Another monster six hour session finished the drilling for the slats. Only a few "gotchas" were hit.

First with the trailing edge skin be careful with the holes of the ribs. The last hole for each rib intersected the skin. This normally would not be a big deal but the ribs were already riveted ( per instructions ) to the bottom half of the main skin. In two cases ( outboard skins ) there was enough edge distance to drill out the rivets and use a strap duplicator to carry the hole onto the edge skin. With my inboard skins I had to make notches for the rivet heads.

All four slat pieces are drilled to final hole sizes and are ready to be deburred, primed and riveted.

First, to anyone who is about to order their wheels please, please, please pay attention. Just spend the extra $30 a wheel and buy the tubes. The Matco tubeless tires are a nightmare. Seriously, I would rather rivet my hand to a rabid raccoon than deal with those things again.

I probably spent 15 hours trying to get them to inflate.

Some of that time was spent trying to separate the wheels. They can be really tight a large amounts of brute force will need to be applied.

The valve stems are a pain to install. A local tire shop was kind and let me borrow a valve stem installer. After that you need to get the wheel somehow beaded with the tire AND then slip a crazy rubber band gasket on between the two halves of the wheel.

If you use the tubes then the valve just slips on through and the wheels self bead.


A huge amount of progress was made thanks to the help of another local 701 builder. Together we made substantial progress on the slats. The slats are pretty straight forward, except for a few gotchas that got me. The biggest has to do with the "L" angle that reinforces the slat skin near the supports.

Trying to be industrious I went and cut the "L", notched it, bent it to match and then located the holes and drilled them into one piece. I used one of the ribs to back drill into a mirrored rib and then duplicated the holes to all the ribs.

What I forgot to do was check that all the holes of the "L" went into the support. Luckily all the holes that made it into the support were within minimum edge distances, but one hole missed. So I had to drill a fifth hole into the "L" that then made it into the slat support.

In one monster eight hour session we got the "L" spar drilled into all four slat skins, all the ribs, supports and "L"s riveted together and on one piece the ribs drilled into the skin.

Saturday consisted of powertools and football. As an added bonus the Cowboys snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

We spent 4.5 hours fabricating the skin supports for the left wing, drilling the supports, mounts and tip ribs. Everything got deburred, protected and riveted. For both wings. It was a large amount of work for very little visual payoff.

The next mini-project is the rear wing channel. This will involve some templates and a simple jig.

Project Status:
Wings: 18.5h ( 1h, 1h, 0.5h, 2.5h, 4h, 1h, 1.5h, 1h, 1.5, 4.5 )
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
-----------------------
Total Done: ~120 hours

I spent about an hour and a half fabricating the skin supports for the ribs that also have the slat brackets.

The whole affair was straight forward, but I found it slightly difficult to drill the bend release holes. Getting a good angle to cut the L angle was also a little tricky.

Only the right side was fabricated so I could avoid any problems of mirrored parts getting mixed up.

Someone asked me if I worked on the project every night... and recently I have been. But there was a while when work prevented such progress. Even if I don't actually drill, cut, deburr or corrosion protect something, working at least every other night keeps the project in your mind and avoids having to REALLY spend some time reorienting yourself.

Project Status:
Wings: 14h ( 1h, 1h, 0.5h, 2.5h, 4h, 1h, 1.5h, 1h, 1.5 )
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
-----------------------
Total Done: ~115.5 hours

I spent about an hour making the slat placement template tool. The extrusion came from Home Depot and the 1/8" plate came from Ballard Sheet Metal Works. Most of the time was spent using the hacksaw on the plate. The plate is 7000 series and really hard stuff. A little extra time was spent using scotchbrite on the extrusion to obtain a nice brushed metal look. One small deviation from the plans was made: I riveted a small piece of plate between the extrusion at the end of the tool to maintain a constant gap between the extrusion and provide for better stability.

What is a massive project that takes years to finish? An airplane yes, but also a video game. I am preparing for another crunch at the office, but you can see the fruits of my labor. If you have a Xbox 360 with a Xbox Live Gold account and a Xbox hard drive, then please sign up for the Shadowrun beta. http://shadowrun.com/behindthescenes/articles/BetaApplication.htm

Should you accept the offer from Mr. Johnson you will be given the chance to geek those dandelion eaters without having to pay any Nuyen to enter the matrix.

Project Status:
Wings: 12.5h ( 1h, 1h, 0.5h, 2.5h, 4h, 1h, 1.5h, 1h )
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
-----------------------
Total Done: ~114 hours

After a small break we took a final inventory of all the parts in the latest shipment from Zenith. Immediately I was struck by how heavy the skins are for the flaperons and the slats. The skins for the flaperons seems to be almost as heavy as the elevator and the stabilizer combined!

We will be making the flaperons first. I went ahead and cut the 26mm angle off the mounting brackets and pre-drilled the holes into the brackets per the plans.

About one hour was spent on the inventory, and another 1.5 hours spent cutting those angles.

Project Status:
Flaperons: 1.5 hours spent ( 1.5h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
-----------------------
Total Done: ~80 hours