RV-8A Jonbo

[jonbo]

Jonbo's RV-8/A

Hi Folks. I started this build a couple years ago after finishing the practice kits and toolbox.
Then I moved and put it on hold now I'm starting again.

Workspace

We put some nice lighting in and started getting tools setup.
We coated the floor to make it a nice space but sadly that crack in the center of the foundation reappeared and I just had to move forward.


Built the c-frame table but we didn't have anyway to rip the boards to get the right height so we had to improvise and add a plank under the c-frame. It seems to work!

 

[jonbo]

Horizontal Stab


Started making some progress on the HS. Got the bends in on the splice angles and muscled the skin into place.


Made a bad hole here and now I'm waiting for replacement parts. Whoops!

 

[jonbo]

Vertical Stabilizer

I put the HS on hold while waiting for some replacement parts and in the meantime I started up work on the vertical stabilizer. WOW this assembly is so much simpler. I'm gaining a bit more confidence and it feels good to have pieces coming together.


I've heard it's a waste of time but I couldn't help myself and I removed the blue from just the rivet holes on the skin with a soldering iron.

I'm justifiying it by saying "Hey, I like the way it looks and it's MY airplane so why not".


Match drilled and then some dimpling using a c-frame


Prekote then sem primer for the interior parts. I put some tape where the pieces were located so that as I cleaned them and lost the sharpie markings I could relable then. I also took a picture. Well, obviously


Primed and ready for assembly:



The rear spar came out pretty not bad


The skeleton was much tougher. I couldn't squeeze some of the parts with all this flange spar interferance so I had to use the rivet gun and ended up drilling a lot of rivets out.

Onto the skins next.

 

[inktomi]

I made the same mistake with the horizontal stabilizer drilling - it's tricky to get that correct, but it's not apparent until you've messed it up (a few times, in my case).

 

[jonbo]

I made the same mistake with the horizontal stabilizer drilling - it's tricky to get that correct, but it's not apparent until you've messed it up (a few times, in my case).

Yep! I posted about it when it happened and I was pretty upset. Then I saw that it's a common mistake and that helped me cope

 

[RossK]

Yes, the Vertical Stab is a much easier piece to build.
Why they start us with the Horizontal, I don't know?

 

[jonbo]

Vertical Stab done! It feels great to have an assembly finished. It's so much more fun driving rivets. Although it's really scary the first time doing it on a real skin. No major dents or disasters though. I think I ended up drilling about 10 rivets out total. Hopefully that number goes down as I progress but I took my time and it payed off.

Back to HS land.

 

[jonbo]

Yes, the Vertical Stab is a much easier piece to build.
Why they start us with the Horizontal, I don't know?

Maybe to frustrate us enough to quit before we spend the money on the whole kit...

 

[jonbo]

After getting the vertical stab done, I procrastinated a bit and built this table-under-table setup for my dimpler. It seems to make nice dimples and it feels solid, better than hitting the ram on a table with no support. I don't do woodworking and I'm pretty inexperinced so I was thrilled this sat level and fit for the most part.



Got the left Horizontal Stab back to where I had it before my last mistake that caused a reorder.
I built these little wood stands to hold it above the table so I wasn't grinding and bending the clecos. I learned this the hard way to not support skins on clecos (a bunch got bent and had to be thrown away).



More procrastinating and playing with a paint scheme. Maybe black/dark grey on top like a killer whale/ Airwolf. It might get hot though.


OK back to the HS!

 

[jonbo]

Back to work on the HS Stab but I'm short one doubler that is on backorder at vans (HS-00003-1). I had some alluminum so I went ahead and made my own using a botched piece as a guide. It went well considering this was my first piece made from scratch. (not entirely from scratch... I didn't mine the ore for the alluminum or anything.)


Note: I'm missing one 0 in the part number here but that's been corrected.

I also got a friendly visit from my local EAA chapter's technical advisior.
It's so great and inspiring to meet with someone experinced in aviation and chat for a bit about tools and techniques.
I showed him the progress on the VS and HS and we had a good talk about those assemblies and it looks like we're on the right track.
It's a great program and I'm glad to have those resources in my area.