Joshua's RV-9A Project

Etched and primed the stiffeners and skins of the tailcone, plus some touch-up on bulkheads where primer had been scratched during the fitting process.  Now ready to reassemble and rivet.

Continued drilling the center section where I’d left off, until I realized I made a big mistake.  Turns out the F-904H doublers are not symmetrical — there are 17 holes on one vertical row, and 18 on another.  The left one had been clamped on correctly, but the right one was reversed; guess which I drilled first.  Sigh.  The recovery won’t be as bad as it could be, though; Van’s sells replacement center section side pieces, so all I need to do is drill out the 40-some rivets holding those onto the main piece, and replace, then re-drill with the 904H plate oriented correctly.  The only awful rivets to drill out will be those -14′s that hold the reinforcing bar in place.  I’m going to order some -22′s to have on hand for those, and just cut them to length as necessary.

Continued to work on the center fuselage by fitting the 705 bulkhead and the baggage ribs, followed by the bottom skin.  This requires some trimming of ribs to allow for wiring grommets.  I forgot to back-drill the seat ribs where they bolt to the center section, so that will have to come later.  Match-drilled the bottom skin to all the pieces, then fit the outer seat ribs and drilled them to the skin, followed by the baggage side ribs, another piece that needs trimming, plus the fabrication of little plates that connect them to the structure fore and aft.  Finally, fit the forward piece of the center section and match-drilled it to the skin.  Clecoed on the side plates before getting called away for the night.

Also tonight, crossed the 600-hour mark on the project.  Looks like the goal of finishing the tailcone should be easily reached before January is over.

To do list: drill bolt holes, figure out countersinking/dimpling of center section holes.

Having nowhere to go on the tailcone until more primer arrives, I went ahead and started on the assembly/fabrication tasks in the center fuselage.  The first task is to fabricate a set of four spacers from 1/8″ bar stock…done.  Then, you modify four of the seat ribs to allow space for the control column…done.  The next item is to install nutplates; this will wait until after priming, so I went ahead and drilled out the necessary holes for snap bushings, and clecoed the seat ribs (after fluting) to the aft piece of the center section, along with the requisite trimming of the two center ribs to make room for snap bushings.  Looking good…

Dimpled the tailcone components; they are now ready for etch & prime, but I am essentially out of primer. Also drilled and dimpled the #8 screw hole that will eventually hold the sleeve for the rudder cable in place as it passes out of the tailcone.

Ordered more primer and etch solution from Stewart Systems, which will hopefully arrive later this week, along with a boxful of Scotchbrite pads and some other assorted items: 1″ deburring wheels and the like from Cleaveland Tool, just down the highway in Boone, IA.

Trying to decide whether to join in on the group buy for Andair boost pump/filter/mount assemblies, which could save 12% or so off regular price, though I won’t actually need those components until later…and the possibility of them having an Oshkosh pump/filter/valve deal again this summer as they did last summer?

Finished drilling the J-stringers, then match-drilled the rest of the holes in the tailcone. Flipped it upside down to drill the bottom, rather than crawl on the January-cold cement.   Then it was time to take it apart again, and let the deburring begin.  Ran through the bulkheads, stiffeners, and skins, leaving them ready for dimpling.