Blog

I spent some time last night printing the templates that Allan Glen used for his pitot tube installation. Luckily my 3D printer was spot on on the first go and it only took me 40 minutes to print both of these parts. I’ll drill the pitot tube soon but I wanted to focus on the ailerons as much as possible after this.

I got all of the skins prepped (taped off and cleaned) and then I primed them. I guess I’ve not been cleaning the gun very well because it was very slow to dispense paint. I found the filter inside the cup was loaded with old paint which I guess did not get cleaned out in my usual method of putting lacquer thinner and spraying that through the gun. I’ll do a better job going forward but at least it got the job done still.

I then spent the rest of the evening riveting on the stiffeners and ribs. I made one mistake an accidentally put the A portion of the ribs in the B ribs spot. I drilled that out (which luckily I hadn’t put the B ribs in on the other skin yet) and reset the ribs in the right spot.

This is my second post of the day since I worked on two sections today. I disassembled the ailerons so that I could start the dimpling process. I deburred the holes I drilled in the counter balances which took a bit more effort since it was stainless steel. I got all of the skins deburred. I am 99% sure I got the skins in the right orientation but I tell you sometimes when I feel sure in the moment, down the road I discover I did it incorrectly. I really sat and thought this one through so I feel I’ve got it correct.

Oh, and my Grove brake kit arrived! I’ve got all of my wheels and brakes for when I get the airplane on its own legs.

I had some time before my flight this morning so I decided to be productive and get those holes drilled. I put the skin back on and drilled all of the holes. Next is to take the skin and ribs off and start prepping them for final assembly.

I am about to be out for a week and I wanted to get somethings prepped before I forgot them. I forgot to do some dimpling on the ribs so I did that and I got the counter balances drilled and mounted. Off to Florida for some cybersecurity training!

I got the aileron leading edges put together and drilled the counterbalance in its place. This included finalizing all of the deburring on the spar, straightening all of the flanges on the ribs that I hadn’t finished, drilling where needed, deburring those holes, and then priming and riveting the rib assemblies together. I will need to remove the skin and finish the drilling the counterbalances so they are secured to the leading edge. It was a long day but good to get this work done.

I got all of the stiffeners marked and final size cut today. Yesterday I had only separated them into the individual stiffeners with the rough cut. I deburred all of the parts today as well. That was the majority of the time. I also spent some time getting the pitot tube test fit into the pitot mast that I ordered from Aircraft Spruce. It is a bit snug so I am having to grind down both the mast and the pitot a tiny bit to make it fit. Luckily it is ground down properly now and I just need to drill the holes in the mast to match the pitot tube. I’m 3d printing a template from Allan Glen’s page and I’ll see if that matches up tomorrow.

I spent most of my time yesterday and today either working or doing graduation activities for my oldest. I watched the Van’s fuel tank video again. And that thing is not short. It is 2 hours and 40 minutes long. But it is loaded with good information. I almost wish I had seen this when I started building as it would have helped me alot at the beginning. Either way, I also got new shop stools so my rear won’t hurt so much sitting on those hard, old stools LOL. I at least got all of the parts collected for the ailerons and got the parts cut and separated. I didn’t have it pictured here but I got the pile of skin stiffeners cut too.