Wing Ribs Part 3 (1.5)

1.5 hours

I had a little time this morning to knock out a few more ribs!

Wing Ribs Part 2 (3)

3 hours

More making of gussets and reinforcing the wing ribs!

Wing spars and wing ribs (3)

3 hours

I drilled some of the parts to the right main spar, then I made all the little reinforcing gussets for the forward wing ribs.  Then I started riveting them to the forward ribs!

Starting to figure out the wings (2.5)

2.5 hours

Today I spent two and a half hours getting started on the wings, and for more than half of that time I just stared at the plans wrapping my brain around how everything will go together.  The Waiex B-model comes with pre-assembled wing spars, which will save a ton of time.  There are still several parts that I'll need to bolt to the spars, however, before I can start attaching ribs.  The airframe kit doesn't come with hardware, and Sonex isn't selling complete B-model hardware kits yet, so I think I'm just going to order the nuts and bolts that I need to complete this part now so I can get started.  Then I'll order the rest of the hardware later.

Correction!  Sonex just started selling the B-model hardware kits a couple weeks ago.  I'm still going to just order the hardware I need for now though since it's only a few dollars, and the complete hardware kit is over $1300!

Pallet Work Table (1)

1 hour

I took my huge pallet apart, trimmed the OSB sheets down to match the width of my sawhorses (42"), hauled everything down to the shop, and built myself a 10' long table.  Pretty easy!

More unpacking and inventory (3)

3 hours

Finally got everything moved inside and unpacked!  Inventory complete, and it looks like I'm only missing two small parts...  Not bad for a shipment of over 500 parts!

This huge box contains, the canopy, fuel tank, and fiberglass parts which I won't need for a while.  It can stay in the garage for now!

These plastic drawer units and white shelving parts were all just laying around the house not being used.  Both came in handy for storing small parts and long parts!

The big flat parts take up almost no space behind the couch.

Plenty of space to work!

Airframe Kit Delivery! (5)

5 hours

Alright well life and work got busy, so after over a year of neglecting my project I'm back at it.  On the plus side, after saving my pennies during a fun and exciting summer job in Afghanistan I was able to order the rest of my airframe kit!

The timing actually worked out pretty well, since Sonex recently released their B-models and they also put on a fall sale right when I was looking to order.  So I saved a bunch of money and got myself a B-model, which didn't exist when I started.

I'm now officially building Waiex-B #21!

The kit arrived this afternoon which gave me an excuse to ditch work early and help the guy unload it into my garage.  It came in four boxes on a 4'x10' pallet, plus a long crate which contains the assembled wing spars.  We took all the boxes off the pallet and just carried each of them plus the pallet into the garage, since I don't have a forklift.  It was no problem between me and the delivery guy, anyway.

All the boxes in the garage

Wing spars and the leading edge skins

Fuel tank and wing ribs, which were buried in one of the big boxes.

The contents of the other long box

Then I spent the afternoon and evening moving everything into my basement shop and inventorying all the parts.  I got almost all the parts moved downstairs, but I'll have to take the long parts around the backyard since they won't fit through the house.  I didn't feel like doing that today though since it was raining.

Some of the stuff moved downstairs

BUT, after several hours I have gone through all the parts that I moved inside, which is almost all of them.

Taking inventory!

Parts

One of the changes that Sonex did with the B-model was add a lot of pretty cool billet aluminum parts.  These will form the canopy frame (the old version used tubing and took a lot of messing around to make the canopy fit).

The best and strongest type of rivets.

Just a few rivets included.

The pretty adorable landing gear.  The only extra-cost option that I've bought so far is the 6" machined tailwheel, and it actually looks pretty nice!