Ken's Sonex 1243

[Sonex1243]

With the main gear fit and bolted in, I removed the mount and finished up the tail wheel. Turned it upright and set it down on the dolly to continue with the glare shield and fuel tank fitting. I opted for the oops fittings since the tank was out and removed the three lower fittings. Got the large hole cleared out fairly well at the cost of rubbing two fingers raw trying to sand the inside flange smooth! Wasn't going to try the two smaller ones and opted for the tool loan from dcasonex for getting the flanges smooth.

Back to the glare shield and upsized everything except the instrument panel. Will do that later in case I goof up the panel.

[Sonex1243]

More progress over the last few weeks. Finished up the glareshield fitment and cleaned and deburred everything. Will leave it out for a little longer.

Finished the fuel tank conversion to the Oops fittings, replaced the three lower ones and plugged the one on the rear of the upper tank. This was a time consuming task as I figured I buggered up one of the 1/8 fitting holes while removing the old ones with the step drill and drill bit method. I ended up getting the oops fitting tools from DCA Sonex to finish up the two smaller ones. Did a leak check with water and had one fitting leak right away, torqued it up some more and the leak stopped, Just to make sure. filled it up and let it set overnight 10 hours with no leaks.

Next up was the horizontal stabilizer fitting, I have it real close and getting the required 25 deg up at the 3 1/4 + 1/16th inch margin. Just need some more small trimming to get it in the right spot for drilling.

[Sonex1243]

Finished trimming the horizontal skins just enough to get the 3 1/4" distance and the 160 degree / 25 degree elevator travel. I am not real comfortable drilling through thick stack-ups free hand, so, I made a drill guide ot of spare bar stock. It worked great and the holes came out nice.

I have some more polishing to do since I started with just the tail sub kit way back when...



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I am running out of space quick!

[Rofomoto]

I suggest 3 1/2 “ set back. The elevator horn wil fit much better. Had mine at 3 1/4” and needed some horn grinding. Up to you. Check with vertical in place before drilling horizontal mounting holes.

[Sonex1243]

I suggest 3 1/2 “ set back. The elevator horn wil fit much better. Had mine at 3 1/4” and needed some horn grinding. Up to you. Check with vertical in place before drilling horizontal mounting holes.

Thanks for the tip, but it's too late as the holes have been drilled! I hope I am still in the ball park when fitting the vertical.

[Sonex1243]

Been a long time since posting! I fell off the building wagon for the summer, but ended up getting a tail wheel endorsement while using a fellow EAA chapter members christavia. Been spending a lot of time flying around building time! The ND winter is starting to set in and it's time to get back into the build.

After fitting the horizontal, it was on to fitting the vertical and rudder. It took several attempts to get the skin trimmed enough to allow the vertical to fit well, then the spar bolts were installed. I had a gap between the vertical forward spar and horizontal forward spar that required a 1/8" thick shim. The shim worked nice and it was attached with countersunk rivets to the forward vertical spar to hold it in place. After the initial fitting of the vertical, I match drilled the lower rudder hinge segment to the fuselage tail post and installed the rudder. The fit was right and the rudder horns will require trimming for full deflection and full contact with the rudder stops.

There is a little bit more skin trimming to do before drilling the three forward attach holes for tight fit bolts.

[Sonex1243]

It has been quite some time since my last post. The project was moved from the single car garage to a larger shop I am renting from one of our local r/c club members. Much better, more room and it came with cabinets and work benches installed.

It has been a brutally cold and miserable winter with more than usual snow and a "mistake" during the vertical install that has sent me backwards instead of slogging ahead.

My mistake to share has to do with the known interference between the elevator control horn and the vertical stab spar in the full up elevator position. Long story short, I got way to zealous with material removal on the horn and got into the welded area prompting replacement along with the root ribs.. I got a good tip from Senex tech in that I was able to move the horn weldment 1/8" forward which has given me the full 25* up elevator travel There will be some finer tweaks I am working on now.

New work shop!


Ugly elevator control horn..

[Sonex1243]

It has been a loooong time since the last post and a lot has been done. I replaced the elevator control horn and root ribs as well as finishing up the vertical install. The three holes were drilled and nut plates attached riveted in place. Since everything was in place, I fabricated the fairings and will install them when the tail group is reattached for good.

Since I am too lazy to polish the tail, I'll paint all the parts red instead. Looking for a Tuskegee Airman "Red Tail" look since I am a WW2 era fan and also like the polished aluminum fighter aircraft look. These will be the only painted parts other than the cowling and wheel pants.

[Bryan Cotton]

Ken, glad to see you are still at it!

[Sonex1243]

Ken, glad to see you are still at it!

Thanks Bryan, nice to see you in the air as well!

Since I have room now, I reinstalled the engine mount and gear leg assembly. Once that was done I started on the AeroConversions hydraulic brake install. Made the backing plates and temp installed the brake caliper blanks. Looks like the mounting holes will need to be upsized from the original 3/16" hole to 1/4" for the newer hardware. The wheels were also built up with the new brake disk.