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Entry #	Created	Title	Category	Hours	# Pictures

237	Dec 30, 2023	Right Wing Locker cut out	Wings	3	5
Finally took the plunge and cut out the big hole for my right wing locker. Went well...tomorrow I'll clean it up some, but the cut went well. Used a 1" hole saw for the rear corners and then my Olfa knife for the long straight cuts. I went ahead and also cut the locker door supports and smoothed them out but didn't drill them yet.

 

236	Nov 27, 2023	Fuel Sender cover	Wings	4	3
Needed to get my covers on my fuel senders managed...so.... 1) First I made a template with 5 equally spaced holes (used a template maker I found online). I taped it to the covers, marked the hole location onto the cover and drilled them. 2) Drilled the pilot holes on the leading edge skin. 3) Updrilled to #10 so I could use a nutplate 4) Hollowed out the cork behind the afformentioned nutplates. The bottom (front) one seems like it may rub on the tank therefore I ground it down by about a third. 5) Used my newly aquired nutplate drill guides from Osh this year. I needed to use a corner on due to it's proximity to the fuel sender wire in order to keep it clear. 6) Used my other newly aquired squeezer kit from Osh this year. Pressed on flush rivets (after dimpling first). FIN. Looks good. I'll probably still put a bit of a cork or rubber gasket under the cover. This will give it a little rise which should give the cover a wee bit of room over the sender cap. Note: I got the Fuel Sender caps at Oshkosh from Kit Plane Enthusiast for about $15 though they are also here: https://kitplaneenthusiast.com/products/fuel-sender-fairing

 

235	Nov 26, 2023	Building a hanger	Workshop	100	3
Spent about 6 weeks away from my plane while I was worked on my hanger. I started renting one from my flying club airport (we own our airport! https://www.greencastleaeroclub.com/ ). Anyhow...the hanger is 'open', as in it doesn't have any walls, has a roof only. However they allow us to enclose the hanger at our own expense if we want. Another bloke and I decided on getting back-to-back hangers so we could take advantage of each other's walls. He was decidely the brains of the operation while I was the injured mule. During those weeks we built bifold (opens center to out) doors, leveled the floors, bored the holes in the ground, and dropped 4x6s and 6x6s into the holes that ran all the way to the roof rafters where we securly fastened them. We hung the doors and got his floor concrete poured. We hung headers for my hanger because I'm going to build in a loft above my plane for storage. We had to work pretty hard in order to allow him to snow-bird down to Florida until March. I'll continue to henpeck at mine over the winter. We figure that we'll put up the perlings and sheet metal once he gets back, whence I'll also pour my floors. Tonight I fastened the first of my loft floor joists (13'x2"x6"). I'll interchange every other one with a 2"x12"x13' I-beam type floor joists and then put down 3/4" tongue-and-groove plywood for flooring.

 

234	Aug 20, 2023	Pitot Heater Controller Mounting	Wings	1	2
Sometimes it's just the little things. Drilled and mounted the pitot heater controller box. I'm not 100% sure if I'm happy with it yet. I may yet mount it on the back side (same holes) of the rib and access it through the bellcrank inspection hole. This is why I just put pan head screws and nylon selflocking nuts (little washer in there). I figure that it's pretty easy to still reach in through the inspection hole and hold a ratchet or pliers on the back side nut and screwdriver on the front. I may still just put a nutplate for each hole and make it much easier for removal requiring only a screwdriver from the inspection hole. Time will tell. I don't plan on perminetly sealing the top of the wing until it's in the hanger anyhow (I only install about 30 rivets for transport, easy to drill out). I think I'll run the pitot power, ground (both are 10 gauge) and sensor (14 guage) wires through the grommets already in place for the landing lights. Lots of room yet, though I'll probaby clovehitch the pitot wires together separately from the lighting bundle.

 

233	Aug 13, 2023	Pitot mount work	Wings	4	7
I picked up a good dual handle rivet squeezer set at Oshkosh this year. (pic 5) Riveted the pitot box nut plates together with the edge braces (L channel). Used the the box mount to line up the placement on the inside skin by starter punch through a few of the nutplate holes, then by marking the rest using the inspection cover (sharpie). (pic 1) After drilling out all of the nutplate holes to final size (5/16"), I placed the pitot box in place and cleco'd through the main spar hole that lined up with my mount brace (had to drill it out) and C-vice-gripped the other part of the mount to the rib. I lifted the wing with my left arm, and from the bottom of the wing, (pic 2) screwed the panel mount screws (using my rigth hand) through the nutplates in order to pull the pitot box up tight against the wing skin. This took a little longer than anticipated because I also had to re-run a tap through each hole and though the associated nutplate. Once done I set the wing back down and form the top-inside of the wing I drilled the corners of the access hole through the box (updrilled with step drill) and cut the rest of the pilot inspection hole out with my handy Olfa knife (pic 3). I then drilled out the pop rivet holes that I'll use to mount the pitot box to the wing skin perminently. Re-lifted the wing (arm is getting a little tired by this time) and removed all of the screws. Deburred, Cortec'd (corrosion protection) everything (pic 4), cleco'd back in place, relifted the wing again and riveted with my manual riveter (pic 6). I was really wishing at this point that I had enough room to move my table out of the way and put the wing on saw horses...but there was no room.

 

232	Jul 17, 2023	Pitot nut plate drilling	Wings	1	3
Drilled nutplate rivet holes using borrowed nutplate jig. I'm gonna have to get me one of my own of these (and the squeezer). I just use it often enough and I'm near starting my fuselage where I expect to use it even more. Looks like I also need to get a corner nutplate jig and nutplates while at Oshkosh next week. Looking forward to leaving this Thursday to Brodhead, WI until Sunday for Pietenpol fly-in then to Osh. Gonna wait until I get back to rivet these first one because i want to drill out the corner nutplate rivets holes first so i can take it back apart and debur everything before the final rivet.

 

231	Jul 04, 2023	Pitot reinforment box work	Wings	6	3
Spent more time figuring out the reinforcement box and settled on simple. The nutplates that will be attached to the backplate will be riveted through the wing skin, through the reinforcement frame, and through the L-Channels. I figure this will give the strongest support. I may have to wait until I get back from Oshkosh (just a couple of weeks) for buying a deeper squeezer head. Anyhow, today I cut out the rear frame using 0.025, then cut some L-Channel to fit. On the front of the L-Channel I shaped it so that it will properly fit over the main spar angle (on the bottom). I also pilot drilled the horizontal holes on the OB side L-channel brace so that once I lay it down on the wing skin, I can drill-in-place and rivet to the IB side of rib #7. Also had to dissassemble my air shears twice because it kept siezing up....grrrrrr

 

230	Jul 02, 2023	Pitot inspection panel	Wings	3	1
Spent a lot of time just looking at it to see what i want to do. I decided to mount the pitot tube on an inspection panel so i can remove it when moving the wing or during inspetion. So I had to figure out a way to reinforce the panel against flexing, especially since the probe is the Dynon heated probe and pretty weighty. I cut out a piece of 0.025 6061 T6 and drilled and cut out the pitot tower dewdrop hole. I finished the night by riveting (the solid rivets that Dynon provides) the angle nutplates onto the pitot tower base. I haven't built the L angle box for it on the wing yet.

 

229	Jun 27, 2023	Rt Wing fuel line pressure check	Wings	2	1
I used my homemade fuel line air-tank adapter...lol...just a beverage line with a tire valve stem clamped to it, and clamped to the main fuel bulkhead connector. I then capped the fuel tank vent with one of the cleco rubber caps and screwed on the fuel drain valve, finally screwing on the fuel tank cap throat and cap. I then hooked my air tank pig and pushed some air pressure into the tank, I carefully watched it expand some to ensure it was pressurized, then squirted soapy water on all joints and connections. The only place I initially got bubbles around my fuel cap, so i tighted it up by turning the nut on the bottom. Then the only place I saw bubbles (a few) was through the tank cap key hole. Nothing really I can do aboiut that and i felt that it's tiny enough that it's probalby not much of an issue anyhow.

 

228	Jun 26, 2023	Rt wing fuel lines installed	Wings	3	3
Installed fuel lines with EZ Turn fuel lube. The line holes that led to the tank (rib 3) needed expanded UP just a bit in order to make it easier for a deep socket to fit on it. Required to remove the tank (pretty lodged in there) and clean up after the cut expansion.

 

227	May 31, 2023	Rt Wing Fuel Lines Rebuilt	Wings	3	3
Rebuilt the lines with the proper rib protection. I've included a quick pic of my 'practice' lines....aka...junk.

 

226	May 29, 2023	RT Wing fuel lines	Wings	4	1
Spent some time relearning how to spec-bend fuel lines. While working on my first wing (left), I decided to cleco the front ribs directly to my work bench so that I could easily design my fuel line path. It worked very well, so I did the same for the right wing. I didn't like how my bending tool was maring up the lines when pinched, so I filed down the tube gripping portion a bit and smoothed it with the bench scotchbrite grinder. Worked winningly. Maybe I'll remake my left wing's lines. We'll see. At the end of the day, I had some good lines (I may do another set just to clean it up a little bit more now that I've had some recent experiance again...I have a lot of spare so no problems there). I then realized that I forgot to slide on my nylon-plastic grommet for the 3/8" line that goes on the middle rib between the tank-rib and the wing-root rib before flaring the ends. Crud. Thought maybe I could just cut a rubber one and slide it into place. I don't really like doing that...but i took a picture and went upstairs to think about it. While looking at the picture, something didn't strike me as quite right, so I looked up my left wing's line and low-and-behold I figured it out. I have the bulkhead unions on the wing-root rib inserted backwards. It's a heck of a lot easier to cut lines shorter than longer, since the bulkhead unions will now have the long part on the inside of the rib. I remember doing this originaly so I could insert the union to the line without having to bend it into place if needing replacement while the wing is already attached. I'll use this as an easy back-to-work effort tomorrow evening.

 

225	Mar 26, 2023	Rt wing bellcrank support and lower wing skin stiffeners	Wings	4	3
Drilled, deburred, buffed, and Cortex'd the right wing lower bellcrank supports and lower wing skin stiffeners (stringers?).

 

224	Feb 11, 2023	Replaced front rib #3 on Rt Wing.	Wings	3	0
Ordered and recieved replacement front rib #3 (right side). To be clear, this is actually a left wing rib since the flange is on the left (if looking at it from the back). I put a peice of paper on the old rib (everything was perfect except for the ganked up fuel return hole) and traced out the significant holes and shapes. Then cut it out with a sharp knife and scissors as a template. I overlayed the new rib with it, drew the tracelines and cut/drilled out the new rib to match. Came out perfectly. I then drew my flange lines, cleco'd the rib into place, strapped down the leading edge, lined up the rib and drilled them.

 

223	Jan 31, 2023	Drilled holes for rt wing fuel lines in leading edge ribs	Wings	1.5	1
Drilled holes for rt wing fuel lines in leading edge ribs. Screwed up the first one (rib 3) though. Gonna have to order a replacement from Zenith. It was measured correctly but I was using my stepdrill bit on the drill press. Therefore i used a backing block of wood (that i've used before) but it pushed against the side of the bit and moved the hole, therefore in order to get it in the correct location for the return line on the fuel tank, I had to oblong the hole. So now it's a large oblong hole. Too large for my liking. So I'll order another and do it correctly. I went ahead and drilled the holes for ribs 1 and 2 just fine (main line, return line, and wire feed). One thing that I found interesting that I never noticed before, that the tooling hole (only in rib 1) was at 30mm from the original edge vs 40mm, so it's actually only 20 from the new edge. This is only for the sender wires so I believe it'll be fine. You can see the slight difference in the pic. I've deburred the hole, scotchbrited it, cleaned it with acetone, and aplied cortec.

 

222	Jan 28, 2023	Rt Wing Fuel Sender hole cut	Wings	3	3
Cut rt wing fuel sender access hole in the leading edge skin. Started with a fly cutter (slightly off center), then widened with working back and forth with hole trimming took, dremel, and large vixen file.

 

221	Jan 28, 2023	Rt Wing Fuel Filler Cleanup	Wings	1.5	2
Did some additional cleanup and trim on the fuel filler hole. It just had a bit of edge disallowing the filler to lay completely flush. Widened the hole a bit and was able to screw the filler neck completely in to the tank and flush with the leading edge.

 

220	Jan 25, 2023	Rt Wing Fuel Filler neck hole cut	Wings	2	2
Used dremel with cutting bit (looks like long channel drill bit) to outline the hole (about 1/8" from the edge). Then I used the file to finish off the shape. Touched up with sand paper (150 grit). Neck fits in pretty well. Next will cut the hole for the fuel sender.

 

219	Jan 22, 2023	Rt Wing Fuel Sender jig	Wings	2	3
Made Rt Wing fuel sender jig. Decided to use a lightening hole for the main hole size. After making the jig I fastened the leading edge back down (cleco'd) with all leading edge ribs in place and started drilling the holes for both the sender and the fuel filler. Note: The piece that I cut from for the jig was a failed (screwed up) end rib from the left wing tip.

 

218	Jan 02, 2023	Build wire bundle for RT wing landing/taxi/nav lights	Wings	2	2
Built up the wiring bundles for right wing for the landing/taxi/nav lights. 15' each for each wire.

 

217	Dec 30, 2022	Debur right wing top and Cortec. Make fuel fill spout jig for rt wing	Wings	5	2
Cade Dixon (my son-in-law) helped me debur leading edge spar line. Took top skin off and re-checked and deburred bottom of top skin and rib tops. Deburred main spar top (drill line). Scotchbrited the drill lines and Corteced. Created right fuel tank fill spout jig so that I'll be able to properly cut the hole in the top of the leading edge.

 

216	Dec 23, 2022	Drilled Landing Light mount and leading edge skin to main spar final	Wings	6	3
Drilled (pilot, and final) Rt Wing Landing Light mount-to-leading edge skin. Deburred and Cortec'd LL mount. Drilled (#40-->#30-->#20) final leading edge skin-to-main spar. On the Landing Light mount, the rib feeler that I made for the left wing came in handy again. I have a picture of it included. Set the dept of how far you want, (mm) into flange from edge of rib on the jig. Then insert jig (the wing skin goes between the 2 tabs of the jig) over the skin until the side with the upturned end comes to rest against the rib. On the other size of the jig, draw a line at the outer edge. That line is the center of the flange on the back of the rib that the other side is up against.

 

215	Nov 28, 2022	Releveling and drawing Landing Light channel flange drill line	Wings	1.5	0
Drilled out the temporary rivets that I put on the top of the main spar so that I can tuck the leading edge under it for drilling. Strapped it tight and inserted clecos in current holes. Then I measured the line for the landing lights channel flange from the spare holes (225mm from spar holes on top, 240mm from spar holes on bottom). Drew the line but didn't drill anything yet. I went ahead and scotchbrited, acetoned, and cortec'd the landing light channel backplate (6-LLO-1-1) and riblet (6-LLO-1-2). I then thought it was a good idea to recheck level. The doggon thing was off by a .5 deg! I jostled around and move the base bar and still couldn't bring it in to level. So I checked the 9deg spar angle again and it was dead on. After many attempts, I decided that the only thing that I could do was uncleco the top skin (everything had shifted when I drilled out the main spar top temp rivets. After unclecoing, I was able to see level again (the spot on main spar was perfect always, the trailing edge wasn't) on both the front and rear. I re-clecod the top skin with exception of the rear spar, which now looks to be off the pilot holes by as much as a 1/2 a #40 pilot hole. I figured that I'll step away for the night and ponder my next step.

 

214	Nov 24, 2022	Rt wing tank ProSeal and Landing Light mount nut plates	Wings	5	3
Another good day of work. Started off by taking the rt wing fuel tank outside so as to not stink out the house and my wife. I scotchbrited, acetoned, and wiped down the fuel sender mount area. I then mixed up the ProSeal, applied a light layer on the tank under where th rubber gasket goes (on the outside and directly under the sender), then mounted the fuel sender. I then gooped the living heck outta the thing (as you can see from the pics....uggg...the left wing was sooo much cleaner). For some reason this time it was so much more ungainly and I ended up just smearing it on over everywhere that anything could possible leak, Lord I hope that I never have to take that sucker off becuase it's gonna hold on to it like a tick on a bloodhound. I left it set outside in the garage all day (53 deg) and decided to let it sit overnight just to allow more of the offgassing to defray. Oh, btw, I highly recommend watching Kitplane Entusiast YouTube channel by Mark Pensenstadler. I viewed his video on this more times than I care to admit (https://youtu.be/OW24qGLSVOM) on fuel tank sender installations. He's got a lot of experiance, is no-nonsense, and a pretty darn all around great guy (you can meet him at any Zenith Open Hanger days). Thanks Mark for sharing the stuff that you've learned over the years of all the planes that you've built. Meanwhile, I deburred the leading edge on the top side and all of the leading edge rib inner flange of the top, scotchbrited them, brushed on Cortec, and cleco'd them back in place. Moving on I worked on my fuel connection inspection hole cover to install it's nutplates. I used a borrowed rivet squeezer from my fellow builder (James) and the nutplate jig from another builder (Kevin, really, you gotta say his name like the 3-2-1 Penguins "Keviiiiiiin"). I had also gotten a nutplate jig from James but it turns out it was for the mini nutplates and Kevin had both sizes 8 and 10 for the standard sized nutplate. I had used all size 8 standard size on the left wing so used that one from Keviiiiin. I'm not really all that squeeze rivet savvy so I ended up drilling all of them out and reworking it. It turns out it was all about getting a good countersink dimple on both the plate and the nutplate. I ran the screw into plate holding the nutplate in place while holding an awl through the holes to keep the plate lined up. Then, holding the all, with one hand, the rivet with the other, and using my third hand held and squeezed the rivet squeezer. Perfect. I At the end of the night, I decided that I had gotten sufficiently 'ok-ish' at squeeze riveting and, of coarse, drilling out squeeze rivets, and went ahead and installed the nutplates on my landing light mount. Turned out pretty good IMHO.

 

213	Nov 22, 2022	Rt wing fuel tank cut fuel drain and cork fuel tank	Wings	3	3
Flushed tank with hot water then blew out using heat gun in fuel fill hole and blowing out sender hole. Then swished acetone around and wiped out as good as i could reach with shop towel and long screwdrive with duct tape on end (about a 2' screwdriver). I wiped down the entire outer side of the tank and cork-stripped it all the way around. Temporarily inserted fuel sender and screwed it wdown until i get a day when it's either warm outside or when my wife isn't home to smell the sealant. Dropped the tank into the wing (inserting the vent into the already drilled vent hole that I made the other day) and took out rib #3 to draw a marker line around where the drain hole needs to be. I then took a scrap piece of aluminium and drilled the proper size hole as a guide and layed it over the mark i made on the leading edge skin inside and finished the circle made for the drain (I could only initially draw a small portion of it while the tank was in place). I initially marked the center with a very sharp awl and then freehand drilled with the high speed drill with a #40 bit. I then took my big stepdrill bit and opened it up to the proper size, afterwards cleaning up the edges with the hole-deburring tool. A good day.

 

212	Nov 19, 2022	Rt Wing Fuel Tank Sender cutout	Wings	2	1
Cut out right wing fuel tank sender hole. This time, instead of using a fly cutter, I used a big hole saw that was just a little smaller than my need. I then used the deburring blade to widen until at necessary size.

 

211	Nov 17, 2022	Rt Wing Landing Light hole Finish and Fuel Tank Placement	Wings	1	3
Finished cutting out Rt Wing landing light hole and cleaned up it's edges. Placed and drilled fuel tank vent.

 

210	Nov 16, 2022	Rt wing landing light hole cut continued	Wings	2	2
Just slowly cutting with olfa knife.

 

209	Nov 15, 2022	Rt Wing Leading Edge drilling final and Landing Light cut start	Wings	2.5	4
Updrilled all leading edge rib holes (upper) to final #30, including locating (blind guess + measure) nose rib #4 (outer rib edge of extended fuel tank) and drilled. Measured and outlined Landing Light hole and drilled out all four corners with 1" hole saw.

 

208	Nov 01, 2022	Started drilling rt wing top of leading edge to nose ribs	Wings	2	1
Lined everything up (loosened straps, restrapped) and rechecked the level. Started drilling top of leading edge skin to nose ribs. Ribs 1,2,3,5,6 complete with #40 drill bit. Charlene helped nudge the ribs around wth my rib-stick while I watched for rib centerlines in pilot holes.

 

207	Oct 31, 2022	rt wing leading edge cleco'd and starting to align for top nose rib drilling	Wings	2.5	3
Finished deburring all of the lower drilled leading edge holes (both inside and outside skin). Charlene helped me by holding the leading edge in place while I clecoed the lower side across the spar and lower nose ribs. I have temporary flat rivets (just normal A4 and A5 rivets but squeezed with a flat nose riveter) in place on the upper spar so i can now lay the skin down over them to pull the leading edge skin tight for alignment, then I'll be able to start drilling the upper nose rib holes and eventually the spar afterwards. I inserted the rear spar blocks (wood blocks) inline with the straps so it wouldnt' crush the rear spar flanges together with the straps and put cardboard between the strap front leading edge and under the strap metal parts and cranked them down a little (will crank them tighter the next time before drilling).

 

206	Oct 30, 2022	Flipped rt wing upsideright and began working on leading edge	Wings	2	2
My son was over for his 29th birtday gathering (Happy Birthday Josh!). Ok...anyways, while he was over, I conscripted him to help me flip the wing back over off it's top. I moved the wing to the edge of the table so the leading edge can be worked easily (to reach the lower main spar clecos) and releveled the wing with the prescribed 9 deg tilt on the spar. I cleco'd the nose ribs with the intent of clamping the leading edge skin to the spar for the night, but noticed that I hadn't deburred the final-drilled lower edge of the leading edge (lower main spar) or the lower leading edge ribs yet. So I pulled up a bucket to sit on and proceeded to use my new 1/2" drill bit to start deburring the final-sized holes on the inside of the leading edge skin.

 

205	Oct 29, 2022	Complete lower rt wing skin	Wings	4	4
Lowered the skin from the ceiling polley system and layed back over the wing. Uncleco'd and hoisted the 12' 2x4 back up to the ceiling. When walking under it my tie-off slipped and damn thing clocked me a good one on my forehead. After wife applied butterfly bandage and later new-skin (OUCH), I'm good to go. Congratualation, it just reaffirmed that this is a bonafide project (takes an injury of some sort, a little blood in the game). Anyhow, patched up, I went back down and deburred, acetoned, and Cortec'd the lower skin area that I couldn't take care of while it was hoisted in the air. I did this in the morning so I could work more in the evening. I then cleco'd the lower skin, re-leveled the wing, and final riveted the lower skin. I did the lower side of the rear spar since where the ailerons go since they attach to the top of the rear spar, and avoided the lower rear spar where the flaps go. I got the rt wing flaps down for side/placement check. I decided to actually put some temporary rivets (I circled them with sharpie, you can see in one of the pics accompanying) in a few places where the flap attacheds just to hold the structure better when I flip the wing tomorrow. I can easily drill these few out at need. Picked up a new 1/2" drill bit today so I can have an actual sharp one for smoother/easier deburring.

 

204	Oct 28, 2022	Rt wing lower skin, ribs, and spar scotchbrite and cortec	Wings	1.5	0
Rt wing lower skin, ribs, and spar scotchbrite and cortec. Scotchbrited all contact points on lower inside skin, along the skin side of ribs, and skin contact area of front and rear spar. I wiped down everything with acetone, vacuumed the wing out, and then used airbrush to Cortec it all. I found a splash of coffee soda (?) on the inside wingtip, it looks to kinda have etched, couldn't clean off with Acetone, so i scotchbrited it, wiped with acetone, and Cortec'd it.

 

203	Oct 25, 2022	Continue to debur lower inside skin (finished)	Wings	1.5	0
Also deburred outside lower skin. Went back to spar and inside skin and WTH but I keep finding burrs that I missed! Anyhow, finished spars and lower skin (inside and out).

 

202	Oct 24, 2022	Debur rt wing inside skin	Wings	1	0

 

201	Oct 22, 2022	Debur debur debur the lower wing ribs, front spar and started on lower inside skin	Wings	2	0
Debur debur debur the lower wing ribs, front spar and started on lower inside skin

 

200	Oct 12, 2022	rt wing lower deskin and debur	Wings	2	2
Cleco'd the rt wing lower skin to 12' 2x4 and hoisted it out of the way to the ceiling so i could access the ribs. Started deburring the ribs, and spars, then i'll do the back side of the skin and Cortec. Leading edge ribs are already done.

 

199	Oct 11, 2022	Final drilled rt wing lower leading edge and final drilled bottom rear spar	Wings	3.5	4
Lined up and drilled rib #4 (leading edge bottom). Final hole sized drilled (#30) lower leading edge all the way across Drilled rest of pilot (#40) holes on lower rear spar, then updrilled to to #30 and final #20. Installed new retension rings on 12' 2x4 that'll hold the skin up to the ceiling so i can work on open wing. Removed all but a few cleco's on lower skin so i can take it off tomorrow to debur and cortec.

 

198	Oct 10, 2022	Rt Wing Lower Spar finish drilling and begin lower leading edge drill	Wings	2	1
Completed pilot hole, updrilled to 30 and then final 40 drilling of lower spar leading edge and bottom skin. Started pilot drilling lower leading edge to lower front ribs

 

197	Oct 09, 2022	Rt Wing Lower Skin final drill and start leading edge bottom	Wings	4	3
Final drilled all rt wing lower skin (not front or rear spar yet). Lined up lower side leading edge. Drew 10mm edge distance line along the length on the leading edge bottom rear side, slid it under the lower skin edge until i could see the line through all of the pilot holes that is on the front spar edge of the lower skin. Drilled and cleco'd every other hole (#40)

 

196	Oct 08, 2022	rt wing bottom skin align and drill	Wings	4	2
Conscripted kids to help me get the bottom skin out of the ceiling storage and lay it onto the rt wing frame. Leveled, leveled agian, then again, then...damnit...leveled again. Now that it's all leveled I can start lining up ribs and drill. Drilled all every-other pilot hole.

 

195	Oct 07, 2022	Drilled and cortec'd wing locker rear upper support.	Wings	1	0
Drilled and cortec'd wing locker rear upper support. Drilled through upper skin.

 

194	Oct 05, 2022	Lay rt wing back on it's top to prepare for bottom skin	Wings	.5	0
Deburred frame/rib holes through frome the top skin since it's easy to access. Layed wing back down on it's top to prepare for bottom skin to be layed on. Re-leveled.

 

193	Oct 04, 2022	rt wing bellcrank and top skin support L channel rivet	Wings	1.5	2
Riveted right wing top skin support L channel pieces. Before riveting the bellcrank support to L Channel I noticed that the edge distance was a bit shy, therefore I drilled two additional holes back a ways but that gets proper edge distance on both the L Channel and the bellcrank support bracket. Cleaned them up and riveted but just to the bellcrank support, not across the skin. I don't want to rivet the top skin to the frame quite yet. The bottom skin will be riveted first and then the top skin nearly very last.

 

192	Oct 03, 2022	Rt Wing top skin support debur and cortec	Wings	2	2
Deburred, cleaned up, and cortec'd the rt wing top skin support L channels and the bottom of the top skin where they mount. After filling my Paasche air brush and prepared to cortec, I noticed that the gun wouldn't spray. :( Disassembled the airbrush quick to clear it. I guess I didn't get it as clean as I thought last time, but it cleared right up. I was able to put it back together and spray everything before closing down for the night.

 

191	Oct 01, 2022	rt wing skin and bellcrank support final drilled	Wings	2	3
Built other top skin bellcrank support and final hole-sized drilled. Final hole size drilled in top skin support L channels. Now to take them back apart, debur, cortec, and rivet (not rivet but bell crank support yet since top skin has to come off a few more times again yet).

 

190	Sep 29, 2022	Fabricated rt wing top skin L channels	Wings	2	1
Fabricated left wing top skin L channels that run down the center of the wing, lengthwise. Started fabricating the L channel that supports (see sheet 6-W-9) the Bellcrank back (6-W-6-10)

 

189	Sep 27, 2022	Rt Wing first flip to start on the bottom	Wings	2	2
I popped in flush rivets along the top of the main spar to act as placeholders to stiffen the wing and flipped the wing over with Charlene's help. I set the spar angle to 9 degrees (first pic) and then leveled it back and front left and right to 0.0.

 

188	Sep 25, 2022	Finished drilling Rt Wing top skin final hole size	Wings	1	0
Finished drilling top skin to final hole size all the way across Rt wing top

 

187	Sep 23, 2022	Rt Wing fabricate wing walk re-enforce sheet	Wings	2	1
This doesn't look like i've made any progress...but actually there is a top skin walk sheet there under the wing skin (not in plans, 0.025") that I'm implementing in order to re-enforce the skin on the first 4 ribs where you walk in order to get in the plane. I used the walk sheet from the left wing as a template, since it's exactly correct for either wing, and cut another out for the right wing, however I didn't use the drill holes that are drilled in the left wing's since they don't exactly match the RT wing (dang close...maybe some of them are 1/4 hole off-center). I had only initially drilled the top skin every other hole with the #20 so that i'd still have the small pilot holes to drill- through the walk sheet for line up. Does this make sense? If I didn't drill the holes with the sheet under the wing skin, how else would i be able to find the skin pilot holes that the factory made?

 

186	Sep 21, 2022	rt wing top skin final drill 1/2 done	Wings	2	0
Finished drilling out ever other hole and #40 cleco'd. Drilled all tweens size 40 (pilot) Updrilled all tweens to 30 (A4) and then again to 20 (A5) size for final size.

 

185	Sep 20, 2022	Right Wing top skin drill	Wings	2	1
Taped down right wing top wing skin. Leveled. Drilled select front spar-to-skin for clecos. Lined up rear ribs and began drilling rear to front, root to wingtip. just over half way for every-other hole.

 

184	Sep 18, 2022	Drilled initial top skin rear spar holes, RT wing	Wings	.5	0
A little tired from trip back from Zenith 30th anniversary open hanger days today.

 

183	Sep 04, 2022	Right Wing final rivet rear ribs (main and rear spar)	Wings	2	3
Final riveted rear ribs, both front and rear spar. Torqued AN3 (20 in.lb. to 25 in.lb + 12-15 in.lb. friction/drag torque = 34 in.lbs.) and AN4 (50 in.lbs to 70 in.lbs. + 12-15 in.lbs = 64 in.lbs.) bolts on main spar plate and applied torque marker.

 

182	Sep 03, 2022	Rt Wing rear spar hand rivet all but ribs	Wings	1.5	1
Rt Wing rear spar hand rivet all but ribs. Drilled wiring gromet holes and cleaned them up for nylon/plastic gromets. Top hole is for landing and taxi lights...bottom hole is for nav lights. I accidently overdrilled (with step drill) the nav light hole on rib for bell crank. It still fit a rubber gromet perfectly, and after popping that sucker in, I was able to put the nylon/plastic one in like a perfect fit.

 

181	Aug 28, 2022	Drill wing locker lightening holes covers	Wings	.5	1
Line up, clamp together (cleco) and drill wing locker lightening holes covers.

 

180	Aug 24, 2022	Cut out wing locker lightening holes covers	Wings	2	1
Used template created for Left Wing and cut out wing locker lightening holes covers for right wing. Smoothed all edges with scotchbrite wheel.

 

179	Aug 22, 2022	Rt wing riveting wing locker braces	Wings	1.5	1
Rt wing riveting wing locker braces. Cleaned up and riveted.

 

178	Aug 22, 2022	Rt Wing locker tiedowns	Wings	2	2
Cut rear tiedown plates, scotchbrited, acetoned, cortec'd, drilled and riveted them. Made, remade, and then re-re-made wing locker inboard rear panel brace. Scotchbrited them all, acetoned, and cortec'd. Only cleco'd braces in place for now until I am sure everything is exactly where it's gonna stay The tiedowns were purchased from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094FZ3HWK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

 

177	Aug 21, 2022	RT wing locker prep	Wings	3	2
Drilled out rear rib 4 brace rivets so I can rivet through it for inboard locker brace. Also drilled rib 5 for locker rear brace.

 

176	Aug 20, 2022	Right Wing scotchbrite and cortec	Wings	9	1
Gosh I love this Paasche Airbrush. I disassembled the entire wing, scotchbrited the joint parts, wiped everything down with acetone, then used the airbrush (set at 30psi with maybe 20% water) to spray cortec on the lot. Drilled and riveted the bellcrank. Ready for the topskin.

 

175	Aug 19, 2022	G4 moving to another state....incentive to get this plane moving	SPECIAL		0
Got news that my youngest daughter (G4) is going to move to another state for her job....dang....I really need to get moving on this plane so wife and I can visit them all. Proud of all her hard work.

 

174	Aug 19, 2022	Good news from G2 (girl 2) daugher. She made SSgt!	SPECIAL		0
Miriam made Staff Sergeant! 4 years in and she made Staff! Wow....I made that rank just as I was outprocessing...lol....therefore I never got to pin it on. So proud of her.

 

173	Aug 19, 2022	Right Wing Leading edge ribs	Wings	5	0
Started final hole size drilling leading edge ribs, plus removing adjoining rear rib and cleaning up the holes (deburring). Got 5, 6, & 7 done tonight plus deburred entire rear channel.

 

172	Aug 17, 2022	Right Wing Leading edge ribs	Wings	2	0
Started final hole size drilling leading edge ribs, plus removing adjoining rear rib and cleaning up the holes (deburring). Got 3 & 4 done tonight.

 

171	Aug 15, 2022	Right Wing Leading edge ribs	Wings	2	0
Started final hole size drilling leading edge ribs, plus removing adjoining rear rib and cleaning up the holes (deburring). Got 1 & 2 done tonight.

 

170	Jul 26, 2022	OSHKOSH 2022	SPECIAL	0	0
Picked up replacement rib angle from Zenith display. I called Joyce and she sent the replacement L angle along with the group traveling to Osh.

 

169	Jul 16, 2022	Nearly finished nose rib angles drills and finished drilling rear spar to rear rib	Wings	3	1
Nearly completed front rib angle drilling. I noticed that after drilling on rib angle for rib #3 that the second hole (top and bottom with equally spaced 7 holes) it placed the second hole too close (4mm only, need 6mm) to the edge of the 6W11-11. Therefore I drilled another hole about 8-10 mm further into the 6W11-17. I don't like the holes near the edge (I didn't drill through 6W11-11 yet, only 6W11-17, so i think i'll get another piece of 0.040 L channel and replace it. The same issue on Front Rib #2 so before drilling it, I drilled 10mm, 30mm (still only on 6W11-17), then the 3 center holes in the original pattern. Lined up and drilled rear channel to rear ribs like HomebuildHelp suggested, all with final drill holes.

 

168	Jul 14, 2022	Oldest daughter (G1) brought into the world are first grandchild!	SPECIAL		0
Alexander Carrothers. I'm a grandpa! Yah!

 

167	Jul 10, 2022	Rib #7 Right Wing and spare tip	Wings	2.5	2
Measured and drilled spar tip. Didn't like how close the drill holes are through the rear rib flange (on the bend side of the flange) where it butts up against the spar tip. Therefore I drilled a second row further out just to be complete. Probably wasn't going to be a problem, but now it's just a really really well secured rib, lol. Measured and drilled the front rib (for rib #7) spar web using the rivet spacer.

 

166	Jul 04, 2022	Start Right Wing	Wings	5	3
Cleaned up the shop and started the right wing. Clamped on the rear ribs, pilot drilled and then final hole drilled them (all but the spar tip and it's associated rib) through the main spar.

 

165	Jul 02, 2022	Wing move to hanger	Wings	3	3
Attached straps to the wing sling. James Sampers and my son Josh came over and helped me move the wing out of the basement onto the sling in the back of the trailer. It was a very close thing. It's really good that I hadn't yet attached the ailerons or flaps because I couldn't have gotten the wing up that stairs let along out the door.

 

164	Jul 01, 2022	Wing Sling build part 2	Workshop	1.5	0
Finshed building the outer verticals that the straps will hook to.

 

163	Jun 30, 2022	Wing Sling build	Workshop	3	0
I couldn't build the wing sling in the garage as expected because my wife decided 2 months ago that she wanted to hold a garage sale....sooooome time in the near-to-distant future. So she filled up my car side of the garage and there it still all sits...grrr....so I had to wait until something changed...and that was my chapter getting the trailer. So i can build the wing sling directly into it and move the wing out this weekend. I cut everything to length, looking at the build for wing sling that are on the most excellent Homebuild Help videos (these are awesome btw). I got the bottom crossmembers atached and all uprights except the outside verticals where the straps attach. I'll have finish attaching them tomorrow. It's GOOD to be back at work on the plane!

 

162	Jun 29, 2022	Packing up the wing part 2	Wings	4	3
Uncleco'd part of the wing rear skin. Twisted here, twisted there, ahh...got one hold lined up on the end (root) of the main spar. Just went 1 hole by 1 hole and cleco'd all the way across and re-fastened the other rear skin clecos. Now, I don't want to try to move the wing to the trailer and then to the hanger with clecos sticking out, all smiley-faces just wait'n to happen. I'm pretty good at drilling out rivets now (sheez, boy I've got some experiance now), so I went ahead and riveted about every 10 inches up the spar (front and rear) and about 2 on each rib over the rear skin. Shored up good and solid. We can proceed with building the wing-sling now. Tomorrow.

 

161	Jun 28, 2022	Packing up the wing	Wings	3	0
Well. My chapter (33) bought an enclosed trailer, which I can use to move my wing.....it's time to get it out of the basement so I can start on the other wing (right side). So I lowered the top-skin off the polley system and cleco'd it on. I started to try to cleco the leading edge over top of the rear skin on the main spar but low and behold the holes no longer lined up. No worries though, I know it'll just take some re-adjusting the wing to twist it back into shap. I'll do that tomorrow.

 

160	May 30, 2022	G1 graduated from college!	SPECIAL		0
Sarah graduated from college with a Biochemical Bachlors degree (wow!). She has also been accepted to the Royal Academy of London (yes, in the UK) to continue on her quest for her veterinarian degree! She's a hard worker and smart as a whip.

 

159	May 07, 2022	G2 Married away!	SPECIAL		0
Miriam maried off to Cade Dixon.

 

158	Mar 27, 2022	Wing Sling build	Wings	2	1
Bought a couple of 10' 2x4, dug up some 2"x4"x8' and cut them down to 74" (just over 6') to start making the wing sling. Looks like if i were to assemble it in the basemint it doesn't look like it'll fit up the stairs and out the door...therefore I'll assemble it in the garage for now.

 

157	Mar 05, 2022	EAA 33 Chapter Tech Advisor stopped by for inspection	Inspection	1	0
Tom stopped by to give my project a "Left wing pre cover inspection". It seemed to go very well. He offered some advice on the bellcrank bolt and push rod ends, plus some ideas on the root-side skin edge treatment (smoothing) that might help counter future edge cracking. Also some ideas on how to handle a few of my cleco smileys. Thanks Tom. It was good to have you over.

 

156	Mar 04, 2022	Shop cleanup and debur aileron holes	Wings	4	1
In preparation for my EAA chapter tech advisor swinging by tomorrow to take a first peek at my wing, I pulled the top off, opened the leading edge, and did a general cleanup of the shop. After doing so I went ahead and marked off a 'to-do' list item of deburing the aileron drilled holes.

 

155	Feb 22, 2022	Beginning torque marker	Wings	2	2
Torqued and torque marked wing tip (AN3 20 in lb) and wing root (AN4 50 in lb) bolts. Rivited some more wing skin cross supports, enough to hold the braces until i get the wing sitting up high enough to easily reach the rest. Corteced and riveted left wing aileron stop.

 

154	Feb 20, 2022	Left Wing support ribs bottom of wing skin	Wings	2	3
Attached 2x4 to top skin to re-open up the wing (wing is secured with bungie so it doesn't fall off the table). Accessed the #40 clecos which were holding the wing skin cross supports. Updrilled them to #21 and riveted them with A5 (I think plans call for A4, but I had already drilled and riveted the top skin supports with A5, so I matched them.

 

153	Feb 15, 2022	Left Wing Aileron Stop	Wings		3
Drilled Left Wing Aileron Stop. Had to squeeze it some because it was shaped to interfere with the existing rivets.

 

152	Feb 14, 2022	Wingtip consulation with Zenith	Wings	.5	2
Roger got back to me from my question about the size of the wingtips. I asked if they had any longer ones. He said send him measurements.

 

151	Feb 13, 2022	Wingtip and aileron counterweight strike plates work	Wings	3	2
Drilled aileron counterweight strike plates' rivet holes. Riveted in the final top skin stringer (L channel) holes. Had to widen the aileron counterweight hole (bottom part) a bit more so the counterweight can hit the lower stikeplate. Trying to figure out how to mount wingtip panels. They seem too short. Will email Zenith tomorrow. If I move them full forward so they are tight in the leading edge, they are too short in the rear. If I move them so they are flush in the rear, then they are far too short in front. Did some research on the Zenith builder forums. Found out that this is a common issue for which people have been asking Zenith about. Said they had redesigned the wingtip (or maybe the end of the wing) and therefore they aren't always fitting. Some even cut their wingtips into two peices.

 

150	Feb 05, 2022	Left Aileron placed and drilled	Wings	3.5	0
Checked torque on main spar (left) bolts. Put top skin back on so I could position the left aileron, mark and drill it. Wow...things lined right up. Started playing with wing tip placement.

 

149	Jan 22, 2022	L channel down on bottom wing skin	Wings	1	0
Was looking at the wing and plans last night when I noticed....crapzilla, I hadn't put the bottom L channels in yet that run the length of the bottom wing skin! Tonight I cut and drilled out the first 2 inboard ones, will catch the others tomorrow night.

 

148	Jan 20, 2022	Left Wing root nose ribs and repressure test fuel tank	Wings	2	2
Final riveted nose ribs 1 and 2. After doing so, had to reapply EZlube for the fuel line connections and repressure test. Piped in air pressure again and it has held for 5 hours so far and no bubbles on conections. Will check it in the morning.

 

147	Jan 19, 2022	Rivet Nose Rib #3 (tank rib)	Wings	1.5	2
Took ribs #1 and #2 off so i could take the fuel lines out. It ended up I could not fit the hand riveter behind the fuel line and spar to get to the rivet behind. So after doing so, I riveted nose rib #3 finally. Cleaned (vacuumed) the wing out again. List of things to do looks shorter. Took another picture and redocumented some of the features before I cover this thing up.

 

146	Jan 18, 2022	Squeeze rivets, locker door rivet, and heat shrink	Wings	3	0
Today was the first group of squeeze rivets that I've used on this plane. I decided that the aileron trim motor access panel sat more flush with squeeze rivets rather than the wee-tiny pull rivets. So I borrowed a friend's (Kevin) squeezer, nutplate jig, and some solid rivets and it looks to have worked out pretty well (after some tinkering around) I also went ahead and riveted the wing locker door (was still all clecos, go figure). Lastly for the night, I wired the fuel tank ground, the sender mount ground, and the sender power and ground wires and routed them to the wing root. I incased them in heat shrink as well. Checking those three things off my list of things to do, I noticed and added a new item. I noticed that nose ribs 1-3 are not riveted yet, still just clecoed. Not sure why I waited on that, since I had already pressure checked the tank and connections. - sigh - I stuck a hand riveter in there and was able to semi-comfortably reach every one for reach-test (not riveted yet, that's for tomorrow). It looks like that I may have to remove the nose skin (not riveted yet either) to get the very bottom rivets which are right next to the tank and behind the main fuel line.

 

145	Dec 30, 2021	Reevaluate and assess what's next	Wings	4	0
Sat back and just looked at the wing to try to determine what's left before I put the top skin back on and drill the aileron mount hole (and wing tip nutplates). Finally riveted the rest of the rear spar center holes because I determined that there was nothing going to be interfered with by doing so. Re-put the locker door supports in place and found that the last rivet on each side doesn't line up anymore. (?!?) Since I had to rebuild that top rear support from scratch, I believe I must have drilled those 2 holes incorrectly (juuuust a little off, they don't line up exactly with the rest of the run for some reason). I'll drill them out (will be a bit oblong) and put in a backing plate for the rivet. Found a few more adel camps that needed nylon washers so i replaced them. I also moved the nuts for the ones that are against the main spare (tip) so the nut is on the front side. The reasoning for this is that holding a wratchet on the front side is easier (to fit) than the large opening on the rear of the main spar where a longer screwdriver can fit (this will be readily accessable since I'm rigging the wingtips to be attached by nutplates vs rivets for full and easy access to the entire wingtip. Shop cleanup and re-organize.

 

144	Dec 29, 2021	Pressure test left fuel tank	Fuel System	1	1
I pipe clamped an emergency tire stem to a plastic hose (cut off from my wort chiller) and to the fuel line inlet (I covered the overflow tube with a cleco rubber and camped it). Hooked up my air-pig and slowly pressurized the fuel tank. Then I spritzed all connections and the fuel-fill cap with dish-soap and water. I needed to tighten a few line connections and I also needed adjust the fuel cap. No more leaks. I have rechecked that there's still air pressure a few hours later and it's still holding it. Looks good.

 

143	Jun 27, 2021	Our first daughter, G1,married off!	SPECIAL		0
Our first son-in-law welcomed into the family! Sarah maried Brandon Carrothers!

 

142	Apr 03, 2021	6-K-1-2Fuel Sender access panel - Left Wing	Wings	4	3
Drilled and riveted access panel. Cleaned it out using tap. Worked a few hours more on deburring leading edge.

 

141	Apr 03, 2021	6-K-1 Left Wing Fuel Sender finish	Fuel System	2	3
Sealed fuel sender using Proseal purchased from Van's RV, finger screen, and fuel return port using EZTurn. That Proseal is sticky, stringy, and messy.

 

140	Apr 02, 2021	Left Wing Fuel Line holes	Fuel System		2
Drilled Left Wing fuel line holes. Set return line holes so they'd be slighly uphill so they'd drain back to the tank. R2: 5mm higher than R3. R1: 5mm higher than R2.

 

139	Mar 14, 2021	Practiced building fuel lines (bending, flaring)	Fuel System	1.5	0

 

138	Feb 02, 2021	Leading edge ribs cleanup start.	Wings	2.5	0
Took 3 ribs and the landing light mount, deburred them, hit their joint parts with scotchbright, cleaned them up with acetone, and hit them with cortec. Then went through the inside leading edge holes from those ribs and started cleaning them up as well so i can eventualy close the leading edge. Drilled leading edge rib #1 fuel line hole and inserted bushing.

 

137	Jan 31, 2021	Fuel tank work	Fuel System	2	0
I flushed out my left wing fuel tank to prepare it for sealing with the fuel tank sealant (MC-240-B1/2 purchased from Van Aircraft) to seal the fuel sender. Decided to wait until i can take it to the garage to do this so i don't get formaldihyde fumes throughout the house. I proceeded to cut the hole in left nose rib #3 for the insert to push the sender cable thru (from the top of the tank), and then cut the hole for the return line (for if I decide to install it. I may just cap it at the tank, still not sold on either direction to install the return or not, but making the hole will allow for the descision to be made later at any time (even after the plane is done).

 

136	Jan 30, 2021	Flaps and Ailerons revival	Wings	3	3
I detoured tonight, and pulled my ailerons and flaps (left wing only) back outta storage to look them over. Turns out that I missed the rear rivets on one rib on the flaps! Lol. Anyhow...the hinge still wasn't cleaned up yet, so I deburred it, cortec'd it, and final riveted it. I then clamped it to the wing and lined the aileron up next to it. Decided to cut the aileron mass balancer hole thru the rear spar. It seems to rub, so maybe I need to hog out a little more, however maybe it's just better to wait until I get the skin back on in order to get a better picture.

 

135	Jan 24, 2021	Replaced nose rib	Wings	1	1
Finished drilling the replaced nose rib (#4) for the skin rivet line. Muuuuch better. Found that my bushing for the 1/4" fuel return line looks to be perfect for the fuel sender cord. I was just a little concerned of if there is issues with drilling too close to the flange before drilling the flange hole for the cord nose rib #3. Therefore I fired a questioning message off to Zenith (Roger) again. He usualy gets back to me first thing in the morning.

 

134	Jan 17, 2021	Left Wing Landing Light Lens trimmed and drilled	Wings	4	2
Had to trim the landing light len down to fit in the wing, through the front hole. Tried with the utility knife, settled on using the bench sander since I can do lengths evenly straight/flat. Then drilled the lens mounts...First marked and drilled the skin, then held the lower side of the lens in place by reaching through the wing tip and through the light fixture. Drilled through the holes I had made in the skin. Repeated with the top, but used the new pull tool that I created the day prior. Worked great! Opened the leading edge again and redrilled the new leading edge rib #4 for the spar holes and drew the flange centerlines. Next I'll put the skin back down and drill for the centerline of the replacement rib. One more thing. The plans call for a backing strip (6-LLO-1-7) on the lense to be on the inside of the lense (to screw the sheet metal screws to). I can't figure how to hold that in place while sliding the lens into place. I am wonder if I should be using a tinnerman nut or to just glue it. I fired a question off to Roger at Zenith.

 

133	Jan 16, 2021	Finished Landing Light mount drilling	Wings	6	2
Finished drilling landing light mount. I messed with it, took it apart, put it back together, marked it, took it apart again to check it's position. Built a rib hook (slides between rib and skin, pic "Left Wing Lights rib tools") to try to pull the plate further forward. Still no fix. Grabbed the plate through the light hole and pull it far enough forward to line it up nearly completely to the centerline, drew it to check it again (again took apart to look, then back together) and drilled the line. Looks good. Drilled plate flange-to-rib#7 with the angle drill adapter. Created rib feeler tool to gauge where edge of rib is and aid to center of flange. (pic "Left Wing Lights mount drilled and clecoed") Updrilled all light kit plate and rib to A4.

 

132	Jan 15, 2021	Landing Lights mount plate work	Wings	2	0
Started drilling Landing Light top rivet points. Seemed to go well. Then remeasured and drilled some of the bottom rivet points. Couldn't get the flange forward enough. It looks like I might have to redrill further aft. This sucks because I had measured, and remeasured from the spar. The skin pilot holes (that I drilled), when lined up as good as I could, looked to be almost on the rib front bend. Going to bed to step away from it for a while to think.

 

131	Jan 04, 2021	Light kit mount build	Wings	2	2
Riveted the light mount together (A3 rivets) and checked the fit in the wing.

 

130	Jan 03, 2021	Landing Lights hole cut	Wings	3	4
Cut out the leading edge lights hole. Used 1" hole saw on the corners to make a nice rounded corner and then olfa knife for the rest.

 

129	Jan 01, 2021	Fuel_tank_leading_edge_cuts	Wings	3	2
Finished cleaning up fuel cap hole. Fits flush and nice now. By putting a part-magnetic bowl on both sides, I was able to line up-roughly-where to cut for the fuel sender leading edge skin cut.

 

128	Dec 30, 2020	Fuel cap skin cut work - left wing	Wings	2	3
Worked on placement of the hole in the leading edge for the fuel cap and it's shaft. First took a scrap piece of 6061 (you can see that i used it to do a lot of previous drill tests and angle cuts). I cut a hole in it to represent the fuel cap location/size. I then put the cap shaf through it and drilled the cleco holes. Put the skin back on and put template back on to get the location of the necessary cut. The second little skin hole was a site-check drill that I knew would be in a safe spot to drill. By the end of the night, the hole was cut in the exact right place, but I'll need to work on widening it a little in order to be able to screw the fuel cap shaft completely down due to the graduated angle on the bottom of it.

 

127	Dec 29, 2020	Fuel quick drain leading edge skin drill	Wings	1	2
Tank in place, now to work on the fuel quick drain port hole. Did the same method as on the vent line. Took off rib 3, marked, removed tank, drilled. Perfect.

 

126	Dec 28, 2020	Last nose-rib skin drilling	Wings	3	3
Still had the last rib line to drill in the nose skin. It wasn't pre-drilled because Zenith didn't know if builder was going to be using extended range (15gal) tank or standard (12gal). So with the skin off, I jigged in a piece on the rear side of the spar so I could first draw an extended line off of the rib so once the skin was layed back down, I could draw the drill line. I used the handy bendable guide-ruler to line up with the lower holes and drilled. Well, crapzilla. I hadn't asked my wife to help hold the rib in place so once i pulled the skin back up, I could see that the drilling was way off the center of the flange. Knowing that I was now going to replace the rib, I tried to see if I could gerry-rig my rib-stick with a quick-clamp pressing on the nose-rib and redrill....more for practice than anything else. Looks like the second drill line worked well. So now waiting on the new shipment from Zenith. Finished the night with drilling the vent line from the fuel tank in the bottom of the leading edge skin. Followed advice of HomebuiltHelp video by first cleaning up the inside skin real nice, then when placing the fuel tank, scrape the drain line on the inside of the skin. This sorta worked. To make it far more precise, I ended up putting the tank in place and pulling the rib 4 out (uncleco'd) and marked the exact spot. Drilled. Perfect placement.

 

125	Dec 26, 2020	Cutting fuel tank	Fuel System	4	3
Final drilled and deburred wing locker lid (left wing) Cut hole in left wing fuel tank for top mounted fuel sender. Ok, you wouldn't think this would take quite so long, but it did. I started with the fly cutter using my cordless drill. The tank isn't flat on top, therefore this was dicey at best. I prefered the handheld at this point because if the cutter blade would catch, the spin would stop.

 

124	Dec 24, 2020	Access Panels	Wings	6	0
Built bell crank access panels for both wings and structure of left wing locker drilled and formed. Still trying to work out where to put it on wing. Looks like the rear panel of the wing longer isn't cut ot lenth already. BTW, the nutplates are #10-32

 

123	Dec 22, 2020	Bottom Skin bell crank supports and Fuel Senders arrive	Wings		4
Drilled L channel rivet holes for the bottom skin bell crank support ribs. Also, when i riveted the bottom skin, I accidently riveted the bellcrank holes as well. Had to drill them out. Prepared to rivet in the flush nutplates on the bell crank inspection panel. Riveted a few tests on scrap sheet. I need to get a non-hollowed-out (flat) riveter nose piece so I can rivet these in place. I'll stop by Menards ore HB tomorrow. Oh, happy day. My new fuel senders came today! I placement and size checked them. Measured out the profile, looks to be not to tall for my liking. Inspecting it, the float is very light, like a fishing bobber. I hooked up a multimeter and checked ohms at various float positions. It was 241 ohms empty and 29 ohms full. Due to most of my drill bits dulled out (they are really starting to leave gougy burrs that are mess to flatten), I'm waiting on an order from yardstore.com for a slug of new bits. Looking forward to it, actually, becuase with that order I'm trying a new bit type, a pilot bit. Did a lot of research today on routing of the solid fuel lines I'm going to be creating. I'm doing this now because I want to be sure to drill the holes in the nose ribs properly. Looks like I'm just going to end up following the plans for placement on nose ribs 1-3.

 

122	Dec 21, 2020	walking skins and bad nuts	Wings	2	4
Decided that I was going to add a skin 'doubler' above rear ribs 1 through 4 to give it a little more structural support where I was going to be walking to enter/exit the cockpit. Had some spare 0.25 6061-T6 for just such an instance. Rough cut it to shape, then I'll slide it under the skin in place and then drill the holes to match the top skin. Then I'll pull it out and will eventually rivet it on top (makes it more easily changed out if needed in the future). The top skin hasn't been deburred yet, so can't really do that yet. Once done, I can slide that wallking skin in there and final cut to shape (before final drilling). I went ahead and rough cut out for both wings. Also, when i was drilling the skin-to-spar the other day, my drill bit seemed to get caught a few times on something. looks like it was the spar doubler nuts. It's probably prudent to replace those now. Have new bolts and nuts on order.

 

121	Dec 19, 2020	Drilled and cleco'd upper leading edge left wing	Wings	8	3
Drilled and cleco'd pilot (#40), #30 final for nose, then #20 final for nose-to-spar. This wasn't as easy as it sounds. I needed to re-line up the rear skin back to the 7 or 8 pilot holes that i already had put in the spar from before I flipped the wing over to work on the bottom side. Had to flex it all back into shape. Once I got it there, I spiked an awl in one of the center holes on the skin/spar and popped the leading edge under the rear skin edge (since the rear skin has the pilot holes factory CNC drilled). I then put a nice tight vice-C-clamp on the I/B joint, popped out the awl, then lined up the O/B side and clamped there as well. Checked the level all the way around the wing again, then proceeded to drill the spar all the way across (ever 5th or so hole, then back for tweens, then back to finish) then drilled the nose skins starting on the O/B side. Alicia helped me by using the rib stick to push/pull the nose ribs into place while I drilled.

 

120	Dec 18, 2020	Added leading edge back on left wing	Wings	1	2
While I held it in place, Isabelle (G4) cleco'd the bottom of the leading edge onto the left wing. Do you remember the punishment/contest of holding books with arms fuly extended? Well, this was much of that. I was on my knees with both arms extended holding the skin while she cleco'd for...seemingly a loooong time. I wobbled when I walked the rest of the night. Isabelle said that this might be telling me that I need some more exercise. Bahahaha

 

119	Dec 17, 2020	Final drill nose-skin-to-spar and debur	Wings	4	1
Started out by actually ordering the fuel senders. Final hole size drilled (A5 the spar-to-nose skin, A4 nose skin to nose ribs). Took nose skin back off and deburred. Preping to flip the wing.

 

118	Dec 16, 2020	Research fuel sender options	Fuel System	4	3
The hours on this are off, so really much more, really, cause I've spent the last couple of days researching which sender to get and where to place it. I had turned back the one that Zenith offered with the kit because I read too much about those seep/leaking over time. So, maybe mechanical is not out, but the VW ones definately were out. I also didn't like the idea of cutting a big hole in the side of my tank. So I thought I'd do either a top-down or bottom-up hole. Eventually this firmed up as top-down is probably the best. I moved to capacitive. I thought that if i could find one that was double bendable I could actually come in from the side so i can get a full sweep of empty-to-full. I called Centroid Products because I heard that they will actually bend it for you. Well, they said that they don't do double bends. So my only option would be either to come down from the top (6") or do a single 90 deg down-turn from the side only really getting deflection from mid-tank to empty. One other issue with these is that they have about .80" profile, which seems a little tall above the tank to cover with a blister. I then found the Princeton capacitive senders (https://www.princeton-electronics.com) and even found one guy that successfull double bent it. He never answered my questions as to how well it worked. So I called the company directly. Left messages 3 times. And then eventually emailed them...It's been a few days now, with no response, so nope. After finding out that capacitive would loose it's calibration depending on which fuel you were using (100LL or mogas). I figured that I'd probalby be switching from time to time due to availability while traveling, which really also concerned my wife, so she decided for me that capacitive was out. I saw a video from Jan Eggenfellner (Viking) where he has started using marine Moeller Reed Switch Sending Unit plus I read of a few other folks on the builder forums were using them. I like this unit. It's got a magnetic float that slides up and down the shaft that affects the resistance on the wire. Not mechanically connected. I found a few at iBoats.com (Summitracing.com didn't have 7" in stock and it'd be nearly 3 months to ship).

 

117	Dec 13, 2020	Leading edge Left wing and fuel system research.	Wings	2	3
Cleco'd nose ribs back on. Moved and re-leveled build table ('0.0' all the way around....thumbs up). Aligned and drilled initial holes to hold the bottom of the leading edge skin to the spar. Started investigating fuel sender since that's coming up. - Now...I've gone through a lot of permutations on what I'm going to do about this. Probably far more than it's worth. I started from original-by-plans drill in the side of the tank and use the VW mechanical sender (lots of issues with these I've seen), then I decided on capacitive bottom mount, to capacitive top mount, now maybe I'm back in the side mount but capacitive. Investigating the bending capabilities of these things. I kind of think top mount won't work for me becuase the several I've looked at had nearly a 1" profile (25mm) tall (shortest capactive being about 23mm) . The fuel cap itself is only about 10mm tall. Now I don't have a problem with cutting a hole in the noseskin and fabricating a blister, but 23mm-25mm is a bit bloody tall. Sooo. back to the side it is. Now the investigation is to see if I can angle up 4" and down 6" so i can get a full sweep of gauge. That'd take 2 bends though. If not, then I'll just do a 90 deg down drop and only have a good reading between 50% to empty.

 

116	Dec 10, 2020	Riveted rear spar and Bottom Left Wing skin	Wings		0
Riveted rear spar, deburred outside of bottom skin and riveted it. Time to move on to the nose skin! Charlene helped me pull the rivets. Good helper.

 

115	Dec 06, 2020	Rear spar debur and prime, also rear rib backplate	Wings	3	0
Deburring and priming (cortec) rear spar (left wing). Also, decided to drill out rear-rib to main spar rivets, on Rear Rib #8, and put a backplate on it due to a pilot hole that's a we bit off from the actual drill hole. Primed and re-installed. The backplate is on the rear rib front flange and is the same-size as the whole flange spanning all five of the A5 rivets.

 

114	Nov 30, 2020	Final drill and debur left wing skin and rear ribs (from bottom)	Wings	8	0
With left wing sitting on it's top, final drilled and deburred all ribs and skin holes (inside of skin). Scuffed with red scratchy. Ready to prime for bottom close and rivet.

 

113	Nov 29, 2020	Left wing main spar rivet	Wings	2	0
Primed, riveted, reassembled spare (doubler).

 

112	Nov 18, 2020	Remove Left Wing spar doubler for drilling	Wings	2	3
In order to properly drill out the rear rib rivet holes, I had to remove the spar doubler. I marked down what the torque values was required to loosen each one, just to see what the factory torqued them to. Kinda all over the board. NOTE: 08/16/2022 - Yes, after reviewing my logs, I have since learned that this was a meaningless step since torque wrenches aren't meant to go "the other way". Doesn't matter in the end, as long as I torqued them correctly in the end.

 

111	Nov 15, 2020	6W11-6 - Rear Wing Rib spacing issue	Wings	2	2
Hiya Roger, So, I'm following the instructions in the assembly guide, plus Homebuild Help video on wings, plus Homebuilt Help video on 601XL upgrade (where you mess with the nose ribs). I notice that the rear rib rises just a little above the spar cap (6W11-9 above 6W11-1). I assume that this is ok (since it's marked as .5mm in the plans) and i'll be riveting to the spar cap anyways, thus pressing it down? Is there a need/reason for me to have the 0.25 skin insert in there since the spar cap already has a rise above the spar top? Is the spar cap installed up a little too high? Won't this have me place my nose-rib a little high if I still use the 2 pieces of 0.25 for spacing, as directed?

 

110	Nov 11, 2020	Cut and drilled in left wing rib supports top skin	Wings		1

 

109	Nov 07, 2020	Bell Crank support channel	Wings	2	1
Bought a new angle drill adapter. Used it to drill in through the holes in the skin through the L angle on the bell crank support.

 

108	Nov 04, 2020	6W10 - Bell Crank question	Wings	2	1
Another question to Roger: Quick question on the bell crank again. It's divots on the rib-side looks like were put there in order to give it more swing. However it doesn't seem to match quite up with the lightning holes. I've seen some pretty wide variances of what folks actually put here for a bellcrank (torque tubes and RV bell-crank boomerang style, etc), so I gather this is pretty minor. Or does it mean I screwed up the alignment? I was thinking if it really needed the slight extra swing I could grind out the divots just a wee bit. Thoughts? Answer: I don't think you will even go that far on your deflections. I would file the corner off on each side.

 

107	Nov 03, 2020	Flipping the left wing to work on the bottom	Wings	2	2
Asked for help from Isabelle (G4) and Charlene (G3) to help flip the wing. I used the ceiling pulley system and ran a 2x4 lengthwise through the ribs to lift the wing and my helpers to to stablize the operation.

 

106	Nov 02, 2020	Top Skin and rear rib drilling	Wings	2	1
Alicia helped me line up ribs so I could drill them through the top skin.

 

105	Nov 01, 2020	Continued drilling top skin...drilled myself	Wings	0.5	1
Continued drilling top skin. While holding it (blind) and drilling, I zipped my thumb...ouch.

 

104	Oct 31, 2020	Started Drilling Rear Spar and Top Skin	Wings	3	2
Started drilling rear spar. Also rigged up a set of pulleys so I can lift the skin without kinking it.

 

103	Oct 19, 2020	6W8-2 - Top Wing Skin questions	Wings		1

 

102	Oct 16, 2020	First wing skin layed on	Wings	1	1
First layed skin on.

 

101	Oct 11, 2020	Drilled Nose Rib Fuel hole	Wings	1	1
Borrowed Kevin's step drill bit (big fat one) so I coudl drill the 1 1/2" hole for the fuel finger screen on RIB 3.

 

100	Sep 27, 2020	6W5-2L - Left Wing nose rib	Wings	2	0
Well, after 'just moving forward', I immediately regretted the rib shortening cut that I had just done. Thefore I need to either buid a new one or order one. So I went ahead and ordered it.

 

99	Sep 13, 2020	First Engine Cleanup second day	Engine	4	1
Finished up cleaning up the engine so I could present it to WW. Lessons Learned. Wear Gloves. I had latex gloves, but they sucked. The engine degreaser "de-fatted" by hands. *update* It took about 4 weeks for my hands to heal. Also, WW said one head was good, one repairable, but probably not worth it. Cam ok Crank ok Cylinders ok (broke one) Case ok Said that since I am "10 leaves" he thinks he can help me do what needs to be done. Just mention "that guy at the Zenith Open Hanger in 2020" He offered to take it back with him. I told him that I'm not ready yet, that I'll meet him agian before I'm ready.

 

98	Sep 12, 2020	First Engine Cleanup	Engine	6	1
First time to clean up the corvair

 

97	Sep 09, 2020	Bellcrank and Landing Lights purchase decision	Wings	2	0
After much looking through the plans and kit purchase pick-lists, I finally figured out that the bellcrank parts aren't included int he wing kit, it is only included with the finish kit. Therefore I've decided to go to the open hanger days and pick up the bellcrank parts of the finish kit. I also decided that I didn't want to regret not getting a second set of landing/taxi lights while the wings are open, so I went ahead and ordered them as well to pick up at the open hanger days. Pricy, ugh One last thing. I went ahead and ordered the replacement left wing spar tip. I didn't like how the rivet holes would line up with the edge of the flanges. It seems to be adding a stresser point. I went and ordered this as well. I figure I'll make enough mistakes with this build that I'd like to keep the number of 'learning experiances' to a minimum that actually makes it to the plane.

 

96	Sep 06, 2020	Rear Wing Rib spacing issue	Wings	2	2
Hiya Roger, So, I'm following the instructions in the assembly guide, plus Homebuild Help video on wings, plus Homebuilt Help video on 601XL upgrade (where you mess with the nose ribs). I notice that the rear rib rises just a little above the spar cap (6W11-9 above 6W11-1). I assume that this is ok (since it's marked as .5mm in the plans) and i'll be riveting to the spar cap anyways, thus pressing it down? Is there a need/reason for me to have the 0.25 skin insert in there since the spar cap already has a rise above the spar top? Is the spar cap installed up a little too high? Won't this have me place my nose-rib a little high if I still use the 2 pieces of 0.25 for spacing, as directed?

 

95	Aug 26, 2020	Questions for Roger about nose ribs	Wings	2	3
Ran into some issues, so i sent the following questions to Roger again: So, a picture works best here. On Nose Rib (left wing here) #2, part of the spar is in the way of bottoming out the rib. I can flex the rib around it, but then it's not flush with the web on the other side of the rib that it squeezes in between according to the plans (sheet 6-W-7 dated Dec 7, 2011). Should i be trimming that rib around that piece or flex it and nevermind the separation of the flange on the other side? My guess is trim the rib (pic 1) The plans say nose ribs #1, #2, and #3 need to be shaped with 40mm top notch and 41mm bottom notch. If you look at the 3rd pic below, the space that the notch would be designated to be is nowhere near 134mm on the #1 nose rib location....in fact it's just a tip of the curve in that spar piece. I'd think that I should be completely trimming off that 8mm end of the node rib and just butt it up against the spar completely so it isn't too long? (pic 2) One last thing. I screwed up my alignment when I first drilled my spar tip location. I repositioned and redrilled. I don't really think that it would affect strength in a normal case, but due to it being right on the edge of the rear rib flange, I was questioning my shrug-off. I'm about 50/50 on if i should just order another spar tip and be done with it. Opinion? (pic 3) Roger's answers were: 1. You will need to trim the rib to clear the spar. 2. Yes just trim off the 8mm and butt it up against the spar. Just make sure the nose ribs are all at the same length from the spar to the front of the nose rib. 3. If you don't replace the spar tip, you will need to fill those holes with rivets. I would just fill the holes with rivets.

 

94	Aug 24, 2020	6W6,6W7 - Attaching Rear Ribs on left wing main spar	Wings	5	3
Roger got back to me by 7am. Wow, good service. Anyways, he answered "Yes you will have to trim rib #1 to clear the spar cap. I will let Zenair know the issues." At this time is when i noticed the cutout detail in the plans (doh), it says ribs 1-6 (which i really didn't notice before). Therefore I spent the afternoon/evening trimming all of the offending ribs (for both wings). Then I drilled and cleco'd them all in place. Ribs 1 and 3 had a plate on the front side of the spar thus forcing me to fit-draw for drill on the rib first instead of drilling in place from the front of the spar.

 

93	Aug 23, 2020	6W7 - Started attaching Rear ribs to Left Wing main spar	Wings	2	1
While doing so...noticed that ribs 2-4 had an angle cut (as seen in 6W6 cutout detail (very center of page). Ribs 1,5,6 all had the straight cuts. This forced a flex in the rib in order to get it into place. I emailed Roger at Zenith for advice. "Do i trim it like 2-4 or reshape the rib with a mallet and wood block.

 

92	Aug 19, 2020	6W6 - Cortec Rear Ribs	Wings	1	0
Debur and prep for CortecUsed air brush set to 30psi. Worked perfectly. Cut 1/2 with water.

 

91	Aug 17, 2020	6W6 - Debur and prep for Cortec	Wings	2	0
Debur and prep for Cortec

 

90	Aug 07, 2020	6W6 - Drilled and cleco'd rest of rear rib L supports	Wings	2	2
Drilled and cleco'd restDrilled and cleco'd rest of rear rib L supports Finished drilling out supports for bellcranks. of rear rib L supports

 

89	Jul 31, 2020	6W6 - Rear Rib L angle drilling ribs 1 through 4	Wings	2	1
Drilled L angle supports on Rear Ribs 1 through 4 for both left and right wing. Cleco'd (silver).

 

88	Jul 30, 2020	6W6 - Rear Ribs	Wings	3	3
Separated and marked Rear Ribs. Cut off left wing flange of long rib angle 6w3-9 as stated in 6-LRO-1. Will do right wing next time. Started cutting with Olfa. Too wavy, so used coarse cutting blade of Dremel using angle adapter (image 1). Not too clean so i'll pick up a new Dremel cutting blade tomorrow or Saturday. Used file and the angle sander to smooth out the cut flange. Cutting this flange off allows for the extended fuel tank size. New Tekton 1/4" inch lb torque wrench arrived today (image 2). Looking forward to trying it. Cut out L angle stiffeners for all wing ribs. Drilled 6W7-1 Rear Channel Doubler for both sides.

 

87	Jul 29, 2020	6W7-1 - Joined Rear Channel pieces	Wings	2	1
Drilled and riveted entire 6W11-20 channel angle for both wings.

 

86	Jul 21, 2020	6W2 - Aileron closing - both	Wings	2	1
Closed both ailerons tonight. Note. Got answer from Zenith. He said that the issue with the non-rounded out hole on the mass balancer probably wasn't going to be an issue, but to just keep an eye on it. I figured since i hadn't closed the other aileron yet that I should go ahead and clean up (round the corners) of the Left side aileron mass balancer arm (6W12-1) hole. Email response: "I think you're fine leaving it the way that you have it. I would just keep an eye on it."

 

85	Jul 20, 2020	6W2 - Closing up 1st (Right) aileron	Wings	2	2
Closed up right aileron. THEN I looked and thought "doh! I hadn't rounded the corners of the mass balancer arm holes (6W12-1). I figure it's not really structural, and the arm isn't even resting on the edges, but I figured I'd better give Zenith a call (email) to make sure my thought isn't out of bounds. I did look at some pictures and videos of other builders to see what thiers looks like. It looks like they didn't round them out either. But, better to check to be sure. "Should I drill out the rivets and round out those 4 corners of that mass balancer arm hole?"

 

84	Jun 24, 2020	6W2-2 - Rebuilt outer mass balancer rib.	Wings	3	1
On Sunday (21st) I decided to assemble the ailerons after cortec'ing them. So when I tried..I couldn't insert the Mass Balancer shaft through the hole and still line up the rivet holes on the outer Mass Balancer rib (left aileron). I decided that I must have cut the hole and THEN pulled out the mass balancer shaft and then manualy aligned and drilled the rivet holes in the rib. Some careless this way comes I suppose. So, this gave me the 'opportunity' to rebuild another left aileron rib. It's a good thing that I still have my left aileron form block that I already used to make one of the other ribs. In comes Cade Dixon, who accompanied Miriam (G2) home for Sarah's (G1) wedding this weekend. He came down to the shop and helped me out to create and properly align, drill, and cleco the new rib. His first introduction to home-building a plane, and that after driving over 10 hours first. The build was a success. We called it quits for the night after final fit and cleco. Will disassemble, debur, and cortec the new rib tomorrow.

 

83	Jun 21, 2020	6W2 - Assemble ailerons after cortec	Wings	.5	0
Tried to re-assemble the ailerons after cortec. Ran into a problem with the mass balancer shaft on the left aileron almost immediately. For some reason I cannot get the mass balancer shaft in the aileron hole and still line up the outer rib rivet holes. Must have screwed this one up on my rib alignment. Probably gonna have to rebuild a new rib.

 

82	Jun 19, 2020	Cortec Ailerons	Wings		0
I tell ya....using my Paasche airbrush is so easy to cortec. I'm still messing with dilution levels but for this try I mixe 1/3 cortec 2/3 water using the #3 (0.66) needle tip @ 40psi. I'll experiment on the next batch with a 1/2 cortec 1/2 water mixture.

 

81	Jun 18, 2020	6W2-5,6W2-6 - Final drilled rest of aileron (trim hing) and rib	Wings	3	0

 

80	Jun 12, 2020	Fuselage Kit purchase	Fuselage		0
Fuselage Kit

 

79	Jun 10, 2020	6-ATO-1 - Aileron trim actuator inspection hole	Wings	3	3
Cut and drilled aileron trim actuator inspection hole. Trimmed aileron trim actuator rode to fit. Drilled and cleco'd 6-ATO-1-6 into place on the trim. Now just need to debur drilled parts from tonight, disassemble and scuff inside of aileron, then spray corrosion protectant (cortec) in both ailerons. Then I'll be able to move on to the main parts of the wing. On Friday, the other 2 Amigos and I are heading down to Mexico (Zenith) to pick up our fuselage kits (yah!). Things in heavy discussion are fuel systems design. Lorin decided to tag along with us for the trip! Pretty cool to have my bro (who's built his own plane, a shiny Sonex Weiex) come along for the ride. I think the other 2 guys are going to be barraging him with questions.

 

78	Jun 09, 2020	6-ATO-1 - Aileron trim actuator L-Channel prep	Wings	1	0
Cut L-Channel to length that goes on either side of the actuator.

 

77	May 31, 2020	6-ATO-1 - Aileron trim hinge and actuator rod hole.	Wings	6	3
Final hole drill and Cleco'd the aileron trim and hinge. Then started work on the actuator rod hole that goes in the channel and skin. I first pilot hole drilled. Then I used the dremel with a CNC type drill bit to outline the hole. Then cleaned up with a rounded vixen file.

 

76	May 30, 2020	6W2-2 - Aileron rib blank and rib form	Wings	3	2
Cut out the rib blank, C-clamped the blank and form to the table, and hammered it into shape. Turned out pretty darn nice. After the re-creation of the rib, I was able to place it so it didn't stick out anymore (slight rotation).

 

75	May 29, 2020	Aileron Rib Form Block (6-W-2-2)	Wings	3	0
Opted to see if I could build an aileron rib. So I whipped together a form block. It was easier than I had anticipated. However I did have to disassemble my tabletop belt sander to tighten the motor belts so I could use the 6" circular sander on it with the angle table, which allowed me to create a 6 deg chamfer. I also got to use the router table to hit the form block with the 1/8" round over. The rib from Zenith fits perfect (tight) on the block, so tomorrow I'll cut out a blank.

 

74	May 25, 2020	6-ATO-1 - channel-to-rib brace	Wings	4	3
Finished placing the channel rib brace (not in plans). Drilled trim skin/channel (hinge on in there yet). I then re-assembled the aileron, fully cleco'd for fit. Noticed that the tip of the inner (O/B) rib is now poking out of the trim hole and nearly impedes the trim action. Sooooooo, I'm either gonna have to order a replacement rib or see if i can create one.

 

73	May 22, 2020	6-ATO-1 - Cut out left aileron trim	Wings	6	3
Started on the left aileron trim option. Zenith didn't pilot drill or cut the trim outta this skin. Therefore I drew it and cut it out with the Olfa knife (scary). Noticing that the planes show the aileron cutout channel (6-ATO-1-3) gets inserted into the I/B inner rib (so it can be riveted to the top and bottom of the rib for stability) but has to just butt up to the face of the left inner rib (O/B), I decided that I needed to create a brace that joined the rib to the channel. That way all of the stresses aren't pulling/pushing on the skin since the channel only riveted to that on the left side.

 

72	May 19, 2020	6W12 - Left Aileron Mass Balancer	Wings	2.5	0
Placed and drilled left aileron mass balancer ribs and rod. Cut the hole in the back of the aileron and test fit the ribs. Drilled holes for Aileron Horn (6W2-1) in aileron.

 

71	May 17, 2020	6W2 - Drilled Left Aileron	Wings	3	0
Completely drilled main left aileron (not including mass balancer).

 

70	May 16, 2020	6W2 - Disassembled and Deburred Right Aileron	Wings	4	3
Disassebled and deburred rightaileron. Then scuffed ajoining parts for corrossion protectant adhesian. Shaped aileron horn (attachment strips) for both ailerons. (6W2-1)

 

69	May 11, 2020	6W12 - Mass Balancer drilled arm and cut hole	Wings	2	3
Drilled holes in balancer arm. Cut hole in aileron front for balancer arm. Used step drill and square file.

 

68	May 08, 2020	cleco and drill tools	Tools		1
Qty Ship B/O Item Unit Price Total Price 1 1 0 12-00611 AVERY VISE GRIP DIMPLER 3/32" 49.950 49.95 1 1 0 12-00867 AVERY 4PC DRILL STOP SET 10.750 10.75 1 1 0 12-03700 UNIBIT STEP DRILL # 1 23.500 23.50 1 1 0 12-03807 SPRING LOADED CLECO PLIERS 13.700 13.70 1 1 0 12-03756 CLECALL STEEL UPRIGHT CLECO PLIERS 24.950 24.95 1 0 1 12-00612 AVERY VISE GRIP DIMPLER 1/8" 49.950 49.95

 

67	Apr 22, 2020	6W2 - Mass Balancer ribs on the Right Side Aileron	Wings	3	0
Roger never got back to me so I called him today. He said "Yes, make it parallel to the other ribs". This seems really obvious but I just wanted to make sure that I didn't make an irreversable error. Therefore, tonight, I positioned and drilled the skin holes and ribs for the mass balancer. Next session I'll cut the hole on the forward side of the aileron that leads to the inside of the right side wing.

 

66	Apr 15, 2020	6W2 - Right side Aileron	Wings	4	0
Drilled and cleco'd right side flap everything with exception of the Mass Balancer and Mass Balancer ribs (6W12). IMHO the plans weren't 100% clear on whether the Mass Balancer ribs were supposed to be completely parallel to the other ribs or perpendicular to the front aileron skin edge. It just shows 327mm from the bottom of the last inner rib and then 40mm over to the other mass balancer rib. I suppose there is some technical drawing rule that I don't remember from engineering college that if there's a difference in distance then it'll be pointed out specifically. I left Roger at Zenith the question. One more thing that's really weird with the aileron. The aileron actually is designed to have a twist in it. Therefore I cut a 13mm wooden block to put under the trailing outside corner to lift it before drilling the ribs. This really worked! Still seems weird though....to do on purpose. Hopefully I can exactly match it on the other side.

 

65	Apr 11, 2020	6W1 - Right Flap: debur, cortec, reassemble, rivet, hing	Wings	10	3
Took right flap apart and deburred. I then used the still borrowed (thanks Kevin!) airbrush and sprayed the inside of the flap. I then brushed the edges (1" foam brush). Worked great yet again! Airbrush is definately the way to go for me! Anyhow, after it dried, I reassembled it, re-checked the level on the 12' table bars (12'x2"x1/4"), and cargo strapped that puppy back down. Cleco'd it, and riveted it. Once again had to shorten the flap trailing edge rivets by about 1/3rd. Had to trim the hinge down just a wee little bit more, pop the hinge pin out to trim it, drilled the hinge end hole, safety wired it, and DONE. I then built another quick hanger/shelf for the elevators in the floor joists. READY for the next step! I belive it's the ailerons.

 

64	Mar 27, 2020	6W1-4 - Drill hinge - right flap	Wings	1	0
Well, didn't get back to it right away, but I did get the hinge finally drilled out to right size and drilled on the flap itself. Next step is to disassembe the flap, debur, corrosion protect, and rivet.

 

63	Mar 21, 2020	6W1-3,1,6,3 - Right Flap align and drill ribs, skin, and control	Wings	8	1
Built up inner rib that has the control plate. Used scroll saw to more effect this time, then filed. Riveted the control plate on. Strapped the flap down first this time....worked muuuuch better. Drilled, Updrilled, then updrilled again for final hole drill size on both size and spar side. Tomorrow I figure I'll do the hinge work and then disassemble for debur and corrosion. Good time to be working on this since we are all holed up with the COVID-19 (corona virus) thing going on around the world/country/city. Just a little worried how we'll pic up the fuselage kits in April (10th). We originally were going to pick it up this last Friday (3/20/2020) however on the side of caution, postponed due to Kevin had a cold (he was fairly certain). Just to be safe so I don't bring home ANYTHING to my father-in-law (in-house) who is nearing surgery for a replacement hip, is 84, has COPD, and is a prime candidate to catch that thing Been working from home all week thus far. Hope this ends sooner rather than later though it doesn't look like it.

 

62	Mar 15, 2020	6W1 -Riveting and closing up Left Flap.	Wings	5	2
Due to the Left Flap seeming to have a bit of a twist (very slight trailing edge inner corner to oposite other side front corner), I strapped it down to the leveled square tubes, un-cleco'd, then re-cleco'd. Unstrapped....wow, everything is straight, flat, and level. Worked wonders. This came from advice from Lorin (my bro). Good deal! Restrapped, checked level again, and began riveting. Ran into an issue where on the trailing edge and the A5 rivet inner stem is too long on the inside. The other side is already riveted just fine. They are hitting the inner heads of the rivets on the other side. I tried using the hand riveter, squeezing a little slower thinking I could press the rivet down further as it was retracted inside....wrong answer (live and learn)....it expands the entire shaft, lodging it in the hole before it could be pressed in. Drilled/ground that one out. Don't want to do it again. All of the trailing edge rivets except the very outer ribs are in the same predicament. Again...this is only happening on the very trailing edge holes.Therefore, with some advice from the forum, I shortened the rivet pin (is that what they are called?). I tested the strength of the rivet on a scrap piece of aluminium. I tugged and pulled on the test (last 2 pics) and it seemed very snug and secure. They all fit well in the trailing edge holes on the one side. I was wondering if this would prohibitively weaken the rivet (by shortening). Would this be still good? Do I need to try to sneak another rivet in somewhere to ensure strength? I donno. I floated a question on it to Zenith..they haven't gotten back to me but a guy on the Zenith forum said he did the exact same thing and has been flying over 300 hours thus far with no issue. We'll see what Zenith answers with. Anyhow, after finishing the riveting, I unstrapped and checked the level again. Once again straight, flat, and level. Left flap done (I think)

 

61	Mar 12, 2020	6W1 - Finish Cortec left flap and place ribs	Wings		0
Placed the ribs after a few touchups of Cortec. Now I have to try to get the darn thing back together. Really kind of a pain since the bent edge of the flap skin has to fit between the ribs and other side of the skin. Real tight fit.

 

60	Mar 08, 2020	6W1 - Deburred/Cortec Left Flap	Wings	4	0
Took left flap apart again and deburred. Tried something new. I borrowed an airbrush from a fellow builder (Kevin) and mixed some Cortec and water and sprayed the inside of the flap. I then brushed the edges (1" foam brush). Worked great! It made it so I didn't have to reach way in the flap skin to get the inner-most holes, though it did aresol some (it's what I wanted).

 

59	Feb 23, 2020	6W1-3 - Flap Control plate and rib	Wings	2	1
Recieved new Flap Control Plate and redrilled. This time matching the rib.

 

58	Feb 08, 2020	6W1-1,6W1-2 - Aligning, drilling, and clecoing left flap ribs	Wings	4	3
So, the problem that I had to overcome was that once I closed up the flap skin (not riveted...just closed, more of a pain than it might seem since the bottom edge of the skin has to tuck in between the rib and rear edge of the skin), one side would be nicely lined up, but the rib would invariably move a little so the rib edge would be just slightly off center. So, I wouldn't have to re-open to adjust, I found 2 primary methods...one that i learned by watching another builder on HomebuiltHelp video (highly recommended DVD set), the other i figured out myself. First method, is only if you have to move it a little. You take the sharp corner of you metric ruler and gouge into the hole on the skin against the rib edge, and force it over....sometimes it is too tight of a fit so won't budge. Therefore the other method works well. I took my smalled drill bit (like a hair width), and drilled a hole in the rib edge (through the skin hole) on the very edge of the skin hole. I then use a need file (my pointest/sharpest tool that I have) and stuck it in that hole and manually pulled it over. Once I lined up nearby skin-lines/holes, I drilled them while holding the needlefile in place and cleco'd them....then continue until all holes are lined up. Works like a champ.

 

57	Feb 07, 2020	6W1-3 - Control Plate	Wings	2	1
I drilled out this plate on my drill press. However, when I attempted to file straight the slot between the drilled ends of the slot, I hadn't noticed that the edges of the file had 90 deg/cornered the edges of the slot. From what I gather, this isn't ideal, if for no other reason than not allowing any corner on a plane part (due to introduction of stress risers for cracking/tearing). I emailed Zenith to see what they say if I should just order new plastic/nylon plates and rebuild. I'm assuming so at this point. While waiting I'll just continue on the flap build and get back to it later. Update 10 Feb 2020 - Zenith got back to me. They said that it probably isn't a big deal and that as long as i cleaned up the corners so they are rounded (with a small round file) I should probably be ok. After thinking about it, I opted to go ahead and buy new ones and try again. This because I hadn't cut out the matching rib slot yet and didn't want to have the mistake compound itself (even though it still probably doesn't matter). New parts on order.

 

56	Jan 18, 2020	Close it up, finished with tail kit.	Empennage	10	3
Finished with the tail kit. Had a brain fart at first today...said to myself "this thing (elevator) has just sat too long and needs to be closed up". So I started taking care of the A5 rivets....then I stopped and looooked at it. Crapzilla! I forgot to insert the elevator-to-stabilizer hinge first! Well, so I drilled out the 13 A5 rivets that I had place already. One of them spun when drilled, so I got to employ my new Dremel it with a grinder/cutting blade and worked my way through it. Had to pull all of the cleco's out so I could dump the silly rivet heads that are knocked inside when removing the rivet. Anyhow, got the hinge installed and closed the sucker up. I assembled the entire assembly and low and behold it actually LOOKS like an airplane tail (minus the rudder since it's stored in the shelves atm). I went ahead and trimmed the fiberglass horizontal stabilizer tips by first using the dremel took, then resorting to my table belt sander in order to get the cut straight'n'long. Clears well. Done again! I counted up my rivets pulled thus far (I kept every rivet stud). Added up to 730. Interesting thing is that there isn't enough to install the horizontal stabilizer side of the elevator hinge or the tips. Is this done by design? Hmmm.. Donno. Maybe get those in the fuselage kit.

 

55	Jan 12, 2020	Elevator Trim actuator mount	Empennage	4	3
Was trying to figure out how to get the elevator trim actuator mounted with the optional stiffener. They designed it so one side of the actuator actually mounts to the stiffener but plans show the bent-up part of the 'L' angle on the side of the mounts. I inquired of Zenith with the thought that if i were to just flip the 'L' angle it'd be fine. They said "flip it". Thumbs up, flipped it. Also, in order to level the actuator on the skin since one part is on the stiffener, I built a riser on the other side, and wrapped it like a sleeve so the A5 rivets (I had drilled out the actuator) have a metal part to press onto instead of plastic. I also put a metal rail on the top of the stiffener side of the actuator. Installed with no issues.

 

54	Dec 26, 2019	Rivet the bottom of the elevator	Empennage	5	3
Had my first drilled rivet. Did great! Annnnndddddd then I had to do 5 more because when i did my first fit for the horn tower, I had to move the 6T3-7 brace's holes. I decided to back it with a brace/doubler instead. So I widened the holes on the original and cut an 'L' channel to fit and A5 riveted it on. After a test fit, it all looks good to go. Instead of riveting the elevator trim actuator in place, I decided that I wanted to bolt it instead. A nice pan headed machine screw of 4mm x 10mm looked right, so I drilled the pre-drilled holes on the actuator (T2-7A-TS) out to A5 size and final bolted it on to the elevator skin. I used nylon lock nuts to ensure that it doesn't vibrate loose over time. I just felt that riveting an electronic device was folly because all electronic devices eventually die and I didn't want to have to drill it out when I could just pull the access panel and remove it. Popped the rubber grommet into place (RP452-ND 3/16" ID) Riveted the trim hinge into place on the trim skin piece (6T6-1) and attached the actuator push rod to the trim tab horn angle (6T6-6) but left the elevator side unriveted yet because I need to open the top all the way up one more time to clean out the chaff from drilling out all of those rivets. :)

 

53	Dec 25, 2019	Corteced the inside of the elevator skin	Empennage	1	1
Brushed on the cortec (cut 50/50 with water) on all of the interior joint locations of the elevator skin. NOTE: Gads I think I must need a 'minder'. At one point I dumped my paint reservoir on my pants...so the wife gave me a pair of sweatpants and said "Don't get anything on this" to which I pointedly said "Dahh". I then immediately ran a swipe down the elevator cutout channel (6T6-3), turned it over, and swiped down the other side, rubbing it on my pants leg (DOH!!). So I changed again (needed to toss those in the wash before the water-soluble primer dried). All good...working along, leaned down to look at a hard to see area and promply dipped my hair in the paint reservoir (see pic of paint reservoir)!

 

52	Dec 19, 2019	Debur elevator internal	Empennage	3	3
Using my nifty new Dremel with green attachment. I tried the red one and it didn't seem to do much to burrs whereas the green did a fairly good job at smoothing down the chaff. Issue: Trying to figure out how to deburr the 6T6-1 trim piece on the inside. When looking down it it has some pretty nasty chaff. I'll put a question out to the builders forum (Zenith). Annnnd I got several answers that said "put a vixen file on a yard stick". ;) Done and done.

 

51	Dec 09, 2019	Elevator deburring	Empennage	2	0
Happy Birthday to my lovely and patient wife! Soooo, I'm down here in the shop. Got all of the exterior holes deburred on the elevator. Now for the ribs and inside. Couldn't find my Dremel tool. Haven't found it since moving a little of a year ago (darnit). So I ordered a new one on order to help me debur the inside of the ribs. I'm just having too much trouble with a vixen file trying to debur the inside of the elevator ribs without scratching them all up, thereby introducing scratches that could invite corrosion. So, Dremel tool on the way.

 

50	Dec 07, 2019	Back to work on the elevator	Empennage	1	0
Well, heck. After having everything moved off the table for Thanksgiving, I got everything back on the table again and decided I needed to ensure I remembered where everything goes (center spar assembly and proper placement of each rib). So I spent a little time re-putting together my 'puzzle'.

 

49	Nov 23, 2019	6T3 Left Inboard - Added stiffener help with bunged up rivet holes.	Empennage	1	3
So it looks like when I was pullijng clecos, I got stuck and pulled some corners out of the rivet holes. So I flattened them back with my duckbill pliers (sheet metal pliers) and filed them smooth. Unfortunately they don't look as nice and sturdy as they should. So, after some calling around, found out this is a nice way to fix it. Build a backing/stiffener/doubler/brace/whatchamacallit. Did it...it looks like it's supposed to be there. ;) Moving on.

 

48	Nov 17, 2019	Disassemble and Debug	Empennage	3	1
Went through all holes, checking each one with the appropriate rivet and re-drilled to clean up on any that binds. Disassembed elevator. Deburred all ribs. Ran the red scotchbrite pad on all ribs and horns and their doubles on joining survaces. Next I'll debur and scotchbrite elevator skin and hit it with cortec.

 

47	Nov 16, 2019	6T6 - Trim and Trim Actuator	Empennage	3	3
Working from my experiance of the horizontal stab hinge, I backed off the trim hinge just a little. Basically lined it up with the interior groove cut in the hinge. Works great with no rubbing so no filing on the elevator skin. Had to file a little bit on the inner side of the Elevator Cutout Channel to get it to fit properly in the inner elevator rib. Just a schmidge. Cut the trim actuator rod (threaded) to length, (about 89mm or so) to properly fit the midpoint of the trim actuator to center the trim trab. So that I wouldn't have issues with screwing up threading, I just used a file to 'cut' the bolt.

 

46	Oct 26, 2019	65T3-8 - Issues with Bent Strip	Empennage	2	2
Bent Strip that was sent with the kit doesn't fit! It's too short...as you can see, it's about 57ish mm instead of the plans directed 62. So it won't go over the upper and low elevator horns. I emailed Zenith about it, and they said "The bent strip has been changed to fit under the horns and on top of them." And he sent me the new sheet that indeed showed the bent strip snugging up under the horns. I'm not a fan of this method because it leaves a little offset gap under the horns between the elevator skin and the horns. However Zenith directed it, so......... Anyhow, I called and thanked Zenith and said "Err, can you give me the web link that I can download these sorts of updates because my plans do not match the kit. Zenith said "Look at this link, ummm, now that i look at them, it doesn't do you any good does it?" I stated that he was indeed correct, the updates link tells nothing of this change and any other change since 2012. So he said "We'll just send you a new set of plans". GREAT!. Well, the new plans came, and they were the exact....same....edition, every page. After inquiring, Zenith and I deduced that the updates just weren't released into the plans yet and they will get back to me.

 

45	Oct 19, 2019	65T3-4,5,6,7 - Elevator Horns and doublers	Empennage	4	2
Drilling the doublers and horns.

 

44	Oct 12, 2019	65T6-4 - Elevator Hinge	Empennage	3	2
Lining everything up for the elevator hinge Elevator Hinge cleco'd in place

 

43	Oct 04, 2019	6T3-1, 2 - Assembling Elevator Center Channel and Ribs	Empennage	4	3
Building up the elevator support structure. Elevator Center Channel and Ribs Clecoing ribs in Elevator Skin I noticed that some of the predrilled holes were rounded.

 

42	Sep 29, 2019	65T2-5 - Horitozontal side of Elevator Hinge	Empennage	4	2
Working on the hinge, horizontal stabilizer side. I had this thing off and on a bazillion times trying to clean up the action. When I drilled the hinge, the instructions show (at least how I interpretted them) to push the hinge all the way in, which, obviously in hinde sight, makes it rub on the hing motion so upon rotation, the hinge would stutter against the skin. It seemed more predominent when i had every hole cleco'd (seemed ok with just a few clecos). So i determined to get it right as if every hole was riveted. Anyhow, I'd put it together, check for rub spots, then take it off and file the horizontal skin edge a bit, then put it back on, rinse and repeat. I'm going to have monster forearm muscles for using the cleco pliers. ;)

 

41	Sep 28, 2019	Sealed up Horizontal Stab	Empennage	2	0
Final rivet and closure of Horizontal Stablizer. Used center punch to begin prepping the piano hinge for the elevator-to-stab.

 

40	Sep 25, 2019	Cortec upper side of horizontal	Empennage	1.5	1
Reopened after a long time stored (while working on my pilot's license). Decided to use Cortec. Therefore I can paint while in the house. I picked up a quart from Zenith factory open hanger days last weekend. Also got out elevator skin and cleaned off elevator hinge (label) using paint thinner.

 

39	Sep 14, 2019	Building 4'x4' table extension start	Workshop	3	2
Built 4'x4' extension for my 8'x4' table. Now able to handle the 12' wings. Also added new wheels to the main table with leveling feet on all legs. Moved wheels that were on original table to extension table. The 2 tables are held together by 12" x1/2" lag bolts similar to what holds together both tables structure.

 

38	Sep 03, 2019	Built wing skin storage in ceiling of basement	Workshop	2	2
It's not pretty, but it'll work and didn't cost me anything. I used the crate lid and some spare 1x4 boards to put it up. Next is to get the skins out of the garage.

 

37	Sep 03, 2019	Missing inventory part 2	Wings	1	0
Joyce said "Sure, I'll talk to shipping in the morning." James Sampers finally inventoried his Wing crate and found all of my missing inventory in his crate! Yah! I contacted Zenith and let them know we found the missing stuff.

 

36	Sep 01, 2019	Finished inventory	Wings	1	1
Looks to be missing some items: Missing Parts in the delivery: Section PART NO. DESCRIPTION QTY Wing Locker Baggage Kit L STD L Angle 2 Wing Kit 6W1-4 Piano Hinge MS20257-4 t=0.040" 7ft 2 Wing Kit 6W11-20 Channel Angle (62U1-6) 4 Wing Kit 6W7-1i/1 Rear Inboard Channel t=0.025" 1L+1R Wing Kit 6W7-1o/1 Rear Outboard Channel t=0.025" 1L+1R Wing Kit Z Z Channel 1 I emailed Zenith to discuss options.

 

35	Aug 31, 2019	Started Inventory of Wing crate	Wings	3	2
Started a complete, detailed inventory.

 

34	Aug 02, 2019	Picked up Wing kit with Kevin and James	Wings	8	1
They didn't have them crated...in fact for some reason, didn't even know we wanted them crated....so we took a long lunch while they built up the crates. Those Wing crates are monsters. Mine was the heaviest at around 560lbs.

 

33	Apr 22, 2019	Wing Kit purchase	Wings		1
Wing Kit purchase with all options that i could see. 5225.00 CH650B Wings/Alerons/Flap Kit 1375.00 CH 650 B Fuel System Kit 895.00 OPTION KIT: AeroLED EXP NAV/STROBE/POSITION WINGTI 695.00 CH 650 Option Kit: LED Landing Light: LL-LED Whele 490.00 ZODIAC CH 650 Option Kit: Long Range Fuel Tanks U 330.00 CH 650 B Option Kit: Aileron Trim Tab, electric 140.00 CH 650 B Option Kit: Wing Baggage Locker 245.00 Kit Crating: CH 650 B Wings Kit

 

32	Dec 29, 2017	6T1-1 - Level and final drill horizontal stab top	Empennage	2	4
After strap-down and leveling, final hole (A4) drilled out top of horizontal stab. Also placed end ribs (6T1-1) an final drilled them (both top and bottom of stab). Un-cleco'd and re-opened the top so I can debur and apply zinc chromate (corrosion control).

 

31	Dec 27, 2017	Final Horizontal Stab bottom riveting	Empennage	2	3
Got the new level, rechecked my leveling of the frame, and then the applied skin, and then riveted it down, assisted by one of my helpers. :) We then proceeded to flip the horz stab over and prep for skinning. Strapped it down and hit it with some initial cleco's.

 

30	Dec 24, 2017	Stab skin part 2	Empennage	2.5	0
Went through all holes on skin and frame for burrs. Overlayed the skin back on to the frame, cleco'd, and inserted rivots. Turns out that there were about 6 rivots that wouldn't fit in the holes....Then I remembered to re-level. Well, heck, the spiffy digital level has gone bad while sitting on the shelf over the last couple of days. Batteries were dead, and when replacing them, it reads 10deg off. Well, Seeing how this is Christmas Eve, it'll be a couple of days before anything is open again for me to replace the level and continue.

 

29	Dec 17, 2017	Started Stab skin	Empennage	1.5	5
Leveled up the frame front to back. Alicia then helped me fit the skin onto the riveted stab frame. Releveled and cleco'd. Thought I was gonna get lucky because all of the hole accepted cleco's pretty well, however when I attempted to drop in the A4 rivets, they offered resisistance, so I guess I'll have to still final-hole-size drill them out. Drilled all holes on bottom of stab to final hole size. Next: Next will have to take skin back off and debur.

 

28	Dec 17, 2017	Finished stab spars riveting	Empennage	1.5	1
Finally finished off riveting the stab spar frame. Got my first taste of drilling out a rivet. Accidently put a A4 where a A5 should be. Resolved.

 

27	Dec 02, 2017	Some rivet practice	Empennage	.5	2
Kids got to do some riveting today...They helped me work on the horizontal stab some more.

 

26	Nov 30, 2017	First day of rivets!!!!	Empennage	2	1
Wahoo! Besides the ones done on the rudder at the workshop, this is my first rivets pulled on the plane horizontal stabilizer (basically on my own in my own shop). I did the first 4 or so with the manual puller then said "Hey, what the heck, this give this here new pneumatic puller a whirl!" And it was goooood. Hehe. All kidding aside, it went well thus far. My only wonder is how to get the head of either of the pneumatic or manual riveter up against the upper rear of the rear spar in order to get those rivets seated. The heads of the riveters are pretty thick and the upper flange on the rear spar is in the way....hmmm....

 

25	Nov 29, 2017	6T2-1,2,3,6 - Final up-drilling to open up some of the holes to	Empennage	1	0
Drilled out 6T1-1 end pieces to A4 size (was at A3). Drilled out rib ends to A5 (was A4). Drilled out 6T2-1, 6T2-2, 6T2-3, 6T2-6 holes to A5. A3 = silver cleco (#40 drill bit) A4 = gold cleco (#30 drill bit) A5 = black cleco (#20 drill bit) Yes, I checked for burrs and took appropriate action.

 

24	Nov 28, 2017	Cleco'd back together after corrosion control appl	Empennage	1.5	1
Noticed that I still need to updrill the outer holes on ribs 2 through 5 and for each of the five holes of 6T2-1 to match the plans for use of A5 rivets (size #20). Will do that on next visit to the basement.

 

23	Nov 26, 2017	More deburring	Empennage	1.5	1
When I was removing labels earlier, I noticed that there was some of the cloth/paper-towel (box of rags, fairly rugged papertowel) getting caught on the edges of the holes. This told me that I hadn't gotten them quite as deburred as I had thought. So I finally decided to break one of my older files so that I could make a file-block. This worked better than I had anticipated. I had fiugred that I'd use the spinny deburring tool pretty much the whole time, but the driver deburring tool doesn't seem to get all of the raised edges as I had hoped. This file-block works wonderfully. I'd check each hole by dragging my fingernail over the hole and if my nail would get caught on the start of the hole then I knew that it needed some tending.

 

22	Nov 26, 2017	Applying my first Zinc Chromate to horizontal stab	Empennage		1
Since this was my first time applying this, I really took my time getting prepared, but got faster and less worrisome as I went along in application. I followed some advice from the Zenith builder's forums and used a spoon to take some Zinc Chromate out of the can and put it in a cut-in-half soup can, then poured some acitone in it to thin it way out. I think that I still applied it a little thick. It's kind of hard to get it spread out before it dries (fast!). Plus it'd kinda seep through the holes and leave a quick-dried drip on the other side. Seeing that I'm probably never gonna make it really pretty, I opted for expediancey and just brushed it on without too much ado. Anyhow, this finally gets me to the point that I can start popping my first rivets. Yah!

 

21	Nov 24, 2017	Cleaning off labels	Empennage	1	2
Using Acetone to soak into the label, then a wedge shaped stick, the labels scrape right off, then use the acetone on rag to wipe the adhesive off.

 

20	Oct 26, 2017	6T2-3 - Rear Spar Attachment	Empennage	.3	2
Cut out 6T2-3, Rear Spar Attachment.

 

19	Oct 25, 2017	6T2-3 - Drew some lines, trimmed some corners	Empennage	.5	2
Outlined on the inside and darkened the lines for cutting the Rear Spar Attachment for cutting on the band saw (when the saw noise won't wake up the house). Also trimmed the corners on the front of the spar end 'L' channel pieces.

 

18	Oct 17, 2017	Horizontal Tail DVD	Paint / Decals		0
Homebuilt Help Building your CH601/CH650 Horizontal Tail

 

17	Oct 16, 2017	Corrosion control	Paint / Decals		0
09-00917 PTI ZINC CHROMATE GREEN QT

 

16	Oct 08, 2017	L-Angle on front of Front and Rear spar	Empennage	1.5	1
Cut, filed edges (rounded off), placed, and drilled for end of elevator spars. This Sioux Air Drill very nice!

 

15	Oct 01, 2017	Working on spars and ribs	Empennage	2	2
Cleco'd front and rear spars tot he ribs.

 

14	Jul 30, 2017	Deburring tool	Tools		0
speed deburring and countersinking tool (PN#12-006)

 

13	Jul 28, 2017	Quick Clamps	Tools		0
Quick Clamps

 

12	Jul 26, 2017	Fluting pliers	Tools		0

 

11	Jul 10, 2017	Starting on the Front Spar (6T1-3)	Empennage	1	1
Clecoing the doublers to the front spar

 

10	Jul 07, 2017	Full layout of kit, OFFICIAL start date	Empennage	1	3
Today I am counting as my official start date. I have some prior time, but this is when I decided to actually say "ok, I'm done building tools/tables/boxes and stuff and really get busy"

 

9	Jun 21, 2017	Practicing some fabrication	Empennage	3	3
I decided to see how my scratch building technique is. Basically, now that I have a kit with factory parts, I wanted to see how well I can fabricate, from plans only (without looking first at the factory part), and then compare it to see how close I am. Well, I think that I did initially ok, though I came across a problem. The part that I attempted first (due to the sheet metal thickness, that I got a spare sheet for, just for this purpose) and it's ease (I didn't have a pair of fluting pliers yet) was the Elevator Center Channel (65T3-2). My cut lengths were pretty spot on, however, when I compared them to the factory parts, oh geez, the factory parts were wayyyyy shorter than I'd expect. Developed length was supposed to be 305mm, mine was about 305.5mm, the factory cut was 299mm. That's 6mm short of the plans! Plans also say 55mm wide base. Mine is about 55mm-56mm. Factory was about 52mm...only 3mm different from plans, so not so bad, but is significant when held up against mine..ewww. I sent an email to Zenith to see if there is something I need to know of....such as a plans update.

 

8	Jan 20, 2017	Picked up tail kit at Mexico MO	Empennage	8	0
My brother (Lorin, who is a builder himself, he finished and flies his Sonex Waiex) and I drove down to Mexico, MO to pick up the tail kit. 4 hour drive each way. Not terribly far, all things considered. Some of Lorin's pics: https://www.sonexaircraft.com/news/images/L_Miller-1.jpg https://www.sonexaircraft.com/news/images/L_Miller-3.jpg

 

7	Jan 13, 2017	Pick up tail kit	Empennage	0	1
Wow, this was a big step for me. Up until this point I was still on the fence whether or not I was going to scratch build or kit build. Opted to start out with a component kit. 1750.00 CH 650 B Component Kit (CH 650 B Tail Kit) 49.50 HRIV (Hand Riveter with Custom Machined Heads) 99.85 PRIV (Pneumatic Riveter with Custom Machined Head 2.25 30DB (Drill Bit #30) 2.25 20DB (Drill Bit #20) 12.95 MTM (Metric Tape Measure)

 

6	Jan 02, 2017	Aircraft Plans	Workshop	0	0
Purchase plans Serial NO: 65-10625 Zodiac CH650 B

 

5	Dec 29, 2016	Main Build Table material	Workshop	0	0

 

4	Dec 11, 2015	Rudder workshop - day 2	Empennage	5	3
Overlaid the skin on the spar and ribs, cleco'd and riveted the skin on. Finished the rudder and the workshop! This is definitely something that I can handle!

 

3	Dec 10, 2015	Day 1 of Rudder Workshop	Empennage	8	3
Day 1 of the rudder workshop. Today we (my wife, oldest daughter, and I) started to learn the shop environment, and the rudder kit. We then measured everything out, and started drilling holes in the spar and ribs. Got everything cleco'd and ready to rivet.

 

2	Oct 20, 2015	Rudder Workshop purchase	Empennage		0
Rudder workshop to introduce use to sheet metal working technique.

 

1	Aug 09, 2015	Building DVDs	Research		0
HOMEBUILT HELP DVD Scratch Building Basics for Metal Aircraft

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