Day 12 - December 19, 2009

This weeks work session was our last for 2009.

We have now completed eight 5.5 hour Saturday work sessions which we did actual construction on the RV-12 kit.

At this weeks session we began construction of both flaperons, made more progress on both wings, and completed the inventory of our fuselage kit (a major project...there are about as many parts in the fuselage kit as there is in the wing and emp./tail cone kits combined).

The emp. tail cone kit work was finalized with the completion of the pitch trim mechanism, and bolting the last control horn onto the stabilator. After completing the kit inventory, some initial work was started on the fuselage construction.

Both teams building the wings finished (finally...they were getting a little tired of deburring and fluting) with all of the part preparation and they will be starting next time with the steps that install ribs on the wing spars.

We discovered the danger of working with a construction manual that was written in the context of one person doing the work by themself.  Some of the wing nose ribs need to have some trimming completed on them...with two teams (three members each team) working separately on the two wings, we ended up with five too many ribs getting modified for one of the wings...fortunately we knew where to find more.

We are taking a two week break for the Christmas and New Years holidays but we will be back to work on Saturday Jan 9, 2010

Day 11 - December 12, 2009

Not all that unusual for this time of year in Oregon...the weather forecast for the day of our work session was for a strong chance of a major ice storm in our area. Consequently the decision was made to postpone the project open house day that we had scheduled.

We still held this weeks work session for anyone that braved the bad weather, and in case the forecast conditions didn't happen (which for the most part they did not).

Eight of our twelve team members made it to the work session and most of our mentors as well.

More progress was made on both of the wings with all part preparation now completed and the teams are ready to start attaching ribs to the spars.

We also had another major milestone with one of our teams completing the Stabilator (other than the attachment of one of the control arms). This team will be starting on our fuselage kit next week.

We have one more work session scheduled for 2010 and then we will be taking two weeks off for the Christmas and New Years Holidays, but we will be back to work on Jan 9th 2010.

Day 10 - December 5, 2009

This week we saw the completion of another major subassembly.

The Tail cone is finished!

All of the team members got a chance to see how torsionally stiff a large structure such as this can be, but still be so light in weight.

One skin has now been installed on the stabilator so it should be completed at our next session.. The other two teams made good progress on preparation of the fwd and aft wing spars so we should see main wing structure assembly begin during our next work session.

At our next session we are holding a project open house to allow Team Members family and friends, organizers of the Teen Flight program, and financial donors to come and view the progress that has been made so far.

Day 9 - November 21, 2009

This session begins our third month since we started the program at the end of September (How time fly's).

There is a short article written by Richard Vangrunsven (where the 'RV 'in the model name comes from) published recently in the Van's Aircraft, Inc. newsletter, "The RVator".  The article can be found at http://www.vansaircraft.com/RVator/2009/5-2009-RVator.pdf

In our work session this week the inventory of the wing kit was completed and all of the hardware organized.

Two of our four teams started construction on the left and right wings with the other two teams nearing completion of the Tail Cone and the Stabilator.

We are taking a break on the Saturday following Thanksgiving day but when we come back to work the following week we expect to start doing some work on the fuselage kit.

Day 8 - November 14, 2009

We ended week Eight with the tail cone about half assembled and the Stabilator completed to a point that it is ready for attaching the skins.

The Rudder, Vertical Stabilizer, and both halves of the anti-servo tab are completed. Next week some of the team will be starting on wing assembly.

The Teams are making great strides in their familiarity with the tools and plans. Each week is more and more exciting!