Starting Main Landing Gear

On Sunday I finished riveting the port side fuselage skin, so now the fuselage is finally a structure that can carry some load. My next goal is to get the fuselage on wheels, so I started looking into the work required for the main landing gear assembly. The main...

Fuselage Showcase

I have friends over today for a summer BBQ so I decided to set up the plane for a little showcase. Some of the interior bits are installed, and I hastily attached the nose wheel (temporarily of course). I’m quite pleased with how the interior is looking, and very...

Instrument Panel Update 1

My current favorite layout of the instrument panel is what I call ‘Variant 1B’. I settled on using a GTN 650xi as my IFR navigator, per my recent post comparing it with the GNX 375. This panel is the result of feedback that I solicited from two Facebook groups,...

Garmin GTN 650xi vs GNX 375

The avionics are one of the more costly parts of a kit airplane build. It is easy to spec out an equipment list that totals more than the cost of the airplane itself. One costly option I discovered is deciding to equip your plane for IFR flight. For a...

Prepping Second Side Skin

Over the weekend I started preparing the port-side outer fuselage skin for installation. There are a few steps to do before installing it: Lightly abrade the skin near rivet locations (for better paint adhesion under the countersunk rivet head) Dimple the forward rivet locations Attach NACA duct Roll edges...

Interior Skin Fit

On Monday I began the installation of the skins on the port side of the the fuselage. Like on the starboard side, I started with the interior skins. I found that the holes along the bottom of the skin were drilled differently than the starboard side, and supporting installing...

Garmin Goods

I purchased a few G3X components from Sling-focused supplier Midwest Panel Builders. Garmin ran a rebate promotion through the summer that I decided to take advantage of. I purchased two screens, a 10.6” GDU 460 and a 7” GDU 470, as well as a GEA 24 engine analyzer. These...

Nose Gear Work

Today I worked on the nose gear a bit as well as continuing to rivet on the fuselage side skin. A recent Kitplanes article recommended using JB Weld with rivnuts, so I did exactly that for the towbar brackets that attach to the nose gear fork. In addition, I...

Countersunk Rivet Notes

I’ve learned a few things as I tried to install countersunk rivets on my fuselage, which I’m capturing in this post. In summary, the rivets I originally started using (POP AK41H and AK51H) are not suitable for use on the fuselage, but I found an alternative part that’s readily...

Nose Wheel Valve Stem

For my first task after coming back from a week of vacation up at Lake Winnipesauke, I had to fix a problem with my nose wheel. Thanks to a tip from fellow Sling builder Rod, I found out I had not assembled the valve stem correctly. A visit to...