Wendell Folks RV-8 Project - Page 4.

October 1, 2005:  This photo from September 30th begins this page.  Wendell wanted to start on the doubler and rear spar of the vertical stabilizer in the remaining minutes of the September 30th session.  He chose this part since it has counter-sinked and dimpled parts that have to be riveted together with the squeezer instead of the rivet gun.  I pointed out the differences in the preparation of these parts for a tail dragger kit versus a nose-wheel equipped airplane.

You may have noticed the caulking gun on the table in the photo above.  One of the errands Wendell had for the remainder of today was to get a cartridge of RTV Silicone for the caulking gun to be used inside the rudder near the trailing edge of the stiffeners before installing the final rivets.  The same process will be repeated on the elevators.

October 5, 2005:  Wendell took two days off from his airplane project to work on some home projects.  I have two pictures from Monday showing the work completed on the empennage kit as of that day.   I gave him lessons on using the small bucking bar and the mushroom set to rivet the vertical stabilizer skin to the center rib and front spar of the VS.  He seemed to catch on quickly to this kind of riveting and the "braile method" of positioning the 1-pound bucking bar inside the VS.  After this photo was taken he wanted to set aside the vertical stabilizer to work on the more complex left elevator and trim tab combination.

At the end of the day, he was very happy to have the rudder completed except for the fiberglass parts.  The left rudder is ready to rivet closed.  The trim tab is complete except for the three blind rivets on one end.

October 12, 2005:   Wendell took most of yesterday and today off from the airplane project to help his daughter and her husband with a project that has nothing to do with building an airplane.   I was at the hangar getting the "Enterprise" ready for tomorrow's trip.   When I went into the construction shop, I took three pictures to show the status of Wendell's RV-8 empennage parts.  The left elevator is complete except for rolling the forward skins together, then pop-riveting them together.  The skin for the LEFT horizontal stabilizer has the center nose rib clecoed into position and is ready to be riveted in the next work session.  The aft spar for the horizontal stabilizer is fully riveted together and is ready to put onto the two halves of the horizontal stabilizer when all other riveting of skins to the remaining skeleton is completed.

The right elevator is also ready for the forward skin roll treatment.  All other skin rivets and skeleton rivets are installed along with the counter balance lead weights.  The front spar for the horizontal stabilizer is visible at the right of this photo.  It is fully riveted together with the two doublers near the center, and the inner and outer ribs.  It is ready to be riveted to the left and right stabilizer skins.

And the last photo for today shows the skin for the right stabilizer with the center nose rib clecoed in position and ready to be riveted in place.  This was the last lesson I gave Wendell the other day, and it was all about getting the flanges of the ribs parallel with the taper of the skin.  He learned to "fine tune" the fluting of the rib flanges after getting the flanges in the "parallel" position with the skin.

Wendell says he will wait until I return before resuming work on these skins.   He had a mishap working on the LEFT elevator and would rather I were around to advise him on these pieces when he does the final riveting.  He also got word from Van's Aircraft that his shipment will be ready the second week of November due to the availability of the components of the finishing kit.  Partain will deliver the quick-build wings, fuselage, and the finishing kit in a single shipment.  Christmas will come early for Wendell this year!