Fuselage is home!

Yesterday was a REALLY cool day.  We met the truck bringing the fuselage from the east coast in Blaine, WA and transferred it to the race car trailer, and then brought it home the Canada!

Stewart Transport picked up the kit in New Hampshire, and 3400 miles later...

These guys were great.  No damage... only catch is they will not deliver to Canada...

Packed in the smaller race car trailer...

We had to take the nose gear off to get it to fit.  The fender wells on the inside kept us from moving the fuselage farther back... We only put the nose gear on for transport anyway.

The fuselage is very CAREFULLY placed in the hanger until the wings are done... hoping to have that done by Christmas 2019.

Wings - Part II

So the wings are trucking right along... all the long monotonous tasks... deburring, dimpling, etc.

Countersinking the spar and root ribs.

Checking the dimples on the nose skins and leading edge ribs.

There is about another hundred or so countersinks to go...

Have started priming all the wing components.  The nose ribs are complete, as are the stiffeners the go around the tanks.  Have to do the main ribs, flap cove ribs, aileron ribs, and the skins.  Lots to go.

2006 Quickbuild Fuselage

I took a gigantic leap forward in the past couple weeks... I found a gentlemen on the east coast selling a 2006 quick build fuselage.  After a business trip / diversion I went out and took a look.  Well, I purchased it and it should be picked up by Stewart Transport (who specializes in moving kit aircraft and kit cars) around September 10, 2019 and delivered 7 to 10 days later.

We spent almost a full day packing everything and getting it ready for shipping.

We packed as much as possible (without damaging anything) inside the fuselage.  Mainly light bulky things...

This kit/purchase will push me forward probably by about a year.  It is a quick build, so the cage is hung.  The person I bought it from has upgraded the doors to the latest design including the rear door.   The header tanks are in, and most of the fuel system inside the fuselage is together.

However some modifications will be necessary.  As this is an older design, the cage tubing is smaller diameter.  Ted Setzer has developed an upgrade for taildragger configuration with extended gear that strengthens it by about 50%.  It also does not have the SB done for the seatbelts.

So now the priority is to get the wings ready to hang ASAP.  The fuselage is pretty much ready for the wings so the struts can be cut and fit.

Happy days!

Wings - Part I

Its been about a year since the blog has been updated, so this will be a length post... lots have happened on the wings.

Where the last post left off was getting the spars on the jigs, level and plumb.

Root ribs

First step is to FIND the root ribs (mine were mislabeled).  They then have to be modified to fit.  The root rib webbing needs to be cut and fit into the ribs.

Both root ribs cut and fit and ready to be drilled.  Doublers need to be installed on the rib flanges. 

Fully assembled root rib 

Once they are fit and drilled, corrosion proofing (both Alodyne and Zinc Chromate) and riveted, and finally placed into the jigs. 

Assembling the nose, main, flap/aileron cove ribs into the jigs.

The main ribs outboard of the inboard fuel tank are doubled up.  No real fitting required, but they have to be drilled for riveting later. 

The strut beam components are all pre cut and do not require much work.  Simply corrosion proof them and install. 

This picture shows the bracing I built to hold the jigs in place.  As I have garage doors to work around, I glued them to the floor of the shop and then braced them to each other, and then to the walls.  1 year in they have not moved at all (plumb bobs on each corner to monitor for movement). 

Nose skins going on.  You can see the wood block hot glued to the spar and rib to hold it square.  The outboard ones are easy to adjust through lightening holes in the spar, but the mid and root skins are not so easy. 

To hold everything in place and line it up to the lines on the spar I used strips of plywood and clamps to position everything and hold it in place while drilling.

Installing the spar spar caps was fun.  They double up the spar in the mid section of the wing on the top spars.  They help tie the nose and main skins together and add strength. 

Forward holes drilled in the spar caps. 

Main skins going on. 

One side done! 

Stiffeners for the fuel tanks. 

Pitot static mast going on the left wing.  Rather than purchasing the Glasair kit, I simple bought a mount from Aircraft Spruce and will buy all my own hardware.

This plate will go on the inside of the wing and ties into the  skin stiffeners.  

Moved to the inside to drill the holes. 

Pitot static mast installed.  Nothing is riveted yet, but all the holes are drilled, dimpled and deburred. 

Drilling the primary spar attachment holes to the root rib.  I made a little jig to make this a bit easier.