Beyond the Growling
Building the Blue Bear
BY DR. BRENT BLUE
WHAT WOULD POSSESS AN over-extended physician/single parent/
corporate executive, whose only history building airplanes was
radio-controlled models that crashed on the first flight, to build a
full-size airplane? I am still trying to answer that question.
My initial goal was to learn the building process and the skills
required. I chose a Murphy Super Rebel because it seemed romantic
to build something that I could fly into the backcountry of Idaho and
Wyoming. In choosing the Rebel, I was avoiding the visions of glue
inhalation building a fiberglass airframe, and the all-metal pulled-rivet construction would not require finding someone to buck rivets.
I took possession of the kit 11 years ago and began construction of
the tail in the basement of my home. That was the first indication
that I was in big trouble. I knew there were more than 20,000 rivets
to install. What I did not know was that each of those rivets required
a minimum of touching the intended hole seven times, resulting in
140,000 plus steps. Each #40 hole had to be fastened with Clecos to
the rib below after a pilot hole was drilled in the rib. Once aligned,
the skin provided the template for drilling the rest of the rib. Clecos
This custom drill bit saved Dr. Blue quite a bit of time on his project.
were placed as the drilling progressed. Then,
I sequentially removed the Clecos as the
holes were enlarged to #30 (I soon learned
the hole gets bigger as the number gets
smaller), and sequentially placed the larger
Clecos. Once I’d drilled all the holes, then I
removed all the Clecos and deburred both
holes front and back. Then, Clecos were
reinstalled and the piece was ready for the
easy part—riveting.
This process created bad dreams and
potential ideas. What if a drill bit started out
as a 40 and enlarged to a 30? Figuring that
would save me about 20,000 or so steps, I
commissioned a machine shop to create such
a drill bit. Believe it or not, the custom drill
bits did work and saved a modicum of time.
When constructing the tail, the mandrels
on the rivets were breaking off above the
rivet tops, requiring filing and sanding them
down. Being a first-time builder, I could not
figure out what I was doing wrong. I called
builders all over the country, including specialists at EAA. No one had an answer.
Unfortunately, after I completed the tail, the
factory admitted it had received bad rivets
and replaced them. When the factory
announced a quick-build program, I may
