Sometimes Homebuilding is no Fun (August 20th, 2006)

deburring the holes in the sparcap ist really no fun...

..because the flange is slanted, the drill slips off of the hole, this does not work well...

...short larger diameter drill also does not work, after 10 holes hand hurts...

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Is the wing true and square? (August 12th, 2006)

There should be NO twist in the wing (some wings purposely have a twinst in the wings in order to affect the stall characteristics - but not so with the Sonex)

Checking the right wing for parallelity (correct spelling?). Looks quite good so far...

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Last Large Sheet of Metal (August 4th, 2006)

Light on the end of the tunnel....

This is the last large sheet I'll cut for the Sonex (will I ever cut such sheets again? - probably not, life is just too short to do things twice...

This will make the right upper aft wingskin. There's a lot of sheet metal left over - No idea what to do with it... Maybe building a Teeny Two? - No, see rant above...

The left wing just fits under the table and is out of the way. I think about disassembling the large table after the right wing is completed - however I'm not sure, maybe I'll need it lateron...

The coming winter I'll bring the fuselage in and mout the engine. This will take up a lot of space...

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Wing-Rigging (August 1st, 2006)

The left wing I skinned 'the ususal way' say wing lying flat on the worktable. This caused some problems because of the well-known 'banana-spar-effect'. A lot of pushing and pulling is necessary to get the trailing edge straight. This time with the right wing I'll do it a different way:

Wing is in -vertical- position. The structure's own weight will straighten out the banana-spar. The only point to consider is that the frame is perfectly rectangular (no diaginal shift). This can be verified at the ribs using a large right-angle.

At the left wing I had some problems maintaining the proper edge distance on the rib flanges. This time I put on the skin temporarily, then I marked all rib positions near the mainspar. Then I removed the skin again, then I drew perpendicular lines starting from the markings - this should work much better.

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