Sunday 29 April 2012

Fuselage dolly

Finally finished the fuselage dolly.

It took me a bit longer than planned as I wasn't feeling the best after suffering from another cold.

All done now and fits good.

I don't think the paint stand will work for the rear of the fuselage - it's too high - so I may have to build something for that. It will be pretty straight forward - just a mini saw horse type thing with maybe carpet or foam on top.

Hope to get this sorted soon and actually make some progress with the kit! It's been a while.

I'm thinking that one of the first jobs will be modifying the safety cell - so I have to determine by how much. While I'm thinking about it this will mean a lot of sitting in the cockpit and making plane noises...

Dolly partly made

All done - fits good

Wednesday 18 April 2012

The great swap

Well not much has happened since I last posted.

I had my brother staying with me so didn't get much done (other than building the wing stand).

Also Pete stalled a bit on getting back to me about the wing swap and in the end told me he no longer has the room for storage.

So I ended up having to find a new place for the wings. Luckily my friend has space is his garage so the wings are there now.

The fuselage is in the garage okay but everything is a bit of mess at the moment - so I need to tidy up before starting any jobs.

First job after tidying up will most likely be to build a dolly for the front of the fuselage. I plan to put the rear on one of the paint stands and see how that goes. I may have to build a dolly for the rear fuselage - but for the moment we'll see how we get on without one.

Hope to build the front dolly this weekend.

Fuselage finally in the garage

What a mess

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Week 33 - Wing stand

Finally got the wing stand finished - it took three times as long and cost twice as much as expected. This rule seems to hold true when building a plane (or boat).


Also thought I would put a couple of pics in of the plywood washers that I made for the bell crank. Pete turns a single piece out of Nylon block. I don't have a lathe (or those skills) so I made 2 separate pieces of plywood. All very snug and no movement in the bell cranks now.


I'll hopefully get to swap over the wings and fuselage during this Easter weekend.


Small washer in bearing

Then larger washer on top

Port wing - up to speed

Insulating foam in wing stands before cutting out

Wing stand in progress - one end nearly done

All done - now to see if the wings fit!

Wings fit very snug - no movement