That feeling of euphoria over how fast building is going has slowly waned away as I work on the final phases of the fuel tanks and wings. It's actually pretty easy to put some ribs together and attach skin to it - but when it comes to the finer details like fuel tank sealing, wing tips... you know - stuff you absolutely MUST get right the first time, it starts to drag. Not that getting ribs and skin together doesn't have to be done correctly, that part of the assembly is more of just repeating the same task over and over again. The fuel tanks and wing tips - those are new areas for me, so let's slow down a bit.
Fuel Tanks:
I got the remainder over the rivets and finished (what I thought) sealing the second tank. The entire tank assembly process has been of concern because there is no room for error. One tiny leak could lead to weeks of trying to work around or through it. And guess what - I'm there. I tried to do a water test - the water in the line leveled right out. It's not supposed to level if there is pressure in the tank. So I cobbled together some items to do a balloon test... the balloon inflates a tiny little bit but won't expand. So that's going to be this weekends job is to suss out the leaks and resolve them.
Wings:
I have both of the leading edges outside of the fuel tanks on the wings at this time minus one of the leading edge stiffeners is a bit shorter than the left wing. I've had a few email exchanges with technical at Sling in South Africa and they have given me the go-ahead to use the one I have. I didn't *think* it would be an issue, but I wanted to confirm before I riveted it in place. The edge that mates up with the fuel tank just won't have about 1/2" of extra stiffener going from the leading edge into the fuel tank.
Other than that, the rear fuselage is riveted together and once I can wrap up the fuel tanks and wings I can move onto the rest of the fuselage.
Two other big milestones that aren't terribly interesting to watch in the video, but I spent a full day tearing down all five of the shipping crates. The trash man picked them up today. I needed to get that done here soon because in the next few weeks I expect to get a call from TAF with my finishing kit and possibly interior. I was down to just one shipping crate for the fuselage over at my father-in-laws garage. He was perfectly fine with leaving it there, but I was getting to a point where I was needing all these little odds and ends to assemble the fuselage and often I was needing to dig through the shipping container to find that one part. That involved emptying everything out, looking around a bit, finding it and then putting it all back. Everything left is in the basement in my house now, and it's spread out around the room so I can quickly identify it when the time comes.
The other milestone is I got a rack build for the wings to live on when I get the wing tips onto the wings. When the wingtips go on, the jig the wings sit on now won't work any longer. I got the rack from Aaron Stampa who is now flying his Sling and reworked it to what I thought worked best. Four 8" heavy duty casters from Harbor Freight and some extra 2x4's from Lowes and it looks ready to do the job. There is still some question as to how I'm going to handle the wings on the rack - but I think it's going to come down to some heavy weave fabric or carpet or something like that. I have to go do a bit of browsing at the store to get that dialed in. If you look at the pictures here, you'll see the rack in the end.
Anyway - short update this time around. The video will have more commentary. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll feel confident about the state of the fuel tanks and have that behind me.
Fuel Tanks:
I got the remainder over the rivets and finished (what I thought) sealing the second tank. The entire tank assembly process has been of concern because there is no room for error. One tiny leak could lead to weeks of trying to work around or through it. And guess what - I'm there. I tried to do a water test - the water in the line leveled right out. It's not supposed to level if there is pressure in the tank. So I cobbled together some items to do a balloon test... the balloon inflates a tiny little bit but won't expand. So that's going to be this weekends job is to suss out the leaks and resolve them.
Wings:
I have both of the leading edges outside of the fuel tanks on the wings at this time minus one of the leading edge stiffeners is a bit shorter than the left wing. I've had a few email exchanges with technical at Sling in South Africa and they have given me the go-ahead to use the one I have. I didn't *think* it would be an issue, but I wanted to confirm before I riveted it in place. The edge that mates up with the fuel tank just won't have about 1/2" of extra stiffener going from the leading edge into the fuel tank.
Other than that, the rear fuselage is riveted together and once I can wrap up the fuel tanks and wings I can move onto the rest of the fuselage.
Two other big milestones that aren't terribly interesting to watch in the video, but I spent a full day tearing down all five of the shipping crates. The trash man picked them up today. I needed to get that done here soon because in the next few weeks I expect to get a call from TAF with my finishing kit and possibly interior. I was down to just one shipping crate for the fuselage over at my father-in-laws garage. He was perfectly fine with leaving it there, but I was getting to a point where I was needing all these little odds and ends to assemble the fuselage and often I was needing to dig through the shipping container to find that one part. That involved emptying everything out, looking around a bit, finding it and then putting it all back. Everything left is in the basement in my house now, and it's spread out around the room so I can quickly identify it when the time comes.
The other milestone is I got a rack build for the wings to live on when I get the wing tips onto the wings. When the wingtips go on, the jig the wings sit on now won't work any longer. I got the rack from Aaron Stampa who is now flying his Sling and reworked it to what I thought worked best. Four 8" heavy duty casters from Harbor Freight and some extra 2x4's from Lowes and it looks ready to do the job. There is still some question as to how I'm going to handle the wings on the rack - but I think it's going to come down to some heavy weave fabric or carpet or something like that. I have to go do a bit of browsing at the store to get that dialed in. If you look at the pictures here, you'll see the rack in the end.
Anyway - short update this time around. The video will have more commentary. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll feel confident about the state of the fuel tanks and have that behind me.
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