RV 9A Builder (N716DJ)

Welcome

Welcome to another RV builders web site. My name is Jerry Szelc and I started my RV 9A project in January 2006. If you have visited here before and are interested in the most recent additions they are listed below. Otherwise, feel free to just start looking around. Note: I am generally better about uploading pictures to my photo sharing site. So even if this page has not changed, there is a good chance that you can see new photos, comments, and descriptions by clicking on the photo links below.

Links to Photos (Last Upload: February 7, 2012 Fuselage)

Clicking on the following links will take you to my photo sharing site where I have posted several pictures. Many of the pictures include descriptions and information specific to that step in the building process.

Empennage Wing Fuselage Finishing Kit Engine Other

Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures Pictures

Update 2/8/12: Back to Making Progress

The winter in Virginia has been very mild and has allowed me to make more progress this last month than I would have if the weather had been more normal (i.e. colder). I am working in my garage and the recent daytime highs in the 50’s, and in some cases 60’s, have made it easier to keep up my progress. The warmer weather has allowed me to easily heat our attached garage to 65^oF using either my propane heater or by leaving the door from the house to the garage open. This has enabled me to spray rattle can primer and to glue sound proofing to the baggage floor and side panels (click on "Fuselage Pictures" above for several photos). These are two things that I can only do in the garage since the fumes are way too strong to use either of them in the house. The photo to the right shows the baggage compartment with the permanently attached floor and side panels. Notice the inspection plate holes that allow me to check the side step and seatbelt anchor hardware.

Update 1/16/12: Why Did I Decide to Add Inspection Plates !

It became apparent that once you rivet on the baggage floor panels, you are no longer able to access the hardware (Bolts & Nuts) used for the side steps and seatbelt anchors. So I decided to add inspection plates in these two areas. Well this ended up being a rather time consuming process. Although time was required for planning, fabrication, and assembly, the biggest issue was cutting the large round inspection holes located in the middle of the floor panels. I planned to cut the 5.5 inch diameter inspection plate holes with a fly cutter. No problem, Right? Wrong!!! The issue was that the distance from the center of the inspection plate to the edge of the panel measured just under 8 inches. And guess what, it is hard to find a drill press (which is a necessity when using a fly cutter) where the distance from the center of the chuck to the support post will provide this clearance. Even large floor models don’t necessarily provide this amount of clearance. Therefore, I had another project fabricating a stand and center pin support to hold a “Poor Man’s Drill Press” that a friend had let me borrow. In the end all worked as good as could be expected. However, creating the rig shown and testing it with scrap to make sure it would work reasonably well added another week to the project. Ugh !!

Update 12/20/11: Merry Christmas !! Still Building

Yes, it's that time of the year again. Christmas time. December is always busy and the month seems to go by very quickly. Since my last update, I have been able to get some time to work on the plane. This has included some priming, riveting on the aft deck, and working on the top skins. I also was able to get some flying in this month as well. Over the Christmas and New Years holidays I will be working on the baggage area including the floor panels and bulkhead. I ordered some aircraft sound proofing material from Wicks Aircraft and will be spending a good bit of time noodling over exactly where to install it taking into account the added weight, which I will try to keep to a minimum.

Update 11/14/11: Look "Ma" No More Clecos !!

This past weekend, my son and I finished all of the rivets that I wanted to complete prior to turning over the fuselage. A big "Thank You" goes out to my son Matthew for his help with this task. Matt has gotten very good at bucking rivets, including knowing if the rivet length doesn't look right, selecting the best bucking bar for the job, and judging if the rivet looks good, needs more bucking, or needs to be drilled out. Great job Matt !!!

FWIW, I also added an entry to the "Building Tips" section. The entry shows how I am keeping the fuselage level and steady while I work on the aft deck and upper skins.

Update 10/28/11: The Days Are Getting Shorter

Well it's fall in Virginia, the days are getting shorter and the opportunities for priming parts are fewer and fewer. So I'm rushing to get several of the fuselage parts deburred and prepped for priming. Here I am washing the forward fuselage skins after dinner one night during the week. No it's not midnight, probably more like 8pm. Obviously it was still warm since I am wearing shorts. FWIW, this picture was taken a few weeks ago. This past Tuesday 10/25/11 the weather was 65 degrees and sunny. So I took the day off work and spent 12 hours prepping and priming parts outside, including the semi-assembled fuselage. As of this writing I completed priming all the parts that I'll need to keep me busy for the next few months. We'll see where I'm at in the Jan/Feb 2012 timeframe and if the weather will keep me from making progress. FWIW, there are snowflakes in the forecast for tomorrow (10/29). This is very early for Virginia and I actually doubt we'll see any. But you know how conservative the NWS can be !!

Update 9/11/11: Turned Over the "Canoe"

I am finally able to sit in the fuselage and make airplane noises! LOL It was actually last weekend (Labor Day weekend) that we turned over the "canoe." It's really neat (and satisfying) to see it coming together. I spent a good bit of time on the forward section of the fuselage while it was turned upside down. I wish I had a dime for each time I crawled under the sidewall to work on the inside of the fuselage.

After the fuselage was turned over, I worked on installing the rudder pedals. I'm a little concerned that the pedals may be difficult for me to reach. I'm 5'8". I did sit inside the fuselage and tried to guess where I would be positioned relative to the pedals. However, without the seating structure in place, it's a little difficult to confirm that I will be comfortably able to reach the pedals. As near as I can tell, I should be OK. I'm not sure that I would be as confident if I were 5'4" !!!

Update 8/15/11: Travel and the Fuselage

Well the last month has included a trip to Osh Kosh, a trip to Vans Aircraft, and continued work on the fuselage. After spending 5 days in OSH, I came back home and was soon off to Portland, OR for the family's summer vacation. While in Portland, we took a ride down to Vans and Ken gave us a tour and a demo ride in the RV-9. The demo ride was great and gave me an added shot of motivation at a time when I'm starting to wonder if I am ever going to finish this thing.

We returned from Portland around 5pm this past Saturday and on Sunday I was able to spend about 5 hours working on the plane. I finished drilling the holes in the upper Longeron and the firewall. I also worked on the holes for the landing gear and associated brake lines. It felt great to get back to working on the plane. Following the demo ride, I have decided that I need to try and pick up my pace and to work on my flying skills which are not where they need to be.

Update 7/12/11: It Looks Like a Canoe !

I actually have been working on the airplane a good bit over the last few months. All of the work has focused on assembling the fuselage. I did have some difficultly clecoing on the F-970 Side Skins. When I first put them on, the holes did not line up with the holes in the Aft Side Skins. So I took some photos, added some text, and then sent them on to Vans. I talked with Gus on the phone. He suggested that I try re-adjusting the assemblies and he gave me a few "key" dimensions from an F-970 skin in the warehouse. The dimensions matched my side skin so I started over, but used the center section bulkheads (I think they are F-722 & F-724, I don't have the drawings with me) to set the spacing between the bulkheads. This along with a few other adjustments resulted in much better alignment. I checked to make sure everything lined up well and I am now on to drilling the longerons, which will likely take awhile !

BTW, working in the garage on a hot and humid Virginia summer day stinks. The nice cool basement was much better.

Update 5/16/11: Moved to the Garage

Well I was finally able to prime all of the parts for the aft and center sections of the fuselage. That means that I am ready to get started riveting the fuselage together. Which also means that I need to move the assembly operations to the garage since the fuselage won't fit through the basement door to the outside.. Here is a photo of the garage workspace. I had to build a rack to store some wood and I also relocated the compressor. I moved a workbench up from the basement along with some benchtop tools. I also bought some carpet from Home Depot for $40 bucks. It's amazing how much more "inviting" the garage work area is with the carpet. Don't worry, I don't plan to hang any curtains !!!

I'm still getting used to working in the garage. I find myself going back and forth from the basement to the garage quit a lot. It's kind of a drag, but I'll need to make it work. At least I'm able to work at home and don't need to travel to the airport to work on the plane. The other thing is that I now need to keep one of the cars in the driveway, which stinks !!! :-(

Update 3/20/11: Prep Party !!

I've been busy deburring and prepping fuselage ribs, skins, and stiffeners for priming. This is a lot of work and not much fun. However, I did finish prepping the components that are the first to be riveted together as part of the aft and center fuselage sections. I estimate that I spent nearly 20 hours prepping parts and this does not include the bulkheads which were prepped prior to match drilling. Next is washing and priming, but that will need to wait a few weeks until the weather is warm enough.

Update 3/7/11: Fuselage Center Section

Over the weekend I finished match drilling the center fuselage section. Whenever I need to match drill a large number of holes, I use a method to help keep track of which holes I've drilled. It goes as follows:

1. I drill 10 to 20 holes counting them as I go along.

2. I mark each drilled hole with a marker, again counting them as I go along. The key is to count to the same number ;-)

3. Add clecos to the drilled holes.

4. Remove clecos from the undrilled holes

5. Repeat the process.

You may think it is a little silly to count the holes. But drilling a couple of hundred holes can get rather monotonous and it's easy to think you drilled a hole when you actually didn't. This technique helps minimize that and keeps your brain engaged.

Update 1/30/11: Fuselage: Aft Fuselage (F711 Bulkhead)

This past week, I began to assemble the aft fuselage and ran into a little issue when installing the F-711 bulkhead sub-assembly. The F-711 bulkhead sub-assembly consists of two bulkheads (711A & 711B which are nearly identical) riveted together along with the aluminum bars/straps that are used to hold the horizontal stabilizer in place. Mine just did not want to line up with the pre-punched holes in the side skins. One contributing factor was that I assembled the A & B bulkheads in reverse order. However, the assembly did not fit well even after I turned it around so that the A & B were properly oriented (but the straps were on the wrong side). After spending much time trying to fit it, I gave up and ordered new 711 bulkheads from Vans. This time I ordered one 711A and two 711Bs figuring that since the B had fewer pre-punched holes I could drill more virgin holes to get a better fit. In the end, I constructed the F-711 sub-assembly using two F-711B bulkheads and it fit much much better. In fact the holes in the side flanges of the sub-assembly (using the two 711Bs) aligned with the pre-punched holes in the side skins much better that when I used the properly configured A & B combination. Go Figure !!

Update 11/30/10: Fuselage: Bulkhead F706

I have been making good progress of late. I am starting on the the forth bulkhead in the fuselage. I believe it's F706. Each time I start on a new bulkhead I begin by gathering up all of the needed parts. This usually includes determining what parts need to be fabricated and what material they are made from. Angle 063 3/4X3/4 seems to be used for several parts. The only 063 3/4X3/4 that I have left is 2 12' sections. I was hesitant to use these, thinking that they may be used as stringers for the fuselage. However, after looking over the drawings and reading the note from Vans telling you not to cut the 2 15 stringers that came with the wing spars, I decided that the 2 12' 063 sections were meant to be used for making various parts.