Thursday 15 April 2010

Back to the build - Big Build Thursday


After a few days off from the build enjoying myself flying and sorting out plenty of overdue jobs I got back into the workshop today and spent 5 hours preparing some of the skins for the tail cone. It was odd to be in the workshop today with no aircraft flying over the house as I'm only a few miles from Manchester International Airport as all UK airspace was closed today due to Volcanic Ash read more here.

I needed to track down a tool from Avery's Tools UK supplier to prepare some of the tail cone skin edges for lap joints, a whole new experience for me but I think it went well.... Guess I'll find out when I start to rivet things together! I've been surprised by how much work is involved in deburring the tail cone skins as it a manual job with a file and scotch brite pads. I've stripped the blue plastic from the Fuselage Frames and match drilled a couple of holes as well today and know they are also going to take some work to prepare.

My work benches are working a treat and I hope to be able to complete the tail cone on them as I have about 8ft/9ft of length to work with. I've also recycled the empennage packing case into a raised planting bed for my garden which looks great.