Spent the afternoon starting layout of the elevator and epoxying 2 joints at the end corners of the elevator. I’d previously laminated several pieces and now I’m ready to “bring it all together”.

I’m building the elevator over a full size set of blueprints – the plastic protects the drawing underneath. Click on the image for a larger image.

There are 5 of us guys in our Experimental Aircraft Association hangar, each building a different type of airplane, and sometimes there’s more talk than work – especially on a beautiful, warm (hot in the hangar!) Sunday afternoon.

One of the guys asked, “How’s the real estate business?”

“Terrible” I replied – catching him a bit off guard. I explained the lack of inventory is driving the market place into a frenzy right now.

“But that’s good for you, right?” he asked.

I explained that a grocery store makes its money by how many times it can move (sell) that can of corn sitting on the shelf. If it only sells the can once a year, that’s not good. But if it can sell that can of corn many times a year, that’s good. That’s like the real business – if we don’t have inventory to sell, that’s not good. And the market place is all gummed up right now, but that’s another story for another day.

Here’s a shot of what the inside of our hangar looks like. Geoff’s building a sheet metal airplane called an RV-9, a very fast cross country airplane. My work space is in the back, under the light. I’ve got 2 finished wings (the lower wings) hanging in the rafters and 2 wings in a cradle (the upper wings).

Once I’ve finished the elevator, I’ve got to build the small “wing” that’s over the fuselage that connects the 2 upper wings together. In olden days (1930s), that’s where the gas tank was. If I want longer range, I too could put a gas tank up there. We’ll see!

Many of you know I’m (very slowly) building a replica of a 1930s era bi-plane at Camarillo airport. The 4 wings (upper and lower, each side) are now finished and hanging from the ceiling in the hangar.

I’ve started building the small wing at the back of the plane called the horizontal stabilizer. Ultimately, the elevator (the control surface that moves up and down) will be attached to the rear of the stabilizer.

I have a full size blueprint so I decided to simply use it as a template and build right on top of the drawing. The curve of the stabilizer is made by bending 8 pieces of birch wood strips, epoxy’d one strip at a time.

The front leading edge turned out nicely and then I started adding the interior pieces and the trailing edge.

After the the interior pieces were epoxy’d and set, I cut a million (it seemed like it!) pieces of blocking to strengthen each of the connections.  After those connectins had set, I then cut sections of 1/16″ plywood gussets to cover several of them for additional strength.

But I also cut larger pieces of 1/16″ plywood to strengthen the leading edge of the stabilizer (top and bottom) – can’t get enough clamps when you’re gluing!

The stabilizer is almost done, but a major job is still left – I need to carefully shape the leading edge of that 8 piece glue-laminated “beam” into a curved bullet-shaped section. It’ll be roughly a 3/4″ radius.

Ultimately, the whole thing gets covered in fabric.

Yesterday I forgot that it was the first Saturday of the month. I’m a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and our chapter sponsors a youth program called the “Young Eagles”. This program gives kids their first airplane ride and every first Saturday pilots from our chapter bring their airplanes and donate their time for those flights.

While the kids wait for their flights, many of them wander into our hangar and it’s fun to show them “stuff” involved with building.

I set up a place for these two boys to learn how to use a drill, use clamps to hold the wood, change the bits, etc. Who knows – maybe someday they’ll want to build their own airplane!

I’ve finished the 4 wings (finally) and built stanchions that allow me to turn the wings for easier access in varnishing.

Trying to figure out which was most efficient, brushing or spraying, I ended up deciding to spray the wings.

Here’s what spraying on the varnish looks like!

With the 4 wings all finished now on my Tiger Moth project, and after attending a huge airshow in Wisconsin this summer (EAA’s Oshkosh show), I got the crazy idea – could I power my Tiger Moth on electricity?  How cool would that be?!? The short answer is no – because energy storage isn’t there yet.

But this past week, NASA (with Google sponsoring prize $$) had a competition under the CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) foundation with a top prize of $1,350,000 for the winner, to be announced on Monday (yesterday).

Because most of the aircraft were electric (or hybrid), I was very interested so Leslie (bless her!) and I went up over the weekend to see these e-airplanes. Who won?

Read the rest of this article »

What did I get myself into I thought as I volunteered to be a “pylon dog” at the Camarillo air show?!?

The air show organizers tried to bring a high level of excitement and buzz to the show this year by having another organization bring their race to Camarillo. Seven aerobatic planes would “race” down the field, slaloming between 60′ – 70′ high inflatable pylons – cool!

I envisioned having to stand next to these things while the planes screamed just over my head. I’d been told that in practice (at another field), the planes got as low as 7′ – but I figured, that’s okay – I’m less than 6′ tall, so no problem…

Besides, I was told the FAA had set a minimum floor of 15′ for these guys – lots of room!

But ultimately, there was no racing because of lots of complications between the race organizers and the FAA. – bummer.

But what a beautiful weekend for an air show – lots of sun, noise and smoke as all types of planes flew throughout the weekend.

And we put up the pylons each day to give the crowd an idea of what the race may have looked like  – maybe next year! Read the rest of this article »