aviator79's build

[jrevens]

That's looking very good, Brian!

[David47]

Wow, that's roughly 80 hours per month. Outstanding Brian. Your workmanship looks excellent and you'll be finished in no time ..... I'm 12 months in and am logging my hours. Roughly 600 hours to date.

Also, just curious why you're using aluminium AN fittings on your pitot and static mast tubes.

[aviator79]

I log my hours in a spreadsheet that continuously computes my average weekly time spent. 18.2 as of today. I don't yet know if I can sustain this average throughout the build. I'm not in a hurry to finish per se; I just don't want to lose momentum.

I'm using the AN fittings because they came with the Dynon install kit, and that's what the instructions say to use. I don't have a more technical rationale than that, I'm afraid. The other side of the fitting is NPT, which mates to a push-in tube fitting. I pointed the fittings straight up to make it fairly easy to install, maintain and repair.

[Clark in AZ]

Hey Brian, looks great! You're sure moving on with the build.

What is the tool to the left of the pitot tube in this pic? Some kind of tubing bender? I can't have enough tools!

Clark

[PaulSS]

I think it's one of those tools that you use to widen the hole in the aluminium tubes (from the pitot tube) in order that you can then attach the blue fittings to them. I've never used one but a mate of mine showed me how they work once. Damned if I can remember though

[colospace]

I'll chime in here. That's a tube flaring tool for putting the flare on the tube as required for the AN fitting.

[jiott]

Right Gary. I also have one of those; its a very nice flaring tool made by Parker I believe (about $50 when I bought mine). You will need to borrow or buy some sort of flaring tool when you install the aluminum fuel lines with AN fittings.

[Esser]

Great pace Brian! Momentum is everything. At this pace we will be flying at the same time

[aviator79]

That is, in fact, a tube flaring tool for AN flared fittings. Piece of cake to use. I'm fortunate in that our EAA chapter has a tool crib from which I could rent it for $5. They are about $100 now I think, I don't intend to make that many flares.

[aviator79]

A lot of work this week, but not much to say. The left wing is now covered. Some extra poly-brush on the fiberglass and taking care of pinholes before spraying poly brush worked to prevent pinholes during spraying.

I got a start on the wingtip, but this one will be a bit more challenging. The scribe line(s) are in bad shape. They are missing entirely in some places, and the parts of scribe line I can find aren't colinear. I'm going to use the right wingtip and a laser line to make the left a mirror image of the right.