Cut and sanded two bottom pieces for the new rear section for the turtledeck.
Aug 30
3.3hrs
FOUND IT! So... back to work on figuring out where I left off. Started attaching the aluminum stringers. Got to the belly and saw that to of the bottom formers are bent from me moving the fuselage from the trailer to the hangar. Need to get a few bolts so that I can attach the gear and lift it so that I can heat those areas and bend back into shape. Yeah... over three hours.
Sept 28
3.0hrs
"Repair of brake"... New bolt. Lifted front of fuselage so that I can make the repair on the bottom formers, that I slightly bent when it feel off the moving cart from the POD to the hangar. Mounted wheels onto tires.
Oct 5
N/A
Spent about 4 hours with the plane but none of it advanced the build. Getting ready for a visit from EASA Chapter 515 on Tuesday
Nov 28
3.7hrs
Figuring out the bolt size for the throttle quads, and lifting the fuselage to attach the main landing gear. (still needs a bit more lifting)
Dec 6
3.1hrs
Attached the landing gear after finding the correct bolts (which took a while.) Mounted the brakes so that next time I can mount the tires so that I can support the fuselage with just the tires (and get rid of the sawhorses.)
Dec 13
4.0hrs
Continued the lift of the fuselage soes that I could mount the wheels/tires on the front mains. My mistake the last time in mounting the brakes on backwards... I fixed the fopah. With the front wheels/tires mounted I decided to attach the tailwheel (after the long search for so correct fitting non-aviation hardware)
Dec 27
2.9hrs
Misc. stuff. Reformed the bent belly former and attached belly stringers. Trimmed the pilot's port foot tray to fit where I fully welded up the brackets on the foot pedals. Test fit of pattern for the radial air scoop. Made a to do list...
Re-shaping the look of the air intake (-47 style) and eyeing the look of how it will blend into the belly.
Jan 10
4hrs
Working on LibreCAD program figuring out the shape of the air intake and flair into fuselage.
Jan 11
4hrs
continued work on air intake CAD
Jan 16
2hrs
more of the same ^
Jan 17
1hr
see above ^^^
Jan 31
1.3hrs
Still working on the shape of the air intake. Still not perfect (or at least, not the look I'm looking for yet.) Located the bolts/nuts for mounting the engine to the engine mount.
Feb 3
1.5hrs
Located the hardware for hanging the Jake.
Feb 7
5.3hrs
Removed the baffles from the top-side of the Jake to allow me to wraps the hanging straps per the Jacobs manual. Trial run of wrapping the hanging strap to make sure that I understood correctly... and I did. Cleaned up the Jake a bit; the usual leave it sitting for years dust and dirt. Attached the two front side panels. Need to modify the belly panel. The panel was fitted without the main landing gear in place.
Feb 14
5.7hrs
Make paper pattern for cutting openings in belly skin. Cut openings in belly skin. Fitted up belly skin (and yes it worked!). Cleaned up hardware for attaching the Jake to the engine mount.
Feb 22
3hrs
Sorting out and cataloging existing hardware. I have so much... if I don't know what I have I'll be paying the high price of buying something I already have.
Feb 28
5.8hrs
Figuring out and creating the pattern for the air exit on the firewall. Found and connected the fuel on/off knob to the fuel valve.
Mar 8
5.1hrs
Practice piece for the air exit. Works as designed. Nice! The rest of the time spent figuring out the opening for the main gear in the billy skin.
Mar 28
5.1hrs
Fine tuning the exhaust opening. I'm ready to make the final piece once I purchase the material.
Apr 19
2.5hrs
Drawing out the engine air exhaust exit. Figuring out bend allowance and set-backs. Making it out of .032 4130. Ready to be bent.
Apr 25
4.2hrs
Cutting out the piece. All hand cut; hacksaw with a tiny handle holding the blad. Too thick to cut with tin snips. Started bending it. Son of a Gun to bend that thick of metal (who would have thought)
Apr 26
5.0hrs
Finished bending the piece. Fits nice, but I'm not happy with the upper flange (a little short of the 3/4inch lip I was looking for). Also, pretty damn heavy. Found a piece of .025 4130. Cleaned it up and made the adjustments on the design. Drew up the pattern... ready to be bent.
May 2
4.2hrs
Finished making the air exhaust tunnel. Made the piece out of .025 4130. Easy to bend... and that was the problem. Some of the bends on it look like a potato chip. Went back to the .032 and figured it out... and now have the final air exhaust part.
May 9
5.2hrs
4130 .032 is HEAVY! REMADE the tunnel AGAIN from .040 aluminum. Just need to now... make the corner brackets for attaching the two upper corners together.
May 16
3.5hrs
Final trimming of exhaust tunnel. Made both upper corner brackets for the air exhaust tunnel. Decided that I'll glue them on instead of rivet them. Need to purchase some glue that will work on aluminum. Had some extra time and started to attach existing pieces onto the frame. Getting close...
May 23
5.3hrs
JB Welded the corner covers on the two upper corners of the air exhaust tunnel. I let the mixture set for awhile before applying it so that it wouldn't just drip out of the area (I JB Welded the two corner pieces while I had the tunnel clamped to the opening). Accessed what needs to be done and made the list.
May 30
4.8hrs
Back to using the 4130 air tunnel. The JB Weld did not hold at all. Made jig for welding corners of air tunnel. Made pattern for cover plates around where the engine mount brackets are in the firewall. Trimmed the corner of frame that the air tunnel will connect to (looks nicer and saves about a 1/2 oz of weight)
Jun 6
5.7hrs
Adjusted the pattern for the cover plates to create new patterns to cut out plates. Attached the horizontal stabs. Figured out the last and final push rod for the connection between the stick and the stabs. Found all bearings so that I can now make them.
Jun 6
2hrs
Adjusted cover plate patern and printed out.
Jun 13
6.1hrs
Made 2 cover plates, start to finish. Test fit of engine ring after wrenching off a lot of the accessories. Waaa Waaa... looks like the 1/4inch plywood jig didn't do its job in keeping the ring from moving. The one side of the ring shifted on three holes ranging from moving 1/8 to 1/2 of the hole out of alignment. DAMN! Time to find a new ring or fix this one.
Jun 14
2.5hrs
Made the final two cover plates for the firewall. And also checked to see if the issue with the engine ring was just a dream. It wasn't. DAMN!
Jun 20
5hrs
Tested the engine ring on the engine AGAIN. NO JOY! DAMN! Looked for tubing for push rod. Cut and length. Looked for a few other pieces that are packed away somewhere from the move.
