Failing Forward

Today's title is supposed to be a little bit of dry humor because I was being too hard on myself the other day for making some mistakes.  I lost sight of the big picture that this is supposed to be fun and relaxing.  If a mistake happens, build the thing again and move on, just enjoy the process!

Tonight I got home and went right to work after dinner.  I went out to the garage and pulled the came phaser solenoid out of the truck to check if it was clogged because it has developed a misfire.  Unfortunately this was not the case so it looks like it will be going back to the shop again.   I spent some time discussing the issue with my mechanic, put my tools away, grabbed some more tools, and went inside to replace the hose connecting the valve to the refrigerator.   I found out that the hose was not replaceable and that the valve was pressed onto the end of the copper pipe.  So off to Home Depot I went.  Of course you can't go to The Home Depot and get only the thing you went for in the first place.  Not wanting to break tradition, I picked up two packages of staples and some pop too.  I got home and finished the project.  I am going to lay awake tonight wondering if the fittings are leaking or not just because I'm neurotic like that.

I figured after all of that adventure in one night that I deserved to reward myself with some plane building activities.  I went down to my office and set to work putting the second coat of spar varnish on the parts that I had coated last night.  Then I cut the blank out of 1/4" plywood so I can machine the seat bottom at work tomorrow.  The pictures probably look real similar to last night's pictures but I assure you that they are different.

Number of hours:  0.6
Total hours:  166.1

Something Simple

I needed to get a win going on my project to help keep me motivated, so I decided to do something simple tonight.  I varnished the bottom of the 1/4" plywood floor board and I varnished the fuselage interior floor from the front of where the floor board will start all the way to the back of the seat bottom.  The pictures might not show this very well.  It felt good to accomplish something simple that didn't take a lot of brainpower to do.

Number of hours:  0.8
Total hours:  165.5

Starting Over

I test fit the tank and tank shelf tonight and the fact of the matter is that I have made too many mistakes to salvage it so I am going to do some more research and trials to see if I can come up with a good solution.  Anything worth doing, is worth doing over I guess.  Things like this make me question my abilities, maybe I just am not able to build something like this with the level of quality that is required.

Gas Tank Shelf

I played around a little more today on my breaks and put together a solid model for the canopy.  When I got home tonight I cut out the gas tank shelf and dry fit it until it had a good fit.  Of course I cut too much off the back side because I thought that it was interfering with F2 and not letting the shelf sit down flat on the rails that I glued in yesterday.  Now I need to come up with a different method to secure the tank on the back side.  I think that I will be able to glue a crossmember in between the diagonals of F2 that will sit on top of the rear mounting tabs.  I think that the stress in this area would be a forward and upward force in the case of a sudden stop because the tank will want to rotate about the front mounting bolts and tabs.  Maybe I will bolt a crossmember to the rear tabs, time will tell.  I glued 3 crossmembers on the bottom of the shelf to finish off my evening.  The picture with the bucket is my apparatus for bending the fuselage floor.  It will probably take a few more weeks before it is the shape that I need.

Number of hours:  3.4
Total hours:  164.7

Fuselage Bottom Shaping

I started my day by pulling staples from the bottom of the fuselage.  After that wonderful task, I rough cut the bottom and then used a block plane and sandpaper to finish the contours.  The next thing I worked on was a way to mount the gas tank.  I tried many iterations without finding a solution that I liked and when I found a solution that I liked either the sump would interfere with the landing gear, the tank mounting tabs would interference with F2, or the seat belt would interfere with the mounting blocks.  I decided to mount the tank so it's top is level with the top of the rear upper longeron at F2 as I believe that this will be the best compromise with the geometry that is available.  After all this fiddling around, I glued a rail on each side above the main landing gear reinforcement.   I finished off my day by estimating the lines that I will be using for the canopy with some scrap wire that I had sitting around.  I hope that the wires show up well enough in the pictures.

I did have a discouraging epiphany today, I won't be able to glue the masts on while the plane is in the basement workshop.  This means that I will have to leave the sides off too until I can glue the masts in place in the garage.  Not the end of the world but it does put a slight kink in my plans.  I forgot to take a picture of my method for forming the fuselage floor, I will try to remember over the next few days.

Number of hours:  6.2
Total hours:  161.3

Fuselage Bottom Attachment

I spent some time this morning cleaning up some glue drips.  Then I drilled the hole for the attachment of the front gear spring to F1.  It's best to drill this hole when F1 is not in the fuselage if you can do it.  Actually all of the bulkheads' holes should be drilled before they are attached to the fuselage so the holes can be made with a drill press.  Lesson learned I guess.  After I drilled the hole I started to prep the fuselage bottom for attachment to the fuselage.  I glued on the plywood bottom tonight and stapled it in place.  This took a little over two hours, a big batch of epoxy, two small batches of epoxy, and about 4 groups of staples.

Number of hours:  3.5
Total hours:  155.1

Fuselage Bottom Scarf Joint #2

I removed the clamps from the first scarf joint tonight and then glued and clamped the second scarf joint.  I picked up the tank tonight and set it in the fuselage to check for location.  It looks like it will be a pretty good fit.  The fuselage is upside down in the photo and the sump is toward the back at F2.

Number of hours:  0.5
Total hours:  151.6