Monthly Archives: March 2014
Forward Fuselage #4 (Side panel Riveting, NACA vents, upper longeron slots, polishing)
Total Build Time: 584 Hours. At this stage in the project, I made a couple decisions that would further modify my Waiex from the plans. One decision was to add some large vents to the side panels to provide extra ventilation in the cockpit. After reviewing pictures and consulting some other builders, I found what … Continue reading
Forward Fuselage #3 (Upper and Lower firewall)
Total Build Time: 576 Hours The firewall is literally a wall of steel near the front of the aircraft that separates the cockpit from the engine compartment. It serves to contain the heat of the engine from the cockpit, as well as a safety barrier in case of a fire in the engine compartment. The … Continue reading
Forward Fuselage #2 (Side panel assembly)
Total Build Time: 556 Hours My angle component fabrication is complete for the forward fuselage side panels, so now comes the task of aligning the parts into the proper positions on the side panel skins. For fun, I put the skin into its position relative to the aft fuselage, to get an idea of … Continue reading
Forward Fuselage #1 (Angle material fabrication)
Total build time: 546 hours. My wings, aft fuselage, and empennage are complete. Work now turns to the forward fuselage, which ties everything together. The wings, aft fuselage, engine and pilot are all connected through the forward fuselage. This means that the forward fuselage is both complex and very strong. Strength comes largely from … Continue reading
Aft Fuselage #8 (Aluminum material recall/repair)
Repair work: 20 hours. The front and aft fuselages are joined on 4 corners at the longerons by splice plates… 3 of these 4 pairs splice plates were included in the material recall and had to be replaced. 1 pair in particular, the upper horizontal splice plates, would require a LOT of work to be … Continue reading
Empennage #8 (Aluminum material recall/repair)
Repair work: 7 hours. On January 9, 2014 I was notified of some bad parts that were included in a very small batch of Sonex kits that were shipped in the fall of 2013 (affected owners were individually notified)… unfortunately I was included in this recall. It included several parts in the empennage and aft … Continue reading
500-hour project update (Videos)
My wings, aft fuselage and empennage are as complete as they can be until the whole aircraft comes together and rigging takes place. I decided this would be a good time to stop and look back at my progress so far. To do so I made several videos. These first 2 short videos I made … Continue reading
Wings #19 (Right wing completion)
Total build time: 493 hours. Finally, time to skin the right wing! The same method as the left wing was used, and there were no surprises. Again I ran conduit for wingtip lighting wires if I so desired, as well as the pitot/static lines. Then on goes the leading edge skin. … Continue reading
Wings #18 (Balancing Ailerons)
Total build time: 486 hours. The ailerons must be balanced for 2 reasons: control feel, and flutter. The plans for the aerobatic ailerons call for both ailerons to be balanced to each other by hanging them by their hinge point and comparing the trailing edges. The lead counterweight is the ballast that provides the balancing, … Continue reading
Wings #17 (Right flap and aileron)
Total build time: 483 hours. Right-side flap and ailerons went together much like the left. Ends trimmed to fit, aileron first. Again I liked having the wing substructure open (no skins) while building the flap and aileron, as I can verify fitment as I go, such as testing the location of the aileron … Continue reading