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.