Completed Structure Overview (546.75hrs)

I guess this needs another update after finishing the LH upper wing skin and starting on the fuel tanks.

106.25hrs of the total belong to the wings, 9hrs of which are solely to the fuel tanks, the remaining 440.5hrs is a mixture of tail and fuselage both still have work to be done on them.

As always blue is completed and red is in work.

Baby's First Flight

We took Ayla flying for her fist time Sunday, as any respectable Dad would do when his daughter turns two months old : ). The flight was more for us; will the carseat fit in a 172? Is there anything else we may need for flying with a baby? How will she respond? Well the seat fit fine and the baby was asleep before we even lifted off. Jess sat in the back with her and all went well for our first little flight as a family.

Also, as a side note: the hearing protection I found for her are from earmuffsforkids.com and work great, they stayed on without a problem the entire time.

Fuel Tanks

I worked a little on the fuel tanks this past weekend. I have all the parts clecoed together and drilled out, with the exception of the cracked attach bracket. Not much to report although I'm finding, again, its sometimes better to slightly reorganize the plans to become more efficient at the build. Small, little time savings steps that may add up to a respectable amount of time. Although, now that I am at a decent stopping point I decided to put my tools down for a while and do my taxes : (. I hate this time of year.

22 0.75 countersink tank attach zees, cleco baffle
23 1.75 drill, countersink tank skins

Started Fuel Tanks

I officially started the fuel tanks this past weekend and then became very busy this week, resulting in a delayed post. I plan on keeping track of the hours I work on the tanks specifically. I want to do this because I've seen people log over 100hrs on these things and I want to know how that happens. I'm sure it will add up pretty quick.

This past weekend I made all the little stiffeners that go in the tanks. Clecoed together a majority of the parts and then drilled them out. As I was unwrapping the protective blue plastic from T-1005-L Tank Attach Bracket I noticed a 0.25" crack in a hole that is in the bend radius. Not good. So I called Vans and they will be sending me a new one. I will definitely be deburring these holes very well as there are probably a lot of small barely detectable cracks along the edge. It's a really poor placement of a hole along a bend radius unless you drill after bending. I also installed the fuel caps, which was easy. I used a little bit of double sided sticky tape to ensure they didn't move while drilling the first two holes. It worked out well. I hope to get back at it this weekend. I also have two quarts of Proseal coming from Vans.

Date Time
17 2.0 started fuel tanks, cutting stiffeners, clecoing parts
18 4.5 fuel tank work, clecoed ribs, drilled out parts, clecoed fuel cap

LH Wing Top Skin Complete

I finished the last "couple hundred" rivets on the wing skin the other night. I lacked the row next to the aft spar. The small tungsten bucking bar made this work quick and simple. I taped a small spacer to one end of the bar so when it was rested on the spar the end to meet up with the rivet was at a perfect angle. This produced a very even set on the rivets.

16th. 1.75hrs

LH Wing Top Skin

As I last posted previously, Brian and Brandi flew in to help with the LH Wing's Top Skin and even though we worked for several hours we didn't quite get to all of the 1.3 million rivets in the skin. Luckily Jason, a friend and coworker of mine, was willing to help out. A couple more hours and we finished all the rivets I couldn't get to myself. I only lack the long aft row to complete. We also re-hit the rivets along the spar that butt up against the leading edge skin. Originally there was a very small offset of the top skin from the leading edge skin. After a few more taps of the rivet gun it all set flush. Making me happy.
(1.75)

Oh and here is a picture of the RH leading edge I finished.

Completed Structure Overview (534.25hrs)

WOW! I have surpassed 500hrs. So maybe I'm 1/4 of the way done? Who knows.

93.75hrs of that belong solely to the wings the remaining 440.5hrs is a mixture of tail and fuselage both still have work to be done on them. So, better to say, I'm 25% complete and 90% left to go. I have to attach the tail to the fuselage, install the upper canopy, build the upper fuselage, control linkages, break lines, fuel lines, aileron controls, rudder controls, order the avionics, run wiring, order the finishing kit, install the trim servo, install the battery, floor panels, baggage panels, windscreen, pitot tubing, static tubing............

As always blue is completed structure and red is in work.

RH Leading Edge

So this is not good. I keep a running log of my time as I build and a general note of what I accomplished that day. This log was accidentally deleted a few seconds before I began to write this post. To top that off I don't have any pictures to post either. (I know, I'm slacking) Honestly though, it has been some pretty boring stuff. Deburr, dimple, rivet, repeat. So nothing astonishing has happened. I completed the RH Leading Edge and if you want to see pictures of that just look at my last post of the LH Leading Edge and mirror all the images, voila, the RH Leading Edge pictures you wanted : ).

The best part since my last post was when Brian and Brandi (n42bu.com) flew over to help rivet the top skin on the LH wing. They landed at a grass strip less than a mile from the house which was convenient and a lot of fun, something about the intamacy of landings and takeoffs at grass strips creates a closer bond to airplanes than what a "real" airport provides. Of course amidst the visiting, story swapping, introduction to our new little one, and working, pictures were completely forgotten. The day came and went and there is only a few hundred rivets to remember it by. It was a really good Sunday. At one point I had multiple helpers. Brian holding the bucking bar and Aaron deburring parts. I met Aaron when we were training for our PPL. We started and finished around the same time and had the same instructor. He lives out of town but tries to catch up when he has work down here. Lately his visits have included some help building the airplane, sadly only deburring parts, maybe better luck next time : ). So thank you to Aaron, Brian, and Brandi always appreciate the help.

Time Log (to the best of my memory)
January
29   1.0   Dimpling wing parts (I think)
February
1     1.5   Dimpling wing skins (Sounds right)
2     2.0   Deburring RH Leading edge skins and probably dimpling something
3     3.5   The day of awesome help from Brian, Brandi, and Aaron
4     0.5   Dimple RH leading edge parts
5     1.0   Assemble RH leading edge, might have started riveting by now (not sure)
9     1.25 Riveting RH leading edge
10   4.0   Finished RH leading edge and installed to spar