Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Long weekend triumphs and travels

Yep, I took a long weekend this past weekend.  Four days where Amy and I could spend some time together and just enjoy ourselves with nothing demanding our attention...that is unless you consider that airplane in the garage that just doesn't want to let me be!

Well, several things have happened since last we chatted.  First, the ailerons are done...finally.  Those leading edges were a bugger but they were easier the second time around.  Riveting went well and everything came out strait!  I am actually very surprised by that since that nose skin puts a lot of stress on the rest of the assembly.  But as you can see in the pictures below it actually came out great!

Next, I started the flaps.  Not done yet but made good progress...see pictures below.

Finally the big news, Amy and I drove Mariah down to Salem for her senior year at Willamette and on the way back we just happened to stop by Van's and picked up the fuselage kit!!  YEE HAW!  Yep, its home and I am not going to crack the top open until the wings are done.  So it may be a couple of weeks, but its here!

Oh, one more thing, I am making some engine changes on my airplane.  After endless debates with myself and far too many "you are doing what?!?" comments from others I have decided to not go with the 200 HP engine.  I am still going to use the block from the 200 horse engine because it is heavy duty, better rods, and a stronger crank.  As I mentioned before this block has many great things going for it.  I talked to Dave, the guy I bought the engine from and he is going to exchange my angle valve parts for newly rebuilt parallel valve top end.  That will give me a standard 180 hp engine and save a lot of weight.  Anyway, things are afoot in engine land.

Aileron completed.

Even has a strait trailing edge!

This looks like one of those "find me if you can" pictures but actually its just a picture with both ailerons temporarily installed on the wings.

Flaps just starting to come together for initial drilling.

Flaps with leading edge's cleco'd on so I can start doing some drilling.  Notice my clamping method of holding the flaps to the table top.  Van's says to use 2x2's with weight, well I don't have 2x2's and I thought the 2x4's would do a better job.  Then I added the clamps on each end to really make it solid!