Reports by Don Fraser during visits to assist with the build

12 October 2013 Report

As previously reported, earlier this year I made a trip to Dean Wallace’s place to help with the RV12 wings.

The Oct visit completed the left wing, tucked both wings away and made room for the fuselage and bring the car in overnight.

A double garage can be used but it does take a bit of juggling.

The RV12’s empennage et al are in a spare bedroom.

You might remember that just before I arrived, Dean accidentally damaged one of his spars and had to get a new one.

We did one wing. He had finished the flaperons, empennage and fuselage tail cone already.

This Oct, I again went to the Sunshine Coast to finish the other wing.

Between visits Dean had worked on the main body of the fuselage, installed fuel lines, brakes, wiring and begun the control system.

You can see from the photos that the wiring has yet to be bundled because Dean anticipates a few changes and may include a couple of extra lines for future additions.

During the build so far, Vans produced a mod to strengthen the fuselage where main gear legs are attached.

They have also found that the place where the magnetometer is attached flexes in flight and has to be stiffened or the unit relocated, thus changing the wiring run.

Anyway  by the time I had to leave we had finished the wings along with the stall warning, nav lights and strobes and the landing light.

So far 783 hours of work has been logged.

10 April 2013 Report

The evening before my visit Dean called to report that he had damaged the spar. He thought he had clearance but it was at the end of a long hot working day and the garage door just clipped the tip. I guess that’s a lesson we all learn whilst building. Don’t push yourself too hard to meet a self-imposed target. A costly error in delays and money.

A new spar for the left wing came with the finishing kit.

This series of shots show the assembly of the right wing.

Then we modified a borrowed cradle for the wing and re-arranged his garage to make more room for the fuselage construction.