They were and they let me peek at the Naughty List, too, but I was sworn to secrecy! 😉
They were and they let me peek at the Naughty List, too, but I was sworn to secrecy! 😉
Metal movement has commenced.
The inventory took a few days over Christmas break. It was very satisfying, almost zen-like. Start with Box 1, lay out the bags, find the PN in the inventory sheet and mark it off. I was only stumped by 3 items - the fuel placard sheets are in the big white, sealed envelope. Open it to find the PNs. The STi wing kit box is listed on the sheets as a separate item. If you get to the end and that’s the only item not checked, you already inventoried the box (it’s in box 8, fwiw). Lastly, the hinged turtle deck instructions were missing. Heather emailed me a copy and that was it.
Here’s my 2c on reaming.
tl;dr: file down the round end of the reamer to fit into a nut socket; takes 10 minutes. Then use a screw-driver with flex extension, 7/16” nut fitting, attached to the reamer. Use painters tape to affix popsicle sticks to the horizon stab to prevent scratching.
Dad was a sucker for cheap tools and barn sales. 30+ years ago he bought me a screwdriver with a flex extension. I hated that thing, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Well, today it earned its keep.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9gPSCn37y7L8GA6U7
Work has been ongoing. Slower than I want, of course, but it’s been steady. So far the best purchase I’ve made is the table drill press. I’ve used it for a bunch of stuff including sanding the horizontal stab ribs to size. Take a round pencil, wrap masking tape around it until just under size of the LE tube, then wrap some 100 grit sand paper and tape it on. 600 RPM and sand away.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1Sh5LSBxaa3ZrqCA6
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Sizing the bearings with sandpaper was taking too long, so I mounted them on the drill press and used a single cut file for the rough sizing. 600 rpm, 10 passes at medium pressure takes off 1mil of size. About 40 passes takes enough metal off for the bearings to fit in the bushings.
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To press the bushings into the horizontal and elevator fittings, use a long course thread bolt with extra nuts and tighten. Slow and steady and no need to use Locktite.
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I glued up the rib stiffeners before installing on the plane. Laid flat, no need to use flox in the epoxy. Also, I used sandwich baggies with an itty-bitty hole cut in the corner (1/16”) to apply it like cake frosting. You can mix up about 2/3 oz. at a time before the epoxy sets up too thick to squeeze.
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My first screw up. The ribs closest to the fuse NEED to be pressed up against the metal on the horiz stab to allow for the vertical stab sheet metal installation. I used a medium course wood rasp (double-cut file) to carefully file away the epoxy. When the ribs were off, I used a Dremel tool with course sandpaper barrel to sand off the epoxy to remove the rib stiffener. Live and learn (and read the fine print!). This is the WRONG way to install the ribs:
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One of the other builder (apologies, I haven’t memorized names, yet) discovered that the foam used for the stab and elevator tips melts when covering with Oratex, so I ordered some balsa blocks and used that instead. They turned out pretty good, I think.
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Installing the horizontal poly blocks. Have I mentioned that I really like the drill press I bought?
Note: the builders kit doesn’t include a #34 bit to drill these holes. Booo!
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Your build is coming along very nice.
Harlan and Susan Payne
Flying FarmFox STI Kitfox N61HP
Rotax 915is, Airmaster prop.
https://www.youtube.com/@KitfoxPilot/videos