Van´s Aircraft Archive

Section 06 Vertical Stabilizer (finished)

2017-01
Page 6-2 to 6-5 Rear Spar

Preparing the rear spar, deburring, straightening, final drill and match drilled some parts. Parallel to the deburring I took the training projekt (Vans Tool Box and the flap training kit). My friends Frank Goehner and Ernst-Otto Rehm are very helpful giving me hands to help at some difficult to reach places and by having fun with the build process. I´m glad to have them as friends – not only for some help :o)

Deburred all the skeleton parts of the vertical stabilizer, straightened the VS-1008 rear spar doubler, clecoed all parts together and final drilled all #30 holes. Peeled of the blue tape from the skins inside and on the outside only there, where to work on the prepunched holes with a straight edge and a soldering iron. Clecoed the skin to the skeleton and final drilled all the holes common to the skin, exept the holes for the HS and VS fairings.
HS = Horizontal stabilizer, VS = Vertical stabilizer

19.01 – 24.01.2017 = 14,5h

Parts priming, Assembling the VS skeleton

Cleaned all VS Parts, assembled and riveted them together. I checked every manufatured rivet head for correct size with the rivet head control tool. To be able to run some wires through the vertical stabilizer for later use (i.e. Nav Antenna or similar), I glued a PVC-Pipe inside the VS Skin with a PU glue from Würth „Klebt+Dichtet“.

VS-Parts primed and ready for assembly — Primed with SEEVENAX Primer

VS-1017Spar Doubler — VS rear spar doubler

Vertical Stabilizer Rivet Size Check — VS rear spar doubler

18.02.2017 – 22.02.2017 = 12h

2017-02
Riveting the Vertical Stabilizer Skin to the skeleton with the Pneumatic Squeezer.

Before closing the VS Skin my building mentor Christian Tank came along and checked everything to be properly riveted and assembled and said: „Du baust sehr genau“ (You´re building very accurate)….what made me a little bit proud of myself 🙂
You also may want to see the Video down on the bottom of this page…

My building mentor: Christian Tank

Christian Tank is the CEO in the company, he took over from his father Wilhelm Tank. His company:
Wilhelm Tank GmbH & Co Mariensiel KG
Flugplatz 1
26452 Sande

VIDEO: How Frank and me do the riveting process together on the vertical stabilizer

Begin the riveting process my friend Frank Goehner was very helpful and we managed the riveting process really good together.

Clecos: Wer hat´s erfunden? Die Deutschen :o)
Der Nietprozess kann starten
All clecoes in place!
VS-Flush Rivets
VS-Top Rib
VS-Skin rivets checked = OK
VS-Spar Caps Rivets
Letzte Möglichkeit alle Nieten zu prüfen
Inside view VS vertical stabilizer
Rivet line checked = OK
Inside view to top rib VS vertical stabilizer
Frank with pneumatic squeezer
Middle rows of rivets ready!
Skin riveted
Rear VS spar riveted
Many rivets set, more to come…
Letzte Kontrolle vor dem Schließen des Seitenleitwerks
Letzte Kontrolle vor dem Schließen des Seitenleitwerks
Letzte Kontrolle vor dem Schließen des Seitenleitwerks
Christian Tank = Bauprüfer hat das Seitenleitwerk abgenommen. Jetzt kann ich es fertig nieten

Vertical Stabilizer ready assembled = happy builder Peter Aringer

Vertical Stabilizer start: 19.01.2017
Finished: 01.04.2017
Hours total: 26,5

Frank Goehner & Peter Aringer riveting the Vertical Stabilizer Skins

Section 07 Rudder (finished)

In this section you will see my self made (DIY) dimple frame DRDT-2 in his final version which I finally will use the whole building process. I am proud, that my version is functioning so far. Looking forward to use it for many times which will safe me a lot of hours!

Nach unten navigieren

Page 7-2 to 7-6
Preparing all the Rudder parts

Before putting them together, you have to prepare all the parts to fit together, so all edges has to be deburred, some parts have to be cut to almost smaler parts like the R-1010 Rudder ribs.
This is taking a lot of time and sometimes a boring thing to do, but it is an essential work, because with this it is possible to ensure a long lasting airframe over many years of flying.

Page 7-7 to 7-12 Riveting the Vertical Stabilizer, Rolling the leading edge, trailing edge finish

Now the exiting process of assembling all the prepared parts of the vertical stabilizer begins.
When I clean the parts for priming, it is essential to mark the preped parts in the exact same way they were marked before!!
At the top vs-rib I had a slight missalignment an had to fix this with drilling some new holes in the R-1008A and R-1008B top ribs.
The whole process of riveting all the VS parts together turned out to be very exiting. The most exiting thing here was to bend the leading edge in a correct manner to not screw this up an make some niks in the skins while bending them.

Rudder metal work is finished. Some work to do on the upper and lower fairings on the rudder. Will return later on. 13.05.2017

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Rudder start: 02.February 2017
Finished: 13.Mai 2017
Hours: 25

Section 08 Horizontal Stabilizer (finished)

Section 8 Start: 15.02.2017, Section End: 05.06.2017

Began with the Horizontal Stabilizer (HS). Prepared some Stock (edge deburring, flange straightening) and created two sets of cradles for holding the both HS halfes alligned.

Page 8-1 to Page 8-5
Started again with prepairing the edges, lightning holes and the powder coated HS-912 hinge bracket. Fabricated the HS-1008L+R left and right front spar attachment brackets, which are very critical regarding the hole spacing. As I had a dent in the VS skin I now agressivly rounded out the nose ribs and had no dents to the outside of the skin this time.
Like in the plans I created the jigs for the horizontal stab skin to hold them upright positioned.

Nach dem Entgraten aller Teile des Höhenleitwerks folgt das Bohren der Löcher auf Maß. Jedes Bauteil erhält dadurch seine zugeordnete Position. Anschließend wird nach dem setzen der Bohrungen jedes Bauteil hierfür nummeriert! Dann wird die Baugruppe zerlegt um alle Bohrungen von beiden Seiten zu entgraten.

Some photos of the horizontal stabilizer preparation and riveting process

Nice rivets
Important deburring
Rivet squeezer
Mathis ist helping me out on the riveting process
All nose ribs are radiused
With the small bucking bar inside the front spar
Attachment brackets allignment
Spar caps befor drilling
Critical point: Attachment brackets
Attachment brackets cutting and drilling
Rear spar on the workbench
Jigs buidt for the horizontal stabilizer
Plan instruction
Beginning the horizontal stabilizer
HS rear spar marked with tape

Seiten: 12

Section 09 Elevator RV-10

17.07. – 28.07.2017 9h

Prepared the RV-10 parts for the elevator. Deburred all edges and holes. Clecoed all the sceleton parts together. Working on both right and left elevators. Frank is cutting the foam ribs for the trim rudder.