Author Archives : Chris French

Huh, that was a strange day


It started well, actually that is not true. I went to adjust a cable tray and damaged it. So it I guess it was the same start to finish. Oh well. What was accomplished? Mounted Transponder Mounted VPX electronic breakers Adjusted Aerosport panel Final epoxy/sanding on the carbon fiber before clearcoating Determined carpet and interior panels before painter comes tomorrow…

Read More »

Let’s get this panel supported


The day began with bolting on the electrical firewall hardware and then the panel fun. First supports for the Aerosport frame, then cable trays for the wiring, and lastly supports for the radio stack. Boiled down to that it doesn’t seem like a lot but the hours add up fast. Yes, the baggage door made progress too. The hinge took…

Read More »

Firewall electrical, game time.


Much of the day was spent fabricating the doubler for the electrical fire wall equipment and deburring/dimpling/priming the oil cooler mount. Also on the list was finishing the wing root skin that involved dimpling/deburring/priming the ribs and skin. See a pattern here. Followed by back riveting the stiffeners to the skins. Got the baggage door clecoed together and mixed between…

Read More »

Folks we have a tail!


Before getting to the excitement of the day there was a setback. When placing the Vertical Stabilizer on the airframe it became apparent that my VOR/GS antenna install was for shit. It would interfere with the rudder, fuck me. So rivets drilled, parts removed, doubler and nutplates flipped, and slots cut for the antenna to slide down the VS skins.…

Read More »

Plugging away on the electrical


Today was spent finishing the nutplates on the wings for the wing root fairings and then back to electrical work. All of the rear plane electrical was completed along with the antenna connectors. Then moving forward I added snap bushings and adel clamps to the 2AWG power cable and finished off the cable with the terminal to bolt it to…

Read More »

More Wing Work???


Yep, there are some nutplates that I forgot I needed to add to the wings. So much of the day was spend drilling, dimpling, and riveting nutplates. Of course I learned why the plans have you install the fuel tank screen AFTER the nutplates are installed. Not huge but definitely added time on to this item. Also got the remainder…

Read More »

Close to closing up the floors


Today started with bolting in the magnetometer which would have been easier had I had non-magnetic hardware when I riveted the bracket to the frame. Oh well. Then it was on to installing the three antenna doublers in the bottom skins. I attempted to bolt on the transponder antenna only to damage it from overtorquing the nut. Honestly I don’t…

Read More »

Let the grinding begin, ugh


Today marked the start of the cabin top installation. Which meant lots of cutting/grinding and being covered in fiberglass dust. But at least it was a warm day for late November. Also today I mounted the pitch trim servo and crimped/attached the connectors.

Read More »

Wings COMPLETE


Whew, does that feel good. The wing skins are riveted which makes the wings basically complete. Also today the ailerons were attached. If only there wasn’t so much more to do before attaching the wings to the fuselage…

Read More »

Lots of boxes checked today!


I have been bouncing around a bit lately and not getting a ton of items finished. Today I was able to check off a number of items and the biggest on being the ER tank installation (ended up taking 58.5 hours). Installed the connectors for the roll trim servo. I can now properly say that the wings are just about…

Read More »