Elevator skin alignment
One of my fellow builders (Thanks Pascal!) recommended temporarily attaching the elevator to the HS to make sure the “horns” (end part of the elevator) line up perfectly with the HS skins before nailing the elevator skins down. The correct hardware to attach these two parts is AN4 bolts,...
Skinned the Elevator
I’m continuing with closing out empennage tasks; like the rudder skin issue I described last week, I also had a problem with one of the elevator skins from the original kit I bought. The skin was missing a row of pre-drilled holes for a stiffening channel, and I couldn’t...
Skinned the Rudder
After a long period of working on the fuel tank, I’m at a step where it needs to be attached to the wing. Unfortunately it’s ridiculously cold in NH right now, which makes working in the garage unpleasant. So, I decided to take a break from the wing and...
Misc Fuel tank tasks
I spent Sunday and Monday prepping a few miscellaneous parts: fuel tank cap, fuel drain, and brackets that attach the tank the the main wing spar. My kit was missing one of the brackets, but Jean D sent me replacements a few weeks ago. Here’s the replacement part with...
Fuel tank ribs sealed
The five ribs that make up the fuel tank are now installed and sealed for the left tank. Very messy, stinky work! By far, my least-favorite part of this build so far. And there’s still more to do on this tank. And I still have a whole other tank...
Slowly building the fuel tank
I guess I’ve been distracted a lot lately, as I’m making very slow progress on this fuel tank! I think it’s partially because I’m afraid to work with the sealant, which is messy and has a 2 hour working time once mixed. I’ve also been doing a lot of...
Fuel tank breather lines
Today’s task was to create the breather lines for the fuel tank. I’ve had the tubing and some of the tools for a while, but I needed a smaller tubing bender, which I just recently received. Here’s what I used: 6061T6 TUBE 1/4″ X .049 4FT from Aircraft Spruce...
Sealing Day #1
The instructions say to attach and seal all the various fittings to rib 101 before sealing up the main tank, so I did that today. I mixed up a very small batch of sealant, enough to put into a syringe for dispensing. I used a digital scale accurate to...
Readying to Seal Fuel Tank
I am getting ready to start sealing up the fuel tank. There are a number of fittings that get attached to the skin and ribs, and all these fittings need to be sealed. For the fuel level sender, which is attached to rib 101 via an access cover, I...
Closing up VS Skins
I attached the VOR antenna using 20mm length M4 screws with nyloc nuts and then began closing up the skin. Unfortunately the antenna is inaccessible once the skin is riveted on, so for now I think I’m leaving one side open just in case – will just use a...