Feb 23, 2023     Bending elevator tip tubes - (6 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Bent the elevator tips today. Arms are sore. Should have left more tube stock for a lever.

  Feb 23, 2023     Tube Bending - (15 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Built bending mandrels for 3/8", 1/2" and 7/8" tubing. This is a well known and documented process that works well. The 1/2"�49 was difficult to bend. Surprisingly, the 7/8"�35 bent easily. Leave at least 18" to 2' extra tubing for a lever arm.

  Nov 06, 2021     Getting Started - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Getting ready to cut and fit the empennage tubing. I ordered the tubing last year but have never opened the box to inspect the contents. The tubing was not well packaged but looked fine with no scratches. Bending the horizontal stab leading edge tubes will be a challenge. I may end up with welding practice tubing. By the time I'm done it would have made more sense to buy the prewelded empennage fron the factory, but what fun is that. It's called homebuilding. Pictured is $550 of raw stock. Somewhere in there is an empennage.

  Oct 09, 2021     Finally - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Here are pictures of my finished spars. A long time coming.

  Sep 11, 2021     Root and splice - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished riveting the wing attach fittings and spar splice and strut attach fittings today. Just have to install the rib attach angles and I'm done with this spar. Looks like I'll end up going a week longer then my projected finishing date.

  Sep 09, 2021     Last spar - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Well I didn't finish by Tuesday. But got almost all of the spar splice rivets in. Just got 4 double flush rivets to tie in the filler strips under the strut attach fittings. Still need to finish off the wing to body attach fittings and the rib attach angles. Easy stuff. Got to get the rivets primed before the weather changes.

  Sep 09, 2021     Last spar - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Well I didn't finish by Tuesday. But got almost all of the spar splice rivets in. Just got 4 double flush rivets to tie in the filler strips under the strut attach fittings. Still need to finish off the wing to body attach fittings and the rib attach angles. Easy stuff. Got to get the rivets primed before the weather changes.

  Sep 06, 2021     Spars - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

Kept on squeezing rivets today. Getting close to the end. Just have to keep at it every day. Hoping to finish Tuesday.

  Aug 28, 2021     Squeezing Rivets - (8 hours) Category: Wings

Getting my last spar tack riveted together. Getting the first 40-50 rivets in takes a lot of time because I'm moving up and down the spar where there are different material thicknesses. That means reseting the squeezer and cutting different rivet lengths. Things go faster after all the different material thicknesses have some rivets installed and the spar gains some stiffness and strength. So tomorrow I hope to get 20-30 rivets in. More every day after that. Will be really glad when these spars are complete, it's been a long road but very satisfying.

  Aug 12, 2021     Last spar - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Here's my Left hand and last spar clecoed up and ready for fastening. This is the end of a long road. When the spars are complete, I can get on with final assembly of the wings. I have most all the wing steel ready to go. Then it's how do I store these monster wings while I build the empennage? A good problem to have.