guidoism

guidoism

Member
So I finally got around to attaching the nutplates to the main spar today (well... one nutplate). After receiving the wing kit I had been putting off touching the main spar. I was doing rib de-burring instead. Cutting into the main spar was scaring me away.

So, today I read and I read and I read and I was confused. It turns out that the first step of the main spar prep is only two sentences long. Two sentences! If you go on to sentence #3 you will get confused. Jeeeeesus Christ.

Is Van's trying to save paper on the instructions? Wow, ok, I think I understand how the rest of this build is going to go.

I'm excited though. I'm jumping up and down in excitement that I'm progressing on this wing for real. The wing makes the empennage feel like it was a small lego kit.

Woohoo!
 
Congratulations

Congratulations Guido. Take your time and read ahead.
Wait til you see you brief they are with the fuse destructions.
 
Not that it makes hard-to-follow modern plans any better, but somebody should post a .pdf of the old instructions for the -3, -4, and -6.

I swear the instructions for my wings, tanks, ailerons, flaps, and tips took about 4 pages of verbiage. Plus 20 sheets of blueprints.

The FWF directions were (effectively) "Knock yourself out, Sparky."
 
Plans Istrructions

"The FWF directions were (effectively) "Knock yourself out, Sparky."

That's was funny right there, as Larry the Cale Guy would say !!!
 
For me on the fuse, I had to just stare and check off every item on the plans, the drawings, there is a lot of critical info in those drawings, more than what is written!
 
I remember thinking the same thing as I started working on the wings. You'll need to read ahead and understand where things are going in the build. You'll need to look at every scribble on the drawings. You'll need to use the old VAF search feature as you go, since just about everything you could be confused about has already been discussed here. I doubt if I would have ever started, let alone finished my airplane without all of the help here on the internet.
 
wirejock said:
Take your time and read ahead..
Click to expand...

Errrrrr, speaking of reading ahead I just noticed the sentence: "Spot prime all countersunk holes where the anodizing has been removed."

Ehem... on my newly countersunk and riveted nutplate I didn't do any spot priming. Was I supposed to before squeezing the rivet in place?
 
guidoism said:
Errrrrr, speaking of reading ahead I just noticed the sentence: "Spot prime all countersunk holes where the anodizing has been removed."

Ehem... on my newly countersunk and riveted nutplate I didn't do any spot priming. Was I supposed to before squeezing the rivet in place?
Click to expand...

You're fine. That statement mainly concerns the large countersinks for the screws.

What you could do at this point (depending on how fast you work) instead of spot-priming every hole is leave them bare for the moment. Wait until you have to countersink all of the rivet holes along the spar. Then, instead of hitting every hole individually, just mask off the upper part of the spar flange (so you don't get paint in the gap between the bent channel and the machined caps) and just spray the whole flange at once. As long as you make sure everything is properly cleaned first, the paint should overcoat the nutplate rivets.
 
wirejock said:
Congratulations Guido. Take your time and read ahead.
Wait til you see you brief they are with the fuse destructions.
Click to expand...

So far, I've found the fuselage instructions to be more detailed than the wings were. From what I'd read here, I'd really expected the training wheels to come off, but so far they've been very good about calling my attention to potential gotchas. I certainly didn't expect to see the "checklist" style from the empennage kit again.
 
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guidoism said:
So I finally got around to attaching the nutplates to the main spar today (well... one nutplate). After receiving the wing kit I had been putting off touching the main spar. I was doing rib de-burring instead. Cutting into the main spar was scaring me away.

So, today I read and I read and I read and I was confused. It turns out that the first step of the main spar prep is only two sentences long. Two sentences! If you go on to sentence #3 you will get confused. Jeeeeesus Christ.

Is Van's trying to save paper on the instructions? Wow, ok, I think I understand how the rest of this build is going to go.

I'm excited though. I'm jumping up and down in excitement that I'm progressing on this wing for real. The wing makes the empennage feel like it was a small lego kit.

Woohoo!
Click to expand...

There is much information on building techniques in the front of the manual, it is not repeated during following chapters. Perhaps a review of that stuff will help.

I read your log from December 6, you seemed pleased, what happened to precipitate this post? How can you screw up attaching a platenut to the spare sheer web, just do it and move on.

There have been at least 10,000 kits sold, built, and are flying, some by first time builders some by re-peat offenders. This is not all that complicated.

You are terrified of making a mistake - welcome to the club. No one is perfect.
 
rmartingt said:
You're fine. That statement mainly concerns the large countersinks for the screws.
Click to expand...

This is not correct.
The statement is for all the holes. The rivets along the length of the spar flanges are adjacent to a butted skin joint that is vulnerable to moisture intrusion. Most everywhere else on the airplane it is a dimple within a dimple (both with protective alclad surfaces). In this case, once the anodizing is removed there is no corrosion protection. I would not worry about the nutplate attach rivets at this point because the rivets seal tightly within the countersink, but I would not skip protecting the holes for the skin rivets or cover plate screws.

N546RV said:
So far, I've found the fuselage instructions to be more detailed than the wings were.
Click to expand...

For current RV-8 kits this is to be expected. When the RV-8 fuselage was re-engineered to the pre-punched -1 version about 10 years ago, the fuselage construction manual was extensively rewritten to match the new construction method allow by the pre-punched parts (no more jig, etc.)
 
If you don't go back and prime those places, all your babies will be born naked.
 
rvbuilder2002 said:
This is not correct.
The statement is for all the holes. The rivets along the length of the spar flanges are adjacent to a butted skin joint that is vulnerable to moisture intrusion. Most everywhere else on the airplane it is a dimple within a dimple (both with protective alclad surfaces). In this case, once the anodizing is removed there is no corrosion protection. I would not worry about the nutplate attach rivets at this point because the rivets seal tightly within the countersink, but I would not skip protecting the holes for the skin rivets or cover plate screws.
Click to expand...

I was referring specifically to the point in the plans where the builder is instructed to spot-prime the holes right after countersinking for the tank attach and access cover screws. As the instructions say, (1) drill and countersink the nutplate holes, (2) rivet on the nutplates, (3) countersink the screw holes, (4) spot prime. At that point the rivets are already in the nutplate holes and the skin holes have not been drilled or countersunk, so how could you spotprime either of them at that point?

When I stated the part about not priming the holes immediately, my intent was that one could wait until all the rest of the countersinking has been done, and then just prime it all at once (including the skin holes and screw holes) by spraying the entire flange, instead of slowly hitting every hole one at a time.
 
I'm in the same place

Guido,

I'm working on RV-8 wings as well. I have installed all nutplates, have deburred and primed the main ribs and this weekend built the wing stand.

Since we are at roughly the same place in the build, happy to be a resource if you have questions and I may ping you from time to time.

I'm treating all steps on the wing, and the airplane in general, with care referencing a combination of plans, the builder manual, the local EAA group, and VAF.

Cheers,
Bob
RV-8
 
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