RIVET THE BELLCRANK After many months away, I have finally picked up my riveting tools again! I really enjoy the process of riveting, even if it is 10 rivets on a bellcrank. It makes the airplane become real and permanent. It begins to feel permanent. I did not have a… Read More »Rivet gun, I’ve missed you old friend
LABEL ALL OF YOUR PARTS I have always taken special care to make sure that all of my parts are labeled correctly. On priming day, I laid out paper mats and wrote the part numbers next to each piece. This way, I could keep track of each and every part,… Read More »Dimple everything
ANOTHER PERFECT DAY One of the challenges of priming parts in Indiana is getting the weather to cooperate. At least I thought that would be the case. It turns out that patience pays and I was rewarded with a 60 degree day with clear sunny skies and zero wind for… Read More »Prime day for priming
SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, IS LAUGHING It really makes you wonder doesn’t it? Is there an engineer or technical writer somewhere having a delightful chuckle at our expense? They can write three pages full of text and images that describe in great detail how to assemble an complex aircraft. I am able… Read More »That’s great – now undo it all
FIRST – THE WEATHER To quote Ferris Bueller, “How could I be expected to go to school on a day like this?” Well, for me it is work, but all the same it was 75 degrees and sunny on President’s Day in Indiana this year. It felt great to roll… Read More »Tail end of the tailcone
Today was quite a unique collection of tasks. One tended to flow right into the other, so it really didn’t bother me too much to keep working and before I knew it, I had put in a solid 3 hours on the tailcone. First things first, I went over every… Read More »Tailcone miscellany
Only put in about an hour today, but it felt like 12. I had to fight with crappy tools, which, again if you’ve read anything I’ve written you know how I feel about that. Drill bits, no matter how nice, on a long enough timeline are disposable. Treat them as… Read More »My longerons eat drill bits
A lot of work today, but once again not a ton that looks different. I have spent a ton of time just creating parts, shaping them, lining them up, clamping in place, and match drilling holes. I will however note that one piece has turned out beyond expectations. Based upon… Read More »Longeron perfection
I know I’ve been excited about this all along, but today it snapped into pretty clear focus. I’m building an airplane. Seriously. One of my favorite images so far is this one below looking aft down the tailcone. You can see the stringers that I made and match drilled, the… Read More »It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… well it’s a plane
First things first, it feels good to get back out in the garage hangar for a nice long session on the plane. I’ve been itching to get back at the tailcone and start putting the stringers and skins in place. It feels a little odd to look around my shop… Read More »Drilling (and melting) some holes