Are you sawing your wood from house framing grade 2x4s ?
some of it I did, the bulk of my wood I ordered from aircraft spruce. photos don't always tell the real story. This certainly isn't a diss about team aircraft but the picture of the rs17 member on the left is from team, the rs17 member on the right is a 2x4 "select" I cut.
I have looked for white pine here in TN and can’t find anything decent at the home improvement stores. All they have is SPF and some of it looks ok but don’t know what it is. When I start my build I will have to order. Is there anywhere to order good white pine from? I don’t mind paying for all spruce but pine is lighter. None of the aircraft suppliers carry white pine that I know of.
Not to dissuade you from white pine necessarily, but I would point out that it is on average only about 8% lighter than sitka spruce. Also it is on average 14% weaker. Nothing wrong with that given the aircraft is designed for it, but also there isn't much incentive to not use Sitka Spruce. The pricing pre-cut to the dimensions needed from, say, Aircraft Spruce make the Sitka Spruce a pretty good deal.
I agree with spruce being a good deal but 8% heavier could be an issue if trying to stay under 254 lbs. I wonder if a Max can be built legal ultralight using spruce?
I bought my first instrument and I have barely started my build. I got a killer deal on this and couldn't pass it up. yes that is a moving map on my wrist. A hall wind meter, my gps watch, and cht/egt guages is all the instruments I will have when I start flying my himax.
Looks like aircraft spruce got some stock of .8 mm ply been out of stock for over a month. Also found a used rotax 277 on barnstormers with the title "motivated seller" been over a week since the motivated seller wanted some cash in his pocket.
It looks like my $1300 supply of marine grade plywood and hand sawn "aircraft grade" spruce should arrive by freight pretty soon. ready yo build a airplane.
Here is the horizontal stab spar curing. I now have all the plywood I need and most of the longer pieces of spruce to complete the fuselage and wings basic structure. Got a set of completed ribs and push pull cables thanks to a forum member. After the tail is complete its on to the fuselage.
I figured people would want to see how the light tail is built. Its a little complicated atleast for me. first photo is the center of the horizontal stab showing the blocks where the vertical stab will get bolted up. second photo Gluing in the horizontal stabilizer spar doubler.
The leading edge is ready to sheet. There are six thicker 3/4" ribs, two at the top, one on the bottom on each side. to speed up the build process I bandsawed the ribs to rough dimension from rs stock clamped them all together and gang sanded them on my table top belt sander.
Thanks! I think I may have a flying airplane by this same time next year. I got all the material to finish the tail which is almost done , then I can finish my favorite part and make engine noises
The horizontal tail leading edge is curing. I clamped the .8 mm ply between two boards after wetting it, it held its shape well after two days. The elevator spar is curing too, sorry no photos. I am officially out of epoxy. I ordered two quarts because I want a airplane, and that is how.I roll.
Building the elevator and cutting the tail strut brackets. I have never worked with 6063 t-52 but after cutting and drilling one of the brackets its hardness seemed similar to 6061. Just a word of caution, when you cut and shape your aluminum parts be sure you don't heat up the metal too much, it will get soft. I figured that out years ago trying to cut aluminum with a angle grinder
I have ate sleeped and breathed avation my whole life, I don't feel I have perfectted aviation but I do feel I have something to share. I feel my opinion is worth something.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HzNhQefDvH0
The second half of the fuselage curing. I ran short of the wood I thought I would need to finish the fuselage, luckily AS was there to save the day. Next job is to build the plywood bulkheads to join the fuse sides. gettin closer to makin engine noises.
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