The vacation ends...

Well, today was my last day of vacation and I am not looking forward to getting back to the job but hey, gotta pay for this darn habit of mine!  The last couple of days have been taken up with lots of priming.  In fact I did three sessions of priming with the last one being this morning to finish up a few pieces.  Mariah helped me rivet the steps in place and I did a few other odds and ends.  Oh,  I also ended the day by rearranging the garage with the airplane in the center bay.  The right bay was not deep enough to hold the entire fuselage once I start working on the engine.  So, not much for pictures but here they are.

The new garage configuration.  Also note the primed parts laying in various locations.

The left step riveted on.  I decided to use flush rivets instead of the round head  version.  I think it looks better and has slightly less drag.   I also primed the entire step on both sides to prevent any rust since these are steel parts, not aluminum.  I also primed the inside of the tube.

Take a seat

Its been a busy few days in the garage.  I've been off from work and spending a lot of time working on the plane.  I have taken care of several tasks that are not in the instructions.  There was a single sentence that says, construct the seats in accordance with the plans.  Well that single sentence took me two days to complete.  however, the seats are not complete and I am prepping for a serious day of priming....hopefully tomorrow.

Oh, I did get my fuel pump today!

New EFII fuel pump.

Newly completed seats sitting in the plane.  Almost time to get in and make airplane noises!

One step back and two steps forward

I know I goofed up the title but its more appropriate to tonight's blog post.  First the one step back part. Yesterday I was feeling pretty good about getting a few smaller tasks complete and moving on to the baggage compartment work.  As I was placing the back wall in place I noticed that it wasn't fitting snugly up against the bulkhead.  Hmmm, what now I think.  Yep, I put the wrong rivets in several locations (see pictures below).  I had put the 470 rivets (round head) into holes that were suppose to be dimpled and riveted with the 426 rivets (flush head).  So today I started by removing those rivets and doing a little dimpling and re-riveting.

Now for the two steps forward.  I managed to get both steps drilled, fitted and ready for primer.  That was a job that I was not looking forward to.  One interesting note about the passenger side step is that I took the advice of my friend Jeff and had a small plate welded onto the back side of the vertical part.  It seems that there have been numerous failures due to cracking.  If you look at the pictures you will see what I mean.

One more thing, I started the design process for my panel and center console.  Last pic shows the results so far.

This is what the original back side looks like.  This happens to be the pilot side step.

And here is the passenger side step with a small plate TIG welded on.

Those nice flat rivets are the ones I had to replace on this bulkhead.

And those nice flat rivets needed replacing as well (same on the other side).

Here is the pilot side step cleco'd on.  No pictures of the passenger side yet.

Here is the beginnings of my panel and center console.  Most of the stuff I will have for starters is here but there is still lots of work to do on this diagram.  This is done with Google Sketch-up by the way.

Merry Christmas everybody

The title says it all!  I am sitting here in the office writing this post as everybody else is napping from one of the best Christmas mornings I have had in a long while.  I can't really put a finger on what made this one so special but with all four kids joining Amy and I it was just a very enjoyable morning of gift opening and breakfast.  Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

Look at the size of the loaf of banana bread!  Mariah and Travis made them for gifts this year and each one must weigh five pounds!

Travis opening something...

Mariah and I during the gift opening.

Ok we had a few days of frost and the garage was too full for the cars so Amy had to scrape a window.  I guess thats what prompted a gloved ice scraper present.  

Ice cream cone shower cap?!?  Who'da thunk.

No caption needed for this one!

Ok, I guess you have to be kids to be crazy enough to be out in 31 degree weather blowing plastic bubbles in your PJ's!

Aint she cute!

Some of my loot. A Go Pro 3! and check out this cap...it has LED lights in the bill!  I love this kind of stuff!

Well, no true airplane lover would be caught dead without a parking sign like this one and with the airplane wings in the living room it just feels appropriate to hang the sign here for now.  :-)

Feeling much better this afternoon

Yep, feeling much better so I spent a little more time in the garage.  I managed to get some riveting done on the firewall gussets, the slider deck and gussets, and I even started on the baggage rib to tail cone rivets.  Those are a little hard to get to so I am going to have to get some help from one of the kids.  On a different note I had a first today...I crawled into the airplane for the first time!  Kinda bare in there but that's not going to be the case for long.  :-)

Firewall gussets riveted in.  look at that mess on the floor of the plane!  somebody should clean that.

The sides and the gusset riveted in.

The elevator bell-crank.  Those little tube spacers were fun to fabricate.

Its the little things...

The past few days have not been overly productive as I have not been feeling very well.  I did do some work since its either work on the plane or sleep and I can only sleep so long.  I managed to get the aft deck riveted on, a series of gussets drilled for final riveting, and I installed the aft top skins just for fun.  Well not actually just for fun, I did want to make sure everything was lined up correctly before I drilled a few of the gussets.

I also spent some time working on Amy's Christmas present and while I can't tell you what it is I can tell you that need more soldering practice!  Small wires and even smaller contact points are a pain to get solder to stick to.

Oh, one more thing, I ordered my finishing kit from Van's last week.  They say 8 to 10 week delivery time so hopefully I will be finishing up with the fuselage at about the time the kit is ready for pickup.

I had to put the forward section together so I could see what this is going to look like.  Yep, this is purely for fun.  My panel is not going to use the stock vans panel you see in this picture, I am using the affordable panels modular panel kit which I have but have not unpacked. 

The aft top skins installed.  Its hard to see but in the middle of the plane, under the skin you can see a orange clamp, thats where one of the gussets I had to final drill is located.

Now you can see both clamps (one on each side)

Stand back and admire!  I think this is going to be an airplane someday.

Rolling the Canoe

YES!  Its finally happened!  Travis and I finished up the riveting and then when Mariah arrived we rolled the canoe.  Seems like I have been waiting for this milestone for a while now and because I had to rely on the time of others to help it was a little slow in coming.

This is how things looked before we started tonight

And here's what things look like now!

Another view with a smiling Mariah!