2/19/2000 - Purchased this plane at the Chesaning swap meet. Got it for only $115.2/26/2000 - Started
Working. Building Stab. 1 Hour
2/27/2000 - Stab, oops had to
use the un-CA as I started to mess up the elevator. 2 Hours
2/28/2000 -
Finished covering Stab and Elevator. 1 Hour+
2/29/2000 - Build
Rudder and Fin. Covered 3 Hours. Tail is complete.
3/4/2000 -
Start building fuse 1 Hour. Man this is a fat plane. I hope to
be able to order everything except for the engine and plane in a week or so.
3/5/2000
- Finish frame for upper fuse half. 4 Hours. Time to sheet it
and move on to the bottom.
3/8/2000 - Attach one fuse sheeting
side. Lots of bending and pinning. 1 Hour
3/9/2000 -
Attack other fuse sheeting side. Made 2 steps, seems to be easier to
wet, bend and then pin. When dry, take of and clue on with pins.
1.5 Hours. Cut hinge slots for rudder and elevator. 0.5 Hours.
3/25/2000
- Finish Rear upper fuse sheeting. 2 Hours.
3/26/2000 - Finish
Forward upper fuse sheeting. 1 Hour.
3/27/2000 - Upper fuse
sheeting completed. 0.5
Hours
4/16/2000 - Sanded top of fuse to match with canopy.
0.5 Hours.
4/18/2000 - Realized that the top spine of the fuse does
not match up with the tail. Will have to make the fuse wider to be
able to sand it properly to align up, damn.
4/22/2000 - Spine and
fuse align now. Just bad lighting and some creative sanding.
Finished razorback fuse connections (?). 0.50 Hours. Cleaned up
all of the wasted glue which had drained to the bottom of the fuse top half
when on the board. What a mess and waste of glue. 0.50
Hours. Time to move onto the bottom fuse. Checking the internet
to see if it is OK to move the Robart retractable tail wheel to F9B in stead
of between F9B and F8B. Guessing ok, but not sure.
4/30/2000
- Purchased the engine and prop today, what a monster! Using a Saito
120 with a 18x6? prop.
5/8/2000 -
Working on the bottom fuse. Making the tail wheel bracket by
hand. Will make in same position as the stock fixed tail wheel.
5/9/2000
-> 6/3/2000 - Working on the tail wheel assembly. Need to jump
ahead to the servo installation so I know the proper throws. Also need
to check the retract part so that I know the amount of movement for proper
tail movement. Also making the bell crank assembly for the pull-pull
system. Got the retractable tail wheel to retract. Now need to
spend time making it steer too. 5 Hours. Too many hours, spent
most time actually just looking at it and trying to figure out what to do.
6/11/2000
- Hook up pull pull for steering. Length is correct to connect to
pushrod for rudder. First attempt of steering hookup not good because
too much force for servo. 3 Hours. Decided to use 2 Aileron
servos. Will place the second one where the drop tanks go, or,
depending on wing installation, closer to the actual control surface.
6/12/2000 - Make ply mount
for bell crank (actually from a control line steering mechanism), steering with
retracts work
very good now! 2 Hours.
8/14/2000 - Moved plane downstairs to work
on. Time to start to build wing.
8/18/2000 - Decided to
deviate from the plans and move the aileron servos out next to the aileron
controls instead of being at the center of the wing. That adds wires,
but should make the controls much better.
8/20/2000 - Spent half of
the day framing up the first (left) wing half. 5 Hours. Now
sheeting the flaps and then should be able to move onto the second
half. Using 3/32 instead of 1/16 for the skins. Should be much
smoother and only a very small amount heavier.
9/3/2000 - Sheet
flaps and Ailerons on First wing (left) 2 Hours. Frame wing and sheet
flaps and ailerons on second wing (right) 5 hours. Join the 2 wing halves.
2 Hours. Most of the time spent double checking alignment.
Realize right wing is warped about 1/16". Trying to correct
slightly at this phase.
