Apr 07, 2024     Additional cowl preparation for painting - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Improving and filling seam for straighter line before painting. A straight edge achieved with tape and superfill epoxy.

  Dec 15, 2023     Seatbelts and navigation lights - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Assembled and installed Crow seatbelts. Assembled navigation lights and created fillet with super epoxy filler light. Minor filling around gaps on the air frame with same epoxy filler.

  Dec 14, 2023     Baggage compartment - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fabricated baggage compartment closure panels. Assembled closure panels to fuselage with BSP 42 rivets. Relocated e outside air temperature wiring to behind panels.

  Dec 13, 2023     Tailfeather fairing - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Built up some additional fiberglass resin and filler on fairing. Additional contour with sanding. Will need some more work.

  Nov 22, 2023     Bottom tail skin - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Applied sealant and riveted lower tail skin in position. Installed appropriate hardware to secure empennage to forward fuselage.

  Jan 19, 2023     Cowl attchment - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Cam lock fasteners completed for upper Cowl

  Jan 12, 2023     Additional front Cowl fitting - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Trial fit of the upper Cowl and positioning for the 2000 series camlocs (smaller units). Needed some additional fill to raise the cowl to approximate the upper Avionics bay skin. A total of four ply, fiberglass, and epoxy, 1 inch strips applied.

  Jan 11, 2023     Rear fairing - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Rear faring required a great deal of deconstruction and reconstruction to fit incidence of horizontal stabilizer and vertical fin.

  Jan 10, 2023     Cowl adjustment - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Trial fit upper Cowl. Need an extra .040” elevation for the camlocs. Two layers of fiberglass applied to Cowl. Will try to refit for tomorrow.

  Jan 03, 2023     More cowl adjustments - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Further trimming of cowl. Drilled lower cowl. Checked fit against spinner back plate. Initial cut and trimming of rear faring.

  Jan 02, 2023     Cowl installation - (12 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Measured distance from forward, engine hoist loop to back of spinner after installing fly wheel, spacer and rear spinner bulkhead. Total distance equaled nine and three-quarter inches. Manufactured wood jig such that Cowl face would extend 9 1/2 inches leaving 1/4 inch between Cowl and rear spinner bulkhead. Moderate amount of trimming to get the Cowl to fit just right.

  Dec 19, 2022     Right forward fuselage - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Attached right forward fuselage skin. Attached right cheek and right exhaust tunnel. Right wing attach pin locking plates installed.

  Dec 10, 2022     Left forward firewall skin - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Attached the left forward firewall skin. Throttle and mixture cables installed.
Installed left exhaust tunnel and cheek to skin with rivets. Installed left map pocket with rivets.

  Dec 07, 2022     Attached left forward, fuselage side skin and firewall - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

  Nov 23, 2022     Assorted tasks - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

  Nov 14, 2022     Brakes - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Attached AN compression fittings to master cylinders and brake calipers. .138 inside diameter, nylon tubing placed in aft gear grooves. Brake line routed through nylon tube. Preliminary routing of brake lines performed. Final routing will be determined once I have the reservoir attached to the firewall. Wing walk, Doubler trimmed and fitted to left wing. Dimpled all holes and riveted with appropriate countersunk rivets.

  May 26, 2022     Finished canopy installation - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Reassembled all canopy frame parts with appropriate hardware. Canopy bubble attached to skirt with 632 screws. Used 1/2 inch length screws instead of those supplied with kit. Fitted canopy to fuselage frame. Latching mechanism appears to work well. There is clearly some torque when the canopy opens and closes in a clockwise direction. Left portion of the canopy needs to be spread slightly when closing but closure mechanism works well. Emergency release mechanism also appears to work well. Gas strut installed. Operation worked well. Satisfied at this time.

  May 09, 2022     More canopy work - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Further fitting of canopy rails to fuselage. I accidentally oversized several of the screws to 1032. Fit fine and should be OK. Attaching the forward nylon block through the instrument panel resulted in the nut coming out immediately behind one of the forward skin attachment lugs. Will have to trim this later. Satisfied with latching mechanism which appears to operate smoothly.

  May 08, 2022     Canopy attachment structure - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Needed to grind away some of the additional welds for hinges to fit properly. Cut the grooves for the quick release pins forward and aft. Drilled additional attachment holes. Several of the holes should have been 832 and a upsize to 1030 to an error but should be OK.

  May 06, 2022     Trial fitting of seat - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Finally got to sit in the airplane. Rudder pedals appear to be in good position. Needed to move the seat back and further reclined. Oregon aero seat will need some minor adjustment. Needs to be a little wider to fit my butt.

  May 03, 2022     Canopy attachment - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Manufactured latch pins as per plans. Groove attachment to handle widened to accommodate nylon washers.

  Mar 08, 2022     Forward bottom skin completed and riveted - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Needed to bevel maingear clamping brace while in place. Used Dremel which took a long time but allowed for accurate bevel. Cutaway some additional skin to further clear the main landing gear. Adhesive applied and forward skin riveted preserving holes as per plans. A cumbersome and messy procedure. Quite a bit of oozing of the adhesive which cleaned up nicely with acetone. Used rubberized wing walk for heel protectors. Very pleased with the result.

  Mar 07, 2022     Fitting a fwd fuselage bottom skin - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Skin once again fitted to forward fuselage. All holes are drilled to number 30. Checked fit of firewall. Deburring of lower firewall and all skin holes as well as tube holes.

  Feb 28, 2022     Tire and tubes - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Assembled maingear hold down supports. Tire and tubes assembled with brake calipers and disks ready for placement on gear legs. Also a affixed forward rudder cable support clamps.

  Feb 27, 2022     Prepare Landing gear - (7 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Both right and left landing gear repaired for painting. Tooling marks sanded and polished. Top end of each gear leg beveled. Acid etched, scuffed the greased and painted with epoxy primer

  Feb 15, 2022     Vents - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Initial fit and manufacture of RV right and left vent kits. Ready for riveting . Trimmed rear fuselage faring. Quite a mess. Will need a fair amount of fiberglass and ingenuity.
Engine arrived. Beautiful.

  Feb 13, 2022     Rudder rigging - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Using wood template at 28�djusted Rudder stops. Stop on right needed 1/8 inch of material removed in order to achieve approximately 25�f right rudder throw. Left rudder stop OK.
Primer applied to several forward fuselage parts including cheeks and lower exhaust tunnels

  Feb 08, 2022     Seat servo access panel - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Fashioned seat servo access panel out of 32 thousandths aluminum. 24 8/32 nut plates installed. Seat panel and cover repeat primed. Paint bubbled, removed and repainted. Vertical fin and rudder reinstalled. Template for rudder rigging cut per plans. Ready for Rudder rigging tomorrow.

  Feb 07, 2022     Painted bottom skins - (4 hours) Category: Fuselage

Forward and rear bottom fusela skins epoxy primed.

  Jan 25, 2022     Throttle control - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Throttle control Trial fit throttle controls.
Trial fit right and left map pockets. Painted interface of throttle control smoke gray rust oleum. Needed to shrink inferior edge of left mat pocket with fluting pliers to clear bellcrank support tube.

  Jan 18, 2022     Forward upper skin attachment - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Finished attaching upper skin. Used 8-32 countersunk nut plates, screws and washers. Tedious, repetitive but straightforward.

  Jan 10, 2022     Wing guides and adjustment rollers - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Drilled upper and lower center guides and put aside for later. Right and left nylon guide blocks installed per instructions. Found manual extremely difficult to understand at this juncture. Instructed to counter sink for number eight screws but only number six hardware supplied. Nylon blocks previously drilled for number eight screws. Pictures also confusing between right and left aft and forward. Page 548 recommend installing P4908 to forwards spar plate when it should be to rear spar. Nylon blocks poorly fit to Spar plates because of welds. Hopefully this will not be a problem later. Some adjustments affected with sanding but not complete. Right and left roller guides assembled and installed per instructions. Upper wing adjuster holes seem to already have been pre-drilled on both sides.

  Dec 28, 2021     Getting ready for cowl - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Installed forward side flange strips. Positioned trimmed. Drilled hole for step in lower skin and enlarged to appropriate size.
Researched Dynon Avionics package and test fitted for HDX 1100 (10 inch) display.

  Dec 27, 2021     Adjust elevator control rod - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Elevator control rod binding at bulkhead four and aft horizontal deck. Adjustments made to formed area of skin to release binding. Tooling hole widened on aft deck to allow additional space for movement. Movement free and clear. Up-and-down stops rechecked. 24.8^ up and 20^ down. Horizontal stabilizer bolts torqued to 35 inch pounds.

  Dec 25, 2021     Cheeks - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Installed right and left cheeks. Needed to trim back forward 4 inches of each forward side skin To have appropriate 1/16 inch clearance below edge of steel tubes. Cheeks trimmed back to forward formers. Additional joggles installed for front cowling.

  Dec 07, 2021     Tail feathers mounted - (20 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Leveled fuselage in all three axis. Mounted aft and forward horizontal tail supports on aft fuselage deck. Mounted horizontal stabilizer. Measurements from outboard rivets/tubes equal on both sides. Stabilizer leveled into axis. Pilot holes drilled into aft and forward mounts with right angle drill and sequentially enlarged and reamed to 0.188. NAS close tolerance bolts installed as per manual. Number 10 washers and temporary nuts installed.
Drew horizontal line across rear vertical tail mount at 7/8 inch from aft deck. This was specified for the newer mount 13/8 inch tall mount and vertical tail would not fit properly. Forward vertical tail spar would not have seated properly deep enough and through bolt hole would've come out to low near the end of the spar. A new line was drawn at 3/4 of an inch above the aft horizontal deck and this allowed the forward spar to seat a little more deeply giving more purchase for the through bolts.
Trimmed bottom of skin at leading edge of vertical tail for appropriate fit. Plumbob was used to check for vertical alignment wall holes were first drilled with number 30 through existing pilot holes. Right angle drill used to upsize to number 16. Tail assembly removed and all holes were reamed to 0.188 for proper fit of bolts. rear vertical tail spar attachment drilled for number 30 and riveted with BSPS 44 rivets. The rear siet of holes was further enlarged and reamed for proper fit of close tolerance bolts.

  Nov 30, 2021     Install prep horizontal tail - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Trimmed horizontal tail skins as per install prep diagram. Reviewed horizontal tail attached points. Identified rivets in tailcone that need to be removed prior to placing low horizontal tail faring. Oops.

  Nov 29, 2021     Finished for and aft fuselage attachment - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Finished deburring lower skin on forward fuselage. Reattached for and aft fuselage sections. AN hardware attached and secured as per instructions. Slight oil can of left rear fuselage skin noted. Cut out in fwd right spar cover to clear fuselage tube.

  Nov 23, 2021     Mounting of tailcone - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Marked location of 3/16 inch AN bolt hardware. Original measurements on bottom skins not correct. After reading ahead it became evident that the lower bolt holes needed to be centered on the side longeron bolt holes. This was not clear in the instructions. Drilled forward skins through rear skins to tubes and upsized all holes to 30. Rechecked alignment with string and laser and levels. All correct. Small gap between lower left longeron and aft fuselage tube.

  Nov 22, 2021     Aft fuselage alignment - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Aft and forward fuselage sections removed and replaced several times. Alignment achieved with string and laser. All flat surfaces balanced with levels. Sims four longerons and spices needed to be remade at 4 1/2 inches. Original shims too short.

  Nov 18, 2021     FF firewall - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Added aileron paddle cut out and fuel line disconnect stiffener. Attached firewall and drilled holes through stainless. Multiple fresh drillbits and tap con oil made the job go relatively easy.

  Nov 17, 2021     Skinning FF - (12 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Attached bottom and side skins. Stiffeners and fuel line cover also attached. Side skins best fit but not always an equal 16th of an inch alloy around. Will require some trimming. Spar openings kept clear. Supporting picture show slight bowing of the forward fuselage frame on top. Skins are best fit.

  Nov 01, 2021     Getting ready Category: Fuselage

Getting ready to return to Florida to continue build.

  Sep 01, 2021     Nothing new Category: Fuselage

Still up north, unfortunately.

  Jul 01, 2021     More parts Category: Fuselage

No for the building unfortunately as I'm still up north. Stan and Tom picked up parts from the factory which I will inventory in one or two weeks. Look forward to getting back to the build.