Wings Overhead

Herb spent Saturday getting his wings unloaded and building some racks to store them. They are now tucked neatly away overhead.

Winging His Way Home

Herb returns home today from Florida, towing his wings behind him. His drawings and parts arrived by FedEx while he was gone.

In the Drawing Room

Herb is still waiting for his new plans and the taildragger kit to arrive. He is shopping for a band saw and a drill press.

Herb's mom and dad are visiting, so he has gotten to show them what he's been doing. He and Pop spent a considerable amount of time studying drawings yesterday. Pop showed Herb how he had fabricated some of the pieces. He showed him how to use the pneumatic squeezers and their dies. He showed him some drilling, riveting, and rivet removal techniques.

Late in the afternoon, UPS showed up with the new rivet squeezer that Herb had ordered. He and Pop are really proud of it.

Lying Awake at Night

By Herb Haught

I woke up at 2:30 this morning thinking about how to execute the modifications on the fuel tanks so that I can fly inverted.

This afternoon I called Van's and talked to them about a new set of plans and parts for converting to a taildragger. I practiced riveting and countersinking and bought a new, flexible air hose and installed it on the air compressor. I also bought a drill bit sharpener.

The parts and the plans will be here in a week.

Cutting and Shimming the Jig

By Herb Haught

Enlarge the picture to see the laser beam on top of each of the fuselage supports

I decided to go ahead and start from scratch on the leveling of the jig. So I removed the fuselage and then cut the legs and shimmed to get level both directions. I also went ahead and glued the jig to the floor with epoxy.



After the epoxy exercise I went back and checked for level again, used three different levels and all agreed. So I went ahead and started positioning the fuselage back on the jig. At this point I have everything back on but only the firewall bulkhead and the instrument panel bulkhead in their final positions.

On the Level

by Herb Haught

From left to right the floor rises two inches. Photo by Nathaniel Haught

I used a laser this evening to see what it will take to level the fuselage jig prior to beginning work. I discovered our garage floor has a slope of 2-inches from the driveway entrance to the back. I verified the laser with the transit; both agree. I also began my list of parts I need to order from Van's. I'm still occupied with plans review to see where Dad left off. It's a pretty daunting task to see what's complete and what's not. Trips back and forth from plans to jig to video and back to verfiy on the jig. Lots of fun.

I'm considering taking the fuselage frame off the jig so that I can modify it and get it level.