June 12, 2020 Today was a few different items of miscellaneous wing work, starting with a service bulletin (SB) to reinforce the aileron mount bracket that we missed a couple days ago. It was shipped with the quick-build kit but it languished on the shelf when we assembled the aileron brackets the first time. It... Continue Reading →

June 1, 2020 No photos today because it went a lot like yesterday. The bell crank on this side was smooth from the start, so that was a bonus. That counted as the last of the work that we could do on the wing for now so we moved on to the fuselage. The quick... Continue Reading →

May 31, 2020 Today the right aileron went on the wing for the first time. This required fabricating a spacer and sorting a variety of washers. Once we got it everything bolted into place it moved freely though and was exciting to see. Using the jig included in the kit, I centered up the bell... Continue Reading →

May 29, 2020 Turns out, when I riveted on the flap brace I was looking at the wrong rivet call-out. Today I found the correct rivet callout for the flap brace and I spent the entire day drilling out over 100 rivets. The instructions say "QUICKBUILDER’S NOTE: The W-721 must be attached to the rear... Continue Reading →

May 28, 2020 Today I started the first piece of the flight control system by making the aileron pushrods. These will be the method of driving the ailerons and are critical to be done right. Unfortunately, the plans are wrong and by following them I cut the tubes that run from the fuselage to the... Continue Reading →

May 26 & 27, 2020 Today I finished fabricating the other 3 aileron mount brackets and riveted them to the rear spar of the wings. The brackets weren't hard overall, but some attention to detail was required since all 4 were unique and had different rivet call-outs, including specification to which side the rivet head... Continue Reading →

May 25, 2020 Now that we have a new hole in the fuel tank for the fuel level sender we needed to install nut-plates as well. None of our squeezers fit in that small of a hole, so we ended up modifying a bucking bar to go through the hole and shot the rivets in.... Continue Reading →

May 24, 2020 Since we were putting all the inverted mods into the first bay of the left fuel tank the fuel level sender had to go in the next bay over. To get access we pulled the fuel tank off the wing, which took a lot longer than expected. The instructions read like it's... Continue Reading →

May 23, 2020 So, unfortunately, there are no quick build specific plans set. Van's sent the standard plans and instructions and it is on us to go through them and figure out what's been done and what hasn't. Van's suggests that builders start with the empennage, then go through the wings, and finally tackle the... Continue Reading →