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.

Rudders #3

I glued the second rudder spar together tonight.  I am trying not to push myself too hard as I am still fighting a little bit of a cold.  I still try to do a small little project each day though.

I probably won't fly tomorrow as the weather looks pretty horrible.

Number of hours:  0.3
Total hours:  193.6

Rudders #2

I glued one of the rudder spars together today.  The nose gear spring came back from the blacksmith yesterday.  I still need to drill the two holes and grind the chamfers on one the front end.

On Wednesday I did get a chance to fly my dual cross country.  We flew from Princeton, to Hutchinson, to Milbank, and back.  I was hoping to do my 3 take offs and landings at a towered airport on Friday, but we got 15" of snow Thursday night and the airport didn't get plowed out on Friday.  Monday's weather isn't looking to nice but I still might be able to slide in my solo cross country or my towered airport operations.

Number of hours:  0.5
Total hours:  193.3

Winglets #4 / Rudders #1

Yesterday I removed the extra glue from the first winglet spar using my plane and then glued the second winglet spar together.  I cleaned up the second winglet spar tonight and then cut all of the pieces for the two rudder spars.  Then I glued the hinge reinforcements onto two of the rudder spar verticals.  I figured that I don't show enough pictures of completed parts so I included a picture of the two winglet spars as they sit, waiting for their plywood facing.

My order from AS&S containing my nut plates and my canard spar cap strips arrived today!  The only problem is that my truck is still in the shop, after a week and a half, for a head gasket replacement so I can't bring the 13+ foot container home from work.

Wanda, Xerxes, and Yogi are keeping us in really nasty weather here in Minnesota so my 1st dual cross country was cancelled yesterday.  I hope that the weather is good enough tomorrow, Friday, and Monday to keep my scheduled appointments but it doesn't look too promising.

Number of hours:  1.2
Total hours:  192.8