Slowly Getting Settled Into Hangar 45

The entire afternoon and early evening of Sunday was spent settling into DOG Aviation’s new facility in hangar 45. Of course, as with any serious move, establishing a source for music was the first priority … so the boom box and MP3 player were located and hooked up. Music ... check, good lighting …check, steel shelving units in place … check. Time to start unpacking. The power tool workbench and air compressor were the first items worked on.

The air compressor and power tool workbench ready for action.

The large fuselage crate which was mostly empty was packed to the gills with items from the shelving under the work benches, painting supplies, chemicals, all the trays of hardware and rivets, plus miscellaneous tools and supplies. So the fuselage crate was attacked next and its contents distributed mostly to the steel shelving unit at the back of the hangar. To make it easier to get to the shelving during the many trips of walking back and forth, the RV-12 tail cone was rolled into a corner of the hangar next to the finishing kit crate.

The RV-12 tail cone temporally moved into the corner adjacent to the finishing kit crate during stocking of the shelving units.

Shelving unit beginning to get fully utilized … the contents of the far right set of shelves came mostly from the fuselage crate and will be mainly for paint/equipment and shop supplies. Rest of the shelves will be used mainly for storing RV-12 parts.

Because the majority of remaining fuselage parts were already primed (and in most cases painted as well),  each part was wrapped in paper and stored in a large storage bin which was placed in the fuselage crate.  There is no hurry at this point in time to unpack those parts, although in the near future I’ll need a few of the pieces that are, fortunately, near the top of the bin.

The RV-12 wing caddy adjacent to the fuselage crate mostly unpacked of all the major goodies … except for a remaining storage bin of painted parts wrapped in paper.

Still need to get a little more organized, but by in large the hangar is ready for continuing the assembly of the RV-12. Hoping to put the finishing touches on the shop today.

 It is so nice to be able to walk around the fuselage without the need to side step!!!

DOG Aviation Officially Moves To Hangar 45

In spite of a Friday early morning misty drizzle, which fortunately only lasted a few minutes, the current cramped DOG Aviation production facility was abandoned today for the much roomier hangar at the airport.  With the aid of team Mike  … aka … Mike T. & Mike K., all the tools, crates, shelves, work benches and aircraft parts were moved to the hangar over the course of three trips utilizing Mike T’s large snowmobile trailer. Some of the tail feathers were left behind because of the lack of horizontal storage options in the hangar… but those items can be easy transported as necessary.

Mike T’s trailer ready to accept the contents of the about to be abandoned DOG Aviation production facility #1.

 

Kudos to Mike T.’s trailer backing skills … with less than a foot between the neighbor’s car on one side and the house on the other, Mike T. made it look easy. The first load taken to the airport consisted of all the power tools, two of the three work benches and the fuselage crate filled with painted panels and lots of stuff.  I thought it would be harder than it really turned out to be. With three of us to handle the larger items, nothing was too heavy to handle, plus most everything was on wheels which really helped immensely.

Team Mike and I loading the power tool workbench onto the trailer.

Mike T. helping with the loading of the air compressor up the trailer's ramp.

Left to right – myself and team Mike comprised of Mike T. & Mike K.

The second trip to the hangar consisted of the remaining workbench the fuselage was sitting on along with the fuselage, tail cone and a few miscellaneous boxed up items. To move the fuselage a 2x2 was slid through the center section of the fuselage under the spar pins so while Mike T. and I lifted the fuselage with the 2x2, Mike K. stabilized the firewall because the fuselage was nose heavy.

Mike K. and I standing by the fuselage after removing it from a workbench so the workbench could be loaded onto the trailer … note the 2x2 spanning the fuselage under the spar pins that was used as a handle to easily lift the fuselage assembly.

Team Mike and myself about to load the fuselage into the trailer for the short trek to hangar 45.

After the fuselage was inside the trailer, the 2x2 was removed and the side skins were temporarily attached to the fuselage with a few Clecos to cerate a safe way to transport them. Decided to do it this way because with the side skins on, there is only a narrow slot  for the spar and I wanted to have the strength of an uncut 2x2 for a handle.

The tail cone sees light for the first time in 2 years as team Mike and I load it into the trailer.

Mike K. and I securing tie downs around the spar pins to prevent the fuselage from moving … note the side skins are now attached to the fuselage with a few Clecos in the longeron.

The RV-12's fuselage and tail cone secured in the trailer and ready for the short trip to the airport.

Once at the hangar for the second time, the tail cone was placed on a workbench for easy mating (hopefully) to the fuselage. Also, the side skins were removed from the fuselage and the 2x2 was reinserted so the fuselage could be carried off the trailer and set onto a workbench.

Once at the airport there was a sigh of relief and a smile after inspecting the trailer’s contents and seeing the RV-12’s tail cone and fuselage made the trek to the airport unscathed.

The RV-12’s tail cone sitting on a workbench in its new home at hangar 45.

Team Mike standing by the newly relocated RV-12's fuselage.

Mike K. helping me to move a fuselage skin to the back wall of the hangar so it could be hung by bungee cords to keep it out of the way for a little while.

The third and final trip involved the transporting of the wings. Shortly after building the wings seemingly eons ago, the spar crate was converted into a wing caddy with wheels. The caddy was made sturdy with this moving day in mind and ultimately worked out quite nicely. Getting it into the trailer was a little challenging because the trailing edge of the wing tips were slightly taller than the opening to the trailer. Team Mike lifted up on the spar end of the wing caddy and that was enough to lower the wing tips enough to get the wings it into the trailer. Once inside, there was plenty of room and the caddy was a snap to secure with tie downs. A bunch of moving pads were stuffed around the carpet cradle portion of the caddy and the spars were tightly strapped down to the caddy.

RV-12 wing caddy with wings inside the trailer ready for relocation to the airport.

Team Mike removing the tie downs used to secure the RV-12 wing caddy after arriving at the airport. The wing caddy did its job well, as both wings remained unscathed from the transport to the airport.

With the careful help of team Mike, moving  of DOG Aviation's production facility to the airport went great! Thanks guys! Nothing was damaged, bent, folded or mutilated and most especially … nobody got injured in the process. Guessing it will take a day or two to get things organized in the hangar well enough that construction of the RV-12 can continue to moving forward.

Preparations Begin For DOG Aviation Move

Yesterday, Mike and I spent the better part of the day picking up Mike’s trailer and transferring the contents into a storage unit to free up his trailer to move the fuselage and tail cone to the airport. Mike’s trailer has tie downs inside on the floor so it should serve us well for the weather pending Friday move.

Once back at the shop, decided to try finishing up the map box and get it to a point where it can be powder coated along with the instrument panel covers when the time comes. The map box requires the #40 rivet holes in the lid to be countersunk for flush rivets. Prior to removing the right instrument panel cover from the map box assembly the 1/2" hole in the panel must be also drilled into the map box using a step drill.

Machine countersinking the map box lid using a countersink cage outfitted with a #40 100 degree countersink bit.

Using a step drill to drill out the map box to 1/2" for the cam lock hardware used to secure the map box door.

The #40 holes in the right instrument panel cover also require machine countersinking as well. The construction plans also instruct the builder to machine countersink for #6 screws all the perimeter holes that will mount the panel to the instrument panel frame. At this point I’m electing not to do that because I think I will like the look of stainless steel button screws better. If that does not appeal to me, the panel can easily be countersunk later for flush screws.

Machine countersinking the rivet holes in right instrument panel cover that will rivet to the map box using the countersink cage outfitted with a #40 100 degree countersink bit.

Did not totally finish up on the map box parts because about the time I was countersinking the last #40 hole in the right instrument panel cover, sirens began to howl … figuring it was more likely to be a tornado warning than World War III, decided it best to take shelter as opposed to staying outside to watch the flash.

There was a small tornado that touched down, but it was many miles to the north of DOG Aviation and fortunately caused little damage … although the owners of the house missing a small chunk of their roof may disagree.

Today, the plan is for spending a few minutes finishing up the map box and then beginning the arduous task of clearing off the shelves under the work benches and packing up the shop for the long overdue move to the airport hangar on Friday.

Preparing The Map Box

The RV-12 fuselage kit as shipped from Van’s comes with a map box that can be installed in the right side of the instrument panel.  Since I’m at that point in the plans, I’ve decided to go ahead and include the map box in the DOG Aviation RV-12 because it will be useful … plus, I’m already thinking of possibly making a couple of modifications to it later down the road, one of which, as a possible mounting point for a notepad.

Work on the map box began by taking one of the map box halves (both halves are identical) and attaching the right instrument panel cover and door to it with Clecos. Next the hinge is set in place and is match drilled to the holes in the door.

Assembling the map box just enough so the door hinge can be match drilled.

Match drilling the door hinge to the rivet holes in the bottom of the map box to #30.

After the map box’s door hinge is match drilled to the bottom panel, the predrilled holes in the map box’s door are used to match drill the door hinge to #40. The map box door is then removed and the remaining map box half is mated and Clecoed in position. Next all the #40 holes on the panel cover are match drilled into the map box followed by match drilling all the remaining rivet holes that make up the box to #30.

Match drilling the #40 holes in the panel cover into the map box.

 Match drilling the #30 holes in the map box.

After all the drilling was out of the way the map box parts were disassembled for deburring. Also the #40 holes on the map box cover require some extra attention by way of countersinking for flush rivets …. but did not get to that today.

F-1240 Upper Forward Fuselage Skin Completed

The 18 nutplates for the F-1202D L&R panel attach strips were dimpled then riveted onto the panel attach strips using the AN426AD3-3.5 rivets called for in the plans.

Riveting nutplates onto the F-1202D-L panel attach strip using the pneumatic rivet squeezer.

Once all the nutplates were riveted onto the F-1202D-L&R panel attach strips, they were Clecoed back onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin for riveting. I discovered early on the pneumatic rivet squeezer was difficult to use for riveting the panel strips onto the F-1240 skin for a multitude of reasons. Most importantly every other rivet is very close to a nutplate and it was difficult to stay clear of the nutplates and the pneumatic squeezer was cumbersome to hold upside especially with the hose pulling down. Because it wanted to snag the nutplates, I gave up on it after the second rivet and switched to a more controllable manual rivet squeezer. Riveting began in the center and progressed towards the left and right side of the fuselage.

Securing the F-1202D-L panel strip onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin with Clecos in preparation for riveting.

Using the manual rivet squeezer to rivet the F-1202D-L panel attach strip onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin with AN426AD3-3.5 rivets.

Because I needed to be standing on a step stool, it was impossible to get a visual on the position of the squeezer or the shaft of the rivet so the first few rivets were VERY awkward to set … and I did not have another set of eyes available to use as a spotter. So I decided to make measurements on what it would take for the bottom rivet set to clear the nutplates installed on the F-1202D panel attach strips. A red line was marked adjacent to each rivet and the rivet sets were kept at or forward of the line so the lower rivet set would clear the obstacles.  Took a lot more time doing it this way, but the end result was worth it.

Red lines used to make sure the rivet set stayed forward of the line in order to clear the nutplates on the F-1202D panel attach strips.

Almost done with riveting the F-1202D-L panel attach strip onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin.

Finished – both F-1202D-L&R panel attach strips riveted onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin.

Forward Upper Fuselage Skin Set in Place

After spending most of day of completing errands, was able to spend some productive time in the DOG Aviation production facility.  The F-1240C clip requires fabrication … after pondering a few options, the method finally settled upon was repurposing a drill press tool for the job. The purpose of the F-1240C clip, which ultimately becomes riveted onto the bottom of the F-1240B cover plate, is to secure the hinge pins for the cowling. The ends of the hinge pins are bent to 90 degrees and the clip is slid over the end of the hinge pins to capture them and prevents them from moving. To fabricate the F-1240C clip the plans instruct the builder to bend the clip to 90 degrees to form a V and flatten out the sides so the V is only 3/16" high.

I love repurposing tools and after looking around the shop, decided a set of drill press V blocks would fit the bill for bending the F-1240C clip. The piece of aluminum was bent to shape by compressing one V block into another.

The F-1240C clip after forming the 90 degree bend with the V blocks.

Once the 90 degree bend was formed, the wall of the V block was just about the right height (actually slightly higher) to form the 3/16" bend. The two V blocks were clamped together and the remaining bends were made using the narrow bill of the seaming pliers to flatten out the sides of F-1240C clip onto the V block.

While keeping the two V blocks clamped together, to finish off the clip seaming pliers were used to flatten out the sides of the clip.

Forming the clip as mentioned above was quick and easy. After the F-1240C clip was formed, it was match drilled to the F1240B cover plate.

Finished F-1240C clip match drilled to the F-1240B cover plate with a #40 drill.

After match drilling the F-1240C clip, the rivet holes in the F-1240B and newly drilled F-1240C clip required dimpling because the clip will be mounted with flush rivets per the instructions … however, prior to riveting it will need to be primed.

The plans say the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin needs to be placed over the edge of a table so the edge can be rolled by hand to put a small downward curve in the skin. No mention as to where the curve should begin or how much. I posted a question on the forums and one builder said he got good results using the edge braking tool and another worked the outer 1 1/2" edge by hand a little and could not see much difference but the part fit great. That told me the amount necessary is small, so I opted to make two passes with the Cleaveland edge tool which resulted in a nice tight fit once the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin was fitted.

Using the Cleaveland edge tool to break the forward edge of the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin.

Having already dimpled all the necessary holes in the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin many months ago, the skin was ready to be screwed in position on the fuselage. The F-1240 skin also performs a second task in that it is also the cover for the instrument panel along with becoming an integral part of the front panel mounting. The F-1202D panel mounting strips are riveted onto to F-1240 skin and receive nutplates for mounting the front panel components.

Screwing the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin onto the fuselage assembly.

Securing the F-1202D-R panel mounting strip onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin with Clecos.

Just after taking the above photo I realized I was getting ahead of myself in that the F-1202D panel mounting strips should have the nutplates installed first … so off it came and decided this was a good time to end the work session.

Riveting Of Panel Base & Canopy Ribs

Had a productive afternoon in the shop today riveting the panel base and associated items.  The F-00027-L&R com support brackets which have been held in place with Clecos for many weeks were finally riveted in place on the F-1202B instrument panel base. Next in line to be riveted onto the F-1202B panel base was the F-00026-L&R instrument stack angles. The instrument stack angles begin to give definition to the instrument panel.

Riveting the F-00026-L instrument stack angle onto the F-1202B instrument panel base with the hand rivet puller. The F-00027-L&R com support brackets in front of the instrument stack angles have already been riveted in place.

Work continued by way of riveting the F-1202B instrument panel base to the upper firewall and longerons.  Care must be taken when riveting the F-1201A upper firewall onto the F-1202B panel base in that the rivet’s factory heads should to be placed on the forward side of the firewall. Also, there are 8 rivet holes which are to remain un-riveted at this point in time as shown in one of the photos below.

Using the pneumatic rivet puller to rivet the F-1201A upper firewall onto the forward flange of the F-1202B instrument panel base working from the center out.

On the right side of the F-1201A upper firewall are eight rivet holes that are not riveted at this time designated with blue tape on the Clecos … starting with the third rivet hole in from the right side of the aircraft.

After the forward flange of the F-1202B instrument base and upper motor mounts were riveted onto the F-1201A upper firewall, the panel base was riveted onto the F-1255-L&R longerons. This was done without the F-1202H-L&R canopy ribs in position … however, care must be taken not to rivet the two rivet holes for the F-1202Y strut attach angles yet.

Using the pneumatic rivet puller to rivet the F-1202B instrument panel base onto the F-1255-R longeron with LP4-3 rivets.

After both sides of the instrument panel base were riveted onto the F-1255 longerons, the F-1202H-L&R canopy ribs were secured onto the panel base with Clecos. Of note, builders need to pay attention when riveting the F-1202Y strut attach angles because the rivets used here need to be much longer … they are LP4-5 pop rivets because of the combined thicknesses of the strut angle and the longeron.

Using the pneumatic rivet puller to rivet the F-1202H-L canopy rib onto the F-1202B instrument panel base. The two rivet holes in the F-1202Y strut angle with Clecos in them will require a much longer LP4-5 pop rivet.

Panel base, com supports, instrument stack angles and canopy ribs riveted in place.