Main Gear Leg Mounting Part 1

 Got started on mounting the main gear legs.

The KAI's have you prime these gear leg wear and spacer blocks.

And apply a thin coat of grease to the exposed steel parts.  To prevent rust.

Then I mounted and torqued the large gear leg wear plate.  Make sure you put the two long bolts in before tightening the four screws.  The tolerances are very tight here.

One side down, one side to go!

Gear Leg Fittings

 Installed the brake line fittings in the gear legs.  In the past this was not called out early and folks found out they could not be installed once the gear leg is in place and they would then have to take everything back apart to install them.

Glad I am not the beta tester!

Use the proper thread sealant and pay attention to the clocking of these fittings otherwise you will have extra work ahead if you get them wrong or they leak.

Finish Kit has Arrived !

So I got a call from ABF that my finish kit was to be delivered today.  I was supposed to meet the driver someplace because they would have a difficult time getting to my home address.

Much to my surprise, the driver called and said: "I am at the foot of your driveway."  So I had to hurry and run down to the road with my truck and slide the finish kit into the bed.  He was blocking the road so I had to expedite and did not get any pics.

Let me tell you, the finish kit crate is heavy!

Had to call over some help to get the crate out of the pickup and into the garage.  Once it was inside, I started pulling out all the parts.  5 large leaf bags of paper later I had a pile of parts.

Not shown is the canopy, rear window, and the canopy frame.  Not sure why I did not take pics of those items. 

Sure does not look like much for the cost of this kit!

WAITING......

 So now I am officially waiting on my finish kit.  The basic airframe construction is complete.

My local EAA chapter is also building an RV12 and for some reason only known by Van's their finish kit shipped before mine even though I ordered mine 5 months before they did.  They are not even close to needing their finish kit.  I accepted my modified order as soon as I got the notice, paid my deposit and my final payment as soon as I got the notice.

Not really that happy with Van's right now because of this.  There is no real excuse for not honoring customer's place in line when the customer is not causing a delay.  Kits should be shipped in order of order receipt period.

Wings done! Part 46.....

 Finished the other flaperon.

Another 1000 rivets down.  I am now part way through the last box of LP3-4's!

Done... 

I am now officially waiting on finish kit to ship.

Wings part 45

Installed the leading edge skins on the left flaperon tonight.

First you rivet on the outboard nose skin.

Then the inboard nose skin.

And finally the center nose skin.

One flap complete. Amazing out stiff this thing is after the nose skins are riveted on.  As long and narrow as it is, it does not twist!  I showed my wife how small the bracket is that actuates this long flight control and even she was surprised.

I am not installing the hinge bearings at this point to make it easier to store these things without causing damage.

Wings part 44

Back from San Antonio and working on the flaperons. 

First I riveted these hinge brackets to the nose ribs.

And then riveted them to the spars along with the other half of the system that slides into the slot on the flaperon torque tube.  These being pre-made saved a ton of work!

Then I riveted the ribs to the spar.

And the other nose rib.

And the tie down brackets.  Again, these being pre-made saved a ton of work.

Then I riveted on the counterbalance assembly.

And the other tie down bracket.

Rinse and repeat for the other flap.

Then I riveted the aft skins to the structure of the right flap.

They have you use these special fuel tank baffle rivets due to the clearance issues with the rivets being on opposite sides and close together.  I don't care for these rivets because they end up deforming the skins a little bit and the stem does not always break off flush.