Cutaway View

Took this a few days ago. It's in a few more pieces now.

DJ

Ready to come apart

Well, I got everything clecoed together using all of my clecos and drilled everything that needed drilled. Now it all has to come apart.

Since the pictures were taken, I have taken the forward bottom skin off and prepared it for riveting.
I've got a bunch of deburing, dimpling, and countersinking ahead of me.

DJ

Rudder Pedals

I got the rudder pedals trial fit. Well, almost, still have to put in the center brace.

DJ

Slowly Making Progress

Well, I haven't made a lot of visible progress since my last post back in April, but I've had a really busy summer and have just recently gotten back to work on my airplane.

You can see I have added the firewall.

And most of the structure under the main longeron.

DJ

Making Progress

With my school almost done, I am making progress at a faster rate.

I have joined the center section with the tailcone.

Here I am rolling the conical bend in the side skin.

And the side skins are on!

Looking from front to back.

 

Just a few more pictures of the fuselage.

 

Here is a picture showing the conical bend.

DJ

Back to Work

Well, we finally got the longerons cut, curved, bent, notched, and twisted. I also did a few things on the center section and the tailcone to prepare them to be attached to one another.

Bending the longerons was basically whacking the longeron with a four-pound mallet. Then you would compare it to the template then whack it some more. Kind of a tedious process. 

This is how I cut the longerons. I clamped a piece of scrap on the longeron to use as a guide for the hacksaw. I didn't want to use any power tools on this.

Here I was drilling the canopy deck to the longeron.

 

 

This how we applied the sharp downward bend and twist.

The complete longerons.

 

The next order of business will be (temporarily) attaching the tailcone to the fuselage and working on the forward fuselage. 

DJ

More Center Section Work.

Well, kind of. Dad and I got the bottom skin riveted onto the center section.  It's about time to bend the longerons, something I've put off until now. After that is done I will fit it to the tailcone.

For those of you who are not aircraft builders, this is where you will sit. It is also where the wings attach.

Making Progress

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, but I've been working on the project a bit. we finished riveting the bottom and side skins on the tailcone.

 And I started on the center
 section.

Pictures

We got the part for our computer so we now have internet on both computers.

Here are some of the bulkheads.


I had quite the time trying to get these pieces to fit. The bottom skin was not properly bent from the factory so we used the same method on it as we did to bend the leading edge of the rudder. However, since it is over twice as thick, we were going to break the broomstick so we use a big metal pipe and a pipe wrench.


All drilled. Now I get to take it apart and debur everything.


DJ

Update

It's been a long time since my last post. I finished the bulkheads and am working on the tailcone now. We just got back from the Badlands Fly-in. We had a great time there. I'll get some pics up after we get a part for our other computer. Oh, we are now on fiber optic internet! 6 mbps download and .5 mbps upload. Way faster than satellite. Although the new system is responsible for frying the Ethernet port on the other computer which is the reason I'm not posting pictures. I'm hoping the bugs are fixed. I hope to have pictures up on Wednesday.

DJ

Bulkhead Work

I've been getting a chance to work on my project again. I have finished the F-705 Bulkhead as well as the next two back. (more specifically F-706 and F-707.)

F-705

















F-706.


Well, I better get back to work.

DJ

Spectator

Work on the airplane has slowed down with more ranch work going on, but I have been trying to get a little done. The F-705 bulkhead is just about ready to rivet.

I have trouble with spectators. All they do is stand around watching. Five-year-olds are even worse. Not only do they not understand basic commands, (such as, "Hand me the cleko pliers") but they also get nose prints all over the place.

See picture.
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Life is good.

DJ

Update

I've finished work on the F-704 bulkhead (for now) and have deburred the parts for the F-705 bulkhead. I'm probably not going to progress very fast now that we are getting busy with ranch work.

DJ

Firewall Finished

Yesterday I finished the firewall. I was able to back-rivet all but eight rivets. It turned out really nice. The rivets called for in the plans are too short though.

Here is a picture of the forward side of the firewall.


And the aft side.


Here is what I used for a back-riveting bar. I just had to make sure to keep it under the rivets.


Back-riveting gives really nice results.


A close up of a rivet.


I get to start on the center section next.


DJ

Working on the Firewall

Well, I got my hardware organized.


After that job was done, I started on the firewall. You have to fabricate several parts such as these angles.


The firewall assembled with clecos.



After I drilled everything out I took it apart so I could debur it. That is tomorrows job. Once I finish the firewall I'll post some more pictures.

DJ

Wings Finished!

The other day, Dad and I finished sealing the right tank. We then moved the wings upstairs. I straightened up my workroom and then we washed the floor. After that was done, I moved the fuselage box in.

Picture of my workshop.


I have quite a job to do. I need to organize all this.


The fuselage box.



DJ

Almost Finsished with the Wings!

I got back to working on the wings. I didn't post any updates because the process was basically the same for the left wing as it was the right. Here are some pictures of how we riveted the last skin on the left wing. We clecoed the skin to a piece of PVC pipe then ran a rope from the PVC pipe to the ceiling.



As of now, Everything is finished except for the wingtips (I am going to wait to install them) and the finishing the right tank. Yesterday Dad and I sealed the left tank. We got the float bent and tested the sender. We also had to bend the pickup tube so it would be at the bottom of the tank. I stuck the camera in the tank with the self-timer on to check the position of the pickup line.

We then installed needed items and got everything sealed.
It won't be long until I am working on the fuselage!

DJ

Bad Lands Fly-in.

On the 9th of September we loaded the Bearhawk up and headed to the Badlands fly-in in Hot Springs SD. This is the second time we went. We had a lot of fun last year and this year wasn't any different.

I got a couple of pictures of Mt. Rushmore on the way down.


When we arrived, there were already quite a few airplanes on the ramp.


Shortly afterwards, several more showed up and put on a bit of a show for us.


3 RV-10's and an RV-7A.


An RV-10.


Russ Dent's RV-9A.


Another RV-10


RV-4


RV-12


RV-9A


RV-8


RV-7A (I think)


A bunch of RVs. Jay Pratt's RV-8 (Borrowed Horse) on the far right.


Bruce Bluhm and Dean Sombke's nice RV-10.


We also went to a mammoth dig site. It was once a sinkhole that mammoths fell into and couldn't get out. Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words...




All and all, We had a great time looking at airplanes and talking to the builders.

DJ