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New 9A builder

dwranda

Well Known Member
Now that I have airplane parts in my garage I want to officially introduce myself. I am David Randall from Western New York. I bought Aaron Arvid's kit in Minneapolis. My wife and I flew out there and packed up his finished tail and unfinished wing kit in early December.
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Here is Aaron and I(I'm on the right).
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Recently finished my wing stands. Now to learn how to use all these tools I have never used before. Here are my sons learning with me as we work on the practice airfoil kit. I got each a Van's tool box kit for Christmas so we'll start those soon. In 2 weeks we take my older son to Daytona to his first semester at Embry-Riddle University so I want to get him rivetting before then. Couldn't hurt learning that since he is an aerospace engineering student.
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I'm sure I'll have many questions so please be gentle on this newbie!! I want to thank Vlad for my first RV ride and Andy Turner for following up the week after that with a ride in his beautiful RV-10. You guys are great RV ambassadors.
 
Welcome to VAF!

David, I probably already did this--------------but now that you are "Officially" a builder, well.........................

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to VAF.
 
Dave, honestly I was surprised that you decided on RV9. I thought after riding with Andy in better wx you would lean toward building a sky limo 10. Anyway congratulations! It will be a good practice for an aerospace engineer. Did he also soloed at 16? :)









Say hi to Linda.


 
nice

Enjoy the build and i hope you enjoy and fly the heck out of it. Great plane, there isnt a better bang for the buck out there. Enjoy and post your progress.
 
Welcome

Welcome and Congratulations David.
It's so awesome to share the experience with your family.
 
Buffalo RV 7

Dave,

Congrats on taking the plunge. I'm a QB RV7 builder in Amherst, NY. Pop in for a visit if you are ever in town!

John
 
Thanks Vlad. Linda also says Hi. No, Justin really has no desire to fly. He does however want to help us get to Mars so that's pretty cool.
 
Dave,
It was an absolute pleasure working with you on this deal. You got a great plane! Remember, you owe me a ride when its done...I'll pay for your gas to get out and back! Thanks a bunch, I can tell my kit is in good hands.
Aaron
 
Thanks Aaron and everyone else!!! From what I've looked at the completed tail your work on it looks great! Here is the wing rack I built with one wing on it. The other will go on the other side with enough room in between to work on them.
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I figure I can deburr and rivet in my cold garage, but gotta figure out how to prime parts during the winter. If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears. Heating the garage isn't an option.
 
Have the part cleaned in the house, step out into the garage, place the part on a piece of cardboard, spray it, bring it in the house, let it dry. Flip it over, step out in the garage, spray it and bring it back inside immediately. I did a lot of this and it worked just fine. My sliding door in the basement got quite a workout with those wing ribs.
 
Good to see another -9A take shape from the hands of another. You are going to love this airplane! I've got lots of photos and captions about my build on my website. Hit up the forums for advice any time and most questions will be found with using the Search feature.
 
Welcome to the madness, David!

I know what you mean about inspirational rides. Just yesterday, Bruce Hill (who posted just before me) popped over to my home airport of Cable in SoCal and gave me a great ride in his machine. It really helped to get my head around how to slow the RV enough to deploy the flaps. And he threw in a few stalls so i could feel the buffet, slow flight and some steep turns where we momentarily hit 3 g. Good fun!

Also, Pete McCoy has been more than generous in sharing the flight experience, and was a riveting helper on more than one occasion.

Build every day, if only a little, and if you have the funds, go QB on the fuselage. You'll still get tons of riveting practice! :)

Here's Cable from Bruce's plane, with Mt. Baldy in the background. Click on the APRS link in Bruce's signature to see the flight. We didn't draw any cool pictures like Vlad, but we had a blast. :D

 
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Unfortunately none of my garage is insulated so I don't want the expense of trying to do that. I'll probably just go with Aaron's suggestion.
I watched the cleaveland tool video on using the c frame and here are a couple pics of a practice piece I did. The rivets are totally flush so I am assuming I dimpled them the right amount. The 2nd pic is the other side. I drove a few of them too much. It took a while to figure out how much to hit the gun for back rivetting. It's definitely a learned skill. How do you guys think they look?
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Dave, they look like they may be set a little bit to far. Not far at all and definitely airworthy though. In the tool set is a little black tool that is shaped like a rectangle and has four holes in it. The edges of this tool have little "half squares" cut out of them. This tool is for measuring set rivets. Put the hole corresponding to the 3/32 size rivet over those rivets and if it fits with just a bit of pressure the rivet is set wide enough. Then put the corner with the cutout corresponding to the 3/32 rivet on the rivet with the rectangular tool standing up tall. If the rectangle placed on the top of the rivet allows the bottom edge of the black rectangular tool to touch the metal the rivet is set to far. The rivet should be set with the right diameter and have enough height as to allow the tool not to touch the metal. After doing this a hundred times you will be able to eyeball what is right.
 
Dave,
I started my RV-9A adventure last year and I am up to starting the right wing. As for a heater, I have a buddy that purchased a small Infrared space heater from Home Depot for $140 bucks to paint. The Infrared heats objects not the air so if you place your parts on a stand or hang them and put the heater in front of them they will stay warm until cured for very little investment. Just my opinion of course but will keep progress moving. If you paint them in the cold and dry them in the house the solvents will still flash and the smell will get you in the dog house.
Good Luck and keep posting progress.
 
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