Clecoed the upper wing fuel tank lower skin and two end ribs into place.
Feb 19
1.7hrs
Flipped the two end ribs on the fuel tank so that the lips of the ribs faced the center of the tank. Drilled holes and clecoed. Took Mason stick grip apart to figure out what needs to be done to it.
Feb 21
2hrs
Confirmed the correct brackets for the sway wires (again). Worked on setting up the firewall so that I could begin laying out the sheet metal but decided against it until I have the actual firewall in place to work off of. Ground down the rudder horn so that it fits on the rudder post. Needs to be welded on now.
1hr
Figuring out the flanges on the upper wing fuel tank.
Feb 22
2hrs
Designed the trim/servo adjustment stick.
Feb 24
2.3hrs
Drilled rossette holes in upper and lower fuel tank skins. Weld upper part of rudder horn.
Feb 26
1.7hr
Welded the rest of the rudder horn on. Needed to grind down and sand the excess weld off so as to not to interfer with the pivot of the rudder.
Feb 28
4.2hrs
Deburred the skins and baffles and end ribs on the upper wing fuel tank. Worked a bit on the fuel vent line (figuring it all out).
Mar 1-2
10+hrs
Reading, understanding, figuring out the fuel tank hook ups and fuel system. WOW !
Mar 3
2.1hrs
Figuring out and bending the vent tube for the upper wing tank. Work on the tail cone area - need to adjust the cut-outs on the sides and bottom to work with the trim/servo system.
Mar 6 -16
Vacation in Tortola.
Mar 18
2.2hrs
Cut wood pattern for servo/trim handle. Cut blank out of .25o aluminum.
Mar 19
4.4hrs
Routed first blank. Wasn't clamped good enough and the router wandered far into the aluminum blank. Needed to start over again. Cut new blank. Just about finished routing a nice piece and the bearing went out on the "new" Bosch router bit. Tried to salvage... Handle is a little bulkier than I thought it was going to be. Will re-design slightly smaller and use this one as the blank for the smaller one.
Mar 20
.5hrs
Revised layout for handle. Now 11 1/2inches long and 3 3/4inches top to bottom instead of 12 1/2 and 4.
Mar 21
2.7hrs
Working on the tail cone area of the turtledeck. It interferes with the trim/servo horn.
Mar 22
1hr
Modification of the tail cone. Lifted it 1/2inch to clear the trim horn. Will need to cut and glue 1/2inch of ply to bottom of existing tail cone (with lightening holes).
Mar 24
2.1hrs
New trim handle: made new MDF pattern. Routed new handle. Drilled lightening holes. Ready for final finish and drilling of two attachment holes.
Mar 26
.8hrs
Worked on flooring for turtledeck; raising it 1/2inch. Also... looked over the fuselage to figure out what needs to still be done on it.
Mar 28
2.4hrs
More work on the tail cone: routed and glued the false bottom onto the forward and rear sections of the tail cone.
Mar 30
3.5hrs
Sanding the trim lever smooth. STILL NOT FINISHED WITH IT !
Mar 31
2.1hrs
Figuring out the tail cone area... how to have the back-end of the stringers on the turtledeck free from the tail cone but able to be attached when putting it all back together. I wasn't too happy with attaching the stringers indiviually to the tail cone.
Apr 2
2.4hrs
Made the patterns for the overlays on the tail cone. Cut out the overlays (to build up the thickness of the tail cone to 1/8inch) and also the wood plates (1/8inch - same design as the overlays) that the stringers will get glued to. This plate will then get attached to the tail cone. Glued on the first overlay.
Apr 4
1.1hrs
Trimmed and glued on the second ply build-up on the tail cone (opposite side of last time).
1.8hrs
Figuring out the shape of the instrument panels... still.
Apr 6
1.5hrs
Sanding the trim/servo handle; 220, 400, 600 grit.
Apr 7
1.6hrs
Re-fitting the tail cone spine and additional build up on the turtledeck spine.
Apr 9
2.3hrs
Re-working the connection of the turtledeck stringers to the tail cone. Figured it out... and then figured out a better way (after I re-worked it the first time). Cut the new spine piece that will need to get glued on.
Apr 11
4.5hrs
Began re-making the tail cone. The first one had been through so many itterations I decided it was time to make a new one incorporating all the technology that I finally arrived at on the first one.
Apr 13
1.9hrs
Patterns for front and rear sides of tail cone. Sealed the insides with T-88.
Apr 16
2.3hrs
Cut and glued on the glue strips to the tail cone base plates. Drilled the 3/16inch holes on the trim handle. Figured out the mounting of the trim handle. Need to order the throttles first.
Apr 18
6.3hrs
Figured out locations for pilot's throttle and the trim/servo handle. Routed out lightening hole for tail cone base plate and built up glueing blocks to cut a smaller angle for sides of the tail cone. Cut and reamed 3/8 x .o65 tube to 1/4inch, cut and lahted to length tubes for trim/servo handle mount. Took a hole saw cutter and cut both plates for the trim servo handle mount.
Apr 21
2.2hrs
Welded up the trim/servo mounting bracket (washers and tubing). Tested and glued on the side-walls on both the front and back tail cone base plates.
N/A
Spoke to Bill (guy that works for Andrea's family's company) about the stainless steel for the firewall. Should have that delivered to Burns Company in about a week.
Apr 23
1.7hrs
Contined work on tail cone (glued walls of forward section to spine). Confirmed location of trim handle and tack welded it into place.
Apr 27
2.6hrs
Worked on glueing on the rear tail cone plate (took much longer than I had anticipated) and sizing up of the rear instrument panel (again).
Apr 30
2.1hrs
Still re-working the tail cone (build up of ply on bottoms). Glued additional build up on turtledeck spine (to match height of spine on tail cone. Re-measuring and figuring out of the pilot's heel rails and the front partial flooring and heel rails.
May 3
2.9hrs
More work on the tail cone. Routing the bottom of the forward plate and sanding and filing the rear plate. Also lengthened the two double-stringers.
May 4
.8hrs
Drew up and cut out paper patterns of the forward floor and rear heel rails.
May 6
3.1hrs
A few things; made and glued/nailed in glue block in the upper-inside of the forward tail cone to strength the contact of the side-walls-to-spine, test fitted the floor/heel rail patterns and made some adjustments, looking at the fuselage and determining how I want the trim/servo cables to run, took the pattern for the rear pit's instrument panel and seeing what works and what I like.
May 7
3.1hrs
Trim down overhang on top edge of tail cone pieces. Worked on trutledeck stringers... trying to get them to my liking.
May 9
.5hrs
Traced and cut out floor/heel rail patterns on display board (phase 2 of the process).
3.7hrs
Tweak the display board patterns for the flooring and heel rails. Chopped off the starboard side double-stringer on the turtledeck. Figured out the wire run for the trim/servo system. Made a list of things to do...
May 10
2hrs
Chopped off the turtledeck's port side double-stringer. Squared and cleaned up both port and startboard side cuts. Ready for the new stringer material.
May 11
1.8hrs
Decided what I needed to do on the rear sway wire brackets. Cut the tack welds on the port bracket and then cut it down. The starboard side was already welded on. Started to cut the one leg of the bracket off.
May 14
1.6hrs
Cut off leg of starboard rear sway wire bracket. Began welding up the port rear sway wire bracket.
May 16
4.1hrs
Welded on the sway wire brackets. Just need to run a line on each of them on the inside (which I couldn't easily get to right now). Cut six more fairlead tubes... getting ready for the trim/servo system hook-up. Saw that I needed two more for the rudder cables.
May 19
1hr
Ripping down stringer material for the turtledeck. Test fit of one of the double-stringers. Looking good.
May 20
2.8hrs
Tweaked fit of two of the stringers then glued and nailed. Notched and fitted one of the additional heel rail support tubes.
May 23
4.6hrs
Cut, notched and fitted all of the additional tubes for the co-pilot's front floor and the pilot's heel rails. Tack-welded them on.
May 26
1.3hrs
Notched, fitted and glue the two remaining stringers on the turtledeck.
May 28
1.7hrs
Finished welded top sides of the floor and heel rail tubing.
Jun 3
1hr
Looking at the fuselage and making decisions about the build: upper fuel tank, firewall, flooring/heel rails, landing gear, battery tray, shoulder harness mount for pilot.
June 10
2.7hrs
Took the tail feathers off so that I could turn the plane when welding up the additional floor supports and heel rail supports. Finished welding floor and heel rails.
June 11
2.2hrs
Filed and sanded the tops of the front flooring support tubing. Welded on the additional heel rail support tabs. Welded the tack welded trim tab handle bracket.
June 12
1.9hrs
Figuring out and making the plates to connect the stringers to the tail cone.
June 15
2hrs
More work on the turtledeck: removed four of the stringer supports to replace them. Change in double-stringer caused this.
June 16
1.2hrs
Cut, filed and sanded additional stringer supports for the turtledeck. Cut and fitted wood build-ups for nut plates for attaching tail stringer plate to tail cone.