In another year or so, Isabel should be able to handle Cleco pliers readily
Now, though, it's all she can do to squeeze them.
...so sometimes we have to call in Mommy.
I prime the skins before removing the blue film, so it asks like a paint mask.
Have I discovered a new art form? Mondrian, meet Gomez!
Back-riveting the elevator stiffeners...the perfect counterpoint to a day full of PowerPoint!
Training my future bucking partner! There are no rivets on the empennage that I couldn't do alone, but I rather doubt that'll be true of the wings and fuselage. I can't help wondering if this is all going to come out in Isabel's therapy in 20 years!
More of my GPB-988 for the stiffeners. I'm ordering rattle cans 4 at a time! There's a local S-W store that delivers them less than 24 hrs after I order them. Only in America!
Rivet lines in the skin primed.
Backriveting is fun.
I wish they all came out this pretty!
Yay! We have our first moving parts! And yes, getting the bolts into the hinges was a bear. I eventually bent some long nails and stuck them in the hinges as temporary "bolts."
The plans call for bending the skin to close this bay. However, I had a hard time doing it so that it looked good. I ended up snipping off the tabs in the skin and making a little rib to close the bay. It wasn't easy to rivet it, since it's so narrow, but I managed.
Bottom of the rudder
That Pro-Seal'd trailing edge was no picnic...it's "straight enough."
I'm building a metal airplane because I don't like the sticky, smelly mess associated with composites...but I had to do some fiberglass work on the tips.
