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BRENDAN'S WEB SITE
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Date: 2-1-2015
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Number of Hours: 10.00
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Manual Reference: 6-01 to 6-03
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Brief Description: Vertical stab hinge assemblies and rear spar
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It's challenging to build an airplane when you don't really know anything. It's easier when you have a dedicated, (somewhat) knowlegeable and helpful building partner.
My main building partner is my brother Kevin, but I also have two very helpful and willing assistants in my daughter Gianna and Kevin's ex-girlfriend's son, Tim.
The real building process starts with assembling hinges that will connect the vertical stabilizer (the big fin on the back of almost every airplane) with the rudder (the thing that turns to help the airplane turn). That's Page 6-02.
Looking at the first picture, you see that each hinge assembly consists of three pieces of metal sandwiched together, with a bearing in the middle. The big center holes (top of the triangles) contain the bearings, and those bearings are supposed to fit precisely into the holes. For us, they did not. After checking with the brilliant people at Vans Air Force, we decided NOT to make the holes bigger or (God forbid) the bearings smaller. Rather, Kevin placed them in the freezer for a while - compressing them just a hair, so they could be tapped in with a mallet. Like just about everything else on the RV-12, if these break, you die, so best to be careful.
The second picture shows Gianna Clecoing the rear spar.
These hinges attach to the back of the vertical stabilizer's rear spar, which needs some building of it's own (Page 6-03). Five parts are assembled to make the rear spar. They are the rear spar itself, two Lower Spar Caps and two Upper Spar Caps. The parts have to be separated, deburred, match drilled, and Clecoed to test fit. I will provide some definitions in the next entry.
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