airplane - tons of work, blog not so much

I'm finding it more and more difficult to keep my blog up to date - I've accomplished much in the last few weeks.  A lot of it has been routine fitting, drilling, cleco stuff so I haven't been taking many pictures.  There are a few updates to share though.

​With the one side partly secured with clecos, I moved the stab to the other bench.  A large square steel tube was placed on the top to gently bend the skin partially into position before we tightened the ratchet straps to pull the skin down tight around the nose and upper surface.

Long strips of wood help spread the strap loads across the length allowing for fine adjustment.  You have to be real careful here, too tight and the skin can collapse at the nose, leading to damaging kinks.

With the fit confirmed, I made a few reference marks, then it all comes apart and I can start the process of measuring the skin for holes.  This is the only way to make sure the skin rivets are centered on the ribs as I don't have the luxury of pre-drilled skins.

Measure twice and then twice again, using the stab skeleton as a reference.

Again, I don't have any photos of the assembly, but the process is the same as above - weigh down the skin with the metal tube, use the straps to draw the skin down tight.  The only thing that's different this time is drilling through the skin holes and into the structure below.  I worked from the nose back to the rear edge (right to left in the photo) and from centre section out to the tips.  Each hole gets a cleco until the rear most holes, ensuring a tight and bubble free fit.

Spar lines front and rear are drawn and rivet holes drilled.  These don't have to be done with the skin off as the spar is a straight line and on this side the spar isn't pre-drilled.  Again, measure 3 times - it's important the spar holes are centred on the spar flange:

I'm happy with how this turned out.  Next step was using the template I made earlier to start laying out the slots for the horizontal stab brackets

This cutting is very delicate.  The skin needs to be trimmed to be flush with the spar so the brackets sit flat and vertical against the spar.  Cutting the skin is fairly easy, but any damage to the spar will be fatal!

I traced out the approximate location of the slots using the template and confirming with the plans started a pilot hole

I used a Dremel tool and rotary burl bit to slowly expand the hole enough so i could see where the rivet holes in the spar for the bracket are:

With a confirmed visual and measured slot location, I redrew the hole on the skin and slowly used the burr and some gentle hand filing to get it to the correct shape and location, ever mindful not to cut or mark the spar.  Round files make a perfect corner:

Eventually with patience, the stab bracket fits nice and straight in the hole and perfectly vertical and flush with the spar underneath (it's sitting a little low inside the stab here as I couldn't hold it and take a photo at the same time!)

With that experience, the second slot went well too.  I cleaned up the ragged edges a bit using a Dremel sanding/cutoff disc.  The slots still have to be deburred properly, but that will come when the skin is off for full deburring:

On another note, Dad and I travelled to St. Hubert airport outisde of Montreal to attend the first flight of a C47/DC3 know as C-FDTD.  We've been following the epic journey of Mikey McBryan (of Ice Pilots fame) and his Plane Savers team as they restore to flight a WW2 D-day survivor - a DC3 that dropped paratroopers over Normandy on D-day and during operation Market Garden,  and that was sitting derelict, falling victim to vandals and the passage of time being slowly destroyed by neglect.

Here are a few personal pics of that trip - motivational for sure!  For a full experience and to see what an amazing accomplishment this is, checkout www.planesavers.ca - of particular interest, watch the YouTube segments from the beginning - awesome and well worth your time!

Here is a copy of the flyer they were handing out to guests:

What an honour to be there and share this with Dad and the thousands of others who followed the restoration was unbelievably amazing.....  what a great feeling watching it take to the sky again!  All I could think about were are brave young countrymen that participated in the D-Day invasion exactly 75 years prior - God bless them and thank you for our freedoms!

Touching history!

I was so happy to share this adventure with Dad.  As I post this blog on Father's Day, I'm reminded how much influence Dad has had on my life, particularly a love for aviation history.  Thanks Dad!
​
While in the Montreal area, I also picked up a left/right set of fibreglass wingtips for my 750.  These retail for $160USD a piece and I grabbed this uncut pair for $100CAD.  Steal!

So, it's been a productive couple of weeks.  Next up, I'll finish the stab skin, get the stab brackets installed permanently and proceed to skin the elevator. Once I have it skinned, I begin the process to line them up together and drill the mount holes for the hinge points.

Thanks for reading, more to come :)