Apr 14, 2024     Firewall and aux longerons - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Had a couple co-workers (Sean and Josh) come up to lend a hand on the build. Finished all the extra side skin drilling into the aft section, added the 904-L straps and hung the firewall. Firewall is now drilled and I am working on the auxiliary forward section longerons and stiffeners. Adding the firewall really has it looking like it is coming together. (Things are busy outside of this build, so it may be a little slow going for a while)

  Mar 26, 2024     Longeron drilling complete - (5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Over the weekend I made the canonical bend on the side skins to meet the aft fuselage. This was a little nerve racking as others have said they cracked the skin at the front end of the bend. I think they ended up fine. Then I was a drilling machine for a couple hours to drill all the holes in the longerons I guess I really do have a lot of clecos at this point. ~153 inches each with a hole about every inch. That will be a whole lot of countersinking and dimpling!!

We have some travel coming up and I will get working on adding the firewall to finish out the forward fuselage.

  Mar 17, 2024     Moving to the garage! - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Assembly day with Chris going back to college we had to get this done. I barely could get the tail out of the basement without taking the door apart (whew!). With the longerons ready, time to start putting it all together. The fuselage gets a lot of work done upside down and will be built out to the firewall in the coming weeks. But it is looking like a recognizable structure now. Van's does a great engineering job with all the pre-punched holes that all line up. Very satisfying/reassuring to be able to just put in clecos.

  Mar 14, 2024     Bending the longerons - (3.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Chris helped me finishing the bends on the longerons and putting on the SIL parts. We still have to do the downward bends and the twist, but that will be easy compared to these bends.

  Mar 09, 2024     Added the crotch strap tie downs - (4 hours) Category: Fuselage

I found the crotch strap kit for a 5 point harness. Since I have the parts, I might as well add them. I realized I couldn't complete this without an aviation right angle drill. I found a good used one on ebay but had to wait for it. Worked like a charm and I am sure I will need it in the future.

On to start bending the longerons!

  Feb 19, 2024     Completed the Rudder Pedal Assembly - (9 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Still waiting on warmer weather to start the big parts in the garage. So I fabricated the rudder pedals and have that ready to go. Once the forward fuselage is complete, I just will need to drill the bolt holes for the rudder pedals. I was happy to have my 82 yr old dad helping me put these together! The one picture shows my clamps to get the alignment straight on setting the pedal angles before drilling the brake cylinder holes.

  Feb 08, 2024     Completed Seatbacks and attachments - (9.25 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Completed assembly of the seatbacks and attached the hinges to the seat floors. Lots of measuring and drilling. Had one small dent right at the end. ugh. Tried rattle can paint on the seat backs as this may be my color for my cockpit. Need to see what the interior cushion colors will be to commit to painting more parts.

  Jan 29, 2024     Skipping Ahead - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

I don't want to work out in the garage just yet, but I want to make progress. Shannon and I went and picked parts for the seats and the rudder pedals. Those look doable in the near term. Working the seating first.

  Jan 04, 2024     Center Section Assembly - (14.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Lots of work on this one. Not sure where the time went on this entry, but a lot of fitting and fluting and such. Everything is primed and riveted. It is starting to look like a plane for sure and cockpit. Next step is to mate this with the aft fuselage. I will wait until it starts getting warmer first before moving to the garage. I think I can do some flooring and seat work in the meantime. The last pic has the flooring in place to see how it is all looking.

  Dec 09, 2023     Center Section Prep - (6.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Laid out all the seat ribs and baggage ribs, fluted and squared the flanges. Began cleco'ing the ribs and the seat back bulkhead. Attached the skin with Shannon's help and match drilled the skin. Next need to do the 623 ribs and attach the fwd 904 center wing box. It goes together quickly, but there is a lot more to do!

  Nov 24, 2023     Aft fuselage complete - (8 hours)       Category: Fuselage

It is awesome to have an expert riveting buddy. Chris is fast and we almost don't even need to talk we are so in-tuned with each other when riveting. Shannon even helped out and fed rivets while Chris bucked and I had the hammer. 2 hours to rivet the whole thing together. All the open places are intentional as the forward bulkhead attaches to the center fuselage and the sides need flex for the longerons.

  Nov 22, 2023     Back at the aft cone - (0.5 hour)       Category: Fuselage

It is great to have Chris home from Iowa State. He helped get the aft piece riveted so we can put the whole cone back together after priming. We should get the bulk of that riveting done before he goes back to school.

  Nov 05, 2023     Prefit complete on aft Fuselage - (6.85 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Took my time with the end of the high school football season. Completed all the pre-assembly of the aft fuselage, cut and shaped the stiffeners and did all the match drilling. Next is the debur, same, dimple and prime steps. Not the most fun, but needs to be done. I want this all ready for Chris at Thanksgiving to rivet this all together.

  Oct 19, 2023     Starting the aft fuselage - (2.0 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Things are getting big fast! This went together fairly easily, but I will have a lot of extra fitting of the supports and the tail piece. More storage space will be needed!

  Oct 05, 2023     Completed 705 bulkhead - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Completed doing all the parts and rivets on the seatback bulkhead. Lots of little parts on this where the seat backs connect. Next step starts bending the longerons. I may skip that step for now. After that the parts start getting big with the aft fuselage coming together with skins and stringers.

  Oct 02, 2023     Aft bulkheads - (11.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

After many weeks of slow progress (4 weekends in a row of travel, and a couple business trips), I finally am back to making progress. I have been working the easy aft bulkheads, but I bit off too many at once and it was hard to get motivated to prep and prime all the little pieces (including the 705 seat back bulkhead). I have all these bulkheads ready for longerons and skins. I still need to finish riveting the 705 bulkhead in the next day or so.

  Aug 27, 2023     705 Bulkhead Assembly - (5.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

After getting the center assembly assembled, jumped into the 705 bulkead that holds the aft wing spar and the seat backs. There was a lot of fabrication of the flat aluminum bars and angle irons for the seat backs. A lot of small spacers and back drilling. Now need to prime and final assemble.

  Aug 13, 2023     Center section complete - (10 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Put together the center section and the base for the control sticks. The fit came together nicely. The cleco'd side panels wait until the side skins are assembled, but are put on for a fit check. You can see in the foreground, the notch in the blue panel. This is where the wing spare inserts and gets bolted. This section holds all the cantilever loads from the wings, so this is a critical part for sure.

  Oct 06, 2022     Inventory Fun - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Had three helpers from church with Chris helping a bit in between classes. Shannon made a great lunch. Thirteen pages of inventory! Lots of small parts in this kit compared to the larger parts in the wing kit. With all the help we knocked it out in about 4 hours. Only a few nutplates and assorted items were missing. Be sure to count everything in each kit!

  Sep 30, 2022     It has arrived!       Category: Fuselage

ODL Just dropped off my fuselage crate! Vans says there are some back ordered parts, but I have the majority. Hope to do the inventory next week. Now I just have to finish the wings. That will take a couple months. I hope to start this phase by the end of the year.