Sorry, it's been hectic. I will sent latest pics to jcvb.
The situation at the moment is that I completed the right hand wing about 6 weeks ago & have nearly finished the left hand wing. I have to fit the leading edge that goes over the fuel tank & the wing tip.
I elected to leave out the strut braces at this stage & will cut the fiberglass away in that area when it comes to mating the wings to the fuselage. It is not difficult to patch up from the inside & use LR20 & microballoons on the outside as a filler afterwards.
I am very impressed with the strength of the wing. It is very well designed. I was very sceptical when I saw that the spars were hollow aluminium tubes. You guys are experienced in the structural strength of these tubes, but I come from a fast blik background. As I progressed, I realised just how strong the wing actually is.
The building of the wings was quite a nice process & you see results very quickly, but there are times when you just cannot face going out to the hangar. I generally work between 05h00 & 07h00 during weekdays & from about 17h00 to 19h00 in the evenings. I fly over weekends so do not get much time to build then but put in at least 10 hrs per week. Luckily my hangar is about 15m from my front door & is double garage width & 3 garages long, so there is plenty of space, but this little aerie is going to have to move into my lapa area when the wings are rigged onto the fuselage
The worst job was manufacturing 4 I beams which are then pressed down into position over the strut brace locations. I went out & bought an industrial belt sander to do the job, but it was still very hard work & I was taking off too much material. I then made a jig to set the whole lot up in my lathe & cut the ibeams down to size.
I placed the order for the fuselage & undercarriage kit with the new hydraulic brake system about 4 weeks ago & am collecting this tomorrow afternoon. At this stage, after the wings are rigged onto the fuselage & the controls & undercarriage is installed, it will be time to sit in the cockpit & make engine noises.
The costs so far have been reasonable. We got a wing kit from a cancelled order for about R18k & the fuselage & undercarriage kit with the upgraded braking system was R43k.
It will be a few months before I need the covering kit & finishing kit.
In terms of instrumentation, we are possibly going Blue mountain efis with steam backup, but purely vfr panel. The efis is very affordable & gives you the feeling that you are a larney. We will end up fitting a transponder cos I believe that it will become mandatory unfortunately.
Wrt engines, we have a huge dillemma. I have looked at Rotax, Hirth, Verner, Jabiru, & vw derivative plants. We are both fat boys & although there are plenty of Bushbaby's flying around with 582's, we want more horsepower & want 4 stroke. The Verner is out because of 70hp. The Hirth & 2 stroke Rotax motors are out. The VW motor is out because of weight. That leaves us with a choice of the 912S & the 3300 Jabi motor. See
www.adeptairmotive.com They are producing a 320 hp motor & may be producing a 115hp motor as well. We are interested in this motor cos local is lekker, but it may not be ready when we are. Personally, I like the much maligned Jabi motor cos I believe that the early reliability issues have been sorted out & there are many motors reaching tbo & doing this cos it takes a long time to reach. I also like the idea of an engine running at under 3000 prm instead of 5800 rpm & working hard all the time like the Rotax motor does. I also like the simplicity of an air cooled motor. Engine weights are similar but the jabi comes bog standard complete, ready to install unlike the 912. It also is cheaper by some R20k when you have totalled up the nonsensical extras you need to install a 912.
This is not project that is going to die. We are a long way into it now, not having broken the back of it but steadily getting there.
I will post on a daily basis from now on or as there is progress.
but this was due to lack of knowledge on the IT side. If anybody have the time and persistance I would really recommend it as you realy know and understand your aircraft after such a project.
fails. The number one reason for failure is when the project is being done away from your house, even 1 km is to far.
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