I actually fabricated some parts from the plans tonight. This section of the plans has us fabricate the tiedown brackets that bolt to the main spar and help secure the aileron bell cranks as well. There was a good bit of fabrication from raw materials so it was pretty much, … Continue reading
I was able to wrap up all of the fuel tank attachment nutplates and the inspection cover nutplates tonight. In the last session, I installed all of the nutplates, and tonight I finished them up by machine countersinking all the screw holes to accept the dimples in their mating metal. … Continue reading
Nut Plates….tons of nutplates. I worked a good 3 hours tonight on nothing else but riveting the nutplates to the top and bottom of the main spars. I think there is something like 150-ish total of these little things that need to go on. I need to get these guys … Continue reading
Today marks the official start day for the wings! I have been studying and reading over the plans since the wing kit came in last week. After getting the shop organized and setup for the wings, I decided tonight was as good a night as any to get started. Of … Continue reading
I was working in my virtual machine lab most of the day today for a work project, so I didn’t spend much time on the wings. There really isn’t much left on the hardware organization, and I think I have it all finished up tonight. I started out by putting … Continue reading
I spent A LOT of time organizing all the hardware and small parts today. I saw a video by Adam Savage talking about his hardware rig from Sortimo, but those things are very expensive. Further research shows that Harbor Freight has a cheaper copy that should do the job just … Continue reading
Tonight was inventory time. I was able to get about 90% of the inventory completed, with only a few bits of the smaller bags of hardware left. I still need to come up with some sort of organization for all these bits of hardware and small pieces of kit. Surprisingly, … Continue reading
After taking a quick break from unloading the wings, I went back down stairs and started cracking open the crates and unpacking everything to check for any damages. I am not going to take inventory tonight, as I just want to make sure nothing is damaged right now. My plan … Continue reading
WOOHOO!!! My wings are FINALLY sitting in my garage, waiting to be unpacked. It started yesterday with a call from ABF Freight telling me my wings were ready for pickup at the terminal. I decided to pick the up to save money, and because ABF didn’t offer liftgate service … Continue reading
This is pretty much the last step on the empennage kit! It’s time to double check all the measurements and alignments and drill the last holes on the tail….the elevator horns. I have read horror stories of people not getting this done correctly, and having to have the horns welded … Continue reading