I got a special delivery via air mail this morning. An internet buddy noticed I needed a propeller for my airplane project and offered to sell me a spare prop he had lying around. The prop is almost new and the price was reasonable so I took him up on his offer.
This morning he flew down with the prop taped to his wing struts. Now if I can just get someone to fly down with an engine taped to their wing struts I can finish this bird off!
Just a quick update to show where we are on the plane. The interior is done and now we’re getting ready to clear coat it if we can find some safe stuff to spray.
Here are a few photos:
And a better shot of the colors…
I’ve been bad about involving Scotty in the aircraft project lately so I got him back into it today. Today he laced up the cockpit area of the fuselage. He did well, even tying the exact knot I had been using. He learned by watching me. Even if I watched someone tie that knot 50 times I don’t think I could duplicate that knot as easily as he did. I showed him how to burn the end of the cord to prevent fraying, and he knew how to tie the correct knot so I just let him go and did some other prep work on the plane and he did great! Here is an action shot:
And here is what the plane looks like at the moment:
This is what I have settled on. I have a buddy from church who’s itching to try out his new machine equipment and see if he can tear me some holes in my panel. I need to clean up the measurements a little and get them to him. But here is what I have finally decided on.
Okay aviators… constructive criticism. I like it but I always like to hear intelligent suggestions that might improve the functionality or logic of my panel. What do you think?
Pretty good day full of aviation today. Scotty and I went out to the airport to direct aircraft parking at Oakdale (O27) this morning. We had a nice breakfast cooked by members of EAA Chapter 90 and then spent the next hour and a half parking airplanes. As in, guiding them to their parking spots. The event is our first annual poker run. The object of the game is to fly to different airports where you pick up some cards. When you land back at the first airport you check your poker hand that you’ve created picking up the cards at the airports on the route. The pilot with the best hand wins a prize. It is a fun event and brought pilots in from as far away as Watsonville.
The second half of the day was spent pre-fitting some parts on the airplane. I would pre-fit one part, get as far as I could and then move on to another. Scotty did the final riveting of the vertical stabilizer and afterwards I installed it. It’s starting to look very airplanish now.
Here are some photos of our progress:
This is the instrument panel and firewall pre-fit. You can also see that we’ve installed the floor board, scuff plate, rudder pedals, sticks, and seats since the last update.
Here is a photo of the seats. Angela was my big seat helper. She prepared the uphostry by cutting the openings for the lacing and wires which hold the seats to their frames. Angela was also the first person to sit in the airplane!
Here’s the airplane’s first occupant.
We’ve installed the optional aft baggage compartment. There is another baggage area just behind the seats which I haven’t installed yet.
We completed and bolted on the vertical stabilizer. The rudder is not complete yet but I decided to hang it on the VS for this photo.
Here’s the entire airplane so far. You can see the firewall that I have pre-fit on the front. The aft baggage compartment door (the blue triangle) which I have also-prefit. Everything is coming along nicely.
It’s been a busy two weeks at work. I’ve barely had time to think much less do anything. But the garage has become my place of solace and peace. My son hasn’t helped every day but he needs a break some times. I don’t want to burn him out on this project. I want it to be as enjoyable as it is educational. But we have made some progress by just doing something small each day. Here is our progress so far.
It’s up on the wheels:
And we’ve begun installing the cockpit floor and rudders.
Angela stained the floorboard the color you see.
Scotty drilled the holes for the brake mount plates.
And he assembled the rudder pedals.
Next steps will be to install the rudder pedals and then brakes.
We’re making good progress and learning to understand eachother better. Have I always been the best teacher? No. Have I always been patient? Uh-uh. Am I always good at involving him in the project? Nope. But I am what God has given him, and he is what God has given me. And I think we will both be blessed because of God’s choices.
Scotty and I did a bit more work today. We practiced measuring and marking work. Using a center punch to keep our drill from wandering, and of cours, drilling.
“This is where I want you to mark with the center punch.”
Right on the crosshairs.
A firm grip on the drill, centered on the punch marks, and we make short work of our project for today.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
Amen.
I’ve heard some talk about town about how rich I must be to be able to build an airplane. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I sold an airplane that I had paid for in full over time to finance this project. This aircraft is being purpose built to sell. I repeat, this aircraft is being built to sell. This is an apprenticeship for my son as I really have no other skills to teach him.
Thanks for letting me set the record straight. God bless you and yours.
Got to spend my first full day of building. We made some pretty good progress. We made a few blunders but overall we did pretty good.
Bluder number 1 was riviting a tube in the wrong place. Scotty just rivits too fast for me to keep up with the book reading. I drilled out the rivet and we riveted the tube in the right place.
Blunder number 2 was putting the vertical stabilizer rudder hinge attach nutplate in the wrong position. I think. It just doesn’t look right. I mounted it in the only pre-drilled hole in that area of the VS spar but it’s up inside the the gusset area. I don’t eve know why I bothered drilling that hole, I only need to construct the frame.
Here’s what we got done today.
Rear fuselage
Vertical stabilizer
Air Prayer 