Put wings on

Today I decided to get the wings out of my pole barn, so I put them on the fuselage so I could see it. Looks awesome! I took the wings to my hangar after a few photo ops

Vertical stabilizer. Misc. 8 hrs

Today I worked on the vertical stabilizer. I cut the skin and clecoed it to the spar and ribs. I did the top of the stab. per the plans and against the advise of other builder and will go with the other builders. A lot of people are using a 5/16 tube at the top of the vertical stab vs the bent piece of metal. I tried the metal and don't like the looks; so I'm going to try the tubing. I also took care of a lot of odds and ends. I had my son, Luke, crawl back into the fuselage to run the other tube for the rudder cable. I also reinforced the rib where the trim control pivots to make it a bit sturdier. I drilled the bottom of the side fuselage skins where I had been waiting on a right angle drill and deburred all of the holes. I also riveted some nut plates on the removable back of my luggage box.

Rudder spar 1 hr

Today I bent the rudder spar. I also fabricated the brackets that attach the rudder to vertical fin. I dimpled some holes for countersunk rivet.

Tank skin 3 hrs

The past few days I have worked on my fuel tank skin. This has been very time consuming. I drilled and tapped the holes in the longerons, located the holes for the anchor nuts in the top of the tank, drilled theses holes, and bored the hole for my fuel filler. I fitted the skin and made some minor adjustments for fitting. I had my little, little helper handing me screws tonight. I also worked on drilling my holes in one of the forward side panels for the access plate. I drilled all of the appropriate sizes and deburred them. They are ready for dimpling and riveting. I am coming to a slow point considering I have to rebuild two cylinders one my grumman yankee. That consumes a bunch of my expendable money so my build might be slowing down some. I will try to find small parts that I can fabricate now that will save me time down the road.

Tank skin. 6 hrs

Yesterday I worked on my tank skin. It was difficult to get just right because it butts to another skin. There is also a lot involved with getting the tank elevation directly underneath the skin and installing all of the anchor nuts that allow it to be removable. I've got it all done except for tapping the holes in the longerons, cutting the hole for the fuel filler, and locating the holes that are in the tank for the fuel filler attachment.

Mount fuel tank, misc 8 hrs

Today I worked on a lot of misc things. I dabbed the mounting straps and mounted the fuel tank. I did the mandatory rudder cable change. My 8 year old was able to crawl into the back of the fuselage and remove the teleflex cables and run the nylon tubes that serve as a conduit for the aircraft cables. That was a huge help that kept me from having to drill out rivets and remove my side skin. I secured both of the nylon tubes to the fuselage at the tail and one of them at the f5 bulkhead when i realized that one of the tubes was 1 inch short. Looks like luke is heading back into the tail cone :-). I also mounted the two anchor nuts that I was waiting for that hold the horizontal stabilizer on. I formed my upper fin rib that passes through the vertical stabilizer spar and fabbed my forward spar for it as well. I worked on my trim control and connected it to the Bowden cable and secured it nicely. All in all it didn't look like much got done but a lot was accomplished.

Deburring/ fuel tank 1 hour

Today I worked on deburring my vertical stabilizer and I bent the top of my fuel tank getting it ready for welding

Fuel tank 3 hours

This morning I got most of my fuel tank welded. When I got home from work I worked on the top piece. I installed all of the anchor nuts and riveted them. I also made the necessary modification to the fuel transmitter per the plans. I drilled the wholes in the filler flange and countersunk them. Now I will make the two bends in the top and seal the anchor nuts and rivets with proseal. After that I will weld the top on and pressure test it.

Finishing horizontal stab 3hour

Tonight I finished skinning the other half of the horizontal stabilizer. Next I will start work on the vertical stab.