1226 days 1960 hours

That's right 5 hours. I was thinking I could layup both of these pieces in one night, but it took me a lot longer than I had expected. I came home at lunch and finished sanding the side panels. I sanded what would be the top joggle. I couldn't see what that was needed for so I contacted Scott and he said it would be used for attaching the turtle deck.

I then redrew the lines since I had sanded them out and removed the nails to prep for the layup.

Cutting on the bias is still kind of tricky. The cloth reshapes a lot when moving it around. I am pulling it tight on the bias I hope that is the right way to do it, tighter seems better.

I learned at the copperstate flyin that laying peel ply serves a lot of purposes. One is that it smoothes out the transitions. I have three on this layup. The transitions (overlaps) on the HStab are sharp and ugly. I am anxious to see if this actually smoothes them out.

The balloon was coated in left over epoxy. I want to see if I can make a Jack Skelington Head for CK.

1228 days Days 1965 hours

I finally got back to work after being out of town for a week and just getting back into the swing of things. I too stuff to CA, but I seemed to never make the time. Here I have inserted the wood hardpoints into the spar and I have laid over two layers of BID on top. I learned at the Copperstate flyin this last weekend that I should trim off the end of the fiberglass so that the sag does not lift the edge up and create an airspace. I definitely saw that on this layup, but too late.

After the fiberglass cured I trimmed off the edges with the dremel tool. You can see the fiberglass in the background. The other thing I learned at the flyin was the real use of peel ply. At the workshop the instructor just made it sound like peel ply was always used and left on until the piece was needed. I definitely could see that it will smooth the edges as epozy fills in the gap between the edges. I had used peel ply once and I did not see the difference. I should have been using it.

The next day I wend over to Boyds and created these nut plates. I should have made them longer. They cannot be wider since they come close to the edge of the spar, but they certainly could have been longer to leave room for the rivets that would be used to attach then to the spar. Building these was quite a process that was made longer by hanging out talking and Boyd having to walk me through everything. I didn't mind taking the time and working slowly. He had the scrap aluminum and all the tools.

Here the nutplates are laid out next to the spar where they will be attached with rivets. I have to order some more rivets. I am ok with having to wait for orders. I actually placed an order two days ago for some misc parts. I am really reluctant to order more than I need at that exact moment. There will always be something to work on.

Working with Boyd

1247 Days 1968 hours

I went back to the vertical. I was hoping to work on the vertical in CA and work on the forward fuselage now, but I ordered the wrong quantity of foam boards for the forward fuselage so I have to set that aside. In the pictures below I drilled out the holes for the wood hard points. I went over to Boyd's to use his drill press. It is more enjoyable talking to Boyd while I work, but it is a lot slower for both of us. He is working on his brother's plane. Boyd is a real mechanic.

Below you can see that I am aligning the holes before I glue them down.

The instructions are extremely well documented with pictures and simple howto's and yet there is always a question about information that is left out. For example how big are these hardpoints supposed to be. Because the end of the spar is small I couldn't make the hardpoint more than 7/8ths

Home sick still building

1249 days 1970 hours

I am falling further and further behind. I have to just keep moving forward. I stayed home sick today. After sleeping until noon I got up and went out to the garage. Kim was gone grocery shopping. I started working in the garage. After about an hour I had to quit. I was just tired. I did get another hour in later, but I was too tired to do any more.

I started the side of the fuselage. I measured out the lines and I started sanding some indentations into the the foam. The purpose of these indentations is to create grooves where strips of fiberglass will be laid to connect the front and back of the fuselage. Each is about 8 feet so the who thing together is about 16 feet. Add the engine and the tail and the total length of the plane is supposed to be about 19 feet.

This layout and sanding is actually my second attempt and I am much happier with the results. Each foam board costs about $50. I will use the other one I trashed for other things. In one way I am happy about the job I am able to do, in another way I am sad that I do not have the skills to do even the smallest thing right the first time.

Building Tools

1253 days 1972 hours

I have two days in a row where I worked for hour during lunch. I am lucky that I live nearby and that everything is in my garage. This would be a lot harder if I could only get out to the place where I would work when I could commit to several hours of building. I move forward with much trepidation. I am starting on the fuselage, which is where my butt will be hanging out 12,000 feet above the ground. There are some airplane kits out there where it is a matter of putting things together. That is not a trivial task. This is a scratch build and as part of that build I had to build a small tool in order to sand the right depth into the foam side before I lay up the fiberglass. It took me over an hour to feel comfortable with what I had made. I sanded for about 15 minutes and then I had to put it aside to go back to work.

I was going to go into the garage and spend time with my baby, but Kim and I started watching TV on the computer. We don't have regular TV. We stayed up until past 1AM. crazy but it was fun. I wish I could get her enthusiasm to help me build this plane. I have to be happy that she is just supportive in letting me do it. The only reason she is supportive is that it is so far away from flying that she can put it out of her mind. Oh and she loves me and likes to see me happy working on something.