Project: Patience   -  
            Listing for Category : fuselage
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Builder Name:Jeff Orear   -  
Project:   Hatz - Classic   -   VIEW REPORTS
Total Flight Time:
Start/Last Date:Mar 03, 2011 - No Finish Date
Engine:Rotec R3600
Propeller:Culver
 
Friendly URL: https://eaabuilderslog.org?s=Patience

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Oct 30, 2023     Fuselage moving day       Category: Fuselage
Day is here to move the fuselage to the airport. Kind of feel like I'm sending one of the kids off to college! I hired a flatbed hauler for the job.


 
Jun 16, 2023     Speed ring paint completed.       Category: Fuselage
Painted the red stripe as well as blue on the speed ring.


 
May 12, 2023     Aluminum and fiberglass painting begins       Category: Fuselage
Painted the boot cowl, and painted red stripe on fuse side skin, as well as the base color of silver on the speed ring


 
Mar 02, 2023     Windscreen lexan attachment       Category: Fuselage
My lexan inserts luckily fit nice and snug into the frames when mounted to the fuselage, so I felt th at the use of screws would be redundant. I elected to proseal the lexan to the frames after I painted the lexan black where it contacted the frame. Then I polished the frames, as I'm choosing to not paint them.


 
Feb 13, 2023     Cowl finishing       Category: Fuselage
Began the process of filling and finishing the boot cowl fiberglass. I used 2x heavy fill primer along with glazing putty


 
Nov 10, 2022     Engine install       Category: Fuselage
Mounted engine permanently.


 
Nov 03, 2022     Trim tab cable exit       Category: Fuselage
Established exit for trim cable. Installed rubber grommet. Very happy with it.


 
Oct 22, 2022     Brakes       Category: Fuselage
Installed brakes permanently.


 
Oct 22, 2022     Headrest fairing revisited       Category: Fuselage
Adjusted the fit of the headrest fairing flanges. Also reduced the number of screws required.


 
Oct 20, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Fuselage on gear permanently


 
Oct 09, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted side skins blue. Inspected by Cooper


 
Oct 06, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted side skins silver


 
Oct 05, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Epoxy primed fuselage skins


 
Sep 28, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted rudder/n number.


 
Sep 22, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted red accent stripes.


 
Sep 19, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted fuselage blue. Pretty cool.


 
Sep 18, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted Nevada silver on fuse side for stripe. Was hard to tell as it matches the Polyspray almost exactly.


 
Sep 17, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted landing gear


 
Sep 16, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Polysprayed elevators and rudder


 
Sep 16, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Painted cabanes


 
Sep 15, 2022     Motor moun paint       Category: Fuselage
Repainted motor mount due to thin spots.


 
Sep 07, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Polysprayed fuselage


 
Sep 03, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Polybrushed center section and rudder


 
Sep 01, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Polybrushed elevators.


 
Aug 31, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Polybrushed landing gear legs


 
Aug 29, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Reassembled “hillbilly” paint booth.


 
Aug 27, 2022     Paint       Category: Fuselage
Constructed fixture to paint landing gear legs.


 
Aug 22, 2022     Fuselage covering       Category: Fuselage
Made and installed brake line exit fairings. Mounted landing gear temporarily to establish position.


 
Aug 22, 2022     Fuselage covering       Category: Fuselage
Made and installed pushrod exit holes frames and gussets


 
Aug 18, 2022     Covering fuselage       Category: Fuselage
Applied tapes to stringers.


 
Aug 18, 2022     Covering fuselage       Category: Fuselage
Polybrushrd, again with untinted, all areas where tapes will be applied over stringers.


 
Aug 15, 2022     Covering fuselage       Category: Fuselage
Polybrushed fuselage with untinted polybrush. I felt like I was brushing on skim milk!


 
Aug 11, 2022     Covering fuselage       Category: Fuselage
Covered the right side of the fuselage. Un fortunately, I shrunk the covering to 350 degrees before I laced the covering to the vertical stabilizer ribs. This will make doing so later more challenging. As usual, I make things more difficult on myself at times.


 
Jul 16, 2022     Ready to cover fuse       Category: Fuselage
Remounted fuselage on the rotisserie in preparation to cover.


 
Jul 12, 2022     Rubber cable exit       Category: Fuselage
Determined where the rudder cables would exit the fuselage and referenced it on both sides to the vertical stabilizer post. This will be used to eventually slit the covering where the cables exit.


 
Dec 06, 2021     Top forward skin pattern       Category: Fuselage
I refined the top forward fuselage skin by making the roll wire pass through holes smaller.


 
Nov 22, 2021     Rear Windscreen Lexan pattern       Category: Fuselage
Made a 1/8” poster board pattern for the rear windscreen. I made one side first, then the other, then joined them to get an accurate fit.


 
Nov 13, 2021     Throttle tensioner knob       Category: Fuselage
I wanted to be able to keep the throttle, mixture and car heat from backing out by being able to tighten the quadrant. I made a knob to be able to do that as well as one from the trim lever.


 
Nov 02, 2021     Fuselage top skin edge refinement       Category: Fuselage
I wanted to dress up the bottom edges of the top fuselage skins. Normally this would be done by using a bead roller. Unfortunately, I do not have one at my disposal, so I set out trying to duplicate a beaded edge. What I came up with was a strip of 6061 aluminum that is folded over and bent out slightly. I had a machine shop shear pieces long enough, then folded over the edge at Balsa USA who has a 48” bending brake. Picture shows a prototype representative sample.


 
Aug 31, 2021     Skin supports and fairing       Category: Fuselage
I wanted to have more support in the rear cockpit skin, so I made 3 angled supports that will be riveted on once the skin and the angles are primed. Also made scalloped fairings for the forward top turtledeck to accommodate the covering.


 
Aug 24, 2021     Top forward skin template       Category: Fuselage
Need to accommodate the roll wires that must pass through the top forward skin, so I made a template to locate the hole.


 
Jan 01, 2021     Ailerons       Category: Fuselage
Began aileron construction by making a template for cutting the skins to shape and bending the trailing edge stock I purchased from Vans


 
Dec 29, 2020     Fuselage       Category: Fuselage
Located and drilled inboard top cowl louvers


 
Nov 21, 2020     Turtle deck stringers       Category: Fuselage
Finalized the contour it the fuselage stringers located at the top longeron to blend into the turtle deck stringers. Used a sheet to simulate the covering in this area


 
Nov 14, 2020     Fuselage stringers       Category: Fuselage
Finalized the fit of the fuselage stringers, varnished and varnished prior to final installation


 
Oct 01, 2020     Turtle deck stringers       Category: Fuselage
Installed turtle deck hat stringers with pulled rivets. Inspected by Cooper


 
Aug 06, 2020     cowl fiberglass layup       Category: Fuselage
After spraying the mold with PVA, laid up 1 layer of 3 oz and 4 layers of 7oz glass cloth with Fiberglast 3000 epoxy resin. I chose this resin because it is a high temp resin, resistant to 270 degrees without heat treating, up to 300 if it is treated. I was concerned about the proximity to the collector ring and possible deformation of lower temp resin such as West System. Again, was a nice sound to hear it come out of the mold


 
Jul 29, 2020     cowl mold7       Category: Fuselage
Separated the mold from the plug. Nothing better than hearing that sound it makes when it lets loose. Time for a T&T


 
Jul 10, 2020     cowl mold5       Category: Fuselage
Sprayed gelcoat on the top portion of the plug. I used Evercoat thinned down and used a modified $10 Harbor Freight HVLP gun that I drilled out the nozzle to 1.8mm. Worked great. Mixed a slurry of polyester resin, flox and carb o sil and applied to the corners made by the plug and forms for rear flange and mold split dam. Then began the process of laying up 5 layers of fiberglass matt and polyester resin. Each layer was allowed to cure overnight before the next layer was applied to prevent shrinkage


 
Jun 29, 2020     cowl mold4       Category: Fuselage
Sprayed PVA on the top portion of the cowl as a separator


 
Jun 16, 2020     cowl mold3       Category: Fuselage
Since I am going with a split mold, I needed to make a damn in the center of the mold. This is a piece of 1/8" masonite finished on one side. Again, glued on with some supports under one side with hot glue, modelers clay to fill gaps and waxed.


 
Jun 13, 2020     cowl mold2       Category: Fuselage
Made a form for the aft flange from 1/16" ply hot glued to the aluminum tabs. Gap with the fuselage was filled with modelers clay. I varnished over it to make sure the polyester resin didn't react with it. Applied packaging tape and waxed over it to aid as a separator


 
Jun 03, 2020     Began process of making a fiberglass mold       Category: Fuselage
I need to make a flange on the aft edge of the cowl. I made aluminum angles that I hot glued in place to support a form to make a flange on the aft edge of the mold. Waxed the mold with several coats of wax...20 to be exact.


 
May 24, 2020     boot cowl plug construction continues6       Category: Fuselage
Final coat of primer. Began process of sanding with fine grit wet dry to establish smooth surface. Got it baby smooth


 
May 23, 2020     boot cowl plug construction continues5       Category: Fuselage
Sprayed high build primer on the plug, sanded, applied spot putty, sanded. Basically came up with a spotted cowl


 
May 18, 2020     boot cowl plug construction continues4       Category: Fuselage
Layers of mount compound applied to further refine the contour. Once satisfied, I applied a couple coats of epoxy resin. If I had it to do over, I would add a layer of fiberglass, as even with the resin, the plug was prone to denting if not careful


 
May 16, 2020     boot cowl plug construction continues3       Category: Fuselage
Added bondo to the area where the side foam meets up with the front ring. Added plater joint compound to refine the contour


 
May 10, 2020     Boot cowl plug construction continues       Category: Fuselage
Had to move the masonite ring to the front of the cowl forward ring so it could be bolted to the engine mount. Mounted it to the cowl and then made forms from the fuselage to the cowl ring. Used flexible piece of wood to establish the contour, then duplicated for the other side at the same location on the cowl.


 
Apr 30, 2020     Boot cowl plug construction       Category: Fuselage
Began construction of boot cowl plug. Disk was cut from 1/8" masonite. 1/4 round forms were glued equally spaced and then blue foam hot glued between them. Foam was then contoured to shape of forms. This establishes the curved forward edge of the cowl just behind the exhaust collector ring.


 
Apr 04, 2020     Bottom forward skin       Category: Fuselage
Installed the forward bottom skin, after hitting my head on the exhaust stacks several times before getting the Packers hard hat out!


 
Apr 01, 2020     Bottom stringers       Category: Fuselage
I made the bottom stringer supports out of 3/8"" aluminum tubing, mounted them to tabs I had welded to the fuselage prior, and fitted and drilled the aluminum hat section stringers in place


 
Mar 25, 2020     Fuse box       Category: Fuselage
having built an RV using the Nuchols' philosophy of using fuses vs circuit breakers and having great success with it, I have decided to follow suit with the Hatz. I built a fuse box to mount a blade fuse block and have access to it from the cockpit. Best place I could find to mount it was on the right side just forward of the fuel valve.


 
Mar 02, 2020     Secured headrest fairing       Category: Fuselage
Finally got around to attaching the fiberglass headrest fairing to the fuselage


 
Feb 29, 2020     Storage box       Category: Fuselage
I wanted to have a place to store a handheld and an iPad so I made a box to fit behind the throttle quadrant in the rear cockpit. I made it out of scrap 3003 from the windshield construction.


 
Feb 20, 2020     Windscreen frame construction       Category: Fuselage
Windscreen construction continues with bending the flanges at the base to fit to the fuselage. I used a modified
joggle tool to act sort of a mobile english wheel. I rolled it along the edge while simultaneously bending the flange. I used a piece of steel purchased at the hardware store as a straight edge while making the cutouts for the windscreen material


 
Feb 18, 2020     Frame construction       Category: Fuselage
Bent the edges of the windshield frames that retain the windshield material.


 
Feb 17, 2020     Windscreen frame construction       Category: Fuselage
Cut out the windscreen blanks from 3003 .025 aluminum. I didn't want a sharp bend line at the corners of the frames so I made a bending brake out of particle board with a larger radius to use with my harbor freight bender. It also made bending flanges in later steps easier. I made a template to gauge the bend angles and bent the blank prior to making the cutouts for the clear windshield material.


 
Jan 31, 2020     windscreen patterns       Category: Fuselage
plotted out and drew the patterns for the windshield frames


 
Jan 22, 2020     Secured aft end of fuselage stringers       Category: Fuselage
Finally got around to securing the fuselage stringers to the vertical stabilizer post. As I was doing so, one stringer in particular kept on breaking at the scarf joint, so I decided to double up all the stringer scarf joints with 1/16"" ply top and bottom.

All stringers were secured with .063 aluminum plates holding opposite sides together using 3/16"" bolts. I used 3/32"" plywood on the top of the stringers at the locations of the aluminum plates and large washer on the bottom to make sure the mahogany
stringers weren't damaged. Some of them were fabricated out of rather hard mahogany which requires quite a bit of persuasion pulling them to the tail post.


 
Jan 17, 2020     Headrest fairing layup       Category: Fuselage
Layed up 3 layers of 6oz fliberglass cloth for the headrest cover. Not my favorite material to work with, but I muddled through it. I used a pregreg technique where I laid down a sheet of 4 mil plastic sheet, then a piece of fiberglass cloth over that. I then squeegeed resin into the cloth. I cut out the shape of cloth I needed, including the plastic sheet underneath. I picked up his pre resined cloth/plastic and placed it on the headrest plug. After it was generally in place, I pealed off the plastic and then adapted the fiberglass cloth to the shape of the plug. Repeated for each layer. Worked quite well, despite me being five thumbed when it comes to fiberglass.


 
Jan 10, 2020     Headrest fairing plug finishing       Category: Fuselage
Completed finishing the headrest fairing plug. I plan to do a one-off construction and not use a mold technique


 
Jan 03, 2020     Cockpit edge support       Category: Fuselage
Constructed the edge support for the cockpits by using 1/2"" aluminum tube from menards. I annealed it, and bent it to duplicate the shape of the cockpit edges. As I bent it to fit, I slit it with a diegrinder and slipped it over the edge of the fuselage skin. Where the tubes butted up to each other (bending a piece long enough to make it all the way around the opening would have been a bear) I inserted a piece of tubing that was made to fit inside the bent tubing. Gave a bit more support there and hopefully will eliminate a stress riser and potential site of a crack. I then drilled 1/8"" holes for rivets. Before riveting, I injected JB Weld on both sides of the skin through the rivet holes, and then inserted the rivets. I allowed this to set, and then set the rivets with a rivet squeezer. This gave the rivets some support on the inside of the tube as they were squeezed to produce an adequate shop head. This procedure really stiffens up the skin at the cockpits. I plan to river angles of aluminum to further stiffen things up here.


 
Nov 01, 2019     Front cockpit skin       Category: Fuselage
Fitted and clecoed the forward fuselage skin. I recommend not cutting out the cockpit opening until the skin is in place to prevent distortion of the skin. Don't ask me how I figured that one out.....


 
Oct 27, 2019     Front baggage       Category: Fuselage
I'm using the area in front of the front cockpit area as a forward baggage area. I made a 3/16��floor, with aluminum angles on the edges that will support the fuselage skins as well.


 
Oct 26, 2019     Front side skin       Category: Fuselage
Installed the front side skins.


 
Oct 09, 2019     Rear cockpit skin       Category: Fuselage
Fit the rear cockpit skin and clecoed in place.


 
Aug 31, 2019     Primed fuselade       Category: Fuselage
Primed the fuselage in stits epoxy. Painting is not my forte, and painting tubing was a bear for me.


 
Aug 08, 2019     Fuel valve       Category: Fuselage
Mounted the fuel valve


 
Aug 02, 2019     Lift handle       Category: Fuselage
Decided to add a fuselage lift handle.


 
Jun 29, 2019     Lower wing mounted       Category: Fuselage
Positioned the lower wings to locate and weld the rear wing mounts.


 
Jun 08, 2019     Floor boards       Category: Fuselage
Using templates previously made from poster board, the floorboards were fabricated from 3/16��ply and installed.


 
Mar 19, 2019     Firewall flange       Category: Fuselage
Fabricating aluminum flange for the firewall. I'm facing my flanges forward to make access to cowl attachment easier. A holdover from building an RV. The Harbour Freight stretcher/shrinker worked great.


 
Jan 30, 2019     Rear baggage area       Category: Fuselage
I'm utilizing the area behind the rear cockpit as a baggage area. Built the area out of 3/16��ply, and 3/64��ply for the top. The front face, which will have th3 access door, is separate from the main unit and will be screwed to it. All sealed in clear polyurethane


 
Jan 29, 2019     Trim lever       Category: Fuselage
Installed trim lever mount and trim lever. Still need to trim the trim lever length


 
Jan 24, 2019     bottom stringer supports       Category: Fuselage
Fabricated and installed the bottom stringer supports. They are .025 4130 bows that were formed with my trusty Harbor Freight shrinker/stretcher. 4130 mounts were made to support the aluminum stringers and welded to the bows prior to welding the bows to the fuselage.


 
Jan 16, 2019     Top rear stringers       Category: Fuselage
Installed top rear stringers. I have left them long at the aft end at this time and will trim to proper lengths later.


 
Jan 08, 2019     mounts for top rear stinger supports       Category: Fuselage
fabricated and welded mounts for the top rear stringer supports. The plans call out welding a small length of rod that the tubular mounts would slip over. I decided to weld tabs, flatten the tubes and then rivet the supports to the tabs.


 
Jan 06, 2019     front side stringer mount       Category: Fuselage
Fabricated and welded front side stringer mount. L shaped tabs were welded to the mount for attaching stringers prior to welding to the fuselage.


 
Jan 02, 2019     side fuselage bulkheads       Category: Fuselage
Mounted plywood side fuselage bulkheads. I used a string to make sure all the stringer mount slots lined up so the stringers wouldn't look like noodles when they are installed.


 
Dec 21, 2018     forward support for turtledeck       Category: Fuselage
Fabricated and welded forward support of the turtledeck. Made from .025 4130, shrunk to form the arc required. V shaped mounts were fabricated from .025 and welded to the support prior to being welded to the fuselage.


 
Dec 04, 2018     forward vertical stab support       Category: Fuselage
installed and welded forward vertical stabilizer support using 1/2"" 4130 tube


 
Dec 02, 2018     forward turtledeck support       Category: Fuselage
Fabricated the forward turtledeck support from .025 using my Harbor Freight shrinker.


 


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