Whiting out

With junk everywhere I had a really big task of cleaning up the shed in preparation for spraying the last main components. I gave the spray gun a good clean out as well before trying to paint. It had sat there for a while so, just in case, it was stripped and cleaned. I still need to paint the floor of the front fuselage, but will get to that in a few days.

 My free time, as it turns out, has come to an abrupt end. I will be starting work again soon and basically only have one more week off to work on the project. From then on, I will have to be like the majority of mankind, and finish the building while juggling a full time job as well. It has been good while it lasted but I needed to get a job so I have something to pay for the AVGAS I will be using :)  

I have noticed with the overspray in the shed, nothing is safe under waist level. The wheel spats up high on the shelves have been a fun little experiment. I guess gravity plays its part well there. After spraying the wings today I still don't have one speck of white paint on the spats. The fans I have been using for added ventilation, not shown in the pics, tend to draw it out pretty quickly anyway so really it's just the floor that suffers. 

Just thought I'd throw this one in. It was a beautiful day flying last Sunday. Barely a bump in the sky. 

I still have some red paint to go on the tips of the Ailerons so not quite finished here. The flaps are done however. I will wait a day or so before taping up the white for the red strips. I would hate to mark the soft paint in some way. They have come out great.

I have been quite miserable with the paint on the aft floor. I have covered it ok but I haven't really laid it on to bring out that nice 2 pack shine. In an attempt to save paint/weight and the fact that no one really will see underneath it, except for when I'm flying.

 Painting a few odds and sods. In an absolute brain fade I painted the fuel door white :)    It is supposed to be red. Oh well... can fix that :)

Painting the wings took so much paint that I just about fell over. Both wings there took a full litre and I have missed the tips due to them being planned to be red. I had done a light coat again on the undersides of the wings for the same reason as above but I think, end count, I had 4 coats on the top and I can bet you, in a good light, there will be spots that seem thin. I am not sure if I have been laying it on thick enough or what but it just seemed to keep needing more. I ended up with more runs than the Australian cricket team so I have another task fixing them as well.  The paint has come out well though and all n all I shouldn't complain.

I am off to Perth tomorrow to attend my Maintenance Procedures Course for the SAAA. Having this course done will be a huge weight off my mind. One very big hurdle, I now won't have to worry about again... maybe.

When I get back I will seriously need to do something about selling my other plane. I just haven't had the heart to sell it as it is now going so bloody well it makes me cry to have to move it along. I have had to fight tooth and nail to get it to this point. I guess though the next owner will enjoy the fruits of my labour. If I had the money, and could keep both, there would be no way I'd sell it. 

Perhaps after I paint the Wheel spats :)

Wing'ing it at the end

Seeing at the fuselage was almost complete, my last task was to finalize the wing side of things. Both flaps and Ailerons still had to be built and fitted so I got started on them.  I began with the ailerons as there was a lot more work involved. The first task was to make the counter weights. Drilling the lead was fun but I got there in the end. I found starting at 1/8' was a more workable size and moving up from there to the final snug fit of 3/16'. There actually was a lot more work involved in making the brackets up for the weights including fill in spacers and so on.

The next job was to make one of the flaps. These took half the amount of time and came out really well too. 

This was the end result for both items. I still need to paint and balance the Ailerons as per the manual but they are only sitting on two clecos anyway until my rivets arrive from Sonex. I was short a huge amount of rivets and ordered another 800. This will see me through I think/hope. 

So here they are now all made and temp fitted. I will need to paint the wings now and do a final balance then permanently rivet on the control surfaces. These were the last big ticket items I had to make. From now on there is only really final fitment of components and making things just right. 

Tomorrow's operation may be to fit the wing ends and trim down the control surfaces for a nice finish. An early start in the morning may see this done in a day. 

Cowling revisited again

So of course I managed to get the cowling fitting quite nicely after trimming the snout. I used some filler, sanded it back to a nice smooth finish and set to priming and prep for paint.

 The next little issue was to see if the hole I cut in the cowling for the exhaust actually lined up nice and snug. The hole in this pic needed to be opened up just slightly for a little more comfortable clearance but it was placed in the right spot so that did bring a big smile to my face.

A nice little red colour was applied as per the picture below. I managed to paint the wheel spats at the same time while I had some red in the gun. I actually had to paint one of the cowling sides twice as just after I had sprayed it, I stumbled on the air line and brushed up against the nice wet paint of the cowling. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. This fix involved rubbing it all back and applying more red. The second coat as well didn't come out anywhere near as nice as the first and this compounded the disappointment. I am just going to leave it for now with a nice orange peel look to it and worry later when I feel like repainting it.  Probably a few years down the track. 

I still need to final fit the wheel spats but I will do that after it is at the airport so I have something to tie the plane down to during transport. It is literally just a five minute job to take them on and off anyway. 

Long time no post

Well things have been ticking along in the background, just not on this blog. It has still been a very busy time for me in regard to building and flying, and things seem to be coming a little closer. After the first start of the engine I realized it wasn't that far away before I would finish the plane really, so I had to get into gear regarding all the other things I have been putting off.

On the Agenda firstly was a RPL and controlled airspace endorsement.

This proved to be a lot harder than I had initially anticipated. I have been doing my RPL conversion training with Kelmac Aviation in Geraldton and can't rate them high enough.

The training has been A1. Jandakot operations have been a real eye opener for me and I look forward to the challenges ahead.  I still have yet to finalize a few things however the majority of the work is done. In doing all this I can travel down the path of registering the plane in the VH category... Something I have had my heart set on from the beginning, but was just unsure if I was able to accomplish. My biggest hurdle to date has been the MPC maintenance course that is required to be completed before finalization. Thankfully the SAAA have helped me out and this seems to be coming to a positive outcome as well. All the stars are aligning as they say.  

Just on another non build related topic, the guys have been doing a fair amount of formation work in Geraldton lately. I just can't wait until I can get the Sonex all sorted and be part of the team :)