Month of May update....

Ok.. So I ain't setting any speed records here building this airplane.. However, a few things have happened in the past month..

A week ago, I helped out at a cross-country air race, the Taylor 100 - put on by the newly formed Sport Air Race League (http://www.sportairrace.org). I rented a 172 and flew out to Caldwell to monitor the mid-course turn.. We were supposed to have internet posted live updates, but about 2min before the first plane came through, my laptop went bezerk.. The mobile broadband stopped working, and so did the GPS - which we were using to sync on time. However, after the race, I was able to chat with a Lancair 235 driver (also building a 360), and a 360 builder and driver. It was great talking to people about their planes and projects, and getting some ideas from them.. And hoping it would be motivational!

Well, it was.. Saturday evening and Sunday I built a second workbench.. Now I have a whole lot more room to work on.. Sunday I spent some time cutting and shaping the aileron ribs.. Wow, that took way too long.. But, it being my first time, it's acceptable..

Monday I drove all over town buying tools.. I decided to start looking on craigslist for things I need, and got some killer deals on a belt / disc sander, scroll saw, grinder, and even an old corded backup drill..

That brings me to today.. Michelle hoped that I would spend all day cleaning, while she was at work.. So, I spent half the afternoon cleaning, went for a short run, and spent a few hours glassing in those ribs I started 1 month ago.. Well, that again, took longer than expected - by the time I cut the fiberglass, mixed the resin, created the fillet, and glassed the thing 3 times until I got it right.. I nearly spent 2 hrs.. Oh well.. One of these days I'll actually make some visible progress! (or find more time to spend building...)

Making more room

This post is actually out of order... In the last post, I mentioned that Gary and I moved my wings from the garage to the hangar. This opened up a whole lot of room for building. Here they are packed in his little pickup truck..

A sign of progress

Guess what... I finally started "working" on the project tonight.. Over the past month, I've spent 2 weeks in Asia, one weekend in Galveston, one weekend working on the Sidewinder, and last weekend I moved the wings out of my garage to the airport. Finally I have room in the garage, and time to start building..

From Aileron

Tonight I layed up 1 layer of fiberglass over 1/4" foam to start building the aileron ribs. Before tonight, I figured it would take me 1 week to get the aileron complete.. Well, I'm starting to see why it takes so long to build these airplanes.. I spent 1 hr laying up 1 layer of glass.. I now need to let that sit overnight, and do the same to the other side of the foam.. Let that sit.. Cut out the ribs, create cap-strips (essentially mounting strips for the ribs), let that sit... Fiberglass one half of the rib in.. Let that sit.. and so on... Looks like I'll still be working on this aileron for a few weeks! At least I've started making forward progress on the project.

One month down

It's been just shy of 1 month since I brought home the Lancair, and I've done about 15hrs of "work" directly on the project.. That's not nearly what I was hoping, but with the weekend in Dallas, not too bad. Unfortunately, I'm about to hop an airplane for Asia for 2 weeks, so the project is going to have to wait for me a little more. However, the work that I have reviewed so far has been pretty good in my mind. I believe the fiberglass work is better than anything I could do, and so far everything seems to be following the construction manual. This week I managed to get through the center section and the landing gear. Once I start actually working on the project, I will be taking apart the gear, re-finishing it, and replacing some of the nut and bolt hardware. Yesterday I decided it needed a bath. Sitting in a north-east Texas hangar for some years, there was a good coat of dirt and clay (now the's clay on my driveway). It washed off pretty nicely though. Yesterday's dry day helped dry it off pretty quickly.

Hopefully by the time month 2 comes around, I'll be ready to start doing some actual work on the project.

The construction manual

About 1 year ago, I purchased a set of plans for the Sidewinder. This included hand-drawn plans of 50 or so C-sized sheets, and 20 or so D-sized sheets, and a 20 page construction manual.. A lot of decision making is left up to the builder. This Lancair project, being in kit form, has most parts already molded, a few templates for plans, and a pretty complete 350 page construction manual. Still, there are a lot of decisions left up to the builder! This week (Monday and today) were my working days, I've managed to get through the first 100 pages. This included joining the fuselage halves, firewall, rear bulkhead, center and outer spars and the hardware that is attached to them. One might say, wow, that's some fast building.. Why thank you.. Ok, really I'm reviewing / inspecting the work that the previous builder had done. The reasons for this are two-fold. First, I'm gonna be the one flying in the plane, so I want to make sure the best I can that it's built correctly. Second, I want to know how this plane is built inside-out.

Today was kindof a crummy day. Low clouds with some on-off rain showers. I spent the early afternoon re-organizing the garage again, and placing what I could in the attic. Michelle had been working on a presentation for her lab all day, and by late afternoon wanted to get out and play (translation: ride her bike). This happens to be just as I was about to sit down and continue through the construction manual. Long story short: I was going to go with her (reluctantly), but then it started pouring - so we comprimised.. She rode the trainer in the garage while I read through the manual and continued my review / inspections.

Composite Airplane Construction, day 2

Wing section

Bulkhead / t-section

Clay Molded air-inlet

On the second day of the course we finished up our wing and bulkhead projects. The topics covered were bonding / joining, repairing, vacuum bagging, and finishing. Unfortunately we were running short on time, so the instructor had to go through finishing pretty quickly. This is my only criticism of the course. Finishing is at least 30% of the project, and very little time was spent on it. Granted, there were a lot of topics covered in the 2-day course, so I can't complain too much. I am really glad that I took the course. It has given me the confidence and knowledge that I need to get started.

Composite Airplane Construction, day 1

Purchased this fiberglass airplane project, and I have very little experience working with composites.. Well, what do you know, the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) has these workshops that tour around the country which offer various classes on airplane construction. This weekend the tour is in Dallas, at the American Institute of Maintenance on Dallas Love Field. What timing! Day one started with a lecture that ran most of the morning covering safety, resisn, materials, procedure for creating parts, etc.. This afternoon we layed up a "bulkhead", wire-cut part of a wing, lay a spar cap, and glass the bottom half of the wing, and create a part from a clay mold. Tomorrow, everything should be set, and we'll get to continue. Some stuff I already knew, but others (and probably the most critical structurally), I didn't know, and it makes this class worth it! The class is giving me the confidence I need to get started on my project.

My funny wife

Oh yeah.. When I got home after picking up the project, there was this little post-it note on the mirror... A translation for those who may be confused at the terminology: (A) Lancair flys - that's this project.. (B) PhD in hand - Michelle is back in school going for her PhD in Biomechanics.. (C) 3:10 marathon - My Boston Marathon qualifying time.. Last year I was 30sec off, wasn't even close this year. (D) Slot to Kona - Michelle has hopes of getting a slot to the Ironman World Championships in Kona, HI.. (E) Another Garel - Our mothers are hoping this win's the contest (though not hinting at anything - we're not trying at this moment)..

Inventory

For an airplane that appeared to be complete (and fiberglass), there sure was a whole lot of small hardware that needed to be inventoried. I spent 5.5hrs inventorying bolts, nuts, valves, washers, cotter pins, rivets, AN fittings, etc.. There are a few things that are missing, nothing that can't be fabricated, but I'll still check back with the previous builder to see if he comes across any of it.

Buy my Sidewinder

The other day posted the sidewinder on barnstormers.com.. It's been a great 2 years, and now I want to build..

From the ad:
SMYTH SIDEWINDER • FOR SALE • 1215TTAF, 1057 STOH, 2500SMOH on o320, compressions at condition insp (10/06): 78, 74, 79, 78. Oil analysis for past 2 years. Burns 1qt every 10hrs. All logs. Cruises 135kt at 7gph. Blue Mtn. EFIS G3 lite, SL30, GX50 IFR GPS. Asking $28k. • Contact Michael Garel - located Austin, TX USA • Telephone: 512-289-4031 • Posted February 25, 2007

Picking up the new bird...

Alarm went off at 3:30am, and I had a swift kick to get out of bed by my lovely wife.. I swung by Ron's house and we were on the road by ~4:15. The drive up to Marshall, TX was beautiful (at least what we saw of it).. Took 79 almost all the way. The further northeast we got, the more open the countryside was, and huge trees began to line the roads. We arrived about 9:15am, and began loading. The most interesting part of the loading was having the fuselage hanging from the engine mount by a shop lift, while I held the tail end, and Ron stabilized the wing stubs. We slowly proceeded to push the plane back onto the platform we built to support the wheels. The wheel width was wider than the trailer, so we had built a platform for the wheels to sit on. Finally, by about 4pm we were ready to hit the road (only 2 hrs later than planned!) The first 40 miles were really nerve-wrecking. I envisioned the plane flying off the trailer.. However, our only issue was a strap that loosened within the first 2~3mi. We made it back to Austin at about 10:15pm. Michelle had called some neighbors who arrived when we did, and helped to carefully unload it. The Lancair was off the trailer and in the garage by 11:30pm. Pfew.. that was a long day..