Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/401344
EAA Experimenter 19 into a standard customer-ready unit by SteinAir • fi les, rivet guns, clamps, rulers, drill bits, snips, etc. Building a plane requires tooling. Aircraft Spruce & Specialty shipped its wares to the site ready for the big day. • miscellaneous "bits and bobs" that builders generally order as they go, but when you are going to build a plane in a week, you need everything sorted out in advance. Matco wheels, Flightline Interiors upholstery, Sennheiser headsets, Sensenich propeller, etc. The scene was set. Now we needed the players: • the core team. This is the team that was practically full-time in the "bull pen"—that place where the machine was brought to life. The team members had not met before that day. They did not know each other; they were dif erent folks with dif erent strokes. They were led, coordinated, and herded by Caleb Gebhart from Zenith Aircraft. • supporting cast. Zenith Aircraft designer and aviation guru Chris Heintz, 76 years young, was there to keep an eye on things (he'd done a one week wonder at Oshkosh in 1976), as were three of his sons—Sebastien (president and CEO of Zenith Aircraft Company), Matt, and Nick (from ZenairCanada). • the ambassadors. The ambassadors were people with experi- ence in building planes, who worked "out front" answering questions and teaching wannabe builders how to pull a rivet. Ron Wagner, recently retired from EAA, was in charge of the ambassadors. Charlie Becker, EAA Homebuilt Community manager, ran nonstop to make the whole project go. • the public. Boys, girls, men, and women from so many coun- tries that the United Nations may have considered sending an of cial jealousy card. DAY ONE: A DAY OF AC T ION It was a tense moment, all of those people who didn't know each other—about to start building a plane in less than a week. They stood awaiting the order, which came from EAA Chair- man Jack Pelton. The crate was opened and people looked inside, amazed to see there were no surprises; it really was a kit of parts. Nothing was pre-assembled; this was the real deal, a proper challenge. Parts were passed over the fence from the public area into the bull pen, each part labeled with its part number clearly identifying which aircraft subassembly it would belong to. The clock ticked; nothing but unpacking, sorting, and cleaning up was taking place. Meanwhile, ambassadors started rivet training using the "How to Pull a Rivet in Three Easy Steps" system that Zenith Aircraft uses. It is a simple "pop" or blind rivet, fi tted using a specially adapted head on a rivet gun that "domes" the head of the rivet. The clock ticked on, and folks learning how to pull a rivet got impatient; the team in the bull pen was not ready to have any rivets pulled. Then, as if by magic, but really by virtue of the Zenith "matched hole technology," subcomponents started to come together. Monday afternoon saw quite a few parts come together, as the FAA kept a keen eye on proceedings throughout the week, even pulling some rivets themselves! F ROM A F RIC A T O A MERIC A , F ROM YOUNG T O OL D To add to the challenge, a group of young people worked on the horizontal tail—the horizontal stabilizer and the elevator—led by Patricia Mawuli (the author's wife) from Ghana, West Africa. Not only was this build international in fl avor, but it was also about family unity. The rudder team had a grandfather, son, and grandson working together; it was a great moment for three generations to volunteer in the bull pen. To ensure that the project was on track, the back of the bull pen had a progress chart, surmounted by "The Damocles Countdown Clock." Each subassembly was ticked of as it was considered complete, allowing those who followed the project, often several times per day, to see what they had missed…and to ensure total transparency in the build. DRIL L ING OU T RI V E T S When the team arrived on Day Two, it looked over the work from the day before and noticed some mistakes. That happens on every build. Every builder makes mistakes, so having some mistakes was only to be expected. Luckily, the mistakes were minor and quickly fi xed. The interminable clock ticked down, and a new set of volunteers was introduced into the bull pen. The whole space was buzzing as milestones were being met with in- creasing frequency. Industry leaders and celebrities came by, as news about the One Week Wonder spread across the airfi eld. The "spirit of building aircraft" insisted that visitors from all walks of life were drawn in, engaged, and inspired through assisting in the production of this new fl ying machine. WHY DO YOU CALL IT 'PULLING A RIVET'? That was a common question and the answer is simple; the rivet gun (whether manual or pneumatic) literally pulls a steel stem through a spe- cially shaped aluminum body to create a fastening between two or more pieces of metal. At the end of the fastening process, the rivet stem breaks off (since it is no longer needed) with a pop sound, hence a "pop" rivet. That led to the question, "Why are they sometimes called 'blind' rivets?" The answer is because you do not need to see or work on both sides of the piece, hence you are working "blind" to the other side. This is different from a "bucked" rivet where you need to have a rivet hammer on one side and a bucking bar on the other. Blind or pop rivets are one of the easiest, and amazingly strong, sheet metal fi xations to set, and the process can be learned effectively in a short time by those of all ages and strengths, as demonstrated by the One Week Wonder project! Each type of metal fixation process has its advantages and disad- vantages, and the aircraft designers must choose. Thankfully for the One Week Wonder team, Chris Heintz was more interested in building strong planes that would build and fly well quickly, so he chose the pop rivet system.