In early May I moved the project to a Hangar at Hobart Airport. A kind neighbor donated his time, truck and float to perform the move. One wing missed out going when the loading plan went a bit astray, and we moved that on a different truck a few weeks later. It was a bit unnerving to see the project tied down on the float and being driven on gravel tracks out of here, but my neighbor’s 50+ years of experience in the trucking industry made it all seem easy.
I spent much of May into June moving the contents of the workshop to the Hangar and setting everything up there so I could continue with the build. The workshop at home looked like a war zone during this effort, it was certainly high time for a clean out. A resident rat had been living a comfortable life in a cluttered corner of the workshop, it was last seen running for cover under some bushes in the outside garden after being evicted.
I pinned the wings on, again with the help of several neighbors, and have since finished fitting the flaps, the wing root fairings, the wingtips, and the wing root fuel lines. With the flaps fully retracted in the reflex position, and the ailerons rigged to match the flaps (with elevator neutral), I split the rear edge of the wingtips with a fine hacksaw blade, set them in place to match the ailerons, final drilled the rivet holes for the wingtip ribs while being held in place, and re-glued the rear wingtip inner edge with epoxy. After this set, I removed the wingtips, stood them up and reinforced the rear edge with flox and a layer of fiberglass. Compared to the initial condition, I moved one wingtip down about 4mm and the other down around 7mm; they were out by enough to annoy me and fixing them was quite easy.
Winter has been brutal in that tin Hangar. Thermals and heated vests only go so far. After the workshop at home was cleaned up, I pitched a marquis tent inside it. I dismantled my old priming booth, and recovered the wire table to use for spray painting parts. With two electric oil heaters going, I was able to keep the environment inside the tent at a high enough temperature to spray paint some parts. I painted a few simple one-colour items – the horizontal stabilizer, elevators and some fiberglass parts to make a start on the daunting prospect of painting the aircraft. The transportable parts I’ll paint at home in the coming months, the wings and fuselage I’ll have to paint at the Hangar, this will have to wait until summer so I can get a reliable block of warm weather. I’ll build a temporary booth out of wood and plastic film at the Hangar to do this work, with filters and fans to provide some airflow for over-spray removal.
In the meantime, I continue to grind away at the never-ending list of things to do. Now winter is officially over, the days are getting longer and progress should pick up.
