Smitty's RV-9A - Experimental Aircraft from Van's Aircraft The RV-9A from Van's Aircraft Monday, September 06, 2010 -
Howdeeeeee! I'm building an RV-9A from Van's Aircraft. Take your shoes off and sit a spell. Give me a holler if ya' got questions or ya' just wanna chew the fat about RV's.
 
Howdy Ya'll!
Howdy! I building an RV-9A! I'm an aviation nut and am excited about building my RV-9A from Van's Aircraft. Have a look around!
Do what yer' Momma said...
Go Play!
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Construction Log
Preparation
Empennage
- Horizontal Stabilizer (49:40)
- Vertical Stabilizer (21:15)
- Rudder (32:15)
- Right Elevator (35:45)
- Left Elevator (30:50)
Wings
- Inventory & Setup (9:30)
- Left Wing Prep (54:30)
- Left Fuel Tank (45:20)
- Left Wing Skins (46:10)
- Right Wing Prep (34:15)
- Right Fuel Tank (47:50)
- Right Wing Skins (40:15)
- Ailerons (54:30)
- Flaps (40:30)
- Rods and ends (18:45)
Fuselage
- Fuselage Parts List
- Inventory and Setup (7:15)
- FireWall (14:30)
- F-704 Bulkhead (13:25)
- F-705 Bulkhead (14:20)
- Other Bulkheads
   and Longerons
(17:30)

- Tailcone (29:30)
- Center Section (35:15)
- Forward Section (52:40)
- Forward Assembly (24:30)
- Skins/Baggage Area (46:30)
- Seats & Seat Floors (30:15)
- Flaps & Gear Mounts (18:15)
- Fuselage Plumbing (14:0)
- Tail Feathers (16:35)
- Front Deck/Firewall (58:50)
- Electrical
Finish Kit
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Top Skins and Baggage Area
 
Started work on the Aft Deck 5/20/2009 - Started work on the Aft Deck
Time to rivet the F-711D angle to the F-711 Bulkhead. This angle piece was left unriveted from long time ago so the outside skin could be riveted to the longerons. I just love these small rivet sets t ... read more
Aft Deck is primed and ready to rivet 5/22/2009 - Aft Deck is primed and ready to rivet
I primed the aft deck and the two filler strips and clecoed everything in place.
... read more
Drilled the F-757 Gussets into place 6/7/2009 - Drilled the F-757 Gussets into place
Here's last thing to do before deburring, dimpling, and priming these parts before riveting. I drilled these 1/8" holes for the flat head rivets that will go into the longeron.
... read more
Started work on the F-636 shoulder harness anchors 6/19/2009 - Started work on the F-636 shoulder harness anchors
This should be easy, just find those puppies, drill 3 holes, deburr, prime and bolt them in (not permanently - hand tight only!). But wait, where the hell are they? I scanned my parts lists and "F-636 ... read more
Hot, Hot, Hot! 7/13/2009 - Hot, Hot, Hot!
Holy moly! It's 2pm on a hot Texas day. I have my insulated garage door closed and my portable air conditioner running along with a floor fan. 93 degrees is as about as cool in the garage it's going t ... read more
Clecoed on the forward rear skin 7/14/2009 - Clecoed on the forward rear skin
Is it Darth Vader or the Flying Nun? I clecoed on the forward rear skin down the middle of the skin, just enough to position the F-787 Stiffener Rib between the F-706 and F-707 Bulkheads.This will all ... read more
Final drilled the top rear skins 7/20/2009 - Final drilled the top rear skins
Just as with other skins, before I started drilling, I marked the unclecoed holes with a sharpie. Then after drilling these holes, I moved the clecos into the marked holes, allowing me to identify the ... read more
I'm back from AirVenture 2009! 8/8/2009 - I'm back from AirVenture 2009!
Wow, what a show! Over 570,000 people and over 20,000 aircraft landings. This is first time we've stayed for the whole week.
... read more
Time to fit the F-6111 Ribs 8/11/2009 - Time to fit the F-6111 Ribs
Coming back fully charged from a week at AirVenture 2009, I'm ready to really "Gitter' done" on my RV. BUT, the next step is to fit the F-6111 ribs, which is a real head-scratcher. The instructions we ... read more
Time to install the F-750-L&R Aft Baggage Side Covers? 8/17/2009 - Time to install the F-750-L&R Aft Baggage Side Covers?
For those of us with a bad case of linear thinking (me included), we like it when the instructions say "do this, now do this". But as we have well learned in the building of our RV's, you have to read ... read more
Riveted the Steps on 8/18/2009 - Riveted the Steps on
This wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I was able to do it by myself. I got off-center on a few rivets and had smilies in the paint, but the hard material wasn't dented at all. So after I prime ... read more
I just ordered my Finish Kit! 8/28/2009 - I just ordered my Finish Kit!
Just like Homer and Bart, I'm smiling!! Money well spent! Now, where the hell I'm am I going to put it?
... read more
The heat has finally subsided. Back to work! 8/29/2009 - The heat has finally subsided. Back to work!
Before I could get back at, I needed to drill a couple of holes that I missed. Somehow I missed the 5/8" hole in this rib in the baggage compartment. However, none of my drills will fit in this space. ... read more
NOW it's time to install the F-750-L&R Aft Baggage Side Covers 8/31/2009 - NOW it's time to install the F-750-L&R Aft Baggage Side Covers
But first, I wanted put in the ... read more
Riveting the F-656-L&R gusset plates 9/7/2009 - Riveting the F-656-L&R gusset plates
Now that the top skins are off, I can go back and rivet these gussets. While they were still clamped into position, I drilled the holes into the longeron. Here, I've deburred, smoothed the edges and p ... read more
Started working on the F-751 and F-652 corrugated baggage bulkheads 9/8/2009 - Started working on the F-751 and F-652 corrugated baggage bulkheads
I started by clecoing the bottom corrugated bulkhead to the F-706 bulkhead. This piece is easy because the holes to be drilled into the F-706 bulkhead on each side are pre-drilled. BUT, the top corru ... read more
Time to install the F-6114B&C cable wear blocks 9/13/2009 - Time to install the F-6114B&C cable wear blocks
Since I'm building the barn door before I hang it on the barn, I'm going to try an use Vulcan logic to do a step by step pro ... read more
Marked the nutplate holes on the top baggage panel 9/14/2009 - Marked the nutplate holes on the top baggage panel
This part is just plain tedious. There a lot different measurements on the drawing, most of which come off an imaginary center line on the baggage panel. The majority of them are duplicate measurement ... read more
Fitted the F-748 Baggage Tunnel Cover 9/15/2009 - Fitted the F-748 Baggage Tunnel Cover
No biggie here. Just see if it fits. In actuality, It doesn't fit great. I put 2 screws (hand tight) into the first two nutplates. This forces the part to fit exactly over the holes in the floor panel ... read more
Time to dimple the rear top skins 9/20/2009 - Time to dimple the rear top skins
Time for soldering iron and blue film therapy! Sometimes I wonder why I go through being so meticulous about removing the blue film this way with such care and perfection. I sure leaving some of blue ... read more
The "cover your butt" section
This website was built to document my work on my RV-9A in compliance with the FAA requirements needed to certify my aircraft. My experiences and comments are by no means to be considered as instructions on how to build an RV-9A or any other aircraft.
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