1-24-2012 3.3 hours

Most of my time was spent bending and grinding the slider frame. I now have the rails very close, I think. I ground the front tubes down and the front bow is essentially parallel to the roll bar. The problem is, the specs say is should be 3/8″ higher than the roll bar. In fact it varies from 3/8″ to 5/8″. I’m wondering if this really is a problem. The other modest issue is, it looks like the rails are out of limits for being parallel to the longeron. I think I’m allowed 1/4″ and they’re out at least 3/8″. This might go away entirely when I get the rear center slide rail finished.

I have assumed the aft bow is close to where it should be but assuming isn’t good for anything but an interim plan, when building an airplane. I started putting the structure together that the slider frame will slide on. I have bent, marked and clamped together the F-662 and F-663 (spacer and rail) that the frame will track on. Tomorrow I need to double flush rivet these parts (Steve, this means the rivets will be flush with both sides – they’ll be pretty on top. The shop heads will be flush but not pretty, which is okay since they won’t show).

The plans say I should duct tape this to the plane for now. That sounds like an ‘interim plan’ to me. Hopefully I’ll be able slide the rail up and down and fit the aft HDPE stops. Then I’ll be able to see how close the aft bows are.

In any event, the progress is slow, but it’s moving forward. The canopy is the last major structural piece left to construct. The forward fuselage isn’t done but it appears to be less than one day of straight forward work, which means it’ll probably take two or three days to complete.

1-23-2012 0.7 hours

Worked on bending the side rails of the slider frame to match the fuselage. Getting closer.