August 24-26, 2020 Spent 30 minutes going over everything in the left wing and making sure we didn't have any additional work to be done before taking it off the plane. We then spent some time putting the right wing on and cleaning up the garage. There was a lot of metal shaving everywhere and... Continue Reading →
Wing Disaster!: 5.0 hrs
August 20, 21, 23 - 2020 Disaster struck the garage today. While rolling the wing out of the garage one slipped off the stand and hit the ground hard. You can use a hardware store bolt through the center mounts and they'll act as a retainer to stop this from happening. Turns out we forgot... Continue Reading →
Right Wing Conduit Redo, Flap Retainer: 8.5 hrs
August 18-20, 2020 I spent a few days redoing the right wing conduit. Previous posts highlighted that I had accidently installed the conduit near the upper skin instead of the lower skin. This interfered with the aileron push rod and had to be corrected. Since we already riveted on the lower wing skin, it was... Continue Reading →
Left Wing Intersection Fairing: 5.0 hrs
August 14, 2020 While the wing was installed we went ahead and put on the intersection fairing. This was all pretty simple metalworking. A new concept is used here to locate the holes on the lower fuselage skin though. You can use any straight line, just mark the 1, 2, and 3" spots from where... Continue Reading →
Left Flap Rigging: 5.0 hrs
August 12, 2020 Installed the left flap today and did the fuselage cutout for the flap push rod. I started by drilling a pilot hole through the side skin and opened it up to fit the small dremel sanding disk. I also drilled a hole down through the floor that would allow the dremel to... Continue Reading →
Aileron Rigging and Control Stop: 5.5 hrs
August 11, 2020 Mounted the left aileron and did all the final rigging on it. We started by holding the aileron bellcrank in position with the jig supplied in the kit and adjusted the short control link to put the aileron in trail. Then the longer control rod got installed between the bellcrank and the... Continue Reading →
Wing Installation: 10.0 hrs
Aug 9-10, 2020 Installed both wings for the first time. We took our time and did it one at a time on the first day to make sure nothing would go wrong when we installed them to set the incidence and sweep. Hardware store bolts with a tapered end and some wheel bearing grease and... Continue Reading →
Bottom Wing Skins: 12.5 hrs
August 7-8. 2020 Finished up the last few clean up and prep bits on the left lower wing skin and started bucking it into place. Found some foam blocks to help hold it up and gain access. Took a few hours of slow going and we made it about 2/3 of the way through the... Continue Reading →
Engine Mount: 5.0 hrs
August 6, 2020 Installed the engine mount. Started in the upper passenger side and opened the hole up to 3/8. We stepped up in drill bit sizes, then used a ream for final size. Once the first bolt was installed, we hung the mount and used the other mount positions as a drill guide to... Continue Reading →
Rudder Cable Fairings: 8.5 hrs
Aug 4-5, 2020 Took the rudder cable fairings I got from spruce and shaped them down with the sanding disk. I decided that I wanted these to be removable so I made a backing plate for them with countersunk nut plates for #6 screws. I shaped them so the #8 screw that holds the adel... Continue Reading →