Germany I (Mar-Oct 2012)

I arrived in Germany in late July 2011.  I spent the first 5 weeks looking for a place to live and then was deployed shortly afterwards to Vicenza, Italy for another 5 weeks.  By the time I moved into my place in October 2011, the weather was getting much cooler and my garage was unheated and had no power.  So I decided to hold off on the build and enjoy the holidays build-free.

I shipped most of my shop to Germany thinking that I would add more weight to the project and to my return household goods shipment by building the airplane bits ‘n pieces (epoxy adds weight), and then getting rid of a bunch of shop stuff.  By ridding myself of all the shop table frames, foldaway glass-cutting table, raw particle board (for center section spar jig), etc., I hope it all would equalize out as a zero sum weight gain.  We’ll see!

I spent March & April 2012 prepping the garage and a utility room as the two primary workshops.  I had to outfit (read: buy) the shops with 220V lights and extension cords.  For the garage, I ran extensions cords from the back of the house and my front kitchen window.  Also, any specialized US-spec tool had to be run through a transformer… as you can see, a lot of plugging/unplugging just to finish the simplest tasks.  And since Germany is cold/cool most of the year, I had 2-3 heaters that I ran A LOT (electric bill was HIGH!).

In Germany I, the chapter build order does NOT follow the plans since I was prioritizing the build based on which sections would use the most epoxy (more on that in the posts).

• Feather Lite Order – Inventory

• Shop Preparation – “Chapter 3 Prep Round 2”

• Chapter 6 Part 2 – Fuselage Repair & Assembly

• Chapter 7 – Fuselage Exterior

• Chapter 8 – Rollover Structure & Seat Belts

• Section VI – Landing Brake

• Chapter 9 – Main Gear

• Chapter 16 & 24 – Covers, Fairings & Consoles

• Chapter 19 – Wings Build Prep

.                        Right Wing Build

.                        Left Wing Build

• Chapter 20 – Winglets

• Chapter 14 – Center Section Spar: Spar Box

.                        Center Section Spar: Shear Web & Spar Caps

.                        Center Section Spar: Final Steps

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent Posts

Project Update

Hi Folks,

I’m slowly backing my way out of the rabbit hole on my front seat throttle and mixture cables and LEFT sidewall component installs, with all the left front sidewall components, electronic gadgets & wiring either installed and/or accounted for.  In addition, the painting of the left front armrest is complete. 

I now plan on commencing to work my way back, via the GIB throttle install, to the engine install and compartment tasks.

Again, this multi-week detour I just made leaves pretty much just the panel forward to install & wire up as well as some nose components final install/configuration (nearly all done already).  Beyond that, we’re talking a week to tweak/finish the canard, and then final micro finish and paint. 

That of course is after I focus on my true strategic target: the exhaust pipes… still relatively just around the corner.  I have some surgery to do on the exhaust pipes, and wanted some of the low hanging fruit involving the engine off the plate before I dig in on the exhaust pipes.  After the exhaust pipes I’ll work full bore on the cowlings and the strake-wing intersections.

I’m still intent to focus solely on the plane for the next however long it takes to finish this bird… ASAP!  

  1. Chapter 16/22/23 – Chasing wires Leave a reply
  2. Chapter 22 – Sisyphus’ rock Leave a reply
  3. Chapter 16/22/24 – Cabin Antics Leave a reply
  4. Chapter 16/22/25 – Oil, Heat & Paint! Leave a reply
  5. Chapter 16/22/25 – Left armrest painted Leave a reply
  6. Chapter 16/22 – Storage cover installed Leave a reply
  7. Chapter 16/23 – New friction lock Leave a reply
  8. Chapter 16/23 – Friction Lock Pocket Leave a reply
  9. Chapter 16/23 – More armrest tasks Leave a reply