Vans Aircraft RV-12 Build, Section 23 Side Skins (part 8)

Reference: page 23-08; 1.5 hours

This is the last entry for the RV-12 fuselage side installation section.

Step 1: Make two Lwr Cowl Hinges 10 inches long from AN257-P3 Piano Hinge. Remove pin before cutting the hinge! See figure 1 on page 23-08 of the RV-12 plans.



Builder's note: The picture above is a kind of after the fact picture. I ended up recutting the hinge for the right side of the aircraft, because, the RV-12 plans don't make a big deal about it, but I think the half of the hinge that is mounted to the fuselage is supposed to have and eye at the top. My original hinge was a mirror image of this.

Step 2: Make two Firewall Spacers from AS3-020 per the dimensions in the RV-12 plans.



Step 3: Align the Firewall Spacers and fwd edge of the notches in the Lwr Cowl Hinges with the forward and upper flange edges of the Firewall Bottom. Match-Drill #30 the holes common between the firewall bottom, Lwr cowl hinges and the firewall spacers. Remove and deburr the firewall spacers and Lwr cowl hinges.



Builder's note: Make sure the firewall holes line up with the fuselage skin holes before drilling!





Step 4: Rivet the Firewall Spacers and Lwr Cowl Hinges to the Fuselage Assembly per the callouts in figure 3 by Van's Aircraft on page 23*08 of the RV-12 plans.









This completes page 23-08 and section 23! Next I will move on to the Roll Bar assembly for the RV-12 aircraft. Please stay tuned in.

Vans Aircraft RV-12 Build, Section 23 Side Skins (part 7)

Reference: page 23-07; 2.5 hours

This entry will finish installing of the the fuselage side air vents on the RV-12. If you are new to this blog, I'm building a RV-12 which is an experimental aircraft kitted by Van's Aircraft that meet the criteria for an LSA or Light Sport Aircraft. Among other things I have a small builder's Gotcha on the vents, but more on that later.

Step 1: Cut apart the Vent Bracket into two F-1086A and two F-1086B Vent Brackets. Cut apart the Vent Slide into tow F-1087A and two F-1087B Vent Slides.



Step 2: Cleco the Vent Slides, Vent Door Doubler and Vent Door together. Final-drill #40 the holes common between these parts. This creates the Vent Door Subassembly. Repeat this step to create a second vent door.



Step 3: Machine countersink the holes in the Vent Doors for flush rivets on the outboard side of the aircraft.



Step4: File the edges of the slot smooth in the Vent slides. Check that an AN525-10R7 Screw smoothly slides along the entire length of the slot.



Step 5: Cleco the Vent Brackets and the Vent Doubler to the left Fuselage Side Skin. Final-drill #30 the holes common between these parts. Repeat this step for the right side of the aircraft.



Builder's note: This is were the Gotcha comes in, see picture below. While drilling the brackets I went as slow as possible and still managed to snag the bracket and break it! Oh well time for a new bracket. On the remaining bracket holes, I drilled the last little bit of the hole with the drill running in reverse. Yes it was a pain but it didn't grab the bracket.



Step 6: Disassemble the Vent Brackets and Vent Doublers from the fuselage side skins. Disassemble the Vent Door Subassemblies. Deburr all parts.

Step 7: Rivet the Vent Doublers and Vent Brackets to the Fuselage Side Skin. Repeat this step for the right side of the aircraft.





Step 8: Rivet the Vent Slides, Vent Door Doubler, and Vent Door together. Repeat this step to create a second door subassembly.



Step 9: Insert the Vent Door Subassembly as shown in figure 5 of the RV-12 plans on page 23-07. Install the hardware called out by Van's Aircraft through the Vent Brackets and the slot in the vent door subassembly. Repeat this step fro the right side of the aircraft.





On the last step I trial fit the vents and then bagged the hardware for installation after painting. This completes page 23-07. So long until next time.

Vans Aircraft RV-12 Build, Section 23 Side Skins (part 6)

Reference: page 23-06; 5.0 hours

Step 4: Remove, deburr and prime the Left and right Longerons. Trim the tab from the aft edge of the Fuselage Side Skins as shown in the detail view in figure 1 of the RV-12 plans on page 23-06. Break the bottom and aft edge of both side skins.









Step 5: Dimple the nutplate holes around the triangular opening in the Fuselage side Skins (flush outboard side). Thetop center nutplate hole is inaccessible with a 3" yoke. Rivet nutplates to these holes as called out in figure 1 of Van's Aircraft's RV-12 plans. Dimple nutplate attach holes at the forward top corner of fuselage side skins.

Builder's note: While a 3" yoke may not work my ~2 1/2" yoke worked just fine.







Step 6: Reassemble the Longerons, Canopy Decks and Fuselage Side Skins into the fuselage.







CAUTION: Do not rivet the holes marked with a triangle in Van's Aricraft's plans on page 23-06. Cleco these holes for later assembly.

Step 7: Rivet the Fuselage Side Skins, Longerons, Roll Bar Attach Plates and Canopy Decks to the fuselage assembly.

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Step 8: Cut apart the two F-1256 Skin Stiffeners. Rivet the skin stiffeners to the Fuselage Side Skins.





Builder's note: The bottom of the stiffener should be parallel to the baggage compartment floor as can be seen below.



This complete page 23-06 and this entry for the fuselage of the RV-12 airplane.

Vans Aircraft RV-12 Build, Section 23 Side Skins (part 5)

Reference: page 23-06; 9.0 hours

During this building session I had a problem with the way the Longerons vertex aligned with the roll bar attachment plates (see step 2 below.) This may not be a big problem, however I will add it to the Gotcha list just to make people aware of the fit issue.

Step 1: Rivet the F-1202L Gussets to the Bulkhead Side channels as shown in figure 1 of the RV-12 planes on page 23-06.



Step 2: Cleco the Fuselage Side Skins to the fuselage skeleton. Align the aft edge of the Canopy Decks with the forward edge of the Roll Bar Attach Plates. Align the vertex of the Longerons with the upper edge of the fuselage side skin. Clamp the longeron to the fuselage side skin. Align the outboard edge of the Roll Barr Attach Plates with the vertex of the longeron. Clamp the roll bar attach plates to the longeron.





So here is the Gotcha. In the pictures below you can see the vertex of the longeron is not flush with the edge of the Roll Bar plate.The culprit is the tab on the center section frame. By grinding this down it allows the longeron to fit closure to the way it is described in the plans.







Step 3: Match-Drill #30 and cleco all holes common between the Fuselage Side Skins and the Longerons. Match-Drill #30 all holes common between the Roll Bar Attach Plates and longerons.





Builder's note: As this is drilled make sure the tab gets drilled correctly and not damaged.





Thats all for this entry on the RV-12 airplane build. Enjoy!

Vans Aircraft RV-12 Build, Section 23 Side Skins (part 4)

Reference: page 23-05; 2.0 hours

This entry is a continuation of installing the mid side skin on to the RV-12 aircraft designed and kitted by Van's Aircraft.

Step 1: Cut out the wing spar penetration in the Fuselage Side Skins to create left and right side skins. Start by marking out the shaded areas labeled in Figure 1 and 2 of the RV-12 plans on page 23-05. Drill a large hole with a unibit inside the shaded area. Use snips to cut close to, but not at the edge of the shaded area. Snip around a final time removing material up to the trim line around the shaded area. Deburr the edges of the hole.
Builder's note: I used a hand nibbler purchased from Aircraft Tool Supply. It's slow going but doesn't distort the aluminum like aviation snips can.







Step 2: Mark the Fuselage Skins left and right.

This completes page 23-05. The rest of the time was spent deburring the edges of the skins.

Vans Aircraft RV-12 Build, Section 23 Side Skins (part 3)

Reference: page 23-03, 23-04; 2.0 hours

So here we are again working on the RV-12 LSA aircraft by Van's Aircraft. This entry deals with the building of the center sections and side skins. So, let's get to it!

Step 1: Machine countersink the top face of the Roll Bar Attach Plates for the nutplate attach rivets and the five locations called out in Figure 1 on page 23-03 of the RV-12 plans to create mirrored left and right parts.



Step 2: Rivet nutplate to the Roll Bar Attach Plates as shown in figure 1. (Temporarily thread a bolts into the nutplate while riveting.

Builder's note: The bolt would not fit into the holes on the plates, so I used a unibit and drilled them out to 1/4".



Step 3: Rivet the Mid Fuse Brace to the aft side of the Bulkhead sides. See figure 2 on page 23*03 of Van's Aircraft's plans for the RV-12.



Step 4: Rivet the Roll Bar Attach Plates and Mid Fuse Brace Close-out to the Mid Fuse Brace and Bulkhead Sides (Do not rivet the roll bar attach plate to the F-1204F-L and -R Aat side bulkheads.



Builder's note: In the picture above I'm pointing at a seventh rivet not called out by Van's Aircraft. The RV-12 plans say there are only six rivets. So I went ahead and put a rivet in the hole. Only time will tell if this was a mistake. In that case I will drill it out.



This completes page 23-04

Reference page 23-04

Step 1: Cut apart the deburr the Arm Rest Brackets. See figure 1 on page 23-04.



Step 2: Rivet the Arm Rest Bracket to the Bulkhead Side Channel. Repeat theis for the right side of the aircraft.



Step 3: Rivet the Bulkhead Side Channels to the Bulkhead per the call outs in Figure 2 on page 23-04 of the RV-12 plans. Rivet the Bulkhead Side Channels to the F-1203A bulkhead.





Step 4: Remove the tab from the notch in the Arm Rests that is for the Bulkhead Side Channels.



Step 5: Match-drill #30 forward tabs of the Arm Rests to the Bulkhead channels. Match-drill #30 the afttabs of the arm rest to the Fwd Bulkhead Sides. Deburr the bulkhead side channels and fwd bulkhead sides.



Builder's note: The rivet I am pointing at in the picture above had to be removed to fit the Arm Rest.





Step 6: Rivet a Fuselage Pin Latch to both the Arm Rests.



Step 7: Rivet the Arm Rests to the Bulkhead Side Channels. Rivet the arm rests to the Fwd Bulkhead Sides. Rivet the arm rests to the Arm Rest Brackets. See figure 3 on page 23-04 of Van's Aircraft plans.

Builder's note: The arm rest rubbed on the Bulkhead channel so I opened up the cut out to eliminate the possible wear points. See the pictures below.







Step 8: Insert the Canopy Decks and Longeron (should still be clecoed together as an assembly) into the fuselage skeleton. Cleco the canopy decks to the upper tab in the Bulkhead Side Channels.





This completes page 23-04. I am thoroughly enjoying building the RV-12. So long until next time.