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#kitplane

1 post1 participant0 posts today
Public
Aut

Mark Schaible, the Owner and President of Sonex, gave my EAA chapter a tour of their facilities and explained how they got to where they are making kitplanes and where they are going in the future. I'm a big fan of the little jet they have and if I had piles of money I'd definitely build one.

The Sub-Sonex jet (missing its engine). It is a grey colored single seat jet plane. There is nose art making it look similar to a shark and I want one.
Mark Schaible speaking to a group of people while standing next to a yellow Sub Sonex jet.
People wandering around a build shop where a high wing sonex aircraft is being constructed.
Sonex aircraft with folding wings. It is yellow with the word "EXPERIMENTAL" on the side.
#sonex#kitplane#experimentalAviation
Public
Aut

Our Tuesday build night made good progress on the Zenith kit. I worked on making the leading edge slat brackets while others worked on getting ribs attached to the wings. It's nice working with clear instructions.

Nose rib for an aircraft that has a trapezoidal shaped bracket coming off the front.
Wing spar of aircraft sitting on sawhorses with ribs attached. The ribs are sticking up and down vertically making the whole thing shaped kind of like fish bones
#eaa#zenith#kitplane
Public
Aut

Tuesday build at the EAA hangar. We started by making some slat support backets for the nose ribs while another team identified the ribs for the wing. An encouraging start to our build as we have nice instructions, a nice kit, and nice videos to help us.

Several members in a hangar at a very large work bench, each working on sorting and categorizing some aircraft parts.
thin aluminum angle that has been marked out with various points and had relief holes drilled on the bend. These will become nose rib reinforce brackets for the slats.
Some people figuring out the placement of ribs on a wing spar using a tape measure. The placements are given in millimeter offsets from the end of the spar (so-called stations)
Two people carrying a wing spar with ribs clecoed in place where they will live. The wings have been marked with marker for their position.
#eaa#experimentalAviation#avgeek
Public
Aut

EAA Build Night at the Chapter. While some of us focused on creating an inventory of parts for the Murphy Rebel we are looking to sell the rest of us focused on cleaning the Zenith CH-750 kit from its 10 years of grime and dust. We were careful not to intermingle the parts and moved things around to store them while we processed things. The weather here is being generous and it is getting warmer.

A man standing on a chair and placing aircraft control surfaces on shelves while another walks by in the distance taking inventory of parts. On the workbench is various parts being cleaned and processed.
Two people cleaning the cabin of a Zenith CH-750 which had considerable grime in it. After they were done it looked nearly new!
Two people standing in front of a nearly empty workbench where part processing and cleaning was happening while another person is standing on a table and stacking parts on shelves.
A workbench consumed by Murphy Rebel parts as inventory stacked them off. A real "some assembly required" view of an airplane.
#eaa#kitplane#aviation
Public
Aut

Sorry everyone (maybe 1 of you) that was waiting for my Tuesday build night post. Here it is, still working on the tail and riveting the skins on the tail cone. Now we're on to the curved side parts and the directions are pretty vague about the fitment.

A man is inspecting and deburring holes drilled in bulkheads that make up the tailcone of an aircraft.
Close up of aircraft skin with rivets being put into the skin and holding it to the airframe. Some temporary rivets are visible in the line of rivets being actively set.
Close up shot of curved corner skin on aircraft tail. It is held on with a lot of clamps and hopefully the placement is semi-accurate. The directions leave a lot to be desired.
#EAA#kitplane#homebuilt
Public
Aut

Yesterday was Tuesday which means more work building the tail of a Murphy Rebel with my EAA Chapter. Deburring and riveting of the skins. Check out alt-text for description of what is being shown.

Showing the metal burrs on the inside of the bulkheads (left vertical row of holes) that result from match drilling the holes in the skins to the bulkheads which didn't have holes. The drill bit raises these burrs and in order to make sure the rivets sit well the burrs have to be removed before riveting.
A chapter member holding a tail side skin up for inspecting while cleaning and deburring the skin. It is a large triangle and much taller than a person.
The tail of the airplane with one skin removed showing the internal structure of the bulkheads.. The other skins are being held on with Clecos, which are a spring loaded temporary rivet.
A skin after it has been riveted to the bulkheads. It has that characteristic look of an airplane where there are nice rows of evenly spaces rivets along the surface.
#eaa#avgeek#aviation
Public
Aut

Tuesday night, that means building with the EAA chapter! Got to actually start riveting together the tail bulkheads after match drilling them together for weeks (having only two hour work sessions slows things down). But we got the corners smoothed, holes deburred, and the first bulkhead riveted together and ready to go.

Metal part with sharp edges sitting in front of a running belt sander. The sharp corner is about to get rounded off for safety.
Metal bulkhead piece sitting in front of belt sander. The sharp edge from the previous image has been rounded off to a benign curve.
Four bulkhead sections riveted together using pull rivets. The overlapping sections have a 3x3 grid of rivets but they aren't regularly spaced due to oddly placed tooling holes that the instructions don't tell you about. This is the smallest of the bulkheads and they will increase in size as they get put together for the tail
Reverse side of the riveted bulkhead showing the tail of the rivets. Pull rivets pull a mandrel and squish the tail until the mandrel breaks. In front of the rivets a tooling hole can be seen that caused some creative decision making when putting the holes into the metal to join it. This part started with no rivet holes at all, now it has 9 in a grid on this web.
#eaa#homebuilt#experimentalAviation
Public
Aut

Tonight I worked with some other members of my EAA chapter on our educational build of a Murphy Rebel. My subteam was working on the tail cone assembly and as such we had to trim bulkheads and drill them for riveting into the support structure. Not too complex of work for a Tuesday night and a great experience all around in teamwork.

Two people standing at opposite ends of a tall triangular aircraft skin that is laying flat on plywood.
Two metal bulkhead pieces being held on a drill press and having holes drilled into them for attaching together with rivets.
Bulkhead part sitting on a bandsaw with a line drawn on one edge that needs to be cut for fitment.
Multiple bulkhead parts being test fit to an aircraft skin that is attached to plywood. Two people are working together to figure out the orientation of the parts.
#eaa#homebuilt#kitplane
Public
Aut

Airplane Build: Started some riveting on the elevator tip rib. Decided to get the tip ribs scuffed, cleaned, and then riveted together. My yoke didn't fit over both flanges so I had to use the rivet gun on the web of the ribs. I realized that I primed the outside of the skin, which I haven't been doing because I was going to do that when I paint the plane. oops; guess it'll be primed for now. The skin was very tight and was slow to rivet

Airplane elevator tip rib and skin sitting on cardboard covered work table (made with two steel saw horses and plywood sheet). The ribs have been sprayed with their first coat and are aluminum with a tinge of green. There is a canister of acetone on the table, nitrile gloves, an open spray paint cat, and a rag. Silhouettes of things sprayed before can be seen on the cardboard due to overspray. The work table is sitting on the edge of a driveway and the yard is visible behind it. A pear tree is dropping pears into the yard so there is a smattering of fruits sitting in the grass.
Elevator tip rib assembly with rivets in most of the web. The leading edge rivets are flush and the rest are universal head rivets. In the middle of the rib is a tungsten bucking bar that was being used as well as a rivet gauge to make sure the rivets are set correctly. On the right of the assembly is a rivet gun that was being used to set the rivets in the web.
Elevator tip assembly with clecos holding the skin to the ribs. The instructions call for starting at the front end and slowly working your way back while switching sides. The fit is very snug.
A finished (for now) tip rib assembly and skin. The flanges are flush riveted (hand squeezed).
#homebuilt#kitplane#rv10
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Aut

Airplane build update: I had ~30 minutes to do a little airplane work and a special tool had just arrived. The end of the elevator outer rib is super tight (and I've read elsewhere that Van's used to dimple this for you) but mine was not. So I ordered pliers with a dimple die welded to it allowing access to that area and dimple it. No idea how I'm going to buck that rivet. I thought I had time to debur and dimple a skin.... nope

(Continued...)

Pliers with a dimple die welded to the teeth.
Pliers with welded on dimple die being used to dimple an aircraft rib flange
Top skin of an elevator on the RV-10 airplane. It is undimpled and sitting across a two workbenches. Inbetween the workbenches is a custom jig with a c-frame dimpler clamped to it. A rubber mallet rests next to the c-frame dimpler.
A top skin for an RV-10 elevator that is about 2/3rd dimpled. I ran out of time to finish it. It is sitting in the c-frame dimpler and ready to continue later.
#kitplane#rv10#homebuilt
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Aut

I had to travel to Austin TX last week for work and this week is Air Venture (which I live close by) but to keep progress going on my build I continued dimpling the counterweight ribs for the elevator, the skins for those (not pictured), and I got to use my trailing edge jig to cut countersink into the edge wedge to accept the skin dimples. One nice thing about countersink cuts is you don't have to debur the holes first :blobfoxangrylaugh:

Hand squeezer with dimple die putting dimples in the flange of an outer counterweight rib that will sit on the outboard on the plane's elevator.
Trailing edge wedge sitting next to a jig made to hold the wedge flat (making it easier to cut the countersinks).
A caged countersink cutter being held above the trailing edge wedge sitting in the jig. Ready to start cutting.
Wedge with a few countersunk cuts made, looking down the wedge there are uncut holes coming up. The countersink adds a nice 110 degree chamfer to the holes so the rivets will sit flush.
#kitPlane#rv10#experimentalAviation
Public
Aut

In the past week of airplane building I got the skins all match drilled to the skeleton and everything was happy. Then I also screwed up drilling the trim plates (both of them). Ordering more.

Anyway, I started the week by drilling the sheer clips to match the trim close-out tabs on the skins. I had to use a long bit to get a good angle that close to the spar.

Then I upsized the elevator horns and got the skins drilled.

(continued...)

Cleco pliers, a pneumatic drill with a long #30 bit, and a chuck key sitting on a workbench next to a plane elevator.
Three bronze colored clecos holding the trim closeout tab to the sheer clip on the back of the elevator.
Elevator control horn with upsized #30 holes being held to the spare with bronze colored clecos.
Two full elevators (minus trim tabs). sitting on two workbenches. Used nearly ever cleco I have. The skins still have the blue vinyl covering to protect them from scuffs.
#homebuilt#kitplane#rv10
Public
Aut

Got a few hours to mess around in the workshop. Started by cleaning up and then placing the trim inspection plate doublers and match drilling to the skins. After that there were these cute little parts called "gussets" in the instructions that I also cleaned up and installed on the rear spar. Those holes got upsized to 1/8" from the 3/32" they come as originally.

Continued...

Two mirror image reinforcement plates. One is set in its pocket and secured down with temporary rivets while the other is sitting on the workbench and has not been smoothed or cleaned yet.
Flipped the elevators over to show how the inspection plate doubler sits on the skin and a bunch of clecos are sticking out from the skin (little cylinders) to hold the skin to the skeleton. The skin still has blue film on it to protect it from scratches.
Small aluminum part being held in my hand. The part it bent about 110 degrees and has four small holes in it.
The small bracket from the last picture is nestled in a corner where the inner rib of the elevator meets the rear spar.
#experimentalAviation#kitplane#rv10
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Aut

"This is getting out of hand! Now, there are two of them!" - Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace

I got my other elevator cleaned up and temporarily put together, then drilled all the ribs on both at the same time. Next up, the trim inspection reinforcement plates!

Two airplane elevators sitting on two workbenches that are side by side. The top skins are not present so the internal structure is visible (all the aluminum ribs). On the wall in the background is various tools for building an airplane organized onto a pegboard. The left side of the image contains shelving full of aluminum parts to be used.
Top down picture of two airplane elevators sitting on two workbenches that are side by side. The top skins are not present so the internal structure is visible (all the aluminum ribs).
Close up view of the front elevator spars showing the two holes for trim cables to go through. These are the holes I had to buy a step bit for to drill up to size as they started out life as small 3/32" holes and not the 5/8" holes they eventually want to be. Since the spars come identical from the factory the holes have to be placed differently on each one which dedicated them as left or right.
Two mirror image trim reinforcement plates sitting on an instruction book detailing what to do with them. The plates will have various nut plates so that the inspection panels can be removed for... well... inspection.
#rv10#kitplane#experimentalAviation
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Aut

I love how internal structures of aircraft look. My right elevator is coming along slowly. I'm at that step where I have to drill all the holes to make sure they match up nice. (Then do it all again on the left elevator).

Not pictured: More deburring of metal, having to order a step-bit to make a 5/8" hole. drilling a 5/8" hole, bending a tab on all four skins.

Main assembly of a right elevator on an RV10 aircraft without the top skin or trim tab. The structure is held together with temporary rivets (small cylinder looking things). Exposed are the internal ribs, all nine of them, looking like a row of triangles.
#avgeek#generalAviation#kitplane
Public
Aut

After a trying day at work trying to stop me, I actually did some work on my plane. Nothing super complex but work that has to be done.

I'm working on the elevators (control your pitch) and I have my replacement punched spars so the laser cut parts. They look similar (good)

Once I confirmed I had the parts I peeled the coating off and set to work cleaning up the spars for the rough form they are in.

continued...

Instructions page detailing the how the spars sit in the elevator skins and the spar reinforcing plates to add. It is a nice technical drawing in black and white and easy to tell what parts are what.
Four aluminum spars sitting together. Two are coated in a blue film (punched replacement parts) and two are bare aluminum (laser cut parts that are now scrap). They look identical if not inspected close for roughness.
Two spars wrapped in blue coating sitting next to two plates to reinforce them at the hinges. The plates have the same hole pattern as the area on the spar they are to be placed on.
Blue film being pulled off aluminum spar. Some people really enjoy peeling film off of things.
#avgeek#generalAviation#kitplane
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