Jul 08, 2013     Wing installation       Category: Wings

We invited the members of EAA Chapter 231 from Richmond, VA, to come to Brutus and Nancy's house to help us install the wings on the fuselage for the first time.

  Mar 12, 2013     Cove skin fabrication and installation - (50 hours)       Category: Wings

Cutting, trimming, priming, and fitting the cove skins turned out to be quite a job. The big problem was getting them to fit up tightly enough so the ailerons leading edges did not drag on the cove skins. After hours of. work we got them to clear at all points, but in some areas not by much.

  Jul 27, 2012     Wing spar misaligned with cage receptacle - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

We filed the inner edge of the wing spar so it would slide together when the wing was swung forward to locking pin could be inserted.

  Sep 02, 2011     Laying up inner wing hose cover in fiberglass - (10 hours)       Category: Wings

The inner wing hose cover was one of many fiberglass parts it was necessary to fabricate as part of the total building process of the Sportsman. We used both vinyl ester and West System epoxy with glass mat and woven glass cloth. We were trained by the Master of Glass, Zach Chase, who through the years has answered questions and has given us invaluable suggestions.

  Sep 16, 2008     Wings arrive at Brutus and Nancy Russell's house at night       Category: Wings

The wings came by motor freight on a full-sized tractor-trailer. Luckily Stratford had a loading dock at his Little Oil Company business. The next movement came a good bit later after rook the wings out of this heavy. crate. For that move, Lewis Ward, Stratford's brother, helped us. We preprepared two sets of wing cradles for the wings since they were partially built.

  Jan 05, 2007     Wingtips made of fiberglass had to be sanded, and trimmed and drilled to fit. On photo shows Brutus sanding the inside of one top to repair an incipient crack - (10 hours)       Category: Wings

Both tips for the left and right wing had sanding, trimming and fitting to be done. One photo showed Brutus working on one tip.

  Jan 06, 2006     Installed flap bell cranks, modified flap cable retaining clips - (30 hours)       Category: Wings

When we installed the flap cables through the wings, we found the retaining clip to hole the end of flap cable in the notch in the flap actuating bellcrank would not fit. So re removed the flap bell crank so we could accurately more narrow to fit in the notch in the bellcrank. We also had to trim the bracket holding the clip so the clip anchor bolts would fit correctly.

  Oct 04, 2004     Installing the aileron trim tab - (30 hours)       Category: Wings

Assembling the trim tab proved to be a challenge because of the tight spaces we had to work in. We had first primes the inner skin, as we had the entire empenage, using a well respected 2-part epoxy ptimrt used by the Navy. After we did the empenage we realized we should switch to a much lighter colored primer which made it much easier to look inside any area with a flashlight.

We used mainly a hand river squeezer when we could rather than a #2 rivet gun which we took some time to get the hang of. The trim tab also included our first heavy-duty piano hinge, i.e., and extruded rather than a rolled hinge.

  Jan 22, 2004     Our Sportsman wing and fuselage crates were delivered to Stratford's company loading dock - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

Luckily, Stratford was able to receive our wing and fuselage crates at his company loading dock since they were shipped to us motor freight from Arlington, WA. Interestingly by mistake, we were shipped GlaStar wings, so Glasair arranged the correct wings to be shipped from Arizona to us and also had a truck pick up the incorrect wing set for the return. This was an exciting time for us three partners in our Sportsman project. The technical knowledge Stratford has continues to be such a help as we encountered many building hurdles over the years. Being able to build our Sportsman in Brutus and Nancy's 3-car garage, with both heating and air-conditioning, was also a huge plus. I can't imagine contending with 90-degree humid Virginia summers and 30-degree temperatures in a steel hangar in the winter. One other big help was having Dee's 8' VHO fluorescent fixtures re-hung in Brutus's garage after Dee closed his bicycle shop. We added an extra 8' fluorescent lighting over the existing workbench in Brutus's garage, a smart move.