May 08, 2022     Bottom Skins Riveted - (3 hours)       Category: Right Wing

Final assembly and riveting of bottom skins

  Apr 24, 2022     Reassembly of Bottom Skins - (4.2 hours)       Category: Right Wing

Built wing attachment doublers, fit root skin, and cleco'd almost everything back together. Still need to final hole drill the outboard trailing edge and rivet everything together. Most holes have a rivet or cleco in them.

  Apr 24, 2022     Reassembly of Bottom Skins - (4.2 hours) Category: Right Wing

Built wing attachment doublers, fit root skin, and cleco'd almost everything back together. Still need to final hole drill the outboard trailing edge and rivet everything together. Most holes have a rivet or cleco in them.

  Apr 23, 2022     Deburring for Hours! - (6 hours) Category: Right Wing

Drilled from bottom skin to spars and spent the rest of the time deburring with my new TX In and Out tool from The YardStore. Nice tool, still a ton of deburring. Primed parts as I went. Final bottom skin assembly is next.

  Apr 16, 2022     Leading and Trailing Edges - (3 hours)       Category: Right Wing

Bottom leading and trailing edge fitting

  Apr 15, 2022     Bottom Skins - (1.6 hours) Category: Right Wing

Drilled inboard and outboard bottom skins

  Apr 15, 2022     Fitting Bottoms Skins - (1.2 hours)       Category: Right Wing

Fit and cleco'd bottom inboard and outboard skins

  Apr 14, 2022     Lower Skin Started - (1.3 hours) Category: Right Wing

Installed strut attachment fitting, tie down connector, and started prepping lower skins

  Apr 13, 2022     Wiring for Nav/Strobe Lights - (1 hour) Category: Right Wing

Finished drilling and installing wire holders for nav/strobe lights and the wire itself.

  Apr 12, 2022     Wiring for Nav/Strobe Lights - (1.2 hours) Category: Right Wing

Started wiring for nav/strobe lights. Very hard to get rivets through area where root doublers are, there is not enough A5 rivet depth. Chose to use A6 near root.

  Apr 10, 2022     Skeleton Assembly - (3 hours)       Category: Right Wing

Finished prepping main spar, prepped rear spars and ribs, deburred, primed, and riveted almost all of the skeleton. Drilled the root front rib too large and will have to order another. A6 rivets should use #10 bit or 13/64", not whatever huge bit I chose! We got a water rescue call for a plane that flipped over on Jaybird Shoals and I could not finish the riveting. Only about 30 minutes of work remain.

  Apr 09, 2022     Spar Prep - (2.6 hours) Category: Right Wing

Drilling, deburring, and priming main spar, nose ribs, rear ribs, spar extension, etc.

  Apr 07, 2022     Fixing Factory Mistake - (.5 hour) Category: Right Wing

The factory accidentally installed the uprights that support the fuel tanks. It is not possible to install the nose ribs with that riveted, so tonight I drilled out those rivets.

  Apr 03, 2022     Skeleton Assembly - (3.8 hours)       Category: Right Wing

First time back on the project in almost a year because I have been in the police academy. I asked Zenith to delay the wing and fuel system kits several times since I knew I would not have time to do any work. The kits arrived last week and it feels good to be back on it!

I assembled the skeleton with cleco's. Had to trim the root rib slightly to fit. The spars came from the factory with the upright channels for the fuel tank already mounted with solid and pulled rivets. There is no way to install the nose ribs with those rivets in there. I contacted Roger to make sure I had the correct spars and we verified they are. I will have to drill out the factory rivets to install 2 nose ribs and will use AN3 bolts instead of solid rivets to reattach.

  May 26, 2021     Built Right Inboard Flaperon - (5.1 hours) Category: Rt l/B Flprn

Several days of work, a few hours at a time

  May 26, 2021     Built Left Inboard Flaperon - (7 hours)       Category: Lt I/B Flprn

Several days of work, a couple hours at a time.

  May 21, 2021     Outboard Flaperons Complete - (1.2 hours)       Category: Lt O/B Flprn

Fitted, drilled, and glue backing plate. Riveted remaining plastic tip. Outboard flaperons are complete for now.

  May 19, 2021     Work on Left Outboard Flaperon - (3.7 hours)       Category: Lt O/B Flprn

Riveted skeleton and riveted skeleton to skin. Riveted leading edge of both left and right flaperons. Missy helped. Trimming and fitting plastic tip. Cut backing plates out of old L angle to relieve stress of rivets on plastic.

  May 18, 2021     Started Left Outboard Flaperon - (2.2 hours) Category: Lt O/B Flprn

Test fitting, deburring, prime and paint brackets, and riveted spar

  May 17, 2021     Work on Right Outboard Flaperon - (4.2 hours)       Category: Rt O/B Flprn

Debur, prime, and paint. Reassembled and riveted skeleton. Primed wrong skin earlier so I had to debur and prime the correct one. Complete except for plastic tip and riveting top skin to spar. Requires another person.

  May 16, 2021     Started Right Outboard Flaperon - (2 hours) Category: Rt O/B Flprn

Layed out parts to get familiar with design. Test assembled frame and deburred.

  May 15, 2021     Completed - (4 hours)       Category: Elevator

Reassembled and riveted all components. Tested trim system.

  May 12, 2021     Disassemble, Prime, and Paint - (5 hours)       Category: Elevator

Disassembly, prime, and paint. The weather was cold and rainy, very high humidity, and the paint took forever to dry. Final assembly will have to wait.

  May 11, 2021     Trim Tab and Teardown - (5 hours) Category: Elevator

Fit and drilled trim tab. Installed servo motor for trim and reinforcement L under the skin. Tear down, deburring, cleaning parts for primer and paint.

  May 07, 2021     Support Tabs and L's - (1.8 hours) Category: Elevator

Cut and drilled support tabs, L angles, and other control horn fittings.

  May 05, 2021     Drilling Hinge, Control Horns, and Doublers - (2.2 hours)       Category: Elevator

Cleco'd top skin, joined with horizontal stabilizer, and started drilling rivet line. Fit and drilled control horns and doublers.

  May 04, 2021     Top Skin - (1 hour)       Category: Elevator

Cleco'd top skin, joined with horizontal stabilizer, and started drilling rivet line.

  May 03, 2021     Started Elevator       Category: Elevator

Started fitting ribs and other components. Cut connectors for inside center channel and drilled and clecoed into position. Leveled on steel beams. Next up it to weight it down and cleco the top skin, setting the final position.

  May 02, 2021     Preparing Elevator - (1 hour) Category: Elevator

Pulled out elevator parts and deburred them.

  May 02, 2021     Painting Trim - (1.2 hours)       Category: Horz. Stab.

Prep and Paint black trim

  May 01, 2021     Install Hinge and Tip Plastics - (3.2 hours) Category: Horz. Stab.

Installed hinge (had to cut and trim to clear tip ribs), installed trailing edge tips ribs, and painted the plastics.

  Apr 25, 2021     Drilled Hinge and Started Plastics - (2.1 hours) Category: Horz. Stab.

Drilled hinge up through final A5 size, fitted trailing edge end ribs, and started installing plastic tip on right side.

  Apr 14, 2021     Final Skinning - (2 hours)       Category: Horz. Stab.

Installed new rear attachment bracket and started final fitting of top skin and end ribs. Riveted top skin and end ribs.

  Mar 21, 2021     Skinning - (4 hours)       Category: Horz. Stab.

Test fit and trimmed skin. Riveted bottom side of skin to skeleton. Fabricated end rip attachment brackets. Deburred and primed. Tom Hathaway helped out a lot today.

  Mar 20, 2021     Reassemble Skeleton - (3.9 hours)       Category: Horz. Stab.

Reassembled and riveted complete skeleton. I ordered a replacement rear attachment bracket from Zenith that has not arrived yet. Since that needs to be installed before skinning, I am limited to how much more I can do. Deburred and primed skin.

  Mar 15, 2021     Deburring and Priming - (2.1 hours) Category: Horz. Stab.

Deburring and priming skeleton parts before final assembly.

  Mar 14, 2021     Front Spar Work - (2.5 hours)       Category: Horz. Stab.

Deburred, primed, and riveted front spar. Still need to rivet attachment brackets, but they are primed and ready for installation.

  Mar 06, 2021     Started - (2 hours)       Category: Horz. Stab.

Fabricated rear spar mounting tab. Prepped and riveted rear spar lower caps and doublers.

  Mar 06, 2021     Completed - (1.2 hours)       Category: Rudder

Drilled, primed, and riveted top rib cap, plastic and metal parts. The rudder is now complete.

  Feb 28, 2021     Rudder Skeleton Assembly and Skinning - (5.7 hours)       Category: Rudder

Skeleton assembly including deburring, priming, and riveting. Tom Hathaway helped for a couple hours. We also started the plastic tip and skinned the rudder. Minimal work remains. In an effort to save time priming, I installed the piano hinge before riveting the ribs. I then noticed that there is not enough room between the hinge and some of the rivets that connect to ribs. I had to drill out all the rivets holding the hinge, rivet the ribs, and then reattach the hinge. (See "Oops" Photo)

  Feb 28, 2021     Unpacking and Inventory - (1 hour)       Category: Inspection

Unpacking tail and flaperon kits with Tom Hathaway. Everything looked good except for one of the plastic ends for the flaperon. Notified Zenith that one was cracked in several places even though the container had no damage.

  Feb 27, 2021     Drilled and Prepped Rudder Assembly - (3.2 hours) Category: Rudder

Drilled and prepped entire skeleton for assembly. Needs final cleanup, primer, and riveting.

  Dec 27, 2020     Preparing to Order the Kit Category: Research

I have contacted Zenith to let them know I sold my CH650 kit and am ordered the tail and flaperons kit. It will be delivered in February.