Empennage - October 2005

10/3/2005		Okay, so you might be wondering why I haven't updated in a little while. Yup, that's right, our other "project" has come to fruition. (Though one might argue that the "project" is just beginning.) Lillian Robin Longley was born on 9/29/2005 and is perfect. I've already showed her the plane and I'm sure she can't wait to fly in it. Heck, at this rate, she may even be able to fly about the time it's complete. =)
10/8/2005	0.25h	About fifteen minutes on the project. I just went out and painted the other half of the piano hinge for the trim tab attach. Man, look at what the primer does to the Styrofoam...
10/9/2005	0.5h	Okay. This is why you don't take extended breaks from the project. I went out to start riveting the trim tab, and ended with a shopping list of new parts to order from Vans. Since the trim tab was already bent down, it was tough to get a bucking bar inside to buck the bottom spar to skin connection rivets. I'm wondering if there might have been a better way. Anyway, I ended up putting a big dent in the skin, which I probably could have lived with, but since the whole thing is so small, I decided to just get a new one.
10/10/2005		I called Vans this morning and placed an order for the parts. Drove down around 1:00 and picked them up. Grand total of about $36 to get new parts for the trim tab. That's not even 10 gallons of gas these days.
10/16/2005	0.25	Not much, just set up the new skin to be bent. Can't do much that make noise since I had the little one with me.
10/30/2005	2.5	Call it guilt, call it what ever you want, but I finally spent some quality time with the project. Not all that much quality time, but I made some progress. I put together the trim tab using the new skin. Next up is to fix the hinge in place. You'll also note that I used pop rivets for the skin to spar connection on the bottom to avoid the mistake that I made last time.