I dunno if you can see this, but I now have the entries for the log on the left and the archive/nav on the right instead of at the bottom of the page. I’m not a big fan of all this web stuff, but it’s a necessary evil. But enough about that. Builiding is going to take a 1-week hiatus while we go back to Michigan and visit family and friends. I have no right to snivel either.. I could have been building all summer long.. But the beach was nice! Anyway, this will pick up in a week or so, and hopefully I’ll be motivated enough to take some pics.
« Archives in September, 2006
Right Elevator, stiffeners and skeleton
4 hours.
Got the stiffeners riveted on to the elevator skin, then went to work on the spar. Deburred the spar and ribs, drilled reinforcement plates. Cut down/ground down the counterweight to fit, per plans, then clecoed in the counterweight skin.. Drilled the skin, countersunk the counterweight. Looks like we get to have another paint day pretty soon. But once this is done, only an elevator and a trim tab stand between me and the end of phase 1 of the kit.
need to check the sequence for what to do next, but I think it’s assembling the skeleton, then drilling the skin.
I’m legal again.
Did my BFR at Proteus yesterday. Dang, am I rusty. N400JW is a Piper Archer with a threadbare crushed-velour interior and a fading paint job that I have been flying, off and on, since 1998. It fits like a comfortable old sweater or a favorite pair of jeans. But it took me two tries to hack a basic 45 degree 360. This is what I get for not flying in over a year. But the instructor signed me off, which he did after the skillz came back. I’m a good pilot, but I need a hell of a lot more practice before I feel as safe as I did when I was flying all the time. But renting that ship for an hour a week for a year is about what one of the major kit parts of the RV costs. Slow build. So I’m in a quandary.. I don’t like being this out of practice.. it’s not safe. But I need to get on a regular skills maintenance program of some sort.. And I need to sort out tailwheel/aerobatic training somehow.
Stiffeners. Again.
3 hours.
Deburred, primed stiffeners, deburred skin edges, primed inside where stiffeners go.
I hate paint days. Paint sucks. I’m constantly struggling with the question of whether or not to prime something, because the process is a space and time-consuming one. A wife gardening and a dog running around outside really don’t go well with paint fumes and overspray. But that part’s done, now I have to do the spars and ribs. I really need to be done with the empennage soon, because the long, dark winter of Saving for the Kit is approaching. It’s not really worth posting pictures, because this step was kind of lame and should have happened a long time ago. I’ll put some up when it’s time to do the trim tab, because that should prove as challenging as any game of tetris.