Dimple and Drive! 5 hrs

March 22, 2020 Now that all the horizontal and vertical stabilizer parts have cured for a day we're ready to start assembling and riveting. It was a lovely day in the garage with a steady rain right outside the door. All of the skins use flush rivets, which require a dimple in the skin and... Continue Reading →

Caution – Respirator Required: 9 hrs

March 19 & 20, 2020 The heater finally arrived and like the fierce ball of fire that it is, it is great at heating the garage. We've decided to prime all the internal surfaces, for simplicity and resale value. I had to work today so I left Paul to take the first stab at priming.... Continue Reading →

HS Rework: 12 hrs

March 15, 2020 The replacement stiffener for the horizontal stabilizer finally arrived! We re-worked that stiffener up to the point it was ready for installation and then continued with the match drilling that we couldn't do previously with the bad part. After that it was a solid 8 hrs of disassembly and deburring of both... Continue Reading →

Weather Hold: 6 hrs

March 13, 2020 We're still waiting on the replacement stiffener for the horizontal stab from Van's, in the mean time it's time to build a priming booth. We gathered supplies from Lowe's, two 12 x 50' rolls of plastic, a couple 10 x 12 sheets, a box fan, and some wide blue painter's tape. First,... Continue Reading →

VS spar, ribs, and skin: 8 hr

March 10 & 12, 2020 While we're waiting on the replacement part from Vans to be able to finish the horizontal stabilizer Paul got started on the vertical stabilizer. Generally it's the same process on a different part - deburr, cleco, match drill, disassemble, and deburr some more. Everything with the VS went pretty smoothly... Continue Reading →

HS Spar, Ribs, & Skin: 11 hr

March 9, 2020 Today was all about aligning and drilling but by the time I got home, Paul had one half of the horizontal stabilizer assembled with the skin clecoed on. It was an identifiable airplane part and we're only two days into the build!!! While I was at work Paul sorted out left and... Continue Reading →

HS – Rear Spar: 3 hrs

March 8, 2020 We finally started work on the empennage. It's been three months since we ordered the kit, 1 month since we finally had all the tools in hand, and 0 days since we finished the EAA SportAir workshop. The class ended around noon on Sunday and we were so excited to get started... Continue Reading →

Practice, Practice, Practice

Since neither of us have much experience working with sheetmetal and rivets we decided to order all three practice kits available from Vans and sign up for an EAA SportAir workshop on sheetmetal basics. We agreed that we'd attend the workshop prior to doing any work on the airplane parts. However, the practice kits arrived... Continue Reading →

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