Still thinking about an RV-14

Jim K said:
Inventory done as well as the first two pages, which includes the first 10 rivets.
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How many pages/rivets for the whole plane? I'm assuming the rivets are "I dunno but more than you'd want to know anyway" and... Do they give you all of the plans for the whole plane with the first kit, or just enough to finish that kit?
Jim K said:
Jan 2, 2025 will at least be easy to remember as a start date and to calculate length of build. We should start a pool for the first flight date :tongue:
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Depends on whether you get the parts to finish your other bird's engine first or not. :eek:

Are you going to keep a build log online, or just update this thread, or both?
 
flyingcheesehead said:
How many pages/rivets for the whole plane? I'm assuming the rivets are "I dunno but more than you'd want to know anyway" and... Do they give you all of the plans for the whole plane with the first kit, or just enough to finish that kit?
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20,000 ish rivets allegedly. Not sure on the page number as they break it into sections. First actual build steps are section 6, vertical stabilizer. Section 51 completes everything through the engine installation and then there's 10 more sections concerning avionics and wiring. They send paper copies of the steps covering just the kit you have, and give you access to a pdf version of all the plans. A better community annotated version can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/dbxm...rcsjey02d2pr0o2o9h0kqtj4&e=2&st=b8591bws&dl=0

flyingcheesehead said:
Depends on whether you get the parts to finish your other bird's engine first or not.
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That will be priority #1 once I finally get parts back. Shouldn't take too long to build the engine, but then there's hanging it and breaking it in...

flyingcheesehead said:
Are you going to keep a build log online, or just update this thread, or both?
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Both, I think. I started a log on the EAA site so I have something I can show the DAR. I'll probably post updates here for major milestones.
 
You prepunched guys, I swear. I just can't get used to seeing RVs being assembled without jigs. :biggrin:

Nauga,
and the reason for fixed trim tabs
 
According to one of the three spreadsheets that comprise my build log, the RV-14 plans have 536 pages and 4004 steps, excluding the tricycle-only sections and a couple of optional lighting sections where I rolled my own. The unofficial rivet count is indeed about 20,000 but even at my most OCD-prone I never made it past the "I wonder if that's accurate" stage of trying to count them all.

nauga said:
You prepunched guys, I swear. I just can't get used to seeing RVs being assembled without jigs. :biggrin:
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I should have made a video when we mounted the wings. Two guys, 2.5 hours, and no adjustments required. :cornut:
 
Rcmutz said:
That’s a nice scheme and color of blue you painted it! :biggrin:
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More than once I asked myself if you could just leave the blue plastic on the plane as a paint job. Anyone that's left that stuff on a piece of sheetmetal knows how hard it is to remove after a few years.
 
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AV8R_87 said:
More than once I asked myself if you could just leave the blue plastic on the plane as a paint job. Anyone that's left that stuff on a piece of sheetmetal knows how hard ut is to remove after a few years.
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If I ever build again I’m taking that plastic all the way off vs removing rivet line strips. Cutting out those strips is a waste of time and serves no real useful purpose IMO.
 
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tsts4 said:
If I ever build again I’m taking that plastic all the way off vs removing rivet line strips. Cutting out those strips is a waste of time and serves no real useful purpose IMO.
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I was doing the strips again today on the rudder skin and second guessing myself. I decided to go ahead and do it because I'm clumsy and bump into/drop things. When doing the practice kits I noticed that the vinyl will absorb a little bit of energy and prevent a scratch/ding to some extent. It also provides a little bit of thickness when laying the parts on a dirty surface.

OTOH, I'm sure the primer and paint would fill any damage the vinyl would protect against.

There's no way I would do it if I was still using a pencil type soldering iron as it takes forever. I picked up a cheap wood burning tool at hobby lobby that's significantly hotter and it melts the plastic pretty fast. Of course peeling off the strips is still tedious.
 
Jim K said:
OTOH, I'm sure the primer and paint would fill any damage the vinyl would protect against
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Exactly. Good paint prep will erase all but the most egregious mishandling evidence in which case the plastic wouldn’t have helped either.
 
Congrats on getting the kit and getting started.
Enjoy the journey.
 
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