Apr 05, 2022     March 20-29, April 3, 4 Sessions - (22 hours)       Category: Workshop

Hundreds of final details before our planned FAA inspection set for May 6! Cleaning up wiring by Harsh. Finishing touches on the canopy fairing and cowling. Securing spinner and pitot tube. started removing all the blue plastic from the skin. "Smoke test" performed last night. R landing light "wig-wags", and Fuel Pump #2 does not run, otherwise A-OK. NO SMOKE!
Starting to run through the Final Checklist from Van's.

  Mar 13, 2022     Sunday session - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Propeller mounted by Willem. Cowling scoops fitted, clecoed, and mounted with epoxy by Brady. Spinner pitot fitting installed by Addison. Garrett reviewed process for final inspection, testing.

  Mar 08, 2022     Weekly report - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

Panel installed by Maggie and avionics bay wiring organized. Wing root trimming completed by Garrett. Pitot mount installed by Logan. Spinner trimmed by Addison. Seat cushion snaps installed by Logan. Richard trimmed and fitted air filter housing.

  Mar 01, 2022     Weekly update - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

Better progress this week. Wings back on, Flaperon torque arms and tubes final installed. Oil and coolant lines final installed. SCAT tubing for cabin air/heat installed. interior console trim installed. Canopy fiberglas progressing slowly.

  Feb 21, 2022     Feb 14,15,20,21 Sessions - (9 hours)       Category: Workshop

Slow progress due to delay of Flap Actuator decision, canopy fairing, Super Bowl and ice storm. Wings reinstalled and torque arms/tubes drilled per plans after Van's indicated actuator is OK to proceed. They suggested travel of flaps likely to be minimally affected and performance effect nil. Maggie and Garrett used a Vix bit to center the holes on the torque tube and removed and completed the hole drilling. Richard and Willem worked on the oil line placement, learning to safety wire and attache Adel clamps. After numerous tries (learning!) they have accomplished their tasks. Addison, Brady and Adam continued to sand the canopy.
We also reviewed the new Service Bulletin re the tail skin cracking and will be ordering the parts to comply.

  Feb 08, 2022     Sun, Mon, Tues Sessions - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

Work continues on the canopy fairing, sanding and applying more resin, repeat. Final engine installation included attaching oil and coolant hoses. Richard, Addison and Brady learned how to properly safety wire bolts on the engine. Harsh helped Jim Becker complete installation of the upgraded landing gear on the Cub. The plastic guides in the central fuselage floor were re-installed because they were not tightened correctly the first time. The Flaperon torque tube installation is on hold until Van's confirms our actuator is OK.

  Feb 01, 2022     Sun, Mon, Tues Sessions - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

This week was spent correcting some errors identified when a metal-metal squeak was noted last week, when moving the sticks. The torque arms and pushrods were removed and it was clear the pushrods were set 1/2' shorter than specified. This explained the low angle between the torque arms and pushrods and the reason the pushrods were rubbing on the ribs. The new torque tubes were received from Van's. The flap actuator was tested and does not fully retract but moves through 1-11/16" travel. We will check with Van's to see that this is acceptable. The pushrods were repainted and set in a jig to get them to the exact length then they were reinstalled. The original torque arms were repainted and reinstalled. Maggie reinstalled the spacers on the torque tubes. The angle at the arms was much greater, and the pushrods don't rub! We're ready to redrill the tubes and set the flaperons.
Richard and Adam spent much time trimming and sanding the canopy fairing and it is nicely taking shape. Addison put nut plates on a cowl scoop, and Brady installed the oil tank, cooler and radiator.
We noted the plastic guides on the floor of the plane were not full secured and these were pulled in order to re-install them properly.

  Jan 25, 2022     Mon and Tuesday Sessions - (4 hours)       Category: Workshop

Productive sessions. Nutplates for cowling hinges by Richard, Successfully re-routed rudder cables through grommets in tail by Garrett. Sanded fairing and removed canopy for further trimming. Richard learned to secure castle nuts with cotter pins. Maggie "the pretzel" Colwell tracked down some squeaking noises when moving the sticks. Turns out the pushrods rub on the bottom of the lightening holes. Larry discussed the issue with Van's and it appears the torque arms are not positioned properly. The cause in unclear. Will need to be sure the flap actuator is not extended at all, and verify the geometry of the torque tubes. New torque tubes, aileron push rods and spacers have been ordered.

  Jan 23, 2022     Sunday Session - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Garrett completed the routing and attachment of the AOA, Pitot, Static and OAT lines at the ADAHRS unit in the tail. He began connecting the Stabilator cables and rerouted the rudder cables through the grommets, missed on initial installation. Maggie, Addison and Izzy final drilled the forward holes on the cowling and attached nut plates. Sanding continues on the canopy fairing.

  Jan 18, 2022     Su, M, Tu Sessions - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

Work continued on the canopy fairing. Sanding and reapplying more epoxy. Final riveting of the canopy hinges. Final riveting of the fuselage skins by Addison and Willem. Garret worked on routing the pitot line from the engine to the ADHARS unit.

  Jan 11, 2022     Jan 9-11 sessions - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

Maggie "the pretzel" Colwell managed to contort herself in the cockpit for 3 hours and connect the rudder links to the pedals!
Richard and Addison have nearly completed the lower cowling hinges.
Brady finally was able to complete the final skin pieces under the gear after replacing nut plates and removing some rivets
Garrett finished the fuel filler neck and drain line.

  Jan 04, 2022     First 2022 Sessions - (7 hours)       Category: Workshop

Returned to the normal Sun/M/Tu schedule. Fiberglass work progressed with Rick's help, adding layers of resin/microbeads. The rear window, Fuel filler, and turtle deck are progressing. Final attaching the flaperon torque tubes. Steps attached. Exhaust installed preliminarily, needed to get sealant for pipes. Cowling hinge attach holes drilled. It's really starting to look like an airplane.

  Dec 29, 2021     Christmas Break sessions - (8 hours)       Category: Workshop

Over Christmas break we scheduled two 4 hour sessions. We were pleased to see Adam R, Rebecca and Josh back on break from college. Holden also had a chance to view the project. Great progress was made on the cowling and the canopy.

The fiberglass was laid over the forward canopy. Rick supervised this process.

Final tailcone attachment was completed.

  Dec 20, 2021     Tailcone attached for final time - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

The tailcone was fitted and clecoed in place for the final time! There seemed to be misalignment but by lifting the tail all the holes lined up.

The cowling work is progressing through Richard's diligent work.

The canopy is back on and being prepped for the fiberglass work.

  Dec 19, 2021     Harsh solos today! - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Harsh completed his first solo flight in a J3 Cub today, congratulations! We clipped his tail feathers at the hanger.

Work continued on the flaperon torque arms, deburring and reinstalling them.
The cowling is getting close to final fit.
Fiberglass was cut.

  Dec 13, 2021     Good progress - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Richard began fitting the lower cowling and drilled the forward attach holes. He then trimmed the lower aft edges.
Garrett final drilled the right flaperon torque tube. We secured the flaperon but it still sags slightly. Rick identified a loose bolt on the center of the bellcrank. Tighten this might have helped a little. The controls seem to have very little play.
Addison and Maggie finished bending the tailcone tabs the put nutplates on some side pieces.

  Dec 12, 2021     Slow progress - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Garrett continued to work on the Flaperon torque arms and tubes. Preliminary holes were drilled and he reinstalled the parts. When reinstalled the flaperons were drooping 1/4"-1/2" down slightly more on the R than the L. Not being sure if this was OK we discussed ways of correcting the asymmetry. Larry discussed the issue with Van's Monday morning and it sees this is fine. If we can correct some asymmetry with final hole drilling that would be OK, but final rigging adjustments will be made by lengthening or shortening the long push rods from the sticks.
Adam and Richard worked on the upper cowling, drilling the attachment holes along the aft hinge.
Maggie worked to bend the flanges on the tailbone.
Addison worked on the sideskin pieces, attaching nut plates.
Willem vacuumed the hanger (yeah!) and Logan helped him remove stables from one of the crate plywood covers.

  Dec 07, 2021     Further progress - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Further progress on the upper cowling and flaperon controls

  Dec 06, 2021     Cowl fitting - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Garrett drilled the holes on the torque tubes.
Richard and Addison continued work on the cowling.
Harsh, Brady, Maggie worked on the panel.

  Dec 05, 2021     Meticulous - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Garrett remeasured the flap control rod to verify the proper length (11-29/32”) and verified the torque arms were at the same height (they were within .016”) and then drilled the flaperon torque tube top holes.
Addison cut and finish sanded the remaining holes in the lower cowling.
Adam and Willem worked on the skin pieces for around the landing gear.
Brady found the center panel piece that ALREADY had the autopilot control holes in it! He had been working to cut them and place nut plates for the last week. Chalk it up to experience!
Richard and Harsh worked on their cross country flight plan and Harsh flew from HXF to MSN on the simulator.
We had a brief tutorial on aircraft engines and Larry showed them the C-85 engine entirely disassembled.

  Nov 30, 2021     Major Visual Progress (MVP)! - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Final torqued the flaperon bolts.
Adam cut the rudder links to size.
We attached both wings in preparation for final drilling the flaperon torque tubes.
Addison cut the lower cowling holes.
Logan had the honor of being the first to sit in the plane and make airplane sounds!

  Nov 29, 2021     Productive week - (9 hours)       Category: Workshop

Larry was out with Covid but the team labored on without him this week!
The cowling top was fitted preliminarily. The lower cowling HS been rough trimmed.
Final check of the cockpit revealed a bottomed-out nut on the stabilator pulleys. The bolt was cut out and appropriate washers were used in the reinstall.
Fuel tank wiring was completed.
Tonight the tailcone was attached with clecos and the rudder cables were pulled back and attached. Brady set the forward attach links so that the pedals are even and there is adequate tension.
Harsh continues to work on the avionics bay.

  Nov 15, 2021     Monday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Amber placed snap bushings and learned how how to tie wrap wire bundles. We triple checked wire routing and secured loose wires. We used RTV to secure the right stick wire as it emerges at the bottom so that it doesn't stretch when the stick is full forward. Harsh finished the dome light attachment.

  Nov 14, 2021     Sunday Session - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Garrett re-routed elevator cables around the pulleys in the cockpit which had been incorrectly routed. He installed the ADSB unit on the rear bulkhead and antenna on the tailcone. Adam temporarily attached the rudder cables at the pedals for fitting, and he helped with the cowlings. Addison and Richard rough cut the cowling and began finish sanding the edges. Harsh routed the dome light wires through the roll bar. Willem helped Dan and Wayne disassemble the C65 Cub engine which is now ready for removal. Logan finished zip tying the ELT wires.

Steve Krog provided ground school for Willem, Logan, Addison and Taylor. He provided simulator missions for Adam, Richard and Harsh to practice.

  Nov 09, 2021     Tuesday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Garrett secured and torque sealed all fuselage controls. He wired the flap motor.
Logan installed the ELT batteries and mounted it. He secured the wires with zip ties and snap bushings.
Addison and Richard began trimming the upper and lower cowling.

  Nov 08, 2021     Monday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Brady worked on panel holes for A/P controls. Addison worked on cowl hinges and Amber started to disassemble the Cub engine for removal. We rearranged the planes with the Cub in position to change the engine to an 86 and upgrade the landing gear.

  Nov 07, 2021     Sunday ses - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Good session. Garrett reattached the flapperon torque arms after they were repaired by Dan Forsberg. Washers were welded on both sides of the rod end bearings to correct the misalignment. Addison finished assembling the seat belts and work was started on the cowling attach hinges. Brady began cutting the openings for thr autopilot control panels. Harsh continued to work the common electrical section.

We confirmed the presence of the lock washer per SB-00045, Rotax SB-912i-012is.

  Nov 02, 2021     Tuesday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Logan deburred shoulder harness attach straps. Addison collected seat belt hardware. Garrett worked on the flapperon torque arm and A/P servo attachment. Unfortunately it appears the torque arms are not exactly the same length so the will need to be removed and adjusted.

  Nov 01, 2021     11-1-2021 Build Session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Brady installed the auto pilot servos and cut out the panel for the dash.
Garrett installed the autopilot pitch servo and torque all bolts in forward control area.
Addison final installed the canopy handle and is worked on the foam for the fiberglass.

  Oct 31, 2021     10/31/21 - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Flight controls were installed by Garrett, including the flapperon control arms as well as the elevator wheel cables. Harsh and Willem set up flight simulator and fixed their mistake where he did not cut the slit in an electrical grommet. Mentors continued organization. Addison encountered problems installing the canopy handle, but eventually got the handle primed and painted and ready for install. Brady worked on installing the servos necessary for the autopilot, he installed it on the left flapperon torque arms. Richard began installing the radiator but encountered issues locating the appropriate hardware in order to install. Maggie worked on fabricating hardware in order to attach the upper/lower cowling.

  Oct 26, 2021     Tuesday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Brady reinstalled the flaperon and stick push rods after they were primed. We tried to connect the flaperon torque arms but the bolt would not go through the slightly offset holes with the rod end bearing in place. We removed the torque arms and drilled through with a rod end in place, then reinstalled. We are preparing the A/P servos for installation. Nash assisted Brady. Addison finished riveting the canopy forward bar.

  Oct 25, 2021     Monday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Rebuilt flaperon push rods, fit to final size. Reinstalled stick push rods. Riveted side skirt on canopy frame.
Installed new simulator table and moved simulator to hanger

  Oct 24, 2021     Canopy and controls - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

The canopy was screwed to the rear and side frame.
The flapperon and control stick pushrods were sanded, prepped and primed. We need to reinstall the rod ends with FOUR rivets rather than two at each end.
The engine wires and safety wiring was completed. It took 6 tries but we learned the proper technique from reviewing AC-43.
Harsh completed the wing root electrical connector attachment.

  Oct 19, 2021     Back to the canopy - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Because our flaperon torque arms have unaligned holes we can't proceed with the controls.

We removed the torque tubes for priming and noted they need two more rivets on each end.

We reinstalled the avions bay cover and canopy in anticipation of Fiberglas fairing work.

  Oct 12, 2021     Frustrating night - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

We mounted the transponder mounting plate and re attached the fuse box, and Garret machined control stick to correct size and mounted it into control column. Had difficulty locating correct bolts and rudder attachment parts.

  Oct 11, 2021     Build Session 10-11-2021 - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Mentors & Izzy worked on organizing the paper plans using clothing hangers and a shelf attached to the whiteboard.
Maggie sanded corners of back window and installed the EMS unit.
Richard & Addison cushion clamped and routed the ECU cables. Larry and Dan sacrificed their fingers
Garrett attached six cushion clamps over rudder cables.

  Oct 10, 2021     Sunday Session - (3 hours) Category: Workshop

Garrett and Maggie and Logan finished shaping the rear window and final drilled the holes to #27.
Addison and Richard mounted the ECU and began to route the main cables from the engine to the ECU in the avionics bay.
Securing three Adel clamps on one bolt is proving to be a challenge.
Maggie attached the replacement canopy latch closure switch. Over the weekend, Larry reprepped and primed the cockpit and roll bar.

  Oct 04, 2021     Engine mounted! - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Richard helped attach the engine mount to the engine then four of us lifted the engine and placed it on the airplane. Engine mount bolts snugged and ready to torque. Izzy, Brady and Logan worked to attach the control column.

  Oct 03, 2021     Plane on Landing Gear - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Plane put on landing gear
Ready to put on engine
Mentor Adams last day

  Sep 27, 2021     Monday session - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Mounted wear plates above left/right landing gear, noticed a roughly 30/1000 lip on the main landing gear support structure, decided to stop work on mounting landing gears until confirmation from Van's.

Deburred holes in rear window and the aft section of the roll bar, prepared for final trim of rear window

Also configured the brake lines into both landing gears, without actually attaching the landing gear.

  Sep 26, 2021     Sunday Work Summary - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

The landing gear was completed and is ready for installation, and the cowling vents were completed. The rear canopy was drilled and tapped and some misc electrical work was completed

  Sep 21, 2021     Monday and Tues session summary - (4 hours)       Category: Workshop

Finished drilling attach holes for rear canopy. Will need to final size them before final assembly. Using the Dremel tool and files, Nash finished the cowl opening for the Oil access door.

  Sep 19, 2021     Summary of 9/19/21 - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

Canopy- drilled enlarged holes
Canopy latch switch screw missing
Checked wire harness and put in an attachment for the fuse box.
Upper cowl- put in oil access panel still needs to rivet. Dremeled one vent.

  Sep 14, 2021     Canopy holes and oil access door - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

We heated the canopy by putting a space heater inside the fuselage. Logan got inside the sauna and held a wood backing block while Garret and Maggie drilled in the holes for the bolts. Adam and Adam drilled the holes for the cam locks on the oil access door. They completed the installation of the cam locks

  Sep 13, 2021     Photos       Category: Workshop

Here are photos from tonight

  Sep 13, 2021     Monday workshop summary - (2 hours) Category: Workshop

Richard and Nash bend tubes for the break lines and installed them. We metal prepped a part that holds the windshield dome, sanded it with 100 grit, metal prepped it again and then painted it. Installed microphone and headphone jacks. Started installing the rear window.

  Sep 13, 2021     Nose gear leg and control column shipped! - (0.3 hour) Category: Controls

Today I contacted Vans and the have shipped the above items! As long as the package doesn't go to Alaska like the last one we should be able to get the plane on its gear and mount the engine next week!

  Aug 31, 2021     All of August, A Slow Process - (75 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Our work is a grinding halt. It took Larry and I (Harsh Patel) 2.5 hours to do 1 step. Which riveting a small wire attack bracket to hold a bunch of wires in. It was in a tough spot and finding the rivet and part itself took most of the time.

A similar story is present for all other sections. Putting the wiring and other small details in takes much more time than anticipated. Furthermore back ordered parts delay certain sections, which delay later sections and the problem expedites itself.

Besides the plane, the group went to the Balloon rally at the Airport, students practiced flying on a flight simulator, and cleaned up the hangar (there was nothing to do because of back ordered parts).

  Jul 31, 2021     An Airventure, All of July - (61 hours)       Category: Avionics

Progress on the plane: as slow as snail
Progress on enjoying summer: going well

We introduced next year's members to aviation meetings now. They are working on practice kits we got from vans. The main reason our progress is so slow is because literally every part we need is back ordered. Vans is at a melting point. Our original goal from March to finish the plane by EAA is a big bust. Even with over 100 hours of work time in summer, we weren't able to get all the stuff done. The main structure is mostly complete, but installing the small things like the electronics, control lines, etc. is TAKING FOREVER.

It took me 6 hours of work time to install the ELT. Which was literally half of a page on section 42: Common Electrical (which is over 40 pages long).We are working, but its a slow and laborious process. We have plenty of people, but not much space on 1 fuselage. For the ELT, I spent atleast 2 hours just looking for parts. We MUST adopt a better method of storing and organizing parts.

The group went camping EAA together. It was a lot of fun. Everyone had an assignment: they must interview 2 people and ask 3 questions related to aviation. I was able to talk to an Aerospace Engineer and talk about the steps I could take to follow that career path. Other kids such as Richard Glidden was able to talk to air line pilots and see his options. Rebecca met a metal worker who worked on the Saturn V (the rocket that went to the moon) who had met Neil Armstrong. I will hear from the rest of the kids when we each present our interviews at the next meeting.

We also met a group from Naples Florida who were also high schoolers and middle schoolers working on making a kit plane.

Several students are taking flight lessons. They are going well, despite a hiccup. On July 20th a group of them (including me) went and did all of our 3rd class medicals together.

We also said our goodbyes to Holden Glass. He is heading out to college now. It was amazing having him in the trial year of the program.

  Jun 30, 2021     Time Flies, All of June - (51 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Basically we have been working 4 days a week since summer started. Clocking about 17 hours per week.
It is too much of a pain to correctly log everything, so I will just have this entry account for everything in June.

We did major progress on the fuselage and made good progress. However towards the last week of June, we ran in to problems with organization and finding stuff. We have 3 copies of section 29 floating around the hangar. Really a big fallibility of paper plans. Next year, the new group of students will start out with an online version using Kami to combat this problem. There also various advantages to using online plans such as taking pictures of where parts are located, where tools were left the day before, etc. Hours were wasted because of organization.

There were also issues with rushing. Trying to get a part done because multiple sections are waiting on it, that is when mistakes happen. Wrong rivets used, wrong order of the plans (could be fixed with online plans), etc. There are multiple teams, but only 1 fuselage. Thus when 1 person is installing their part, the others cannot work on their next step. So they skip around steps and that caused various issues.

It is unlikely that we will get the plane done by EAA Air Venture, hopefully it will be finished by November.

  Jun 07, 2021     Worked Category: Fuselage

Worked at hangar

  Jun 06, 2021     Worked - (4 hours) Category: Fuselage

Worked at the hangar

  May 24, 2021     Moved To New Place - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage: Just deburred today. Did some parts prep.
Wings: Was at airport.
Holden Glass: Helped organize and then did some deburring with fuselage.

This is our last day at HUHS. We will be moving to Larry's Hangar next week. All of the stuff was carted, organized, and shipped via cars.

  May 17, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): Continued mass riveting on the skin. Harsh managed to break the solid metal on a pneumatic riveter in a very ironic time: The head of the rivet gun just fell off while a mentor was lecturing Harsh on not making mistakes (Ooops my bad... I was kind of going fast rather than safe). We proceeded to hand rivet for the rest of the time. We are still waiting on the bolt.
Clean Up Crew (Richard Glidden + Sophie Farrel): The mentors and us organized and cleaned everything. The ground is no longer a mess of mandrills and nutplates and metal dust. Random tools and wrenches aren't sitting next to parts. Really well done Richard and Sophie. Appreciate it.
Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): Dry fitted the wing tip skins. We also did some cleaning of the wing. We have "completed" all the skins on the wing. --> atleast dry fitted
Josh Weiss: Worked on the longerons. It is part of the sideskins.

Mentors: We are transitioning to the hangar, but we are also transitioning to working on the engine and other parts. As we start finishing these sub assemblies it is time to start looking at the plans to see how these parts go together.

  May 16, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): Holden and Brady fluted the wing tip brackets to match the shape of the wing tip. Izzy and finished bending all the flanges. Maggie and Holden also put in the aft part of the wing tip. Holden finished the lighting wiring. There was 1 incorrect rivet that we will take out next time.
Fuselage team (Rebecca Colwell): We are still missing 1 screw on the fuselage screen, however we were unable to get a new screw. We went ahead with the fuselage skin and started riveting it to the piece. We broke the skin with the tool, we deburred it and then clecoed it to the fuselage. We also attached doublers in the skin. These doublers will add strength to this part of the plane because this is where the landing gear is. When the plane lands these reinforcements will prevent the skin from buckling. (Mentors: This was added in later iterations of the design of the RV 12. Earlier versions did not have this and had some landing problems)
Josh Weiss: I dimpled and did 28 nutplates for a part for the fuselage. I also worked on the longeron pieces. I had to use a saw to cut off some of the edges. This part will go along the fuselage.

Mentors: We also recieved the avionics.

  May 10, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

We did not have a meeting yesterday because of mother's day.
Harsh Patel: I worked on fuselage, and we had the "simple" task of screwing some screws on. Due to my error, I over tightened it and striped the threads on one of them. Throughout the entire session, multiple mentors and students just fixed my mistake. Oops.
Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): Had some struggles with the screws being on the wrong side. After unscrewing them, we deburred the bottom fuselage skin.
Wings (Maggie Colwell): Izzy bent some the corner skins. Maggie set up various parts and got the brackets on correctly (they were on backwards last time).
Lighting (Holden Glass): I worked on various electrical stuff for the lighting section. I got the molex connector pins on. I also worked on the $300 lights.
L---> Holden's dad and grandparents came in today! They saw what we were doing.

  May 03, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Wings (Maggie Colwell): Added on the wing tip ribs. We did those right. We put the skins on as well. We did that right as well. We messed up on the wing handle attach bracket. We got those backward and bent them kinda wrong. It is essential to know what radius of bending. This varies on thickness, type, etc. The FAA has an entire book on this.
Holden Glass: Put the wiring and the connectors on the ends of the wiring for the lights. The lenses are completed as well.
Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell + Josh Weiss): I worked on the skin. We put the nutplates on the skin outside and we also put in the edge skins. We also deburred some skins.

Today was the day that new members could take a look at what we do! We had 11 new members show up! Looking forward for next year.

Thanks Nash for taking the professional photos! Thanks Mrs. Colwell for the group photos and getting me in too!

  May 02, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell + Josh Weiss): A lot of major parts came together today. The fuselage ribs were riveted, a few smaller brackets were also riveted. Josh's and Rebecca's work was combined. Major progress done.
Wings (Maggie Colwell): Worked on getting the landing light attachment brackets on and worked on other various hardware.
Lighting (Holden Glass): I worked on prepping the brackets and the support structure of the light. Brady worked on the electrical side of prepping the lights.

  Apr 26, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): We riveted the nutplates on the seat pan assembly, left and right sides. We attached this assembly to the main fuselage piece. We also found that some rivets that were specified in the plans were too short. So we used a size that was .5 larger.
Wings (Maggie Colwell): Riveted 2 spots were forgot to rivet a few months ago. We cleaned the bins and stuff.
Lighting (Holden Glass): Worked with the lens attachment brackets. I worked on getting ready to get the lens down to final shape. I will use the pneumatic dremel to trim it down.
Mentors (John Semenke): They gave us this metal L shape piece. Then vans gave us the metal part and told us to cut a diagnol. However they didn't give any dimensions to cut it. We later found out that they did this to reduce the weight of the fuel injected engine. The original carbureted engine was lighter, so they had to modify it a little in order to have the same weight.
Mentor (Wayne Wendorf): Showed how to measure AN bolts and talked a little bit about them.

Harsh Patel: Congrats on the popularity of this page! We are getting over 40 views per week! This is great and we hope to inspire more schools to do a program like this.

  Apr 25, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage Ribs (Rebecca Colwell): Worked on combining the individual ribs into sub assemblies, and then those sub assemblies into a main piece that we will attach to the fuselage. This part is the part of the plane that you sit on.
Fuselage main part (Josh Weiss): Deburred pieces for the fuselage and assembled a part for the fuselage.
Fuselage parts prep (Harsh Patel): Initially worked on assembling a section of ribs. Afterwards Rebecca made a bigger part using those ribs. We then worked on prepping and cutting parts within section 21.
Wings (Maggie Colwell): We put in the access panel for the stall warn system. We riveted the interior stuff and then put the cover on. Some of us continued to deburr some parts for the sides.
Lighting (Holden Glass): I made attach brackets for the lenses. Since we didn't have these, I had to use a piece of aluminum and custom fabricate this.

  Apr 19, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Wings (Maggie Colwell): Continued mass skinning. Hundreds of rivets done, only hundreds more to go.
Lighting (Holden Glass): Helped a little bit with the wings team. I also countersunk the lighting plexy glass panels.
Fuselage 1 (Rebecca Colwell): Continued work on brackets by dimpling, countersinking some hardware and installing nutplates. For some of the nutplates they weren't predimpled so we had to dimple them.
Fuselage 2 (Josh Weiss): Worked on some of the panels that go on the fuselage.
Harsh Patel: I got the online version of the fuselage plans and they work great on a Chromebook. Chromebooks are convertible laptop/tablets with inbuilt pens. Very handy when using a pdf processing tool like Kami. The only question remains is if students will use it.
Mentors (Howard Kaney): Discussed the fishbone diagram with the students. We did recieve the finishing kit. After looking at yesterday's feedback, we will try organizing the tools and parts better.

  Apr 18, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): We were working on the fuselage ribs. We dimpled, riveted, and installed nut plates. We dry fitted sections of the ribs. Some parts prepping and countersinking. We worked with a part at weird angle and had to countersink instead of dimple with a nut plate. Fairly redundant, but productive. Finding the special rivets and nut plates was much easier with new kami ledger.
Wings (Maggie Colwell): Got the wing walk doublers (extra support for when you walk on the wing) ready to rivet. Brady worked with pro seal and sealed the gap between 2 wing skins to make it water tight. For riveting we had a lot of trouble getting the holes on the 2 layers of skins and ribs to align.
Lighting (Holden Glass): I finished fabricating the brackets to get on there. I used a pneumatic dremel to cut and fabricate.
Harsh Patel: I set up the parts storage ledger on Kami: https://kami.app/AyN-SVj-duC. This greatly improved the efficiency of finding parts. I will try digitalizing more of the instructions to make this more efficent.

  Apr 12, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): Today we accomplished putting more stuff on the ribs and dimpling. We had some issues on the angle of the dimpler. Sophie and Harsh cut a small angle part using a Dremel tool. The mentors helped them with cutting that.
Lighting (Holden Glass): Worked on making the plexy glass covers the lights on the wing.
Parts Prep (Damion Cherney): I had to make 2 more nutplates for the lighting section since Vans only gave 2 of the 4 nutplates needed. Making these parts from scratch is rough.
Mentors: There is 2 depths on the dimper, one size was 120* which we don't really need on the plane. We labeled it and put this die in quarantine. Instead of using a dremel we can use a little nibbler tool to eat small pieces of metal out.

  Apr 11, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Sunday meetings will now start at 4 pm and go to 8 pm.
Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): We worked on prepping the ribs for the fuselage. We got all the hardware and parts riveted on to the 8 ribs. These will be attached to the lower section of the fuselage.
Fuselage 2 (Josh Weiss): We resumed work on the part where we were waiting for the back ordered parts. We riveted a bunch of pieces to the firewall.
Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): We finished riveting the main skins on the left wing. We started working on the wing walk doubler which is where your feet will go when you get on to the cockpit. We just have to prime the mating surfaces between the wing walk doubler and the surfaces. I(Holden Glass) started working on the lighting part. If you use a normal drill bit on the plexy glass, it would just ruin it. I got the correct drill bit to drill this substance.
Mentors: We had a journalist from the Milwaukee Sentinel. We are also going to recieve the finishing kits soon. Richard and I fitted the bulkhead onto the empennage. We were thinking that over the summer, we could schedule 20 - 24 hours and have 3 - 4 people at a time. We can't have 12 people on a single put together fuselage. Smaller groups will work better. We also had a veteran 3 time plane builder Barry Burnstein. He has built 2 rv 12 so far.

The professional looking photos are from the journalist.

  Apr 05, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Wings (Holden Glass): Did riveting on wing skins. With 4 people doing specific tasks, it was efficient.
Fuselage (Rebecca Colwell): Prepped parts and started some sub assemblies.
--> Harsh Patel: In 3 hours, I did 2 rivets. I tried doing a cherry rivet correctly at around 5:15 pm, and I messed up on the squeezing. In order to drill it out I needed a drill bit smaller than the hole size, to have some tolerance for drilling. Adam Rehberger found the size #43 at 6:20 pm in the wrong spot. An hour wasted trying to find something that wasn't in the right spot. Then 2 mentors and I worked at doing it correctly. We finished at 7:40 pm. We were very thorough and made sure we did it right. The cherry rivets weren't tightly riveted, so they just spun around when a drill was on it. The other side was so mangled, that a plier couldn't properly grasp it. It took a while.
Richard Glidden: Went to airport to match drill some holes on a part with the tail cone.
Mentors: We decided the defect on the wing skin is just cosmetic and we are . We are going to be talking to this guy who is on his 3rd rv12. He will come and help organize how to get all the parts together. Do not put cleco boxes or anything on top of the wing skins because when they have enough weight they can mar the surface.

  Apr 01, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Finished Bulkhead section with Harsh Patel (me), Adam Ingraham, and some Richard. We need to connect a part of it to the tail cone at larry's hangar.
Wings (Holden Glass + maggie): Started second side of wing skins while brady prepped more skins.
Rollback (richard glidden): Studied plans and did little progress.

116 days until EAA! Also over 30% of the total time spent on the plane is from the last week.
We will also be showcasing our plane at the balloon rally on August 7. We will have our own booth there while others do hot air balloons and children can do young eagles flights!

  Mar 31, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Flaperon (Harsh Patel): I didn't do much, Adam came earlier and finished the whole thing before I could get here.
Wings (Holden Glass): Riveted 265 more rivets, had Harsh help me. Went very smooth.
Rollback (Richard Glidden): Continued work on the various aspects of making the rollback including riveting, clecoing, and prepping parts. No major assemblies were done.

Our Airplane number is N18HH. Also we have 117 days until EAA.

  Mar 30, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Wings (Holden Glass): Did 365 rivets on wing skins solo for 5+ hours.
Flaperon (Harsh Patel): Was the only guy on team here. I basically followed Rebecca's steps from yesterday and mastered riveting over 4 hours.
Rollback (Richard Glidden): Sophie Farrel and Richard worked on and off for the past 8 hours. Got a lot of the parts prepped, counter sunk, and some more.

There were a total of 4 students here today. It started with 1, (Holden Glass). There are 118 days until EAA. The last 2 days account for 15% of our total build time. Got a lot of work done.

  Mar 29, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

We started at 12 to 8 pm
Rollback (Richard Glidden): We countersinked the main frame of the rollback. We tapped some of the holes.
Flaperon (Rebecca Colwell): We found out that we should mark out the holes to not rivet. Once again, we had misdone rivets. On the other hand we got 1/4 of all the skins on. It was kinda tight on the clecos.
Wings (Holden Glass): Worked on getting the skins on the ribs. We pretty much depleted the entire size 30 cleco supply we had.

Harsh's observation: There was a battle for hording clecos against the flaperon team and the wings team.

119 days until EAA

  Mar 22, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Wings Skins: We only have 2 wing skins left to debur.
Holden: We are going to dimple and prep the structure of the wing and start with dry fitting. (Holden Glass looked over future steps while the
Rollback (Richard Glidden): We are done deburring, and now we are dry fitting and looking over plans. This part is a stiff roll bar that can protect the pilot if the plane rolls over. We have a lot of machine countersinking coming up.
Flaperon: We fixed yesterday's mistakes and riveted everything correctly. We had some ups and downs with a faulty pop riveter, slow but steady progress.
Fuselage: When we put the wings in there will be a slot for the wings to be attached. It took 20 rivets on each side. We got our back ordered parts so we were able to pick up where we left off before we started the fuel tank.

We have 125 days to completely finish the plane.

  Mar 21, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuel tank: done.
Rollbar: went through plans, deburred
Flaperon: Dry fit entire thing. Put steel bar on wrong side so have to undo counterweight.
Wings: Holden worked on electrical wiring of wings. Rest deburred.
Entry done by Sophie

  Mar 15, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1: At larry's hangar
Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): Continued deburring wing skins and did some wiring.
Fuselage 2 (Richard Glass): Worked on roll over structure, part of the bulkhead.
Wings 2 (Rebecca Colwell): Worked on the flaperons. Riveted all the stuff correctly this time and fixed previous mistakes.
Mentors: The back ordered parts are coming, Larry Sullivan talked to vans.
We got a twitter account to boost publicity.

  Mar 14, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Congratulations Team, we got our 100th hour today!

Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): We figured out the stall warning horn. Everything is screwed in place. We put in the fancy rivet (to quote brady) to hold the angle of attack system. Once you have riveted the "fancy rivet" you have to pound the mandrill out. Other than that we just did the wiring for the lights. Something special about this aircraft is that we have a landing light on both sides rather than 1. The rest of us did a lot of deburring on the wing skins.
Fuselage (Josh Weiss): We scuffed out the fuel tank to prepare it for sealant. That is scrubbing some rough paper on it to get the sealant on. We used tape to make sure we did the right places. Tomorrow we can will take it to the airport and mess with this nasty sealant stuff. It takes a while to cure, we will be doing this is at the airport because we don't want to mess up this shop. It takes a week to cure.
Seatbacks (Richard Glidden): We cut the hinge pins 2 inches. This hinge is for changing the angle of the back seat. The pivet pins at the bottom are for the ejection system. Amber used the safety pliers to put a safety line to secure a part of the seat back. The safety pliers are locked on to the line, and then you can pull a plug to spin the pliers. You do this to keep bolts and screws from being unscrewed. These are completely finished.
Flaperon (Rebecca Colwell): Double check everything with everyone... we had to take out a lot of rivets and did 2 steps. A group (*cough* me) decided to go ahead and rivet the next step. However they riveted the wrong holes...
Mentor (Rick Hildenburg? ): Explained pito static system. The ram of the stream of the pressure tells us the speed of the plane. When the air goes over the angle of attack thing, the pressure on this opening determines the angle. When the pressure on the angle of attack is reaching the pito static, it will bleep telling you are reaching critical angle of attack. At that point you need to reduce the angle of attack or increase engine power. The wind physically pushes a lever that tells you are stalling.
Devin ___: Our religion class made T shirts for Mr. Murphy and his wife.
Check out this video of us doing work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_hVE83wz55RqqLxiUNJild9nzeQ2xth5/view?usp=sharing --> sorry for the poor quality, I set my graphics on low for internet transfer. The file size was over 100 MB for that short video!
Also Mr. Timothy Steedman stopped in to look at our work. He is teaching something similar in his ITE class about gliders and air foils.

  Mar 08, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss):
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell):
L___--- > Sub team seat back (Richard Glidden): We are almost finished with the seat backs, we should be done by next week.
Wings construct (Holden Glass): Put some hardware on wings?
Wing Skins (Maggie Colwell): Deburred skins and started prepping them to put on the wing frame.
Mentors: We had a nice day so no need for wrap up. We ordered some of the parts. --> well since we had no wrap up I have no info besides what I worked on.

We started at 4:30 pm instead of 6, because the mentors had a board meeting to discuss financials and the future of the program. Only Harsh Patel (me) and Richard Glidden showed up. Subways, double stuffed chocholate cream oreos (very good), oatmeal raisin cookies, and assorted chips were offered. Yes these details are important enough to be on a builders log.

  Mar 07, 2021     Continued work on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Harsh Patel was not present at this meeting, and no one else even knows how to turn on this computer (password). Thank you Bob Kuenzi for taking the photos below.

  Mar 01, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): After we deburred and prepped all the skins for the fuel tank, we started clecoing them in today after attaching the hardware. We match drilled as well. Next step for us is to finish the hardware and then start riveting.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We match drilled into some steel bar. Just drilling 2 holes took most of today. We used complex strategies. This steel is the counter weight for the flaperon so that the plane stays balanced when flying.
Fuselage seat (Richard Glidden): We worked on the seat backs. We deburred and then match drilled some stuff for the hinges. The seats fold forward to access the fuel tank.
Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): We had a tough time getting some of the tight in board ribs riveted. We really had to struggle and get in there. As the patented term coined by Maggie states: "struggle bus." They struggle bused until they got the rivets in. We had a hard time to get the rivets 90.
Mentors: A little rubber blob floats in the fuel tank that has a sensor that tells us how much fuel we have left.

  Feb 28, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): Preparing all the parts and just need to get some hardware on and we need to do the final process iwth the sealant.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We finally got all the parts for the flaperon section deburred and we started looking at it. Richard worked on the seat backs and he should be ready to assemble by next week.
Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): We finished drilling out incorrect rivets and re riveted them. We did lots of riveting, clecoing and arranging and just did it all. It was fairly repetitive. We should be ready for the skins by next week. We riveted all the main ribs, and we clecoed all the nose ribs.
Mentors: We ordered the finishing kits and the avionics and the engine. Those should be getting here in a few months. I am still contacting vans for the back ordered parts.

  Feb 22, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): We were attaching "this piece" (did not specify besides saying "this piece") to the bulkhead. We were riveting it.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We were prepping parts for the next section after studying the section. We worked on the seat back. It appears that the seat folds forward to access the fuel tank behind it. It was hard to use the band saw on the thick parts to separate them. We also worked on prepping the spar + more parts for the flaperon.
Wings (Holden Glass + Maggie Colwell): We attached the ribs to the spar on the right and left wings. Some problems we had was that on the right wing (maggie's wing) we put the rivets on the wrong side for 5 of them. Holden Glass identified the problem as we switched to the left wing (holden's wing).
Mentors: We had a couple of people cut themselves with this metal. Garett Mcfarren "nearly lost my finger guys" (to quote). We will ask Steve Krog to start bringing in the flight simulator and for discounted prices for us.
Holden Glass: Would you guys be willing to put in more days to help finish the plane by July. We can do this during breaks like summer or spring break.

  Feb 21, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): We finished riveting the floors onto the bullhead. We started adding some of the ribs onto the bulkhead as well. We had to rivet some pieces at a weird angle so we had to use special tools and techniques to reach them.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We just dimpled nutplates and prepped part F 01206A -1. We installed some hardware that will help protect the part from abrasion.
Wing Spars (Holden Glass): We finished riveting the flaperon hinge bracket to the spar. We continued working on the rear spar doubler plate. We did some countersinking, but had some difficulty reading the plans and had to use our judgement. We will now rivet them onto the part.
Main Wing Ribs (Maggie Colwell): Finished deburring all the main ribs, and clecoed some of them onto the spar. We were kind of going ahead and did the same steps twice on 2 different ribs.
Front Ribs (Harsh Patel): Finished doing the last W - 1208 - R piece. We had lots of issues with getting the machinery to work. We used a drill, but it drilled in a triangle shape (user error from me). We then had to fix that. When dimpling the nutplates, the nutplates were being malformed. We then had to straighten that using tools. At the end, I found out that the main ribs team had done the same step I had on another part. It is no big issue, but in the future better communication should be due (all parts were labelled initially for these steps, however the labels were not read or heeded to by the everyone [other team]).
Mentors: We are waiting for some back ordered parts. We can't move forward with some steps in the fuselage, so we will work on alternate parts for now. Covid, weather, and some other factors may be causing this back ordering. For the wings if you flip the L and R pieces that messes up how the wiring and internal components go inside the wings.

  Feb 15, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

We met at 5 because there was no school.
Left wing (Holden Glass): Deburred the rear spar. We reorganized and got an "office." We organized the ribs. We actually had more ribs than the 14 we needed, this caused some confusion.
Right wing (Maggie Colwell): Finished countersinking the stub spar with Izzy. We riveted the doubler onto the stub spar. We started on the flaperon parts. One of the holes got over counter sinked, so we weren't able to rivet properly.
Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): Attached the floor board ribs to the fuel tank floors. We attached it to the bulkhead.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We worked while waiting on the back ordered parts.
Ribs (Harsh Patel): We were working on the ribs, and we put the rivets on the wrong side. We looked ahead and see if it would affect anything, it will not be issue.
Note: Multiple teams worked together and swapped members. Usually when a team has an issue, Holden is sought. Wise Glass usually helps (as with the too many ribs).

  Feb 14, 2021     Worked on multiple sections - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Left Wing (Holden Glass): Went forward and looked ahead at the plans (fuselage and wings). Started looking at potential issues we could have in future steps.
Right Wing (Maggie Colwell): Did machine countersinking on a part.
Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): We got a piece ready to attach to the bulkhead. We worked on the fuselage floor.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We drilled and riveted on parts on the bulkhead. We had a mix up with the nut plates and we had to bend the part around to get the nutplate in.
Wing Ribs (Harsh Patel): We snipped and deburred 28 nose rib pieces. The band saws were not equipped with proper saw blades, so we had to use shears. It was a lot harder and less perfect, but it was what we had.
Larry Sullivan: We are getting the parts in the fuselage ready. Once we are ready to connect to them we will really start building a large section of the plane.

  Feb 07, 2021     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): We finished up the forward lower part of the fuselage. We got to the part that we needed to the tank sealant. Then we moved onto a different section and started deburring.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): Toda we dry fitted al the extra parts on the bulkhead. Then we worked on countersinking, we were having issues with the machine countersinker. We decided to hand countersink with the deburring tool.
Wings Spar (Holden Glass [left], Margaret Colwell [right] ): We finished riveting the attach brackets (the small brackets to which the ribs attach). Then we started work on the stub spar that goes on the spar. We will be ready to start attaching the ribs to the attach brackets after 1.5 weeks.
Wing Ribs (rest of wings right): Continued work on mass deburring. Started fluting some of the ribs. Fluting is bending metal to make a side shorter and make it such that the whole piece flat. Removes any bows on the ribs so that when we put it in the plane, we are not bending or flexing the piece to make it fit.
Mentors: They shipped the finishing kit. They are still a month behind but the stuff is on the way.

  Feb 01, 2021     Continued work on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): We deburred some of the skins. We got some of the skin attached to the parts.
Fuselage 2 (Rebecca Colwell): We counter sunk and lubricated cherry rivets. We also read the plans.
Right Wing (Margaret Colwell): We tapped the right wing and we deburred ribs. Made minute progress on the 54 ribs that need to be deburred and fluted.
Left Wing (Holden Glass): We put the attack brackets onto the left wing. We also riveted a bunch of them and are not quite done yet.
Mentors: Careful progress is appreciated. Especially around these complicated fuselage parts. We found out that the plans did not specify the direction of the rivets, but asking and foresight made sure we put the rivets in the correct direction to reduce parasitic drag.
Extra: Steve came in for ground school today. They discussed airspace restrictions.

  Jan 25, 2021     Section work began - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Right Wing (Harsh Patel): Our team leader (Maggie Colwell) got quarantined, so we decided to start the prep of the 52 wing ribs. We did about 14 of them with 4 people working for 2 hours.
Left Wing (Holden Glass): Continued work on both spars. Me and Jadrien match drilled the rib doubler onto the spar. We drilled and tapped the tiedown attachment point (to tie the airplane's wings when in storage so that the wings are not damaged by wind or other external forces; literally a rope tied around the air craft).
Fuselage 1 (Josh Weiss): We worked on the ford lord. We got some of the firewall attached. We are putting on nutplates and we are going to start assembling the piece. We had to lubricate the mandrills for the cherry rivets.
Fuselage 2 (Richard Glidden): Team leader (Rebecca Colwell) got quarantined. We finished counter sinking the the mid center bulk head (which connets the wings to the fuselage). We learned like how to roughly gauge the counter sinker against the holes. Mentor Adam taught us how to dimple.
Logger (Harsh Patel): Finally had a chance to properly update the builders log. I had to catch up a lot of the previous ones. Also due to a lack of people showing up, Steve Krog did not give a ground school lesson.

  Jan 24, 2021     Started Parts Assemblies - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

All teams began assembling and clecoing parts together after a thorough review of the blueprints. Blueprints were annoted and color coded.

  Jan 18, 2021     Continued Work on deburring, prepping parts for sections - (3 hours) Category: Empennage

Fuselage team 2 (lead by Rebecca): We worked on prepping the parts, however we countersunk the wrong side.
All other teams: Continued part prepping.
Ground School: We discussed the steps needed to get a pilots license. Some perquisites include: Physical, Proof of Identity, among others.
No photos were taken today. We met earlier because there was no school.

  Jan 17, 2021     Started New Sections after Inventory - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

All teams: We looked over all the plans for our respective sections (wings, fuselage) and began deburring and snipping the parts.

  Jan 03, 2021     Connecting Assembly       Category: Empennage

Assemblies were connected and finished. The tail cone was then displayed in the front lobby of the HUHS building.

  Dec 29, 2020     Inventory and crates unpacking - (8 hours)       Category: Empennage

We met at Larry's hanger, inventoried every part atleast twice, and then drove them to HUHS. Each part was put in a container, with ALL other parts that are within that section. For example all parts relating to the stub spar assembly section 14, were all stored in the same box. This will make it easier when we start assembling the parts. The parts were not logged on a ledger.

  Dec 22, 2020     Christmas + Back From Break Work       Category: Empennage

Students assembled tail cone. The tail cone was on display at the front lobby of the high school shortly after completion.

  Dec 21, 2020     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Shirts Team: We stayed after school to make shirts with Mr. Whitlow for an hour. All mentors and students received a founding crew member shirt.
Tail Team: Did mass riveting. 200+ rivets, 0 mistakes.
Part Prep team: Got the lock head on the servo tab. This will help connect it to the plane. We will test the servo motor with a 9 volt battery before proceeding.
Stabilator Team: Finished getting the skins on the aft edge of the stabilator. Will work on getting the faring on the ends of the stabilator to make it more aerodynamic.
Management Team: We had steve krog talk to the kids about ground school. He showed some videos to the students. The topic matched the tail cone, as it was about the pitot static system and how it works on the pilot's dashboard.

  Dec 20, 2020     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Stabilator Team: We riveted the gussets and worked on the hinge brackets. The gussets weren't lining perfectly and we had line it up rivet by rivet. We also installed the hinge stop hardware. Next time we will rivet the hinge brackets in. We had to use a torque wrench to install the hinge stop correctly, there was some difficulty in using it correctly.
Tailcone Team: We did a lot of riveting and we had some difficulty with riveting. When you rivet with a hydraulic pump there is bounce back and if not aligned securely, the rivet would be half out. We did hundreds of rivets and had to drill out 4. When we were putting in the ribs, we were having difficulty making sure the flanges of the rib would be flush with the skins. We had tiny metal burrs/chips around the reams. We did not notice and riveted, now those are stuck between the rims. We used a vaccum + pocket knife to get them out.
Parts Prep team: Worked on the servo tabs they are pretty much done.

  Dec 14, 2020     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Tail Cone Team: We did mass riveting on the tail cone part that we clecoed yesterday.
Prep Team (prepping parts): Dimpled the front edge that's going to connect the vertical stabilizer and got the nut plates on.
Stabilaor Team: We finished all the pop riveting the main skin to the skeleton. We have still have to do the gussets. Continued prep on the servo that's going to go on the push rod.
Programming/Management Team: Programming team will be dissolved after this meeting. Certain functions that the program was going to meet, was too late. It was time vs usability. We will be receiving the wing parts and need a storage mechanism soon, we are planning on using google sheets instead. Steve Krog continued lessons and ground school. Several students received their second session. This is intended to be an adjunct to an online ground school rather.

  Dec 13, 2020     Teams Worked on Various projects - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Tail Cone Static Port Team: We worked on getting the static tubing on. We used the heat gun to seal the system air tight.
Tail Cone Construction Team: We got the bulkhead on, and we inserted strings, so we can pull the wires through small holes when we assemble this. We clecoed the skins and structure together.
Stabilator Team: We continued work and will be ready to rivet tomorrow.
Push rod assembly: We deburred and prepped some parts for clecoing with the servo. This will be the control arm for the anti servo tab. These trim tabs will be electrically controlled by the servo motor.
Programming / Management Team: We arranged for Steve Krog to come in tomorrow to do ground school for those of the kids who missed out last week. Programming progress is continuous, further accommodations for user errors were completed. For example, if a user tries entering the same name for a part twice, the program will detect this and accommodate.

  Dec 07, 2020     Worked on multiple parts - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Stabilator Team: We clecoed all the skins on the skeleton frame. We put the gussets on both sides and then match drilled + deburred. We made sure the skins overlapped to make sure it is water tight. We also put the hinge stop hardware in. The bulkhead will be used to connect this to the tail cone.
Holden glass: We will now save all mandrills from pop riveting for a project
Tailcone Team: Riveted the tail cone and only had to remove one bad rivet. Next step is to put the bulkhead on.
Tailcone + static tubing team: We worked on the static tubing (which is used pitot static system) and worked out how that is going to fit in the tail cone.
Programming/Management Team: Easily implemented last week's idea of a main file. Added some features and more usability refinements to make sure users do not add incorrect data. We had a new guy from EAA, Steve Krog, come in to begin with groups of four to five students learn ground school. He trained some of the students in the overview/basics of ground school. He has a cub air flight school where he teaches students to fly.

Thanks to all the people for photos!

  Dec 06, 2020     Worked on multiple parts - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Stabilator Team: Riveted all the ribs on and prepped the coverings (deburred them) and clecoed them for riveting next time. (image below)
Tail Cone Team: Put the stiffener in and riveted their first stiffener. (image below)
Rudder Team: Got the fiberglass farings (cover caps on the ends of the vertical stabilizer) to fit properly in the vertical stabilizer. Ready to rivet it and assemble with rudder.
Larry: We are going to expand to the fuselage and combine these parts to start assemble things.
Programming/Management Team: Continued work on programming. Plans on adding a master file that will save all parts and make the old system void. Plans on meeting over Christmas meeting.

Multiple people took photos. Thanks!

  Nov 30, 2020     Worked on empennage and control surfaces - (2 hours) Category: Empennage

Stabilator Team: Prepped the stabilator sub parts and skins for riveting together. We got the horns onto the stabilator assembly(riveted).
Tailcone Team: Focused on getting the interior ribs and skins ready for riveting (deburring, cleaning, etc.) together to make the actual tail cone.
Vertical Stabilizer Team: Got the caps on the vertical stabilizer and rudder to final size. The fiberglass caps were not the correct size and did not fit.
Programming/Management Team: Continued programming, creating functions and mostly repasting and repurposing existing code. This process is slightly faster and development is going easier. Reorganized the way this builder's log was updated to make it more readable and specific. Each team was asked what they were doing so this update could be more accurate.

No pictures were taken today.

  Nov 29, 2020     Worked on empennage and control surfaces - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Izzy: Worked on the Spar Cap Assembly of the stabilator.
Larry: A bearing incases the bolt to allow it to spin without wearing out. Bearings prevent damage to moving parts. This bearing allows the stabilator to change pitch.
Garret: Went through the plans and clecoed the tail cone skin and rip portions to see how they fit.
Larry: This tailcone part has special lines that determine atmospheric pressure and help modulate the cabin pressure in the plane.
Harsh Patel: Finished the [addANewPart] module and users can now add new parts. As I worked on the next module, [browse], I decided to add some pictures to make it look nicer. I also updated the builders log. This time I discovered that there are categories for different locations. "Empennage" means tail avionic surfaces.
Thank Wayne for the pictures!