Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Back to work after a huge break! (1.5)

1.5 hours

Alright it has been about 3.5 years since my last post!  It has been a busy time so the Waiex got put on the back burner.  Long story short, I got commissioned in the Air Force, moved from Wisconsin to Oklahoma, went through pilot training, got my wings, moved again to Arkansas, and finally have my own house again and little chance of moving for a few more years.  So I haven't made any progress on my long term airplane project, but I did accomplish one of my long term life goals of becoming a military pilot!

Anyway, I have been gradually setting up a new shop in the basement, and it is pretty much usable now.  I'll post some pictures of it later.  Today I finally busted all the parts out of storage, where they have sat through two moves and three years, and took an inventory of what I had packed up.  I think everything made it without any significant damage, except one stabilator rib flange that got a tiny bit bent.  I'll see if I can straighten it out but if that's all I have to do over then I'd call that not too bad!

Next I started catching up to where I had left off.  I was working on creating all the C-channel ribs for the stabilators.  Having almost no memory of how I built the ones I have done, I sat down with a ruler and the drawings and checked all my work.  Everything looked good from what I can tell, except for the very first rib I built which I knew was kind of off as soon as I built it.  So I will rebuild that one and maybe the one that got a little bent.
That's all for now!  It's good to be working on this thing again!