SAvannah kit 2 comming home tomorrow :)

[boleropilot]

never built anything (except a nice little deck out the back - (Kiwis pls note: it is made of wood) but in case you didn't hear about this incident I will enlighten you:-

 

one of our club members at The Flying Tigers (Boonah, S E Qld) had his Savannah almost totally destroyed by a supercell that went through Avalon a few years ago

 

he trailered it back to Boonah and rebuilt it, which is why it sports Phoenix nametags on the sides...

 

when I mentioned to the pilot that no tiedown ropes/anchors would have held, he replied "yes they did, it was the tiedown brackets in the wing that failed"

 

during the rebuild he re-designed and beefed up the brackets - he is confident they will not fail again!

 

good luck with the build, I'll be keeping track over time

 

cheers

 

BP

 

PS

 

if you want a good laugh, look up the videos about Kiwis building decks....damn funny eh bro

 

 

[rmorton]

Finally getting on with things after a lazy summer. I now have the elevator, rudder, fin and all flatirons done, just the end caps to put on the rudder and fin as well as the elevator.

 

More recently i have been assembling the seat this week and it is quite complicated with some serious bending of aluminium required. The instructions are ok but there is precious little information on what size and type of rivet to use and where. I had 5 or six different types and and still see to be missing one size! Any advice or experience welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guy s]

I was fascinated with how the seats went together, certainly a work of art.

 

 

[MajorTom]

Good to see you back on track! Now keep going, so we can have our little fly in next spring!

 

 

[rmorton]

Good to see you back on track! Now keep going, so we can have our little fly in next spring!

still very slow progress here though. we are buying a house for retirement and with work etc I have had little time or enthusiasm. thankfully your new photos and words have spurred me on so ten more rivets in place and one step closer :)

 

 

[rmorton]

I am back at it with possibility of confinement due this virus thing, I have no excuse.

 

My first problem of course is space, the house is full and the garage has the one complete wing in it. So its time to tackle a few of the smaller tasks like fitting the servo to the trim tab. I cant find any decent pictures of the wiring and it isn't clear from the instructions what all the different plastic plugs are. My first question is :

 

Does the cable with the 6 pin moulded connector connect directly to the servo and then feed the loose wires through the the tail or is it the other way round.

 

As always reply gratefully recieved

[IBob]

As I recall, that is correct...if the plug on the short cable marries to the plug on the servo, then yes.

[IBob]

Great to hear you're back into it......you won't be sorry!

And the servo wiring comes clear: there is a colour coded wiring diagram on the manufacturer's website if you didn't get one with the servo. You don't need to be sorting the rest of it out until you are attaching the empennage to the fuselage.

I put a line of grommets through the frames of the rear fuselage, with a pull-through cord, so that I could pull the servo cable through from cockpit to tail. In retrospect, I could have just installed the cable before skinning the rear fuse, but it did mean I didn't have to sort out the actual connections of the cable until I had the whole thing together.

[rmorton]

Thank you Bob, I realised that after a period of inactivity I had made many mistakes. First of all I had the wrong cable! I hadn't realised there was a long and short one. I think it is also great advise to leave the working out of the connection until later otherwise I just get sidetracked and waste time and effort. Not to mention that by the time I finally get to assembling it all I will have forgotten. The other thing that has confused the issue somewhat is the number of "spare" parts. there is a red and black splitter cable about 6 inches long and a number of connector blocks two of which I am guessing are the other end of the cable. I will bag them up for now and worry about them later. Next task is to drill and fix the tip mounts and the tips themselves. Then clear the garage .....again!!

[IBob]

Rmorton there is a plug/socket connection to be made between the short cable that runs through the stabiliser, and the longer cable that runs forward from there to the instrument panel. That connection is made when the stabiliser is mounted, but before you put the tailfin on. In the meantime, all you need is the cables in place (or some means of pulling them through).

 

The first pic shows the servo mounted (I used rivnuts) and the plug/socket there anchored with a cable tie, which is simple and effective.

(It also shows the rivnuts I used for mounting the tip: in the upshot, I have used only every other one of these.)

 

The second pic shows the rear fuse with a row of the grommets up the LH side frames and the longer cable threaded through them, with the excess coiled. I also put a pull through cord through the grommets to allow future wiring additions.

[rmorton]

That paintwork is beautiful! I should have used rivets but figured that if the servo needs replacing I would do it then. I will print a clip to hold the cable in place and use the existing hole in the end rib

[IBob]

I think you would be very unfortunate to have to replace the servo, so whatever fixes it firmly in place: obviously it is very important that it doesn't come loose. I used rivnuts and and Loctite, rivets would be fine also. And of course all flight surfaces are checked every preflight.

And thank you: I really enjoyed spraying the colour: it was so easy to see it going on, compared to the white.

[rmorton]

Well every little helps, I decided this weekend to build the flatiron mixer just to get it out of the way and to avoid clearing the garage again. It isn't too difficult but there are times when it doesn't look like all the parts will line up. The only other problem I had was some rather rough rivet holes in the sheet material. I have also decided that some parts I will not paint to reduce the prep time. I will see how it goes and could always spray these parts later with a corrosion inhibitor. The plane will be hangared and will never fly by the sea.

 

[eightyknots]

And wash your hands before you work on it. Nev

 

COVID-19?

[eightyknots]

Well every little helps, I decided this weekend to build the flatiron mixer just to get it out of the way and to avoid clearing the garage again. It isn't too difficult but there are times when it doesn't look like all the parts will line up. The only other problem I had was some rather rough rivet holes in the sheet material. I have also decided that some parts I will not paint to reduce the prep time. I will see how it goes and could always spray these parts later with a corrosion inhibitor. The plane will be hangared and will never fly by the sea.

 

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It's good to see you working on your Savannah again. I have hardly been near my build and (due to unforeseen circumstances) was kept away from September till March.

 

Today, I finished by two outer flaperons. Next job, the inner flaperons.

 

I will probably start on a wing next but, after reading this thread, perhaps I will have a look at the flaperon mixer first.

[rmorton]

Its all a question of time and space at this end! I am making some progress with the garage and have now peeped the remaining flappers for paint along with the fin and some other minor parts. Friday I will prep the door parts for primer. I managed to retrieve one window and was wondering how resilient Lexan is to scratching and yellowing with age? Is Plexiglass better?

[rmorton]

Making up the doors at the moment, prepping all the parts and following the instructions and parts catalogue it seems the left and right door parts are a bit mixed up. I have checked the numbers several times both against the instructions and the parts catalogue. The exterior framing has a bevel along the outer edge however it seems to flip over between the bottom two sections. Does any one have a close up of this?

 

[IBob]

You are correct in thinking that the bevel should remain the same all round the door: inwards towards the fuselage.

I think you should have SL253 and SL254 for L and R doors respectively (though my parts manual shows 253 for both doors, which cannot be right either.)

[rmorton]

Ive been away for a while but not totally idle. Fuselage is coming on nicely now with lots of misfits to sort and plenty of rivets done. I have had a few occasions where rivet holes have stretched and torn such as the one in the picture. Most have been small and can be replaced with a larger rivet where space allows, however this one is is too big. Is there an accepted repair method for this problem? In this case the cover is not structural but the two undamaged holes below are (fuselage skin and aileron crank support.

[IBob]

Rmorton, I would suggest  making a new hole next to the damaged one, but not too close, perhaps 3 diameters minimum distance?

Hopefully you can then (also) close off the damaged hole with a rivet.

 

To reduce the possibility of damage to the holes, it is good to have tapered podgers that fit the hole size correctly when inserted. For the smaller holes I used tapered awls. For the larger holes I bought a set of cheap pin punches, and ground then polished a taper onto them.

 

[rmorton]

5 hours ago, IBob said:

Rmorton, I would suggest  making a new hole next to the damaged one, but not too close, perhaps 3 diameters minimum distance?

Hopefully you can then (also) close off the damaged hole with a rivet.

 

To reduce the possibility of damage to the holes, it is good to have tapered podgers that fit the hole size correctly when inserted. For the smaller holes I used tapered awls. For the larger holes I bought a set of cheap pin punches, and ground then polished a taper onto them.

 

Thank you, the awls are great but no easy to find round here. I have some pointy screw drivers of the right dimensions that have worked well and it is true that all the damaged holes I've had were done with clecos. I was hoping to avoid extra rivets from the outside skin so wondered if I make a bracket and drill it through the outer skin clamping the damaged plate and then two rivets through the return of the bracket? 

 

 

 

[rmorton]

So it gets worse, now I am stuck. I am having a few issues like this in the cockpit area. The front three bolt holes, the two top rivet holes and the bolt holes in the tunnel line up reasonably well however the rear bolt holes and top rivet hole are at least one diameter out!! I am at a loss as to the best way to sort this. No amount of bashing with a hammer will line them all up. the only way I can see to solve this is to weld up the miss aligned holes and re-drill, is that the best way? does anyone have a close up of the rear plate and how it aligns with the bottom of the fuselage?

 

[IBob]

First things forts Rmorton:

2 hours ago, rmorton said:

So it gets worse, now I am stuck. I am having a few issues like this in the cockpit area. The front three bolt holes, the two top rivet holes and the bolt holes in the tunnel line up reasonably well however the rear bolt holes and top rivet hole are at least one diameter out!! I am at a loss as to the best way to sort this. No amount of bashing with a hammer will line them all up.

 

 

First things first Rmorton: please tell me you are not lining stuff up by 'bashing it with a hammer'???????????

There is no way you should be bashing anything on an airframe with a hammer.

[rmorton]

Don't worry its a civil engineering term for easing things into place. So far I have used away and persuasion but it is way too tight. I have sent the photos off to the agent to see what they recommend. No amount of hammer work is going to get this to line up. Its really frustrating as the engine mount and cabin frame all week fine. 

 

[IBob]

If a door won't shut, you can try slamming it progressively harder. Or you can look to see why.