A few years ago I wrote an article about a guy building an airplane. It was a bit of a love story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy starts airplane build, boy stops building, boy finds girl again, they both finish an airplane.

It flew this week

#aviation
#experimentalaviation

https://www.kitplanes.com/gonna-finish-this-sucker/

Antragsgemäß haben wir Ihnen das folgende Kennzeichen "D-ETSI" für Ihr Muster "Sling TSi-JG" vorgemerkt.
#aviation #experimentalaviation #projectslingtsi #slingtsi #sling #tsi #detsi

Wrong, Associated Press

#experimentalaviation

100 degrees at the hangar. Warm enough, I think, to drill the canopy to the canopy frame
#experimentalaviation
#vansaircraft

I fit the canopy today on the RV-12is Project and I'm thinking maybe I CAN get this drilled before I move to Massachusetts for three months. I didn't realize there's so little to do for the fitting. Not like when I built the RV-7A.

I know I'll have to fashion a fiberglass skirt, but I could do that in the spring.

#experimentalaviation

Near 100 degree temps in Oshkosh next week. Maybe it's just as well I'm not able to go this year.

#experimentalaviation

Vans is having a quality control crisis and I've been a lazy bones which might save me from doing a ton of rework. That is lucky but also sad.

https://blog.sideslip.social/laser-cut-problems/

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

It just hit me that Air venture is one week away and I have tickets for the whole week. :excited:

#osh23 #experimentalAviation #eaa

Sealing in the rear window on the RV-12iS project. ProSeal is just awful, nasty, unforgiving stuff .

#experimentalAviation

Today I was named EAA's Web Editor of the Year.

https://chapters.eaa.org/eaa54

#experimentalaviation

On Monday I did an airplane building stream where I failed four times to install a rivet in a small spot. Today I drilled out the rivets holding it to the skin and then drilled out most of the rivets holding the bottom rib together. This gave me enough flex in the metal to bend it and rivet in that small space. Then finally I finished riveting to the skin and replaced the other rivets I drilled out.

A bit of a pain but I got it done.

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

In yesterday's workshop adventures I riveted stiffeners to the other rudder skin and riveted the bottom rib. I have no idea how I'm going to set that rivet on the end since there is basically no clearance. I'm going to do some digging and see how others did it. Regardless, the sheer clips were next and they are pull rivets so that was quick and painless.

After I figure out how to set the mystery rivet, then joining the two halves will happen.

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

It finally hit 85 in the Twin Cities, a nice, safe temperature for drilling into acrylic plastic, which is very brittle and prone to cracking at lower temperatures. Still a little work to do on attaching the rear window to the RV-12iS project, but getting this part done allows a bunch of other work to take place.

#experimentalaviation

I got my new rudder skin, cleaned it up, dimpled all the holes, scuffed it up for painting (first picture), painted, started riveting everything together (all other pictures). I had to back rivet for the stiffeners on the skin. The whole process took about four hours so the left rudder skin can wait until later to get its stiffeners.

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

Introduced a grandson to an RV-12iS. He liked it

#experimentalaviation

I wrote up some of my thoughts while preparing the rudder of the RV-10. Mostly, there is a lot of time consuming work.

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

https://blog.sideslip.social/one-slip-and-it-costs-money/

It was a very beautiful day for priming some parts outside! I'm still waiting on the replacement skin but It'll be nice to have everything else ready to go (and my house doesn't smell like primer this time which is nice!

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

Here is the damage and why I decided to replace it. The dimple flattened fine but it interferes with the other hole and makes me uncomfortable. Given that it is the trailing edge it makes me more uncomfortable. Now I have a large piece of scrap though.

#avGeek #homeBuilt #airplane #ExperimentalAviation

The AirVenture NOTAM has been published.

#aviation #experimentalaviation

https://www.eaa.org/airventure/eaa-fly-in-flying-to-oshkosh/eaa-airventure-oshkosh-notam

Added the two plates. The lower one is cut properly to fit between the legs of the workbench.
#aviation #experimentalaviation #projectslingtsi