Long run for the short (and wet) slide

Over 1 1/2 inches of rain have left 66NC a virtual swamp.  Good thing we went bear spotting last night.

Too cold to work on the RV in the big hangar so back onto the AirCam.  Area of focus was detail work on the intercom doubler/cover plate.  This is where the receptacles will go for the headsets.  There are two on the right side.  Again, this is an part that the plans show rivnuts that I have decided to use anchor nuts.  Here the cover plate is ready to backdrill through the skin and doubler.

The skin and doubler have been dimpled for flush rivets

Now I have to drill the hole for the 4 anchor nuts plus the small holes on either side for the rivets that hold the anchor nuts

Finally, these holes have to be countersunk for the flush rivets.  You can countersink 0.032 metal for a #40 hole.  Thinner metal requires dimpling.

Hmmm, thought I had the side that was countersunk.  Oh well, here is Bleriot posing with the nutplates I used for templates.

A lot of work just to avoid having the cover plate stand proud of the skin by 0.060 inch!

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Still buttoning up the RV from the inspection but it was a beautiful evening so Don and I went up to have a look.  We saw 9 bears total.  A record for a first day.  Here are 4 having a picnic.

You may have to blow the picture up to get a better look.

This reminds me of my favorite Rosemary Clooney song.  Here are the first to verses.

If you go down to the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Here's too a happy bear season.

Clipwing Log: More cowling

Clipwing Log: More cowling: "Only made a little progress today, were having a little spring cold snap here and for some reason I just don't get out to the shop unt..."

RV Time

Well it's time to do the conditional inspection on the RV so not much going on with the "Cam.

Here are a few photos of the RV stripped down.

We actually did al of the engine on Saturday.  Just need to put the top cowling on but I am going to bleed the brakes first.

Of course you have to drop her pants too.

The worst is to get inside to get the interior panels off.  Not a lot of room in there.

And the empennage fairing.

Should rap it up this weekend and just in time to see some bears and get back on the Aircam full time.  Don't forget it's mowing season too!

Good to go.

Had my bi-ennial medical today.  The FAA has determined I am medically qualified to aviate for another two years.

Just a few details tonight, all on the right hand fuselage lower longeron.  There were a few details that had to be drilled and until the disassembly there was no access.  First was the bumper doubler.

The dark piece is the one for the left hand side, I just laid it out for show.  This piece is inside the longeron and has been backdrilled as necessary.

Next is the rudder pedal doubler that goes on the side at the front of this piece.  I used a step drill for this 3/8 inch hole.

The passenger gets the same thing.  I put the step drill bit in this photo in case you don't know what they are.

The brass colored Christmas tree bit is a step drill.  They work very smoothly on large holes in thin sheet.  They act more as a boring tool than a twist drill.  There is no pulling at the sheet and it results in a very round hole.  Unfortunately they are not made for number sizes, just fractional.  Maybe I should start making some for other home builders.  Bleriot is in the background on this photo.

Chris' Big Day

Just been doing a few details on the "cam.  A lot of the weekend was spent working with Chris Lucas getting his RV-10 fuselage to the paint shop.

First, Bleriot welcomes the return of BC at her friend Jerry's Blog.  It had been a month since we last saw BC.

Next, we finally finished all drilling on the main landing gear frame.  Found one skin hole that needed to be sized to #30.  So we put the skin on the frame and promptly oversized it to a #29 by mistake.

Now on to Chris'.  Saturday we modified Monte's trailer and did a dry run.  Getting started:

Had to stiffen the corner.  The wheelbase of the plane is wider than the trailer.

Now the ramps.  Myron was there to help too.

Finally Chris brought out the 10 and we rolled it up.

Sunday we were ready to roll.

Get your motor runnin'

And finally arrival at the Riviera Body shop.  The 10 will be sooo Continental!

Had a few visitors on Sunday too.  Monte decided to fly the Chub some more and Johnny Jackson dropped in with his super Cub

Cliff Evans came by in his Sonex (sorry, no picture) and managed to leave with all his skin in tact.

Plan for the week is to finish a few details before the re-org.  Stay tuned!

Winding It Down

Got the front end all apart.  There is (of course) some finish drilling to do.  Mainly the landing gear frame.  I drilled the #40s on one side before my arm gave out.  Here are a few pics.  This is the bottom skin and longerons with the frames and skins off.

Here is the frame.

There are about 80 holes per side, a lot that go through the very stout landing ear machined frames.  The elliptical hole on the bottom is where the landing gear leg goes. The double clevis ears beside are for the lift struts.

There are still a few things that need drilling to size but were not done while the front section was assembled.  Should finish them this week.  The primer will be here so it will be time for a clean up of the shop and figuring out how to clean and alodine for paint without killing Bleriot.  Some of the chemicals are hazardous.

The Wobbly Drill Bit

One of the problems I mentioned last time was the issue of the small diameter drill bits being wobbly.  At first I thought I had a bent drill bit.  New bits seemed to help but not always.  Then I decided the chuck on my friend Chris' drill had to be bad.  Answer for that was of course to buy myself a new drill.  Still no help.  The #40 bits shook the drill in my hand most of the time.  A #40 is 0.098 diameter, so it is quite small.  I ordered a new $70 German chuck and still had an issue.  Finally it came to me that it was the drill stop that caused the problem.  Here is what it looks like.

The stop attaches to the drill bit with a set screw.  The problem was the spring is quite stiff and can get bent and the hole at the bullet shaped end is the same diameter as the drill bit.  It is strong enough to deflect the bit off center.  I drilled a number 30 hole in that end and that took the fight out of it yet still works as a drill stop.  So after spending about $320 for new drill and chuck all it took was a free hole to fix the problem.

So then I continued on.  Not much left of the aft section now.

Should not be a problem finishing it this weekend.