Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

[bobthebuilder]

Next..... Looks like a daunting task, but how do you eat an elephant? ...... bite by bite.

[Pilot Dreamer]

You know ... when these okes (Great Planes and the like) say ... you only need basic experience to build, I take that as " Okay I build the burglar bars in my house ... I can do this!". But when I look at the skill in which these home built aeries are being assembled, I'm not quite sure that I'll be able to do this.

I have done quite a bit of reading up on the Sonerai and personally think it is a very sexy plane. Good luck, I'll follow your progress with much interest.

[bobthebuilder]

..... Burglar bars seem difficult to make to me.

Actually, it could be as simple as they say, but some of us get carried away.

Thanks for the interest mate.

[avgas]

these are nice aircraft. Very straight forward. The biggest challenge will be the Fuselage. Good luck

[kenfox]

my boet why buy a tig welder it costs a lot then u got to learn how to use it, this is a aerie ! youre family needs you , ok so its bought tack ure stuff together then phone Mario Benoni 0846724444 hes a saa welder highly and i mean highly qualified 34 yrs experience welds anything has full acess to saa facilities metal spraying hardening of metals or softening tempering including ally I need a fair amount of ally welded in my industry , bikes ive had ally magnesium an titanium welded by him. im NEVER gonna buy a tig cos i dont have 30 odd years experience and wow u must see the welds ,eish BEAUTIFULL !! and then u know ure aeries welded by more than a coded welder only 7 okes in sa have these qualifications,,,,,,,,,

[bobthebuilder]

Hi Kenfox,

We are not allowed to weld our own stuff together.... Well .... You could, but don't expect the bird to be signed out.
By law, the airframe has to be welded by a coded CAA approved welder. Since it's all in the interest of safety, I don't have a problem with that.

[kenfox]

i was just trying to help hes local hes cheap and hes NAASA aproved 1 I will now keep quite but i know one thing that many ga owners dont it might look good but quality bpenetration etc etc ja u choose!!!

[Tortoise man]

Sterkte dit lyk my na n lang en uitgerekte proses soos hackerdriver gese het as dit maar so maklik was.
Groete

[bobthebuilder]

Hmmm .... I had big plans for my project while on leave. So far, I have built more Lego with the kids than Sonerai parts.
Still good times though.

[bobthebuilder]

Okay ..... managed to get some building done after Christmas.

The "Elevator / Aileron Torque Tube" is mounted on two bearings as pictured.



The polishing took longer than anything else. In total they probably took around a day to complete.
They haven't been tack welded yet, but will be as soon as the bolts arrive from the States.

[bobthebuilder]

The "Control Stick" .......

I used the tool that was made for the Elevator Idler to flatten the end. Truth be told, I made it twice because the flattened portion wasn't as neat as it could have been.
As an estimate, It probably took around a week to complete this assemble working a couple of hours each night.

[bobthebuilder]

BRIGHT IDEA!
I thought I would bomb the square tubing for the "Wing Folding Brackets" on the CNC mill. (I love my HAAS!) What was supposed to take five minutes took around five hours..... and still didn't yield a usable part. I did manage to break around seven hundred bucks worth of tooling in the process. [It takes a real chop to melt cutters.... a feat i'm not proud of!]
The tubing was brought in from Wicks Aircraft as a special shipment. It took six weeks to arrive, and I bought just enough to finish the job. Rather than chance it, I opted to do the job by hand. This took FOREVER! and a bit, because there are two of these suckers.

It was actually a thoroughly enjoyable part to make ...... well the first one was anyway.

[bobthebuilder]

Just started with the "Aileron / Elevator Torque Tube" ..... well no! ..... started it a week and a half ago!

Cut round tube / Notch ends 30 deg. (Easy Peezy - One and a half hours) My kids enjoyed the sparks from the disc sander - safety glasses are a must - both of my boys have a pair, and they range in age from two and a half to six)
Cut Square tube (x2) / Mill one face off (x2) / Notch end / polish .... polish .... polish! [EISH!]

This is where I am at right now. Though still to be completed, it has been an easy and interesting component to fabricate.

[Scotsman]

Beautiful workmanship....makes me feel ashamed of my own!

[Tailspin]

Damn Dude.

You really are doing an AWSOME job.

Wow those parts look really perfect.