167 combined hours, one rattle can, and a garage to reclaim.
The empennage is done! Well, mostly. There's about an hour left on the stabilator fairing, and I'm saving the VS and rudder fairings and all the mounting hardware for final assembly, since the empennage won't fit in my…
Shelby almost laps me on hours, and the priming finally clicks.
Another 23 hours combined this weekend (8 for me, 15 for Shelby). She almost lapped me in hours with all the deburring. Deburring, cleaning, etching, priming
Big pieces, fiberglass dust, and running the W&B math early.
Another 13 hours combined this weekend (5.5 for me, 7.5 for Shelby). Tailcone deburring
A month away, a first solo, and the rivets that fought back.
It's been over a month since the last update. Not much has changed on the build, but a lot has happened. Flight training
Rudder, stabilator, tailcone — and the process that ties it together.
We've made a lot more progress. It doesn't look like much because we're priming everything, but it's one more bite of the elephant. Our process
The vertical stabilizer is done. Cleco, uncleco, cleco, uncleco.
Another 5 hours each on the empennage. Mistakes happen
A priming table, a paint scheme, and signing up for wrench school.
It's been a while since an update. Between the basement remodel, family visiting, and flight lessons, the build took a back seat for a few weeks. We're back in full swing now. Another 6.5 hours for me, 8 hours for Shelb…
The kit shows up and the vertical stabilizer comes together.
Kit arrival The empennage arrived on Thursday, February 26. Pretty quick shipping from Vans — the kit tracker estimated it would ship on 2/12 and I got the ABF Freight pickup email on 2/17. Shipping came to $947.