Saturday, February 21, 2015

Fuselage progress continues

Another week in the books and more progress on the fuselage is made.  

finished L&R step attach assembly's

the bottom skin is clecoed to the Baggage ribs and step attach assembly's for  reveting

the finished mid fuse lower section

Start section 27 Firewall   the finished L&R firewall angles

he L&R firewall sides are dimpled

the firewall sides are ready for assembly

the L&R sides are mated to the firewall top , fuel tank sealant is applied to the bottom aft side of the firewall top and the assembly is clecoed together with the L&R tunnel assemblies for riveting

the firewall assembly is riveted


The sections are positioned together "Makes me want to sit in it and make airplane sounds" says builder Allen.

"Section 27" of the fuselage is completed!


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Fuselage Kit begins

Quick work was made of the tail kit, now on to the fuselage kit

Building part 1404 the aft center section bulkhead

Build part 1405, mid fuselage assembly 

Build of the forward center section bulkhead

Build center section seat ribs

Fit left and right outboard seat ribs

Rivet center section seat ribs to aft, center section bulkhead

Fit 1402 bulkhead assembly to center section seat ribs

Rivet doublers and stiffeners to bottom skin Dimpled #30 and #40 holes,
 Bottom skin section scuffed and primed 

Rivet center seat section to bottom skin

Build baggage rib assemblies, fit assemblies and ribs to bottom skin and center seat section.



Allen says that this airplane is wide (read comfortable)!  Great to see this progress on the fuselage.  At this pace we have one eye on Vans to see when the finishing kit will come out. Sun n Fun? Oshkosh? Who knows... 

Tail cone continues... and finishes!

Some great progress was made and Allen finished the tail kit up pretty quickly.  

The top skins are fitted 

Some back riveting! The aft rib, skin doubler, and J stiffener to the top skin

Top L skin riveting

Top R skin riveting
Top skin fitted

Top skin riveted 

The aft fuselage is complete!  It is really looking like an airplane.

(Not pictured:  We took delivery of the fuselage kit in December 2014 and took inventory of it.)

Tail cone continues


Progress continues on the tail cone section...




This photo is the rudder stop and nutplate installation


 The Aft deck installation


 Rudder cables and static lines installed, riviting on the lower skins completed.


Aft deck gets rivited into place, the rudder cable guides were installed

Gordon Clement

Hello everyone,

On September 14th 2014 the builder of this RV-14, Gordon Clement, passed away after a battle with cancer.  This was his first building experience and he loved this kit.  He never lost sight of getting better, getting back to work, and flying the RV.  Thankfully we are going to be able to continue the build and finish the RV.




  This blog will continue to be updated with our progress and photos.

I am Zak Clement, Gordon`s son, and I will be updating the blog with the progress for the build... Enjoy!