Anti-tab #3

I glued the second anti-tab rib in place tonight.  You can see my hillbilly clamping setup in the picture.

Number of hours: 0.2
Total hours: 250.0

Anti-tab #2

I started tonight by marking the anti-tab rib locations and cutting the ribs for clearance of the trailing edge.  Then I cut two 24" pieces of piano hinges into nice 4 inch sections.  I played around and rivited a nut plate to one of the 6061 drag spar fittings.  I finished the night by gluing one of the end ribs onto the anti-tab lower skin.

Number of hours: 1.0
Total hours: 249.8

Wing Attach Fitting Warning

I drew up the wing attach fittings today per the plans to see if everything lined up correctly.  I was unable to get the geometry to match so now I am working on refining the brackets so they fit.  At least I didn't have the wings built before figuring this out.  I really wanted to make all of the wing attach fittings out of 4130, but the thickness of the aluminum is required for things to fit somewhat close; therefore I will be making everything out of 2024-T3.  I may leave the wing attach fittings that mount on F-2 alone as I already had them made out of 6061-T6 and they seem plenty beefy.  I am consider having them produced in 2024-T3 only because the birch plywood thickness on F-2 is thinner than the okume plywood thickness that was used in the original design.

Here's a picture of the original geometry

The 40mm on the left is really 39mm

We shall see how I get this one resolved.

Anti-tab #1

Sometimes I struggle with what I should or should not put in these posts.  I spent part of my time this evening trying to get the control horn for the anti-tab worked out; I ended up scrapping that piece.  I did order the aluminum from AS&S today so I will remake all of the structural fittings that have already been made.  I decided that the main wing spar fittings should be made from 4130 so I ordered that too.  I feel more comfortable with a bent piece of 4130 as part of a critical structure than a bent piece of aluminum.  I also believe that the wing attach bolts are less likely to oval out the holes in 4130 than in 2024-T3.

I cleaned up the excess glue on the anti-tab and called it a night.

Number of hours: 0.6
Total hours: 248.8

Tab Facing Spar #5

I put the second and third coats of varnish on the tab facing spar tonight then I glued the anti-tab trailing edge to the lower surface plywood.  I put some more thought and research into the structural fittings for the plane.  They are specified as 6061-T6 on the plans but 2024-T3 is the equivalent to the material on the original design.  I will be remaking all of these parts now.  I would have done this the first time if I had known that the extrusions were available.

Number of hours: 1.5
Total hours: 248.2

Tab Facing Spar #4

I cut a hole in the tab facing spar for a control horn passageway and then I put a coat of varnish on the inside of the tab facing spar.  I tried to even out the suface on one of the lengths of trailing edge that I cut a couple of months ago and then I cut a piece of plywood for the anti-tab lower surface.  I think it is a little odd that the upper and lower surface of the anti-tab are 0.8mm plywood but the upper and lower surfaces of the canard are 1.2mm plywood (I will be using 1.5mm because 1.2mm is unavailable).

Number of hours: 0.7
Total hours: 246.7

Tab Facing Spar #3

Sorry, no pictures for this post.  I just spent a little bit of time cleaning the excess glue and plywood from the tab facing spar and I looked at how the two anti-tab spars will need to be beveled to match the airfoil.

Number of hours: 0.5
Total hours: 246.0

Tab Facing Spar #2

I've probably botched the name of this spar a couple of times but I will try to be more consistent.  I got home and cleared out the driveway right after work.  Thankfully, my wife made a late dinner so I could work at that nonstop.  I decided to glue the web to the tab facing spar.

Number of hours: 0.3
Total hours: 245.5

The View Out My Office Window Today

This is a picture out my office window. It looks like I will spend most of my evening removing snow from my driveway so I don't know if I'll get to gluing up the web on the tab facing spar tonight.

Futsing Around

Well, here we are in December and almost to the end of another hunting season so it is time to get back to some aviation related activities.  I still haven't completed my flight training but I am hoping for nice weather next Monday.  With Christmas around the corner I had to remove my fuselage from the living room.  This required a reorganization of the workshop, materials, components, and workbench.  If you remember, I left off working on sheeting the D cell for the leading edge of the canard.  I was frustrated because it wasn't working out and I had to remove my first attempted section.  I knew that I needed to get back down there and just fiddle around a bit and tonight was the night that I finally worked up the gumption to do it.  I forgot how powerful it is to just be in the same room as your project.  I spent a lot of time just admiring what I had accomplished so far.  This led to some cleanup of excess glue here and there, then some organization, then marking the piano hinges to be cut another day, and ended by cutting and marking a new plywood aft web for the spar facing tab on the canard.  I intend to glue it together tomorrow night.  I needed to ease back into building with a non-threatening project like this and I'm not sure that it's the best time to skin a wing with our low humidity.

Number of hours: 1.0
Total hours: 245.2