Category: Fuselage

The canopy installation took about 5 hours to complete, and it was a bit messy. I had flashbacks to building the fuel tanks, with sticky black goop (Sikaflex 295UV) going everywhere, and harsh chemicals (acetone) needed to clean up. I may have applied too much Sikaflex, because it was...

Before I attach the canopy for good, I wanted to see how much extra headroom I could squeeze out. I was thinking I could raise up the front edge of the canopy a little bit, as long as there was enough excess material on the windscreen – luckily, the...

Between work travel, vacation, and family visits, it’s been a few weeks since I was able to put in some time on the plane. One of my recent trips was to Oshkosh, but I missed the arrival of the new Sling High Wing; I’ll have to find an excuse...

With the headliner install complete, it’s finally time to attach the canopy! While checking for fit, I had to sand down the port side rear edge of the canopy a bit, but otherwise the composite lined up well with the metal skins. I match drilled all the holes, installed...

Switching back to the fuselage for a bit; I’m ready to install the canopy, but before I do that, I need to install the interior side skins. My interior side skins didn’t come pre-drilled with holes for the rear-seat vents. Although I’ve heard they don’t work great, I still...

It’s a task I’ve put off for a long time, but I finally have a headliner attached to the canopy. I’m super pleased with the results. Although it wasn’t particularly difficult, it was manually-intensive, detailed work and took me most of the day Sunday to complete. First, I had...

Quite some time ago I decided to put in a headliner on the canopy, mostly for aesthetic reasons. The material I chose is a foam-backed suede material from Automotive Interiors and Accessories, Inc. This was one of the only vendors I could find that made any statement about flammability;...

Last week I finished the electronics design for the overhead console and sent off the PCB design for manufacture. I’ve already received the parts to stuff the boards, but the boards themselves will take another week. In the meantime, I decided to set up the canopy in my lab...

I’ve completed the preliminary design of my automatic heater system. I’ve been concentrating on this for the last few weeks, which is why I haven’t posted much progress on the plane itself. This system recovers the heat from the engine’s cylinder head water cooling loop, forces air over a...

Today I unpacked the composite canopy from the shipping crate that’s been sitting in the corner of my garage since the Spring. It took a good hour just to remove all of the protective bubble wrap, shrink wrap, and packing tape for transit. With some help, I placed the...