Well, it was bound to happen, but here we are. I am re-ordering my first part from Van’s. I get it – everyone does it, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I will admit that it is a real confidence shaker. I find myself going back over other work… Read More »Horizontal stabilizer and a significant whoops
Upon completion of the rudder (what felt like four times after all of the rivet drilling and re-setting of course) it is time to move on to the horizontal stabilizer. The first order of business was to reorganize the shop into a new configuration so that my work tables would… Read More »Horizontal stabilizer start
I put in quite a bit of time today, but I’m not entirely sure that I got where I needed to be. I am extremely happy with the trailing edge, but I think I need some additional guidance on the leading edge. I rolled the edges as Van’s described and… Read More »Rudder finished… sort of
I thought the primer smelled toxic… wow. This tank sealant stuff is the real deal. It is a cross between fresh asphalt smell, glue, and rancid meat. It is truly one of the most offensive odors I’ve come across (including college roommates). What it lacks in pleasant aroma it more… Read More »Rudder and tank sealant
You’ll get the play on words here in just a minute – but know that I’m chuckling to myself because of my brilliant pun. Anne is rolling her eyes. I am getting more and more comfortable with each minor process in the overall build (drilling, deburring, dimpling, riveting…). I started… Read More »“Back” to riveting the rudder
At long last, I was able to finish my first full part of the plane today. I’d be more excited I think if I didn’t make a mistake. More on that in a bit, but I’ll start with some other points first. I continued to feel pretty confident in my… Read More »Vertical stabilizer – DONE
Confession: the title was misleading. I am going to start with my family trip today that we all took down to Rough River State Park in Kentucky. It was about a 90 minute flight from KUMP, which was perfect. The whole place was really neat with the runway right inside… Read More »Riveting vertical stabilizer (and family trip!)
The first order of business on the night was to drill out my faulty rivet from yesterday. The drilling ended up going quite well, which is what I was most worried about. I didn’t want to over-drill the hole and make it too wide to accept a new rivet. That… Read More »Vertical Stabilizer Assembly
I have to start by glowing once more about how well the priming turned out. Working with all these primed parts has been so easy and I am glad that I waited to dimple until after the priming. I can now see how everyone says it is more difficult to… Read More »Dimples and first rivets
Time to prime at long last! Today was the day that I was waiting for for over 2 weeks. In retrospect I am kind of glad it took this long because it enabled me to finish up all of the pieces for both the vertical stabilizer and the rudder. This… Read More »Priming Party!