Murphy’s Law, as it applies to aircraft…

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So, I took the EAA RV builder’s class. I went over to Dan’s house and helped him a little with his RV-7. I bought and built the practice kit. I attended the EAA RV builder’s class a second time with Tom. Built ANOTHER test project.  Bought all the right tools, built a very nice work table. Got absolutely EVERYTHING ready. Finally, I got the tail skin together, cleaned and drilled and deburred and READY to go!  And when I went to drive my VERY FIRST rivet into my project: BANG!   I missed.

Big dent in tail skin.

BIG dent in tail skin

So, for those of you who have never heard of Murphy’s Laws, here is the First Law:

“If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong”

  • First Corollary: “In a manner to make you look the most foolish”
  • Second Corollary: “In a manner that will produce the most damage”
  • Third corollary: “Only on the most expensive parts”

*sigh*

When working with pre-punched parts…

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When working with pre-punched parts, do not be shy about writing on them with a Sharpie©.  Getting the correct orientation is half the battle, and keeping the victory means documenting it.  Sharpie marks can be easily removed with MEK or Acetone.  Keep a gallon of each around.  Keep it away from kids tho!

I discovered that if a pre-punched part from Van’s does not appear to fit correctly, I’m probably doing something wrong. Almost NEVER is it a Van’s problem.

Horizonal Stab with writing on it

Keep Writing!

Building other stuff….

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OK. when you start building your RV-9A, you discover very quickly what OTHER stuff you need to build first.  How about the best plane building workbenches ever?  Check out the bench and the plans for the EAA Chapter 1000 work bench at: http://www.eaa1000.av.org/technicl/worktabl/worktabl.htm

Note that you do not need to follow the plans EXACTLY. I made a long table and a short table, so I needed to buy only ONE sheet of plywood.  Actually, later I bought another sheet to have on top, so I could drill, cut, mar and generally abuse the top, then just give it to the next builder and get another.  Here is what that looks like:

EAA 1000 workbench - customized

Getting the Blog Started!

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Greetings Friends!

Well, after two and a half years of building, I’m finally building the blog!  I’m Dave of Tom and Dave and we are building a 2 seater experimental airplane.  Since there are thousands of these planes flying, I believe it is more accurate to say we are assembling an aircraft.  This is an aluminum design, with a standard aircraft engine with a cruise speed in the 180mph range (we hope). The plane is a Van’s Aircraft RV-9A. This is an aluminum, two-seater side-by-side cross-country plane with a 160 hp engine.  Check out the factory at www.vansaircraft.com

So, how does all this start?  With a little aluminum.

Empennage kit for a Van's RV-9A

Empennage kit for a Van's RV-9A