Friday, March 20, 2015

The first set of screwups

This post is going to collect a few things that I wish I had learned earlier while building my Sonex.  I am still working on the tail, unfortunately life and an unheated garage slowed my progress over the winter, but without further ado, here are some things I wish I knew sooner:

  • When updrilling holes around the elevator horn it is difficult to get a drill angled the way you need to.  After watching a video, another builder used an extra-long bit and the available flex that gave him to work his way around this.  I will try to get pictures to illustrate this issue later.
  • When bending my forward spar fitting in my press, I was using a protractor to gauge the angle of my bend.  I apparently bumped the protractor and didn't notice this leading me to over bend the part and crack the aluminum.  Now I get to re-fabricate the part.  On the next bend, I will make a solid template to gauge the bend angle and use that instead of a protractor.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Journey Begins

Last Friday, I received a tail-kit and plans for Sonex #1659.  Time to get to work.