13Jun21 - Practise kit - Part 1

So finally time to start playing with the 'toys' and see how 'easy' this is. The instructions are vague at best (thankfully the RV14 plans are very clear), and you get lots of small bags full of different rivets just labelled ' Bag 1', Bag 2 etc. That said, it is helpful to figure it all out and start drilling and riveting. As you can see, I wasnt able to roll the leading edge very well at all, and had butchered the metal so badly I just gave up....abit of web research and identifed my mistake, so on the second practice kit, the one you show your inspector :), it should be alot better.... Strangely, clecos would not stay in some of my drilled holes, so not sure what I did wrong...I also completely screwed up drilling out some rivets too....

What I learned:

- back riveting & squeezing rivets, when it is set up correctly, is very straight forward, satisfying and frankly fun. Not sure I will be of the same mindset on 4072th rivet tho...

- bucking rivets however, is going to require alot more practise to be consistent. Fiddling with air pressure helps, but I am no where near confident enough to do this on a real plane....

- drilling out bad rivets needs ALOT more practice. I either drill off centre, or make the hole too big for a replacement rivet....

So, back to the drawing board....