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14A Highlighted Plans

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first post. While waiting for my emp, I decided to go through the plans and color code the part numbers to the diagrams, for quicker reference when building. I thought I’d share if anyone else thinks it would be useful.

A couple important notes. Firstly, I am human and their could be mistakes! Always double check. Also, the color coding only applies to each page individually; other nearby pages may or may not correlate! Lastly, this is specific to my build, (an “A” model), so make sure you don’t follow it blindly.

Send me a private message if you’d like the dropbox link. Happy building!
 
Color coding helps!

Derek:

I did exactly that on my -8A and -14A builds and strongly encourage it. Color coding the part number in the text and then in the same color on the drawing makes visualizing assembly much easier. Instead of having to remember a string of numbers for one part that attaches to another string of numbers part, the process becomes, "the yellow thing goes on the red thing."

It will keep you sane long enough to become insane on some other tasks!
 
We didn't do this for part numbers, but we did do it for rivet callouts. It's easy to miss the switch to a different size sometimes when you're driving about 300 at once.
 
We didn't do this for part numbers, but we did do it for rivet callouts. It's easy to miss the switch to a different size sometimes when you're driving about 300 at once.

Excellent point, since once in "the zone" driving rivets, it's easy to miss a change in rivet type or size.

To avoid that, I write directly on the airplane as needed to mark these changes. Color coding the plans with highlighter is great for creating a mental picture of how things go together. But using a magic marker on the plane itself is a sure-fire way to identify where a different size rivet is used or something unique has to be done. You can lose a piece of paper with a note on it but you can't lose a note written on your airplane!
 
The cherry on top

Excellent points, great to have as much insight as possible before I begin. I appreciate it!

Excellent point, since once in "the zone" driving rivets, it's easy to miss a change in rivet type or size.

To avoid that, I write directly on the airplane as needed to mark these changes. Color coding the plans with highlighter is great for creating a mental picture of how things go together. But using a magic marker on the plane itself is a sure-fire way to identify where a different size rivet is used or something unique has to be done. You can lose a piece of paper with a note on it but you can't lose a note written on your airplane!
 
what were you writing it with? on the al skin?

Any Sharpie type marker works fine and comes off with lacquer thinner in an instant when you no longer need the note. I wrote all over three different airplane build projects as needed and think doing so prevented a lot of mistakes. It's easy to overlook a note in the plans but very unlikely when it is right on the metal where you are working.

And BTW, that is exactly why I started writing on the plane -- missed a note in the plans once and had to redo the resulting error!
 
Rivet call outs are good to start with, and you will quickly be able to tell by a glance if the rivet it the right size or not.

Reminder - many per plans rivet call outs tend to be short. Don’t hesitate to use the correct length rivet even if that means going off plans. For example a 4 might be better than the 3.5 in the plans.

Carl
 
Go to the pinned topic for gotcha's on the RV-14. Search on VAF for each section/part for topics.

I helped build an RV-14A empennage this summer and found a number of typos/errors/omissions in the build manual, so my advice is to always slow down, read the instructions, parse the instructions, look at the diagrams, look ahead in the plans, mark up the parts, then repeat ad naseum until it all makes sense.
 
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