Wednesday, December 11, 2013

DOG Aviation Receives RV-12 Finishing Kit

It was a cold blustery morning at DOG Aviation when the Roadrunner freight truck delivered the RV-12’s finishing kit. When the truck arrived, temperatures were around 18 degrees and the wind was blowing briskly, creating a bone chilling cold with snow flurries added in for dramatic effect.
Placing furniture moving dollies under the RV-12’s finishing kit crate for the trek from the street to the DOG Aviation receiving bay.
The job is never done until the paperwork is completed … now the finishing kit officially belongs to DOG Aviation.

Before the RV-12’s finishing kit crate could be rolled into the shop, a little rearranging of the shop was necessary to make room for the crate. Having no room to spare, for the time being, the not yet empty fuselage crate needed to be placed on top of the finishing kit.

Hindsight being 20/20, the finishing kit delivery should have been made to the hangar at the airport. The finishing kit weighs just shy of 300 lbs and is a rather large crate at over 6’1" long, 4’1" wide and 29" high. Unfortunately, the crate will not fit in the back of the DOG Aviation support vehicle … so it will be necessary to obtain a trailer and manpower to transport the crate to the airport for inventory. Van’s requires the builder to inventory shipments within 30 days and there is just absolutely no room left in the shop for opening the crate and sorting through all the parts … so performing the required inventory of the RV-12’s finishing kit will need to be done at the hanger. A problem for another day.

After the late morning delivery, a small amount of work was performed on the fuselage step angles.  The plans instruct the builder to remove the F-1202F bulkhead from the fuselage assembly while the F-1236 A&B step angles are still Clecoed in place on the F-1202F bulkhead. The reason for this is so the F-1251 nutplate brackets can be match drilled to the now freshly drilled F-1236 step angles. A bolt is inserted into the nutplate and tightened to position the F-1251 nutplate brackets for match drilling to the F-1236 step ribs.

Now that the replacement F-1236A step angles are completely drilled, they require priming. Unfortunately, the cold/windy/snowy weather is not cooperating at the moment and tomorrow is forecasted for a high of 20. Will try to wait until Friday to hopefully take advantage of the forecasted one day 30 degree heat wave and prime the parts with the airbrush and quickly get them inside the shop in front of the heater so the Akzo primer can cure properly overnight.