Lessons Learned
A project with so many parts and steps is bound to have a few “Oops” moments along the way. I’ll use this page to catalog the various lessons learned as we go through this learning experience.
Lesson #1: Double check the rivet schedule before staring a line of rivets.
While squeezing the rivets that attach the skin to the front spar assembly, I noticed that one rivet was not right. It happened to be where the skin attaches to the front spar and middle rib. The schedule specifies AN426AD3-4 rivets instead of the “usual” AN426AD3-3.5 in order to compensate for the additional layer of metal from the rib. If I had read the schedule a little more closely, I would have clearly seen and noted this:
(The highlighter is mine of course).
Lesson #2: Be very careful drilling out rivets and using the punch to force the rivet out.
As a result of Lesson #1, we had to drill out the rivet. Dan took a couple of good whacks on a punch to dislodge a rivet used to attach the skin to a rib and spar. The rivet went through 3 pieces of metal. After he hit the hammer a couple of times, I heard him say “Oops”. Never good to hear that expression in the shop… The punch had pushed the rivet out of the skin, BUT bent the flange from the rib on the bottom. We were able to get the rivet shank out of the flange and then bend the flange back to the proper fit without much trouble, but a little extra care removing rivets should reduce the need to do things like that. (Reading the plans a little better might have even allowed us to avoid drilling out the rivet in the first place).
Lesson #3: Always check your previously constructed parts for complete assembly before attaching them to another part.
When assembling the final parts on the HS we got so excited that I forgot that I had left out 2 rivets on the end of the rear spar reinforcement bars. I can’t exactly remember why the rear spar was missing a couple of rivets – but there they were – two holes at the very end of the reinforcement bars. The real problem was that I noticed they were missing AFTER we had completely attached the top skin and ribs on both sides. There was now no way to get behind the spar now with a bucking bar. Thank goodness for blind rivets. I’ll call Van’s builder support tomorrow to get their suggestion, but for now I’m thinking a couple of blind rivets similar to the ones I used to attach the rear spar to the middle ribs will do the trick.
Lesson #4: NEVER LEAVE PARTS OUTSIDE UNATTENDED AND UNSECURED FOR ANY PERIOD OF TIME.
After touching up a few places on the rudder skin with primer, I placed the completed rudder skin outside on a shelf so that it could cure in the sun. I came back about 4 or 5 hours later to close up the barn and shop and went over to pick up the skin and put it in side, but it was gone. It was dark by then and I thought the skin might have slipped off the shelf in a gust of wind, but it was nowhere to be found. I eventually found the skin about 20 yards from where I had placed it. Apparently it got caught in a wind gust and blew across the pasture. I brought it inside the shop and closed up for the night.
The next morning, I inspected the rudder skin and my heart was sick to find this:
In the tumbling and rolling across the pasture, the skin had been scraped in several places and had also gotten a crease. I was pretty happy with the result of the skin last night, but this morning I came to the realization that I would need to redo the whole thing. Van’s website says the skin is $41.40 and the stiffeners are $22.80. The finish kit is ready for shipment, so I called Van’s and asked them to put the parts in the finish kit so that Tony Partain can bring it when he comes at the end of July.
So, I’ve now learned Lesson #4: NEVER LEAVE PARTS OUTSIDE UNATTENDED AND UNSECURED FOR ANY PERIOD OF TIME.
Cost of this lesson: $65.20 + 6 hours.
