My weekday progress is on a tight “before work” schedule. Today I started working on the contols in the cockpit.
Flight controls
24 L Angles and 384 holes
Not a bad morning.
A buncha L angles
Measured and cut a bunch of L angles for the skins on both wings.
I’ve seen a lot of soltions including tools you can buy to draw enterlines 10mm from the edge of something. Mine is slightly cheaper since it’s made of a scap and took about 30 seconds to make…
And I’m putting the cart before the horse here, but I wanted to get motivated so I started thinking about what the cockpit layout will be.
Wing Nose Skin
Don’t have time? Find time. Between 6am and 8:30am today I pulled the nose skin on the second wing over and started work on all of the skin angles. Chip away a little at a time.
Aaannnd flip
Today was a short day, 5:30 am until about 8am as I do have a day job 🙂
Greig helped me flip the wing back over so I can start on the leading edge.
And I put a YouTube video up that I actually recorded about a week ago.
Bottom skin day
Debur, primer, rivet. Repeat.
680 holes
This morning’s progress beginning at 6am was 340 holes on the bottom skin and main spar each drilled twice to final size. I think I can skip my shoulder workout today. In case you were wondering, a Bosch drill can easily drill 680 holes on 1 and a half batteries.
Pilot side bottom wing skin
Going MUCH faster than the other side. I need to remember to make room for the pitot tube and fuel plumming 🙂
Great progress this weekend
Got the wing ribs and both spars riveted. Wing is now flipped over and already working on the bottom skins!
Got up at 5am and worked at the airport until about 10 both Saturday and Sunday. Feeling great about progress now.
How long will it take?
I was just sitting with my airplane plans to come up with a list of what I’ll work on the next 10-20 hours. It started to feel like it’ll never get done, despite the fact that it really is starting to look like an airplane at this point. It’s a multi-year project that can sometimes feel both exhilarating and overwhelming in the same breath.
I was reminded of an article in the June edition of Kitplanes magazine which put me back on track mentally. The quote I copied down from the article titled “How long will it take to build?” was:
Two people leave Philly and drive to Seattle (this is neither a joke nor a math problem). One travels the interstates and grabs a premade sandwich at each gas stop. The other travels state highways to see the sights and partake in one-of-a-kind restaurants to taste the flavors of the country. They both arrive in Seattle, but they each had a vastly different experience. That’s how it is with homebuilding. It’s the destination and the journey.
If your sole focus is the destination, even 100 hours spent building will be too many. You may want to consider a nice flying example of the homebuilt you want, even avoiding the temptation to buy a partially completed project to save time, as they are often more work than starting from new. If you are interested in the journey, the question “How long?” holds less sway. If you are interested in both the journey and the destination, find the design that suits the kind of flying you want to do and pack your bags— you’re in for an adventure.
Happy Thursday