The Barn Find Build

[Eric Page]

Had to take another couple of days off from the Kitfox to install a check valve in the footing drain pipe from my house, and install a sump pump in the crawl space. Sadly, the pump had to go at the opposite end of the house from the crawl space entrance, and the soil under my house is sticky, wet clay. Not a fun project!

Over the last couple of days, I finished sanding the adhesive and fabric coatings off of the wing skeletons. After finishing the first wing without any damage, I managed to break the tip off of one false rib (in my defense, it had already been broken and glued once before), as well as breaking loose the adhesive bond where three false ribs attach to the front spar. No pictures today; just imagine two clean, smooth wings!

[Eric Page]

Hard to believe it's been more than a month. The delay involved a failed sump pump (during a rainstorm, of course) and badly rat-damaged HVAC ducting and insulation in my parents' home. My advice: if you have seed feeders in your yard to attract birds, get rid of them. They're rat-magnets.

Anyway, you might disagree, but I'm calling this progress:

Today I removed a false rib that was broken by the first builder, then sanded the mounting spots smooth in preparation for fitting a replacement (which I have three of thanks to forum member "Porky" -- thanks!). There will be two more to replace on the other wing, eventually.

Then I changed the oil/filter on the lawn tractor, completely rearranged the garage to make room to park it out of my way, stacked all the other yard tools in a corner, swept out the garage, and turned the shipping crate from my new S7 elevator frame into a 10 ft x 3-1/2 ft work table.

With that done, I cleaned the rudder torque tube parts with acetone in preparation for primer. That will have to wait for my next session; since I had the garage doors open, it was far too cold in there to spray primer this evening.

The last few weeks haven't been a total loss. I spent an alarming amount of money on airplane parts and hardware from Kitfox and Spruce, as well as a big, long box from Germany with my Oratex in it. Hopefully I can get at least one part covered before my glue goes bad. It didn't occur to me that I might be ordering it too soon. I'm storing it in a warm spot, shaking the bottles weekly and keeping my fingers crossed.

I also bought a bore scope camera with the intent of inspecting the inside of anything it will fit into, including the wing spars, wing struts and fuel tanks. More to come on the results of that.