVATOR!!!

Hi all,

I forget that every 8 hour weekend day that I work on the plane I wind up generating enough sped up video for 5 segments. These things are piling up and they take up a LOT of drive space.

SO.. began working on the elevators. No real surprises so far. You do get into a little metal bending not just cutting pieces out of a punched template so that's fun. There are a lot of tight places so a few specialty tools are needed. And I'm finally going to get to work with pro seal! I like the way Vans has structured this chapter. Its fabricate and bend, moch up, drill baby drill, disassemble, deburr, prime, dimple, build. In like the first chapter you do a little bit of everything on the first page. That's nice to get you going but now that you'd be in full swing it's more productive to do all of one activity at once. Though it can get a little boring during a full day of metal deburring and prep.

Here's the first 5 segments of the elevator build. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/b3TM1Fim7EA
https://youtu.be/MO79Uqd_KWE
https://youtu.be/R6otGHMOMCk
https://youtu.be/HsAsaBvAldM
https://youtu.be/BoW_lSjxGps

- Kilroy
 
Hi all,

I'm back from a wonderful weekend at the Boonville airport day and fly in, camping, meteor shower watching, wine drinking, hangar talking, cold shower taking, wine drinking, aviation calibrating festival.

Quick video of my approach to D83:

https://youtu.be/dAhrCeQTSNo

On the RV front there were a few there. A 4, 6, a couple of 8s, two 7As and a 12. Anywho I also have a few videos of the continued work on the elevator. I've finally made the special bucking bar for the elevator rear spar and tonight I finally got back to riveting. Anywho here are the next 4 chunks. I'll be posting tomorrow as well.

https://youtu.be/GAjF-Cv4GPk
https://youtu.be/v98fyEdHPP0
https://youtu.be/UrIzUzyIljA
https://youtu.be/QUtned6Sg3o

- Kilroy
 
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I'm tired of always being behind

Okay I know I posted yesterday but I was so backed up with stupid video files I just got tired of being that far behind so here are the rest of the processed video feed I have. WHEW!!!!

Included in these videos is where I decided it'd be a good idea to try to rivet the right elevator's rear spare and ribs onto the left elevator skin. 90 rivets later and I had one of those 30 second long, 'AAAWWWWWwwwwww shhh********t' moments.

Luckily I'm skilled at drilling out rivets so 2 hours later I had those drilled out, only enlarged one rivet hole and put the correct rear spar and ribs on the right skin. Yes.. they are all marked in big, blue sharpie as to what is L and R. I just suffer from intermittent mental issues that doesn't allow me to think! *SMH*.

- Kilroy

https://youtu.be/GNTvbahDyrs
https://youtu.be/qBBqU6HJmH8
https://youtu.be/v0b58wnjrf8
https://youtu.be/OqqNuVRA5uY
https://youtu.be/5eXtoGLvoCA
https://youtu.be/uxiybzcX9us
 
Unblocked, blocked again then wings!

So I finally got the steel for the special bucking bar for the elevator rear spar. Finished up as much of the elevators as I could and then realized I didn't have enough tape for the trailing edges. So blocked again I spent some time and made storage for all the parts that didn't have it.

The tape arrived and that's currently setting so this weekend I'll get to pro sealing in the foam ribs.

In the meantime the wings showed up yesterday. I had help inventorying thankfully so that's half way done already. The only thing left to go through is the ball of bags!

Anyways here are the feeds. Enjoy. - Kilroy

https://youtu.be/IgIruoyctiE
https://youtu.be/yGvZkmBEjUg
https://youtu.be/nWFsvob48-Q
https://youtu.be/Xpm-hb80r_0
https://youtu.be/o590AYEBLzM
https://youtu.be/26_qjGKJdSs
https://youtu.be/vOV-ojermBM
 
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I've had hardly anytime to work on the plane the last week mostly because I was blocked by not having enough double sided tape. Got the elevator's trailing edges taped in, foam ribs sealed in and the edges riveted.

On the wing side I've completed all of the large parts inventory. I'm half way through the ball of fasteners and bags. I've checked off all of the bags measured by weight and gone through all of the bags that require counting of parts that contain only one part (like bags of pop rivets). Basically I've gotten all the low hanging fruit and have only the bags containing random parts and bags of multi sized screws and endless nut plates.

Here it is in action:
https://youtu.be/PQe7DmQ9YM8
https://youtu.be/xFtbyS2e8ic

- KIlroy
 
Because my life isn't complex enough

Hi all,

So I've polished off most of the elevators. The leading edges are done. I learned from my rudder experience and these went down very smoothly. I only accidentally put the lower skins on top of the upper skins on only one section of one elevator. Thankfully that was caught before riveting.

Anyways I've moved onto the wings. Inventory is done which is always fun. I've started on the ailerons first. I'll be doing those and the flaps first since they're small and I can hide them away. I'm basically doing all of the smaller work first. I may even do the tanks before the main wings? Not sure yet.

One thing I do know is that I bought crappy drill bits and trying to drill holes through that stainless steel counterweight bar has ruined about 3 drill bits so far.

On a side note my available building time I'm afraid is going to possibly be going down. The maintenance officer on the board of my flying club has retired. I was approached for the position and I've been elected to do the job. Now on top of my plane I'm responsible for maintaining a fleet of 4 aircraft and the 130 member's lives that fly them. It's a crash course to be sure but I'm leaning a lot. Just hired a great A&P to be the club's mechanic and I'm learning everything I've ever wanted to know.

Anyways, here are some videos from working on the wing. Enjoy:

https://youtu.be/40I_mF8KRF8
https://youtu.be/oTdtstz9zos
https://youtu.be/xmULgWlxM4M
https://youtu.be/h3w2p08yDdU
 
So the last week has been interesting. I had taken the week off in hopes of rest and recuperation. Instead it was frantic work and trying to get my head wrapped around the responsibilities of being a flying club maintenance officer.

Anyways, that's all still a mess but there is at least a light at the end of that tunnel. I did manage to get some build time in between work emergencies and plane maintenance work. The ailerons are now doing just fine that I secured some proper drill bits. High speed steel = ****. I mean they're fine for aluminum but stainless steel just laughs at them. I almost had a L vs R mirroring part issue but I managed to avoid that so no ordering of new parts for me!

Here are a few of the vids I put together. There's a few more but those will have to come later. Enjoy:

https://youtu.be/q3WajKiDe0k
https://youtu.be/M0Zg2D9fka8
https://youtu.be/t9xsDNkS5Jc
 
I've been continuing work on the ailerons this week. I finally got the correct bits and have made the counterweights succumb to the cobalt! After completing the stiffeners I've finished the left aileron though those videos won't be out until next week.

It's been hard balancing doing my build and my club's maintenance but I believe I've found a good way to strike a balance and have members help out enough to make it sustainable. The best perk is that I get to do any maintenance test flying and bill it to the club :D

Here are the latest vids:

https://youtu.be/32RHbMpQBb0
https://youtu.be/kN3LM3oszKw
https://youtu.be/lwdpg1SvtVA
 
Aileron work continues. I've gotten the left one completed and I've just got a box from vans containing the replacement aileron top skin for the right aileron. Why do I need a replacement aileron skin? I MAY have scuffed, primed and dimpled the top right aileron skin on the wrong side... which is ironic because I'd written all over the skins with 'inboard', 'outboard', 'fore', 'aft', 'top', 'bottom', etc with arrows just to avoid this very thing from happening. A ounce of prevention is worth $13 in shipping costs apparently!

Thankfully unlike a rudder skin, the aileron skins can be rolled and shipped in a much smaller box!!

Anyways we'll get to that **** up and fix in the next set of feeds. For now here are the next videos of the aileron construction from earlier. It goes through deburring, dimpling, riveting etc. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/c66mfZ0sOBA
https://youtu.be/M5HkZWjLbg8
https://youtu.be/M5HkZWjLbg8
https://youtu.be/oVoc3xOVSHM
https://youtu.be/MVRgcW4QsSA
 
We've all been there

Why do I need a replacement aileron skin? I MAY have scuffed, primed and dimpled the top right aileron skin on the wrong side... which is ironic because I'd written all over the skins with 'inboard', 'outboard', 'fore', 'aft', 'top', 'bottom', etc with arrows just to avoid this very thing from happening. A ounce of prevention is worth $13 in shipping costs apparently!

Isn't that the way it goes? You really have to focus on the task at hand and be thinking constantly about each step. I creased my rudder skin because I ran off the back rivet plate. It sounds so simple to avoid such a, frankly, silly mistake, but it will happen the moment I lose focus.

It's the same effect that causes a lot of fumbled exchanges in football, throwing errors in baseball, and missed shots in golf. Even the best professionals in the world make mistakes because they lose focus.

Regain the focus and move on! You are doing great! Thanks for sharing.
 
Isn't that the way it goes? You really have to focus on the task at hand and be thinking constantly about each step. I creased my rudder skin because I ran off the back rivet plate. It sounds so simple to avoid such a, frankly, silly mistake, but it will happen the moment I lose focus.

It's the same effect that causes a lot of fumbled exchanges in football, throwing errors in baseball, and missed shots in golf. Even the best professionals in the world make mistakes because they lose focus.

Regain the focus and move on! You are doing great! Thanks for sharing.

Ironically that's exactly what I did to my rudder skin as well!
 
I've finally finished off both of the ailerons. Once I redid the top skin for the right aileron everything fell into place nicely. I've now just started in on the flaps. There aren't many pieces thankfully so it'll probably just be one full day of deburring.

It's sad that I think about it like that. It's not, 'oh wooo the flaps' its, 'oh woo more deburring'.

Anyways in my side job as maintenance officer I've got some interesting real world stuff coming up. Going to assist in a field change of a cylinder on one plane and change out a starter and battery on another. By the time I get around to having my plane completed I think I might actually be ready for it.

Here's the latest vids of the aileron work including finishing up the left aileron, the foul up with the right aileron, the fix of that and most of the right aileron riveting. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/mViaJt2wc8s
https://youtu.be/1I3WRkub-i4
https://youtu.be/nxJV6OVZcSg
https://youtu.be/r2G9_gLFVE8
https://youtu.be/VmZXvKmNc3I
https://youtu.be/2Z-AstBtOU0
 
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