Posted by David McCauley on Saturday, January 1, 2011,
Hadn't realized that it had been so long since I updated progress on the plane. During the fall I got the rudder pedals welded up and mounted. I filled and sanded the Horizontal stabilizer and now have everything ready to fabricate the turtle deck. Those accomplishments finished my efforts in the garage so I moved the fuselage into the back yard, covered it with plastic and headed indoors for the winter.
Since moving indoors, I've built the outer spars, finished the wing ribs and now I...
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Posted by David McCauley on Sunday, August 29, 2010,
Progress has been too slow. I filled and sanded the fuselage bottom and the horizontal stab and then primed the bottom eill a filler/primer. It isn't show-plane smooth but doesn't look too bad. With the priming done, I flipped the fuse back right-side up and went back to work on the inside. The fiberglass mounter mount braces where tought - 8 plys thick and working in a tight space. Got them built but my-oh-my they're tought looking but solid.
Next I built the rudder pedal dec...
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Posted by David McCauley on Saturday, July 10, 2010,
I've ordered the canopy and am working to get ready for the complicated job of mounting it.
Before I could start that effort, I had to attach the horizontal stabilizer. That was a tricky task and I didn't do as well as I had hoped. The specs call for a .75 degree negative incidence and when I was done, in spite or frequent fitting & checking, the incidences turnd out to be minus 1.2. Not a killer but it will add a little drag as I'll need a little nose-up trim for level flight.
O...
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Posted by David McCauley on Sunday, June 13, 2010,
The weather has been spotty and I've been busy with other tasks but I've managed to get some work done. The short forward deck is installed as well as the control tunnel. I discovered a slight bow in one side of the rear fuselage when I started installation of the two rear bulkheads. It took some work to get things straight again. Anyway, the bulkheads are installed and things are pretty straight now. I just finished laying up the fiberglass for the rear access hole attachment flange. O...
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Posted by David McCauley on Sunday, March 14, 2010,
3/14/2010 I'm almost done with glasing the wing ribs. Once that's done I have to pack the exposed foam edges with a mixture of cabosil, micro and epoxy and then final sanding to precise shape.
I'm also finishing up the seatback so I can install it once I can work in the garage. The seatback, rear bulkheads, control tunnel, horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer can then be installed. At that point it will begin to look like a real airplane.
I'm going to order the canopy early in April...
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Posted by David McCauley on Tuesday, February 23, 2010,
Posted by David McCauley on Tuesday, February 23, 2010,
Posted by David McCauley on Tuesday, February 23, 2010,
Getting started by building a worktable.
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Posted by David McCauley on Tuesday, February 23, 2010,
Finally got aropund to building a website and blog so I can explain what I'm doing building an airplane in my garage (durring the summer) and in the basement workshop (during the winter). I started in later summer 2008 by building a worktable that I could disassemble in the fall in order to get my car into the garage.
In the time that has passed since that first effort, I've completed the horizontal stabilizer, the vertical stabilizer, the fuselage and most of the internal fusalage bu...
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