THE FLAP AND AILERON GAPS It is time to get focused on finishing up these wings. It is fairly difficult to make excuses when the wings come over 90% built already. I have been spending a fair piece of time continuing to work on design aspects, wire runs, and things… Read More »A gap before the flap gaps
With both elevators attached and aligned, I match drilled and attached the elevator horns.
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
It was inevitable – the match drilling marathon began. Van’s recommends keeping every single hole clecoed on the front and rear spars of the elevator while you are match drilling the skins. This means pulling out a cleco, drilling the hole, marking it as drilled, replacing the cleco, then moving… Read More »Match drilling
After a long week of not being able to put too much time into the plane, I was able to really hunker down this weekend and set my hands to the elevators. I was pretty much able to get them completely assembled and match drilled (but not the skins –… Read More »Elevator Day
Today was quite the marathon day. The family went out to run a bunch of errands so I got to put in a full day out in the garage. It was excellent. I would have probably got a lot more done if I did not end up spending 45 minutes… Read More »Finish up horizontal stabilizer and start elevators