Still thinking about an RV-14

Jim K said:
Both, I think. I started a log on the EAA site so I have something I can show the DAR. I'll probably post updates here for major milestones.
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With my 10 neither the DAR, nor the FAA for the repairman cert even cared to look at my build log. Ordered a 14 QB kit last week and while I’ll take pictures and make notes in the planes, I don’t plan on spending the time doing an online build log. Point being do it because you enjoy it, not because you think the DAR or FAA want to read through it.
 
OkieAviator said:
With my 10 neither the DAR, nor the FAA for the repairman cert even cared to look at my build log. Ordered a 14 QB kit last week and while I’ll take pictures and make notes in the planes, I don’t plan on spending the time doing an online build log. Point being do it because you enjoy it, not because you think the DAR or FAA want to read through it.
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In today's world, I'd take a lot of pic's with my phone and let that record stand for proof. Neither of my 2 DAR's even wanted to look at the pictures. They just wanted to check out the airplane and associated paperwork.
 
In a surprise to absolutely NO one, my 540 cases didn't ship last week while I was out of town. I felt like ass yesterday (caught some California cooties I guess), but still spent a little time in the shop. What I did get while I was gone was the parts to finish my elevators and horizontal stabilizer. Elevators are officially done as I finished wiring and installing the trim motor yesterday. I also finished riveting the lower side skins of the tailcone which made it into a big solid piece I can move out of the way. Expect to get the HS done before the engine cases get here


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Wow, it’s looking like a lot of progress in a short time. I hadn’t expected big chunks of the plane to be complete so early, with wiring, trim, etc. I realize the end is far away, but what percent complete does this represent? The reason I ask is that I always thought building was really something should have tried when I was younger, but you’re making it seem achievable…and that might still seem like an illusion to me.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Wow, it’s looking like a lot of progress in a short time. I hadn’t expected big chunks of the plane to be complete so early, with wiring, trim, etc. I realize the end is far away, but what percent complete does this represent? The reason I ask is that I always thought building was really something should have tried when I was younger, but you’re making it seem achievable…and that might still seem like an illusion to me.
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See post #301. With an RV, tangible progress happens fast early on then tapers off over time. This can be discouraging to some builders when after very quick, visible progress the projects transitions into the phase where weeks, months and sometime years go by with little visible to show for the amount of work other than a shrinking bank account.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Wow, it’s looking like a lot of progress in a short time. I hadn’t expected big chunks of the plane to be complete so early, with wiring, trim, etc. I realize the end is far away, but what percent complete does this represent? The reason I ask is that I always thought building was really something should have tried when I was younger, but you’re making it seem achievable…and that might still seem like an illusion to me.
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I really like the concise list this guy posted: https://vansrv14project.uk/build-timeline/ I'm spending WAY less hours per section than him, but I'm guessing that in the end the proportions will be the same. Guessing I'm counting hours more like @iamtheari did. I have only 187 listed so far, which doesn't seem like enough.

From what I've seen the tail kit is like 1/8 of the airframe. The wings 1/4, fuselage 3/8, finishing 1/4. That's the airframe, then there's still some wiring, plumbing, etc, for the engine and all the avionics. I'd guess I'm 2/3 through the tail kit, maybe a bit more. The fairings will probably take longer than I think.

It is very exciting to see big pieces coming together. I'm dreading doing the wings next, because the most boring part is deburring ribs, which there is a lot of in the wings as you can imagine.
 
Jim K said:
It is very exciting to see big pieces coming together. I'm dreading doing the wings next, because the most boring part is deburring ribs, which there is a lot of in the wings as you can imagine.
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You will imagine that, and as a result the reality will be easier than you built up in your mind. (Unless you read this post. Then, you’ll fail to dread it enough for it to seem easy when you actually get there.) The canopy remains the main part of the build that I would most rather never repeat. And I did it before the wings.
 
After the boiler fiasco, I went back out to the shop to do some rivet smashing stress relief. Finished the horizontal stabilizer. That's it for the tail feathers. The HS is the one part I've built that I'm not proud of. I made several mistakes, drilled out a LOT of rivets, and one mistake snowballed into having to use a bunch of oversize "Oops rivets" that I don't feel great about. I don't think it's unairworthy, but if the technical counselor tells me to rebuild it, I won't be totally surprised. So here's that:

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At least i can stick it in the attic and get it out of the way for now. Io-540 cases are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
 
Jim K said:
After the boiler fiasco, I went back out to the shop to do some rivet smashing stress relief. Finished the horizontal stabilizer. That's it for the tail feathers. The HS is the one part I've built that I'm not proud of. I made several mistakes, drilled out a LOT of rivets, and one mistake snowballed into having to use a bunch of oversize "Oops rivets" that I don't feel great about. I don't think it's unairworthy, but if the technical counselor tells me to rebuild it, I won't be totally surprised. So here's that:
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If you see me and my RV-14 somewhere, stop over and say hello. I'll show you my "preflight rivet." The one that, if it's still there, I know that the rest of the airframe is solid because it's the weakest link. I'm hoping the paint shop covers up some of the more cosmetic dumbness, though. One spot on the rudder, one on an elevator counterbalance, and one on the bottom of the fuselage. It flies fine despite all of those.
 
I've seen some crap riveting on T-18s a RVsomething. Seem to fly OK.

Nothing that a few gallons of Bondo can't cover up.

One day, I was working on the cowl attachment on my ride - riveting in some nut plates after glassing in the original wallowed out holes. My A&P buddy came by wondering why I was banging rivets on my rag and tube airplane. He looks at what I'm doing then looks at some of the existing rivets holding in the Camlock sockets "These aren't yours, are they?"
"**** no."
"I didn't think so."
 
Haven't been able to spend too much time in the shop lately, but I've made a little progress. My "Flyleds" light kits showed up, so I built those which was surprisingly fun. Did a little wiring, installed the static system. Not too many steps left on the tailcone.

Here's a couple "scenes from the shop":

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Jim K said:
Here's a couple "scenes from the shop":

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I see you're wet installing the rivets already :rofl:
 
Can’t help but feel bad for the guy trying to head up north, but can’t find HWY 45. And then almost got run over at the unmarked railroad crossing…… snicker
 
Jim K said:
Haven't been able to spend too much time in the shop lately, but I've made a little progress. My "Flyleds" light kits showed up, so I built those which was surprisingly fun. Did a little wiring, installed the static system. Not too many steps left on the tailcone.

Here's a couple "scenes from the shop":

View attachment 138287
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Are you sure that first pic wasn't taken on the Boeing factory floor?

;)
 
I haven't self-righteously punched many rivets recently due to life stuff and concentrating on the Lance engine. I did get out to the shop for a couple hours last night. Got a little bit excited this morning when finally, after checking nearly daily for almost two months, I discovered Van's finally updated their order status portal for the first time since Jan 2.

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So that gives me three months to finish riveting on the top tailcone skins, do the fiberglass work, plant a crop, and break in the IO-540. Seems doable-ish. Of course they shipped the tail kit a month early, so I guess I better get on it.
 
Word of unsolicited advice - target finishing your work up in two months, not three, to allow for the inevitable life delays. I got my fuselage kit and had to spend the next six weeks finishing up the wings, wishing I had just completed them when I thought I'd have tons of time waiting. Keep the momentum going!
 
samiamPA said:
Word of unsolicited advice - target finishing your work up in two months, not three, to allow for the inevitable life delays. I got my fuselage kit and had to spend the next six weeks finishing up the wings, wishing I had just completed them when I thought I'd have tons of time waiting. Keep the momentum going!
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I can see that. I'm glad I ordered the wing kit when I did, because the timing should work well. I have a decent amount of free* time in winter and summer, and basically none in spring and fall. We're rapidly approaching the spring busy season. In fact I'll probably be in the field a good part of next week. No way I'll be able to continue the pace, but I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in a rainy day here & there. Hopefully June and July will be another big jump, but I've also been informed I'm supposed to build a chicken coop, a rabbit hutch, and a swing set once it warms up. Having the Lance back in action will also chew up a bunch of my time and aviation energy.



*Time I SHOULD be doing something productive, but can get away with screwing around
 
I do suggest knocking out the fiberglass pieces you have on hand as you go, rather than building an entire aluminum airplane and then having to suffer through all the fiberglass work at the end. I think that I hurt my motivation a bit by not doing the smaller fiberglass bits earlier on. The first fiberglass work I did was the canopy layup and it was double-plus unfun, so I dreaded the fiberglass slog at the end of the project that I kept piling onto by dreading it and deferring small items until then.
 
iamtheari said:
I do suggest knocking out the fiberglass pieces you have on hand as you go, rather than building an entire aluminum airplane and then having to suffer through all the fiberglass work at the end. I think that I hurt my motivation a bit by not doing the smaller fiberglass bits earlier on. The first fiberglass work I did was the canopy layup and it was double-plus unfun, so I dreaded the fiberglass slog at the end of the project that I kept piling onto by dreading it and deferring small items until then.
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Good call, and that's my plan. I do have an ace up my sleeve in that I've done a fair amount of FB work. I've done transoms in two boats, and the whole floor in one of them. I also rebuilt the FG back door on the Lance last summer, so I even have glass, epoxy, and filler on hand.
 
iamtheari said:
I do suggest knocking out the fiberglass pieces you have on hand as you go, rather than building an entire aluminum airplane and then having to suffer through all the fiberglass work at the end. I think that I hurt my motivation a bit by not doing the smaller fiberglass bits earlier on. The first fiberglass work I did was the canopy layup and it was double-plus unfun, so I dreaded the fiberglass slog at the end of the project that I kept piling onto by dreading it and deferring small items until then.
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^^^ This. There isn't much out there that's more demotivating than plowing along making great progress on metal and then spend a billion hours (seemingly) laying and sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding fiber for a 6" square area.
 
The Lance is flying again, but the weather has sucked for the last three days, and my instrument currency is expired (for the first time since i got the rating :(), so I'm back on the RV.

Very close to the end of the tail kit now. Attaching the stabilizers the tailcone makes it really look like something.

My wing kit ship date got moved up a month to 5/1, so that means Van's wanted my money. I should've picked a cheaper hobby. Like cocaine.

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Section 11 finished, up to the point of "permanently" attaching the tail feathers. Plan is to store all this stuff in the hangar until the wings & fuselage are done, so it has to come apart again, and there's no point in torqing the hardware.

Started section 12 this evening. I had forgotten how unpleasant cutting fiberglass is. Glad I'm not building a -10.
 
I laid in a stock of non-locking hardware store nuts for AN3 and AN4 bolts for all the temporary installations of things like that. And kept a running list of them so I had a checklist of nuts to verify were torque-sealed or pinned (as the case may be) before first flight.
 
iamtheari said:
I laid in a stock of non-locking hardware store nuts for AN3 and AN4 bolts for all the temporary installations of things like that. And kept a running list of them so I had a checklist of nuts to verify were torque-sealed or pinned (as the case may be) before first flight.
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Wishing I had done that. I managed to scrounge up some 1/4 fine nuts, but 10-32 I'm going to have to order. Is there any bigger stuff I'll want on hand later?

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
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Crap. I have one of those, but I use it so seldom I didn't think to get it. Definitely would've saved some dust. Thanks for the reminder.
 
Jim K said:
Wishing I had done that. I managed to scrounge up some 1/4 fine nuts, but 10-32 I'm going to have to order. Is there any bigger stuff I'll want on hand later?
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I don’t recall needing any temporary #8 or #6 nuts. I do recall some temporary hardware for the aft spar attachments, maybe 3/8”, but I used hardware store bolts and nuts for those. That was somewhere in the fuselage build. All the other big bolts are one-timers: wing install, engine mount, etc.
 
iamtheari said:
I laid in a stock of non-locking hardware store nuts for AN3 and AN4 bolts for all the temporary installations of things like that. And kept a running list of them so I had a checklist of nuts to verify were torque-sealed or pinned (as the case may be) before first flight.
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Good idea. I'd probably paint 'em blaze orange too!
 
Jim K said:
Started section 12 this evening. I had forgotten how unpleasant cutting fiberglass is. Glad I'm not building a -10.
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I found that out the hard way. Was 14 when I had to fiberglass a fender on the race car after a wreck. Was grinding on it in shorts and a t shirt, cuz it was 95 and humid. Miserable
 
Something super satisfying about picking up airplane parts in an airplane. Many, many thanks to @ArrowFlyer86. I'm about 96% certain this is going to work:

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I also purchased (but don't have on hand yet) most of an engine. Found a rather rare Lycoming TIO-360. This particular -C1A6D model was apparently only used on an obscure Italian twin. It was disassembled and all the parts overhauled to be reassembled as an io-360 for an experimental, but was never put together. Everything but the cylinders.

Here's the cool part... it uses the same heavy 2 5/8 crank journals, 2 1/4 rod journals, and counterweights as the modern IO-390. The case can be cut to accept io-390 cylinders. It's got the front governor drive that Van's specifies for the rv-14. I can build it up myself, and should be into it for under 20k vs 66k through Van's.

The negatives are... it's a dual mag, but i understand that I can run a lefthand rotation bendix 1200 in that hole, and a crank-trigger electronic ignition for the other side. It also has a rear- induction sump, but that's solvable with Superior's cold air intake. Experimentals are cool...

I "think" that the above prop is certified to run with an io-390 on some airframes, so that should be the powerplant mostly solved. Now i just need someone to gift me a g3x and a gtn750....
 
Jim K said:
The negatives are... it's a dual mag, but i understand that I can run a lefthand rotation bendix 1200 in that hole, and a crank-trigger electronic ignition for the other side. It also has a rear- induction sump, but that's solvable with Superior's cold air intake. Experimentals are cool...
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Can you find a "normal" sump that would work? Just depends on if cold air induction is a something you're interested in. Rhonda at Barrett is a good resource if you wanna go down that rabbit hole.

Also, you *can* run dual crank triggered EI's. Probably want a backup battery on at least one of 'em. Ross Farnham at SDS makes a good product. I run one of his EI's and a mag on the -10.
 
kyleb said:
Can you find a "normal" sump that would work? Just depends on if cold air induction is a something you're interested in. Rhonda at Barrett is a good resource if you wanna go down that rabbit hole.

Also, you *can* run dual crank triggered EI's. Probably want a backup battery on at least one of 'em. Ross Farnham at SDS makes a good product. I run one of his EI's and a mag on the -10.
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Yeah, the regular io-360 sump can be converted to a front intake fairly easily. The superior sump is pretty cheap, relatively speaking. I think it'd cost as much to get a used one converted and overhauled. I am tempted to go that route though just for an excuse to use my Bridgeport.

I like the idea of running a mag so I don't have to set up redundant electrical systems. We'll see. I have a long way to go before I have to make these decisions.
 
I'm definitely planning on a gtn for the sake of commonality with my Lance. PFD I'm less certain. G3x is the easy choice, but I'd be open to others. I'm expecting there to be a new generation of most of this stuff by the time Im ready to buy anyway.
 
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