Side Slip

Ups and Downs with Elevators

Hello everyone, and welcome to mid-August. I have been helping with my EAA chapter's build of a Murphy Rebel, we had a fly in at Brennand Airport (79C), there have been some young eagles rallies I've flown for, I went to Texas for work, Airventure 2024

Building Some Pitch Control

The first quarter of this year has been a lot busier than I would like, but that is just how things go sometimes. I'm not blameless, I mentor a High School Theater Build Crew and they have a spring show coming up. It is pretty rewarding to teach

New Year, New Completed Part

I looked it up and I began working on the Horizontal Stabilizer back on August 19th 2023! That means it took me 136 days from starting work on the parts to putting the last rivet in. It is definitely a long process (more so if you have limited free time

Riveting, Bankruptcy, and the Horizontal Stabilizer

I was really hoping this blog post would be about how I had finished my horizontal stabilizer but it is taking longer than I want. Therefore it will just be another "this is how far I've gotten" update with a few extras (like Vans bankruptcy) thrown

Assembling the Stabilizer

Hello again! It is now fall and progress has been slow for a few reasons. Most of all, I quit my job and had a few weeks to myself so I played games, did some flying, and generally relaxed.. It was a nice break to recover from burnout. However, I

Horizontal Stabilizer Continued (plus laser cut update)

The front spar has come along without any major issues. I figured out a few faster ways to clean up the metal that have sped up my build flow quite a bit. First off, a sanding block and skipping filing the edges of ribs and spars. My jewelers file was

The Upside Down Wing

Did you know that the horizontal stabilizer on an aircraft is actually an upside down wing? It is a fun piece of information to ponder! Why would you want that? Well, it has to do with where the center of lift is located, where the center of gravity is, and

Finishing The Rudder!

I went to EAA Air Venture this year, spoke with some other builders, and then joined a local chapter that is building a Murphy Rebel so I could help out. The goal was to keep up my motivation because I realized I don't have any friends in my

Laser Cut Problems

Hi! It has been a while. Part of that is because progress has been slower than I would like just because I've been busy. The other part is that Van's has seen some quality control issues with their laser cut parts and I may have to

On Being a Pilot and Mental Flexibility

I had a very frustraiting experience and it had less to do with flying and more to do with how other people can be very inconsiderate. I had planned out a nice cross country from Appleton (KATW) down to Schaumburg (K06C) that had some VOR navigation, let me get some

One slip and It Costs Money

So work has been continuing on the rudder (for the most part) and it is nearly time to rivet. Unfortunately I managed to make a decent mistake that requires ordering replacement parts and it only took a fraction of a second to make the mistake! I'll get to

What A Busy March

It has been a month of very busy activity, and it has mostly been my fault! Not helping is that the current airplane work is tedious so I don't feel motivated to go work on it very often (not that I have much free time at the moment

Finished Stabilizer, Starting Rudder

I managed to finish my first part, the vertical stabilizer! Then I cleaned it up a bit and behold. It was a long process to get into the swing of things for this build, but I am very pleased with the results. I had to drill out around 10 more

Drilling Out Rivets

I messed up and had to drill out 20 or so rivets in a row. It is a lesson in how I should read directions before doing things. Before I get into that, however, check out this video I found from years ago where I mixed some aviation fuel with

Priming Done, Riveting Go

It has been extra cold here lately, to the point where painting in my basement was still cold after running my air venting for the fumes. So I slowly made progress and continued to prime the parts. It is important to watch those edges though, as my plastic drop sheeting

Finally Got To Fly Again

So for three months I have been unable to fly. It was just the bad combination of availability, weather (mostly weather), and maintenance. On Saturday all the stars had finally aligned and I got a very good flight in from KATW - KAUW - KSTW -KATW in my club'

The Priming Has Begun

Before I could start priming, I had to go back over all my parts and clean up scratches and any other oddities that I may have missed. This is a lot like a final inspection before painting and some of my parts really needed some love. Since I have a

The Paint Zone

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth I decided that I will need a paint booth in order to prime the interior parts of the aircraft. This is the subject of a lot of debate on whether it is needed or not but I decided that since I'm

Such Cute Little Dimples

With every step we are getting closer to priming and riveting! First though, all the match drilling has to happen. This is to ensure things line up and can actually be riveted together. This requires drilling each and every hole, then swapping all the clecos and again going through every

Verticals Stabilized

The past week hasn't been too active, but I did find some time to get down into my workshop and start on the rest of the vertical stabilizer skeleton. As I went on I tried out a few new techniques I have discovered, been told, or otherwise got

So Much Sanding

I've managed a few things since last time but the one I want to complain about is edge finishing the aluminum. However, let's go chronologically to explain how I got to hating sanding in the first place [wavy flashback effects]. In the spirit of actually getting

Starting the Build (and Metal is Sharp)

Inventory has finally been conquered and I can begin in earnest at this build. To be brutally honest, I hate doing inventory. It is tedious, boring, prone to errors because I'm bored, I have trouble motivating myself to do it, etc., etc. It is a good thing I

Where Am I Going To Put All This?

I started out my day with a plan. The pegboard hooks I had ordered had arrived and I was going to go to the hardware store and buy some more freestanding shelving. While I was there I might as well pick up a band saw. After all that was done

Past Me: Oh... I Need a Workbench

Over the summer I was standing in my garage thinking about what kind of workspace would be best suited to my needs when I realized I actually have zero work tables. That is definitely not ideal, since I'll need a place to set things while working. It was

A Place to Work (Warmly)

The previous owner of my house had himself a workshop area in the basement. It has since been repurposed by me into just storage of stuff I should throw away but I am pretty lazy. Since it is too cold to work in my garage, now is a great time