Fuselage

Canopy Rail Slider – Part 3

Hours this entry: 3.0

January 3, 2021 chris

A centerline was drawn with a string and then a sharpie was used transfer the line onto the turtledeck.

Canopy slide drilled and cleco’ed into place on the fuselage.

Canopy frame in place along with the rails for a quick test fit.

Fuselage

Canopy Rail Slider – Part 2

Hours this entry: 2.5

January 2, 2021 chris

Drilled the remainder of the holes and countersunk them top and bottom where applicable.

Final strip with the remainder of the holes set for the screws.

Fuselage

Canopy Rail Slider – Part 1

Hours this entry: 3.5

January 1, 2021 chris

Started working on the canopy rail slider spacer (C-805) and cap (C-804).

Fuselage

Motor mount Install

Hours this entry: 1.5

December 26, 2020 chris

Set the motor mount with temporary bolts, drilled/reamed them larger one at a time. Removed the mount, cleaned the holes and then installed the AN-6 motor mount bolts, and snugged the castle nuts.

Fuselage

Baggage Door Riveting

Hours this entry: 3.5

November 14, 2020 chris

Started Riveting the Baggage door together to prep for fitting once the top skin is riveted on.

Avionics, Cockpit, Controls, Fuselage, Instrument Panel

Instrument Sub Panel

Hours this entry: 4.5

November 11, 2020 chris

Punched the vent and autopilot holes on the instrument sub panel, and also cut the remote ELT indicator. Used the Instrument hole template to drill the mounting holes for the auto pilot.

Primed the instrument sub-panel and then refit it into the fuselage so we could work on the top front skin. Will finish and paint this before we’re ready to rivet the top skin.

Fuselage, Landing Gear

Final Landing Gear

Hours this entry: 4.0

November 6, 2020 chris

Installed the Landing gear and torqued to specs. The boys tried it on for size after we removed it from the rotisserie.

Fuselage

Landing Gear Part 2 Drilling

Hours this entry: 6

October 18, 2020 chris

Aligned the Landing Gear by clamping a piece of angle iron to the face of the gear legs. Then we pulled a string to either side, cross checking it with a tape measure. The string method is similar to how we used to mount wings on RC aircraft.

Also dropped four plumb bobs across another piece of angle on the floor to cross check.

Right gear leg mostly drilled. Lots of Boelube all over. The outer holds on both the inner and outer weldments weren’t drilled yet.

Fuselage, Landing Gear

Landing Gear Part 1

Hours this entry: 5

October 3, 2020 chris

Started working on mounting the landing gear. Drilled the center holes on the U-804 inboard main gear attach brackets and started to line up the gear. Decided we wanted to recheck the various methods and needed a few more tools to do it right and paused for the time being.

Fuselage

Fuse Parts Priming/Paint

Hours this entry: 2.0

October 1, 2020 chris

Add some light sandable primer over the self-etching primer, smoothed it out and then shot the color to match the interior since this will be seen from the cockpit and also in the baggage compartment.

Also primed the F-8104-L + R support ribs.