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Welcome to Mickey's RV8 Site
Mon, Sep 06 2010 @ 14:34 in Switzerland

Lower rudder tip - part 4

Sat, Jul 28 2007 @ 17:38 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 2,335

This is a continuation of this article: http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20050902213147833

Here are some detailed shots of the rudder bottom attach strips.

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Lower Rudder Tip 3

Sat, Sep 03 2005 @ 05:31 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 4,242

This article is continued from here:

http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20050902211803283

Here are more pictures of the lower rudder tip.

This article continues here: http://www.rv8.ch/article.php/200707281738417

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Lower Rudder Tip 2

Sat, Sep 03 2005 @ 05:18 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 2,961

Back on the bottom rudder tip or bottom rudder fairing. This article is continued from here:

http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20040924234018444

Rather than showing all the pain, I'm just going to show you the baby. Here is an assortment of pictures of the bottom rudder tip, so that you can see what I did. The reason I've taken so many pictures is that I found this to be kind of tricky, and I've never seen another builder clearly document how this tip looks. Also, I've never really taken the time to look at this thing on other builder's airplanes, unfortunately.

This article is continued here:

http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20050902213147833

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Elevator ding

Thu, Sep 01 2005 @ 22:24 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 1,429

Ouch. I'm not happy. My left elevator just fell off a workbench and landed on a can of kerosene, dinging the leading edge.

I'm going to see if I can find a metal expert here in Switzerland to fix it for me. I've drilled out the rivets and tried to push the ding out, but it's not really coming out too easily. I have a feeling that someone with the right tools could do this in about 10 minutes or less. I hope I can find someone.

Update:

Emmett suggested I make a type of wheel to try to roll out the dent. Here's what I did.

First a couple of pictures after trying to move the dent out with the handle of a pair of pliers:

Here is the tool I made. I used a spare wheel from an Avery edge bending tool, a bit of angle, and some flat sheet.

Here's what it looks like with some serious rolling. A lot of sweat went into that, and it's still not perfect. I did a test fit on the aircraft, and the ding is not noticable from the top at all, only from the bottom. If I see someone looking under there, I'll try to find a way to distract them. (Perhaps I'll use K.H.'s trick and "accidentally" step on their hand!)

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Elevator balance

Thu, Aug 18 2005 @ 21:16 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 1,217

> I asked Van's about balancing the elevators, and they
> recommended just putting the counterweights on, and not
> worrying about balancing it. A bit to heavy is apparently
> not a problem.
>

Ideally, the elevators would be perfectly balanced. If the
counterweights are too heavy, the elevator will tend to move towards
the nose up position. The amount of nose up force created by the too
heavy counterweight will vary linearly with the amount of g you
pull. In other words, having the nose heavy will reduce the amount
of stick force required to pull g. RVs already have quite light
stick forces at aft CG. I would not want to further reduce the stick
force per g.

Kevin Horton

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Elevator Trim Tab bracket

Fri, Feb 18 2005 @ 05:36 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 1,366

The standard Van's elevator trim tab bracket does not allow the trim system to go full out without rubbing on the elevator skin. So, instead of cutting more on the elevator skin, I changed the bracket. Here are a couple of photos that show the new bracket up next to the old. Now I get a nice 20 degree up and down trim actuation. Seems very good.

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Tiny elevator horn cracks

Sun, Dec 19 2004 @ 03:46 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 1,205

Dominik told me he had cracks on his elevator horns, and suggested I check mine. Sure enough, I had cracks too. I took the elevators to an aviation welding shop, and he said he could fix them, but it would be best to just file off the cracked part. I called Van's, and they said the same thing, so that's what I did.

Here are the before and after pictures. I had to file out about 1/8 of an inch. I don't have a before picture of the left elevator.

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Tail light installed on rudder fairing

Sat, Oct 30 2004 @ 06:50 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 1,347

I bought the Whelen A500 combination tail light and strobe from Van's, and I just got around to installing it on the rudder fairing today. I've read horror stories about how hard it is to get it on there, and they are basically true.

I first tried to epoxy some little nuts in there, since the screws that come with the light are too small for -6 nutplates. That didn't work, since the screws were so small, the epoxy didn't have much to grip onto.

Next, I thought fabricating a spacer or shim that I could use to rivet a nutplate to and then rivet this shim to the back of the fairing would work. I did all the work, and then realized that once I've decide to use nutplates, I can probably just put them directly into the fairing. That's what I ended up doing, using a MK2000-06 nutplate, and drilling out the holes in the taillight so that a #6 screw would pass. Seems to have worked ok.

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Elevator and HS tips

Sat, Sep 25 2004 @ 06:20 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 1,313

Started working on the elevator and horizontal stabilizer tips. They are plastic, and I had originally planned to do all my plastic at once, at the end, but since the fiberglass work needs some warmth, I decided to do it now before winter gets here. Of course, compared to most places, it seems like winter is already here. My shop is down to 15c, and the outside temperature today was all the way up to 12c. Nippy!

I just received a bunch of stuff from ACS to do my fiberglass work. I had no idea what to purchase, but I found a couple of good articles referred to at Dan's excellent http://www.rvproject.com/ site, and he had lists of stuff to buy. I just bought it all.

Of course, the hardener for the epoxy is a "hazmat", so I had to buy that locally, for triple the normal price. On top of that, the West System pumps I bought don't work on the "European" West System hardener. It's clearly stuff made in Germany, not the stuff they make in the US. I guess it is some kind of nasty chemical.

HS tip initial fit, looks like it will need a bit of trimming.

Notice the inch or two that I had to trim on the HS. This kind of had me worried for a minute, since the part I trimmed exactly matched the additional length of the HS tip. Then I remembered that Van's changed the way the weights are put on the elevators, allowing them to reduce the total weight by increasing the length. Phew, thought I had goofed.

First thing I did was to mark the holes, drill them through the aluminium, and then come back and drill through the tips. Worked fine. Here's a picture right as I began to drill through the tips. Everyone says that you should use "throwaway" bits on the fiberglass, since it seems to quickly dull bits. I used some *very* cheap metric bits I had laying around that came free with some other cheap Chinese screwdriver bits.

Here's one of the "prove you built the thing" shots.

All finished drilling. Next I need to glue some 0.020 inch thick strips inside the tips so the pop rivets will hold better. Then I'll drill out to a size 30 bit, countersink, and rivet these things on. Then the fun of trying to make them look decent begins. That will require the fiberglass stuff I bought at Aircraft Spruce.

Update: 26 September 2004 18:00

Here I've glued some 0.020 inch strengtheners on the top rudder tip using a type of epoxy that dries *too* fast. These will help make sure the CS4-4 pop rivets don't pull through the fiberglass.

Here are the rest of the strips ready to be installed on the HS and the elevators. Got called back for dinner, so I didn't get to finish them. I'll try JB Weld since it seems to dry a bit slower than the other stuff. It was hard in 5 minutes!

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Lower Rudder tip 1

Mon, Sep 20 2004 @ 07:40 in Switzerland
Contributed by: Mick
Views: 2,936

The trickiest tip on the empennage is the rudder bottom. The reason it is so difficult is that the horns that stick out for the rudder cables interfere with the fiberglass tip. I made a couple of cutouts on there to get it to fit.

Here I am trying to figure out which way is up.

Marking out where I will cut it based on measurements.

Cut it with the wife's dremel tool. That thing cuts like a momo fofo. The bottom is good, but in order to get the thing on, I had to cut more from the side.

This will need some trimming, I'm sure. I've seen others cut this down all the way flush with the rudder horns. I'll try to leave as much as possible on there.

I went too far on the bottom as you can see here, but the side is very nice. Can't have it all, and get the thing on the rudder. I'll try to fill it in with some fiberglass, once I get the holes for the lights done.

This article is continued here:

http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20050902211803283

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