Empennage
2017 Fairings and Wheel pants.
Total Build Time: 1303 Hours This is a long post with lots of photos spanning about 3 months of intermittent work. Here is the order of operations in this post: -Tail Fairing fabrication/installation -Jacking up the aircraft -Wheel pant fabrication/installation -Landing Gear fairing fabrication Quick note: I did fabricate but did not ultimately install … Continue reading
Sept 2017 Update (Wings, Stabilators, Paint and more)
Total Build Time: 1245 Hours Here is the very short story of why I haven’t made a blog post in over a year and a half: I got married and had a daughter. In other words, life happened! However, I’m finally back at the project and rolling towards completion. I’ll be following up this post … Continue reading
Hangar Completion #8 (Stabilator fairing and final installation)
Total Build Time: 1209 Hours Up until this point, the rear stabilators have only been temporarily attached. This was mainly because I hadn’t yet made the fairing that joined them at the top and wanted to be able to remove them when fabricating this fairing. Well that time has finally come. Following advice from fellow … Continue reading
Time-lapse Video, 900 hours of work and move to airport.
This video includes all the time-lapse footage I have from January 2014 until August 2015. It’s essentially the entire build of the airframe. It’s missing the first 200 hours of the project because I didn’t have the camera setup for that portion of the build.
730 Hour Project Update (Timelapse Video)
It’s now been 11 months since I took delivery of my Waiex kit last November. I took off 3 months of building during the summer, so I essentially have spent 8 months of actual building time on the project. I previously made an update at 500 hours and included a time-lapse video that showed the … 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
December time-lapse video
I created a time-lapse video of my workshop using pictures I’ve taken during the build, from 2 perspectives. I have 2 tripods setup in fixed positions to give myself a stable platform to duplicate my shots, but there’s still a bit of wiggle, I’ve done my best to smooth it out. The video basically has … Continue reading
Empennage #7 (Completion)
Total build time: 211 hours. Now that I have my skins polished, it’s time to rivet together the remainder of the empennage. Ruddervators: Rudder: I then clecoed the stabilators to the aft fuselage and installed my new parts to check fitment. Everything fits and looks great!
Empennage and turtledeck polishing.
Total build time: 208 hours. With several large skins ready for riveting, I needed to get some polishing out of the way before proceeding with construction. I’ve decided that I will not be painting my aircraft (other than the small fiberglass parts, wing tips etc.) There are several reasons for this including looks, weight savings, … Continue reading
Empennage #6 (Rudder)
Total build time: 201 hours. Some might wonder why this airplane is called the Waiex and not the VeeEx. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s because this is actually a Y-tailed aircraft, as opposed to a V-tailed aircraft that has been more prevalent in the past (such as the V-tailed Bonanza.) This fact … Continue reading
Empennage #5 (Stabilators)
Total build time: 193 hours. Airplanes that have a “conventional tail” have 2 types of control surfaces in the empennage: a rudder and an elevator. Since my plane is a “Y” tail, it has a special name for the primary tail control surfaces: ruddervator. Clever. The shape of these surfaces came to me pre-formed … Continue reading
Empennage #4 (Stabilator Skins)
Total build time: 65 hours. With the stabilator substructures complete, it’s time to move on to the skins. Say it with me… cleco, updrill, disassemble, deburr, cleco, rivet! It’s my new mantra. And in this case, add in the extra step of polishing the skin for a few passes prior to riveting. Fiberglass … Continue reading
Empennage #3 (First Rivets!)
Total build time: 34 hours. Finally, after having deburred the parts and reassembled them using clecoes, I’m ready to start riveting! This is my very first rivet. And the rest… It’s funny how the parts tend to look flashier when they have clecoes in them, but for me seeing the part finished … Continue reading
Empenage #2 (Stabilators)
Total build time: 31 hours. After verifying fitment and shape of the stabilators, I began the up-drilling process. First up is the hockey sticks to the front spar. The silver clecoes are in pilot holes (3/32″), and the copper clecoes are in the up-drilled holes (1/8″.) Then comes the deburring process. I’m pretty sure … Continue reading