Builder’s Notes & Comments

Page 2

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30 May 03

Drilled and riveted all the seat strips to form the seat cradle.

31 May 03

Cut out aprox. 40 blocks of wood to make the jigs for all the tail surfaces, rudder, elevator, and horizontal stab. Measured and drew out all the tail group full scale on the table.

01 June 03

Cut and fit the alum. pieces for the rudder, horizontal stab.

02 June 03

Cut and fit the alum. pieces for the elevator and vertical stab.

09 June 03

Made all the alum. gussets for the vert. stab. and riveted the vertical stabilizer all together, the spar has only been clecoed together so I can add the Hinge pieces for the rudder and stab.

Also cut and welded the hinge attach points together but must be cut into 1/2 inch pieces before they are installed.

11 June 03

Worked on Vertical Stab., and started cutting all the gussets for the Rudder and riveted them together.

12 June 03

Continued working on the rudder and repaired a minor mishap on the vertical stab. that was measured incorrectly. Should be fine after talking to Jerry Eales my E.A.A. Tech Rep.

13 June 03

Cut all the gussets for both horizontal stab. and formed them by bending them around the next size smaller tubes. They fit great. Riveted the gussets on the trailing edge but need to wait to finish the spars side for each until I install the 1/2 in. hinge attach pieces. Also started to make paper patterns for the elevator gussets.

15 June 03

Cut and filed all the gussets for both elevators by using the same method as I described above for the horizontal stab. Very time consuming but they fit real well. Waiting to rivet them together until I have all the 1/2 in. hinge pieces ready which should be tomorrow.

16 June 03

Made a paper pattern for the rudder horn and transferred it to a 2024T3 alum sheet and then cut it out with my jig saw. Made the brackets to mount the rudder horn from 1/2 in. alum. angle and riveted it as well as the horn to the bottom rudder rib on the lower part of the rudder.

23 June 03

Bauken finished the hinge fittings and brought them over, I finished drilling the rivet holes and then fit them on the rudder and vertical stab. Finished riveting the rudder & stab. which now completes that section? Completed the left elevator including all the riveting.

24 June 03

Filed the alum. tapered ribs for the right elevator to fit and added the hinge pieces and riveted it all together. Trial fit all the tail group with the clevis pins, looks pretty good.

Now waiting to fit the attach points on the fuselage.

01 Aug 03

Cut all the pieces to build the rudder pedals and welded them together.

02 Aug 03

Tack welded the rudder pedals in to position on the fuselage frame and then welded them.

12 Aug 03

Welded the Horiz. stab. attach post to the fuselage and also welded the forward horiz. stab bushing into the front attach point.

13 Aug 03

Worked on the Control stick, made the control body assembly and cut the holes and drilled all the holes for the rivets and 3/16 holes for the AN3 bolts. Also made some support brackets to help stiffen and space the bottom of the control stick assembly.

14 Aug. 03

Riveted the control stick to the torque tube and put the AN3 bolts in as well as the control stick and plastic washers assembly, it works very well. Riveted two stiffener plates that go around the bolt that holds the control stick to the body assembly.

20 Aug 03

Trial fit all of the landing gear and strut fittings and cold bent at all the appropriate places to fit the slanted tube at station # 2 & #3. It took a little grinding to get a good fit on most of the fittings but over all they fit very nicely.

21 Aug 03

All of the fittings are in place and ready to be permanently welded. They are all held in place by using 1/4 all-thread rod with nuts on the inside and out side to hold the proper spacing and alignment. Cut all four of the motor mount attach points and drilled the holes for proper spacing and are ready to be welded in place.

22 Aug 03

Drilled and cut the bend in the aileron swing arm and attached it to the control torque tube. Scott Nipper came over and welded the fuselage fittings. Re-fit the motor mount bushings in the mounting plates.

10 Sept. 03

Built the front spar jig and cut all the intercostals pieces and wing & strut attach support pieces for both front spars. Trial fit both the left and right front spars pieces together and then permanently glued them with T-88 glue.

11 Sept. 03

Moved the spar jig from the front spar position to the rear spar spacing and cut all the intercostals pieces and the wing & strut attach fittings for both rear spars and trial fit all pieces together then permanently glued with T-88 glue.

12 Sept. 03

Sanded all four spars to accept the plywood so that it would be a nice and tight fit when glued. Measured and cut all of the plywood pieces that make up the spar web.

13 Sept. 03

Trimmed up the edges of the plywood that make up the joints where they meet just out side of the wing strut brace, and positioned all the pieces to be glued. Tim Johnson, my brother came over and gave me a hand with all of the gluing process for all four spars. Time consuming but went pretty well. We used bricks to apply pressure while the glue set up.

14 Sept. 03

Started trimming up the ribs today. started by using a flush cutting router bit to trim all of the excess gusset material, then used a scraper to scrape the excess glue off, then sanded with my electric finish sander. Finished 12 of the ribs today.

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