Canard Spar #7

I brought my single piece of 1/16" 45 degree bias Baltic birch aircraft plywood to work today so I could cut it into 4" strips and cut scarf joints on the strips.  These strips will be used for the shear webs on the canard spar.  I figured it would be best to get this out of the way so I don't run out of things to glue this long holiday weekend.

I sized and glued four more vertical supports into the canard spar tonight.  The twist is starting to disappear; I hope that this trend continues.

Number of hours:  1.8
Total hours:  211.6

Canard Spar #6

I had 20 minutes of free time before dinner tonight, so I cleaned the glue off the canard spar.  After dinner, Maverick and I went to the Home Depot for some tape.  He wanted to get a new flashlight so we found that first and then we started our quest for clear packing tape.  You may recall from earlier posts that I like to use packing tape on my work surface because glue won't stick to it; or you may not.  I found the tape but they didn't have a legitimate tape dispenser (they only had the crappy plastic ones that are a rip off and not reusable) so I enquired at the paint counter to find outif they had real tape dispensers.  The person at the counter told me they did not but I could check in the moving department anyway.  Anytime a Home Depot employee tells me that they don't carry an item I am encouraged because they are always wrong!  I went back to the moving department and grabbed a tape gun and a couple of extra rolls of tape and I was on my way.

I checked the level on my workbench because of the twist in one of my spar caps and one corner was slightly off.  I leveled everything and then set to work marking support locations on the spar and workbench.  Then I applied tape to the work surface where I would be gluing supports in the spar.  All of the vertical support members were then fitted in place and checked to a nose rib to make sure that I had the proper length.  Each support member required some trimming on the band saw for optimal length.  I completed the night by gluing the seven vertical support members in place.  I need to figure out my shear web layout so I can machine my scarf joints soon.

Number of hours:  1.7
Total hours:  209.8

Canard Spar #5

Well, tonight was the night.  I glued the forward hinge mounting blocks to the upper and lower spar caps.  This means that I now have a spar and not just two spar caps.  I had to size the blocks down in my planer to get the correct height to match the foam ribs and get the thickness to match the spar caps.  When I was clamping everything together I noticed that one of the spar caps had a slight twist to it.  I believe that this will go away once I glue the plywood shear webs in place.  I just need to make sure that the webs are glued 100% flat.

Number of hours:  1.5
Total hours:  208.1

Canard Spar #4

I marked the location for each vertical member on the upper and lower cap strips and then cut the lower cap strip to its proper length.  I trimmed the lower cap strip so they end at the outboard side of the last vertical ribs.  I am not 100% sure that it was the right decision, but sometimes you have to make a judgement call and let the cards fall where they may.  This will affect the way the wingtip foam is attached; for better or for worse, only time will tell.  The next step was to glue the four 200mm hinge mounting block reinforcement strips to the upper and lower cap strips.

Number of hours:  0.8
Total hours:  206.6

Canard Spar #3

I got out the old block plane and cleaned up the top canard cap strip last night and then glued the third and final lamination in place on the top cap strip.  I got up this morning and cleaned up the previous night's work.  Things were getting a little messy so I vacuumed up the little shavings and chips that had accumulated.  Then I glued the only lamination together for the bottom cap strip.  I cleaned up that assembly tonight when I got home from the Twins game.  I should be able to glue on the two forward hinge attachment reinforcement pieces tomorrow.

Number of hours:  2.2
Total hours:  205.8

Canard Spar #2

I ended up going out for my second solo cross country on Tuesday.  Even though I logged 2.1 hours as p.i.c., I was unable to land at my first destination due to higher than expected winds, heavy turbulence, and being a low time / low skilled pilot I decided to tuck tail and return to my home airport.  The experience did shake me a little but I will get back in the air soon, just not too soon.

My shipment of epoxy and hardware arrived from AS&S today!  That is a good way to start the evening.  I should have gone out and mowed the lawn but I was tired and my allergies were acting up a little so I decided against it.  After dinner and taking care of the kids, I went down and glued the first lamination together of the top spar cap for the canard.  This is a simpler spar as there are only 3 laminations making up the top spar cap and only 2 laminations making up the lower spar cap.

We made it to 5,000 hits on the blog this week.  Not an astounding amount of traffic but pretty cool none the less.

Number of hours:  0.9
Total hours:  203.6

Canard Spar #1

I placed my hardware and T-88 order with Aircraft Spruce this morning.  I promptly received a ship notice for the order this evening.   Way to go AS&S!  Meanwhile I spent the bulk of my night rebuilding the selector valve on my pool filter.

I managed to reward myself with some time to work on the airplane.  I pulled the planer out of the garage and planed the spar caps for the forward wing.  I finished the night by cutting the spar caps to length and cleaning up the workbench a little bit.

Sorry that there's no pictures tonight, a pile of wood just isn't that exciting.  I hope to get some more solo XC time in tomorrow.

Number of hours:  0.7
Total hours:  202.7

Hardware

I spent a lot of time over the past few days doing take offs for hardware since the plans don't call out anything except the diameter of the hardware in only a few cases.  I'm pretty sure that I have it figured out at this point with some exceptions.

Number of hours:  3.5
Total hours:  202.0

Rudders #6

I picked up my laser cut 4130 parts today for the front landing gear and the torque tube brackets.  They tack welded the nose gear fork together; it looks pretty cool IMHO.  I cleaned up the forward face plywood on the second rudder spar tonight, then I cut the holes for the rudder control horns in the forward faces of the rudder spars.  I might have made them a little too big.  Maybe I will end up filling them a little bit later on in the project.  This is one of those details in the plans that is really missing the required information because the control horn needs to pass through both spars and attach to a bungee cord but neither hole is given.

Number of hours:  0.5
Total hours:  198.5

Rudders #5

I cleaned up the excess plywood from the forward face of the rudder spar that I glued together last night.  I glued the forward face to the second rudder spar also.  To finish off my night, I collected the prints together so I can complete some hardware take offs so I can get the hardware along with my next order of T-88 which needs to be placed soon.

I had another solo cross country scheduled for today, but the weather didn't cooperate.

Number of hours:  0.8
Total hours:  198.0

Rudders #4

I glued the forward plywood face to one of the rudder spars tonight and I trimmed the excess plywood from the second winglet spar.

Number of hours:  0.8
Total hours:  197.2

Winglets #6

I glued the rear plywood face to the second winglet spar tonight.  After I got things clamped down, I cleaned up the winglet spar that I glued together last night.  I will start to varnish the inside of these spars once I glue the forward faces to the two rudder spars; this minimizes varnish cleanup.

Number of hours:  0.8
Total hours:  196.4

Winglets #5

I cleaned up the workshop tonight after finishing my daughter's science project.  I hope that it goes well for her tomorrow.   Then I moved on to cutting the 1.5mm plywood faces for the rudder and winglet spars.  I used 1.5mm instead of 1.2mm plywood since Aircraft Spruce doesn't supply it.  I completed the night by gluing the face on one of the winglet spars.  This is one of those things that takes a lot more glue than I expected.  I thought I had mixed enough glue to complete all 4 spar faces but I only got through one!

I am including 2 pictures from my solo cross country.  One is Lake Mille Lacs and the other is the grass strip at Hill City.

Number of hours:  2.0
Total hours:  195.6

No Onyx Progress

Well, between being sick, a trip up North for some 4 wheeler and gun maintenance, being sick again, flying, and now my daughter's science project; there hasn't been much time for making airplane parts.  It looks like we are getting another 4" - 8" of snow today and tonight.  This is some of the strangest weather that I have ever experienced.

I figured that I would make a quick update to let people know that I am still here and will have an actual build post soon and I wanted to let those interested know that I completed my first solo XC on Monday.  It was a beautiful sunny day so I flew from KPNM to KHZX to KGPZ to KBRD to KPNM for a total of 3.6 hours.  Now I need to schedule a day when weather is good to get the rest of the 1.4 required hours.

I have been trying to come up with a name for the airplane when it is done, here are the first three that come to mind:

Miss May
Pou Du Piel
Rollz Canardly

Thanks to all my readers for helping to keep me motivated.  When I see a lot of visits it encourages me to keep things up to date so I don't waste your time.