May 11, 2024     Landing gear installation - (9 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

Got back to work doing the brace hardware for the left main landing gear. After that I repeated everything with the right main gear to include grinding and fighting the close tolerance bolts. I put the axels and brake attach points on and then Logan and I measured for alignment using the method from the planes which was a string on two blocks. I put the main wheels on and then started on the nose gear. I needed a 7/16 drill bit and some blue marine sealant. I had to drill an extra cotter pin hole in the nose gear assembly to ensure the 26 pounds of breakaway force for the nose wheel mount. I got all the way up to putting the nose tire on the axel and ran into problems. I packed the bearings with grease and assembled it all but at as maximum tightness as I can get the nut, the rubber portions of the seals are still rotating which the plans say is not supposed to happen. I wound up breaking one of my wrenches which put me at full stop for the night. I'm not sure what I've done wrong but the wheel is supposed to "spin freely" but with about 20 pounds of force to start and it's definitely pretty tight on that axel. UPDATE: I realized that I was interpreting the motion of the rubber thing wrong. I was rotating the axel and the rubber was moving which I interpreted to be bad but was actually good. I used some pliars to loosen the nut until the wheel spun freely and the rubber did not move with the tire like it's supposed to. Installed the nosewheel onto the plane and had Logan help me remove the table from underneath. She's on her own feet now but super tail heavy so it's cargo strapped to my toolbox for now until I come up with a better way to keep it down.

  May 10, 2024     Raising fuselage and fitting left leg - (3 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

Used the engine crane and some workout floorpads to lift the fuselage up onto the table. It took a few tries before I found a position for it that would balance the fuselage comfortably and then I started putting the gear legs on. It's taking a lot more time than I expected. I had to file down the edge to clear the brace and then the close tolerance bolts are being tough. I got the first one in before realizing I needed to pull it out for clearance to another one. Other builders suggest freezing them in dry ice but that sounds like as much of a pain in the ass as what I'm dealing with right now. It's going excruciatingly slow but it's going. The left leg is in place, but I've got several pieces of hardware to install still but I need a break for the night.

  May 04, 2024     Tires - (3 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

Got the nose gear and brake assemblies finally so minus the engine I've got no more backorder parts effected by the bankruptcy. Adriana King assembled the nose tire and I assembled the mains. The mains required me to clean the preservative off the bearings and apply some aeroshell grease. I did accidentally align one of the tires with the wrong balancing dot. Every other tire had a red and a yellow and the valve stem was aligned with the red. This particular tire had a pink dot that I mistakenly aligned it with which I discovered taking one of the photos so I had to disassemble and reassemble it. Went ahead and torqued the engine mount with Jose Alcaide and torqued the bolts for the gear braces I installed about a week ago. Also went and picked up a one ton crane so I can pick the fuselage up. Next will be trying to get it onto a bench so I can put it on legs.

  Apr 26, 2024     Canopy Fairing - (12 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

After the first layer was down, I sanded it off the tape where it overlapped (this would be my first indication that all was not right in the process later) and put down a core material of micro/flox. After that I sanded that down into a more pleasing shape and to get rid of roughness, layered some epoxy on then we layed down another layer of fiber cloth. I cut these ones to be smaller than the last batch since I had overlap from the first layer and these wound up with just as much which caused me all kinds of problems. I sanded that down a bit and then put on a layer of dyed micro balloons. I unfortunately did not put in enough micro and it wound up running down the front. I was still able to get it sanded into a somewhat pleasing shape but the front edge was super janky where I had to chop away the material where it had overrun the yellow tape. I put on a first layer of filler spray and used a fairing filler mix to fill pin holes and try to make some of the shapes more pleasing. After the second spray I realized my tape had become way too messy for me to effectively see what I was getting so I went ahead and pulled all the tape off only to realize that somehow I got red tape up under some of the micro. It's not under the cloth so I'm not “stressed” but it's still ugly and I'm gonna call the fairing as it is. If I get a bug to make it look prettier later I will but for now it's gonna stay this way until paint day.

  Apr 21, 2024     First layer of fiberglass - (1 hour)       Category: Finish Kit

Mixed a batch of epoxy and dyed it black to make prepreg then we put down the first layer. It was shockingly uneventful.

  Apr 19, 2024     Final prep for canopy fiberglass work - (3 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

Had Logan crawl inside and help me secure the zone 1 nuts inside the canopy. Temps are now finally steady above the 80s so went ahead and started marking the areas for the fiberglass using the templates in the plans and then some of the EAA techniques instead of the weird scoring method from the plans. Basically everything will go in between the two red tapes and the yellow tape on top is a sacrificial layer that gets replaced when red shows to ensure I never sand into the non fairing area. I sanded up the metal and the canopy bubble and then the plans had me remove the weights and check for bulging. There wasn't really much so I was going to put just the three mandatory clips on but after putting those on some areas did start bulging so I put an additional 4 clips on and it's all nice and tight against the metal. I don't feel like mixing dry micro tonight so that's a tomorrow me problem.

  Mar 14, 2024     Canopy boring work - (12 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

A lot of slow unexciting work. Fixed the crack at the top of the canopy, sanded down the forward edge of the rear window and daft edge of the canopy to get an appropriate gap. Primed and painted the dash with Black 2.0. Wired up the defog fans.

  Feb 24, 2024     Canopy drilling - (5 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

It's been rainy and cold plus we picked up Baulders Gate so work has been slow. Finally had a warmer day coupled with the heater and we got the initial drilling for the canopy bubble done. I used child labor on the inside for bracing. Next steps are to upsize holes and countersink then fiberglass the front and put on seals. That should take a hot minute. Also, my seatbelts finally shipped.

  Feb 05, 2024     Canopy frame rails and mounting - (2 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

Riveted the canopy rails and aft canopy frame assembly to the forward portion and mounted it on the aircraft. No real indications of skin conflicts but we did file down two sections just in case there is expansion. I do need to clean up my sealant work from the top skin area to make it smoother.

  Feb 04, 2024     Forward canopy frame - (7 hours)       Category: Finish Kit

I reassembled all of the dimpled and countersunk pieces of the forward canopy frame. We had to align the canopy with the alignment bars disconnected on one end until the holes were matched without any lateral motion. I match drilled a new splice for the aft most support structure and riveted on all of the forward canopy frame to the skin. We final drilled and riveted all of the holes in the closeout panel and every 4 rivets that were done I had to use my digital level app to ensure everything had stayed in alignment which went with no problems. I had some trouble with the rivets called out in the plans and went down half a size and that made it much easier. I had cracked a few and walked the rivet gun along the closeout panel so anyone who gets in the plane will see my little happy dance down the piece :(. The side rails and shims are cleco'd in place for the next work session.