More CAD work. Group misc drawings together so that Glenn could print out for me.
Nov 8
4.8hrs
Welded up the bottom cluster at Station 168 (tail post), made a pattern for the straps that wrap around the tail post and cap both the Upper and Lower Longerons. Traced and cut from .o63 4130. Tacked and welded strap to the Upper Longerons. Still need to tack and weld additional strap to Lower Longerons.
Nov 9
(2hrs)
While at Whitey's I looked at the tabs he had on his Fored powered "Bellanca" 14-19 and looked over Walt's Kelly D's tabs.
Nov 10
1.3hrs
CAD work during lunch. Drew up the Drag Wire Lugs, Sec 7 drawing, Tail Brace Wire Tabs and Stab Wire Attachment.
2.8hrs
Fitted up the strap to the lower longerons, tacked then finish welded. Two of the front tubes coming off the bungee truss to Station 0.o had a little bit wider gap between the one side and the bungee truss than I was happy with. Cut the tacks, shaved down the one side on each tube until I was happy with the fit then tacked back on. Cleaned up and painted the two strap areas on the tail post.
Nov 12
1.5hrs
Additional CAD drawings; Spar Butt and Rear Spar Flying Wire Fittings, Walking Beam and Reverser.
1.4hrs
Welded up an additional cluster. After welding up there was a lot of excess weld. Ground down and will weld through ground down part tomorrow. Pretty much ran out of the A in O/A.
.7hr
Studied plans for passenger and pilot seats. Studied images on biplane forum to make
sure I'm seeing the drawings right.
Nov 13
2.3hrs
Cleaned up yesterday's cluster. Welded up one of the massive clusters for the bungee truss. What a job !
Nov 15
(2hrs)
Second Tech Inspection by Whitey. Said that all my welds looked good !
1.5hrs
Started welding up the second and last bungee truss cluster.
Nov 16
1.7hrs
Finshed the cluster I started yesterday and started welding up the last cluster on the fuselage. I'll finish it up tomorrow and
maybe... just maybe start on the seats.
Nov 17
2.5hrs
Finished up welding the fuselage ! Well... that doesn't count the seats and the landing gear.
Nov 19
3hrs (.5hrs)
Drew up and made the jig for the seats. Cut the (4) short ends. Still need to cut the (4) longer sides, then tack together.
Nov 20
2.7hrs
Cut the four 16 3/4" tubes for the seats. Fitted all eight up in the jig to make two seats. Tack welded. Drew out the jigs for holding the pilot and passenger seats at the correct angle. Still need to cut and fit into
frame.
Nov 21
1hr
Studied landing gear plans. Seeing what type of
schuffling I need to do with the Radial version length and the Standard version bungee truss.
Nov 22
2.7hrs
Cut out the jigs for the seat angles, screwed together. Made adjustments. Ready to go !
Nov 23
1.7hrs
Positioned jigs inside of fuselage. That's it ! Took quite a bit of time to make sure it was centered and in the right location front to back.
Nov 24
2.6hrs
Rechecked position of seat jigs (thank God I did) and re-positioned. Cut four tubes for front seat; the legs.
Nov 25
.7hrs
Drew up the landing gear using both the standard bungee truss withe the Radial's dimension so that I could figure out what
tubing I need to buy.
Nov 26
3.1hrs
Cut the remaining tubes for the lower portion of the two seats. Still need to cut the four pieces that make up the back supports.
Nov 27
1.2hrs
Spent the entire session tweaking the location of the pilot's seat then tacking the four "legs" onto the seat and the fuselage.
Nov 28
3hrs
Tweaked the locations of the passenger's seat. Unhappy with one of the "leg" tubes... re-cut two more times...
1.9hrs
Tack welded all pieces into frame. Finish welded four of the seat tube clusters on the passenger's seat.
Nov 30
3.3hrs
Put finish welds on all the seat clusters. Cleaned then sprayed with primer to keep from rusting.
Dec 1
3hrs
Waiting on the tubing for the seat backs and landing gear... decided to start cutting the 4130 for the stringer stand-offs. Cutting them out of .o32 4130 flat stock. It's a design that
I saw in the Skybolt Newsletter.
Dec 3
2.3hrs
Cut an additional metal rib for the tail group (spoke to Steve tonight and we might be bending these metal ribs up
tomorrow.) Research on how many and where to place the tabs for the flooring. Not sure if I'll put a complete floor up front or just have heel trays like I'm going to do for the back.
Dec 4
2.3hrs
Received the tubing in today from Wicks Aircraft. Meausred, cut and notched all four seat back tubes. Tacked them into place. (Actually worked on it for a little over three hours. A lot of running around... not doing anything.)
Dec 6
1.4hrs
Made metal pattern for tabs. Cut out, drilled and bent two tabs.
Dec 7
5.1hrs
Tracing metal pattern and cutting tabs like yesterday took too long. Printed out a paper pattern for each tab. Made approx 35 tabs; cut, drilled and bent.
Dec 8
3.5hrs
Cut, and bent (16) .o40 tabs. Started cleaning up the ends with 180 grit sand paper.
Dec 9
3hrs
Welded up the back seat supports for the front and back pits. Cleaned up a few welds too.
Dec 10
3.3hrs
Compared the Standard and Radial Skybolt plans. Saw where the rudder pedals were to be mounted and saw what I needed to do to mount in the Radial fusealge. Need to add additional tubes for
the pedals and the stick controls. Dry fitted the tabs for the flooring/heel trays. Sanded the edges of the remaining mounting tabs.
Dec 11
3hrs
More time spent on figuring out the tab placement for the flooring and heel trays. Think I have it figured out. Full floor in front with heel trays over-laid. Heel trays only in back.
Dec 13
2hrs
Steve, from across the street, knew someone with a HUGE bending brake, so we bent all the metal ribs up today. sweet !
2.5hrs
Made some minor adjustments to the metal ribs at home (areas where we couldn't make the entire 90 degree bend. Tweaked them. Also made a
few practice bends on scrap pieces of metal for 60/30 bends for the trim tab hinge. I'll need to make some forming blocks out of hardwood for doing this.
Dec 15
5hrs
Ground down tab "legs" to fit tubing, aligned and tacked on 24 of the 28 floor/heel tray mounting tabs.
Dec 16
2.4hrs
Ground down tab legs, aligned and tacked on 16 mounting tabs on the two seat backs. Four more tabs to go and then I'll begin finish welding them.
Dec 18
.5hrs
Went over to Whitey's to ream the lower tubes on the pedals. Saw that they were slightly bent from welding. Whitey tried to bend back into shape. No luck.
1.2hrs
At home I tried heating up to bend back straight. No luck.
3hrs
More time spent heating pedals to bend back straight. Finallyy... success ! Put the fuselage back on the airplane spit so I could start welding up again. Spent the rest of the night fully welding on the (8) tabs on the pilot's seat back.
Dec 19
3.2hrs
Fully welded the eight front seat back mounting tabs. Welded the top of the twenty-four floor mounting tabs. Still need to weld the "legs" on the twenty-four.
Dec 22
.9hrs
Re-cut four pieces for the elevator trim. (had previously bent them incorrectly)
Dec 23
2hrs
Welding the legs of the mounting brackets. Ran out of acetylene. These are a pain in the ass to weld up because some of them are hard to get at. Ground down a few that had a lot of build up on them.
1100 hours !
Dec 26
.3hrs
Went over to Whitey's and used his expandable 3/4" reamer to ream out the bottom 3/4" tube on the pedals.
1.8hrs
Started working on positioning the pedals to tack weld the tubes in place and saw I was getting ahead of myself. I still have mounting tabs that I need to finish weld. Also need to notch and weld a few tubes so the rudder pedal mounting tubes. So... I countinued welding on the mounting tabs.
Dec 27
1.8hrs
Welded up several more mounting tabs. Positioned and tack welded in the last four mounting tabs for the front pit floor; the four most forward tabs.
Dec 28
3.7hrs
Welded up the four front floor mounting tabs.
A little bit of head scratching. The R version's floor tubing isn't set up for mounting the rudder pedals. I needed to decide where to locate the tubing to support the pedals. I cut and notched the two support tubes for the pilot's rudder pedals. Tack welded those in. Took a little bit of time to decide where to put the front support tubes... only because I will need to cut out two of the
floor mounting tabs that I just welded onto the frame.
Dec 29
2hrs
Ground off the two front tabs. Notched and fitted the two front supporting tubes for the rudder tube pivots. Tack welded both these and the two back tubes into place.
Dec 30
3.5hrs
Welded in the four tubes for mounting the rudder pedal pivot tubes. Cut out and ground down the tabs I'll be using on some of these tubes for mounting the pivot tubes.
Dec 31
4.1hrs
Cut the pivot mounting tubes for all four rudder pedals. Aligned and tack welded all tubes onto fuselage using the mounting tabs the I cut the other day..