Cotton Waiex 191 - N191YX

[Bryan Cotton]

Drilling in the aft spar tunnel underneath the fuselage is a sure fire way to cripple your back or keep it limber. Not sure which, check back tomorrow.


Adam and I drilled in the firewall and floor stiffeners. Not sure how you solo builders do this. I am starting to think Ryan's dog is more well trained than he lets on.

The blue tape in the picture above is holding a shim which keeps the floor stiffener away from the angle by the prescribed amount.

[Rynoth]

Adam and I drilled in the firewall and floor stiffeners. Not sure how you solo builders do this. I am starting to think Ryan's dog is more well trained than he lets on.

Hah, yea, that one was pretty tricky. Pretty sure I just marked along the length of the stiffner for a couple hole locations and drilled pilot holes outside the fuselage so I could cleco and drill the rest.

Not sure how high your fuselage is set, but I spent a lot of time under the fuselage on my knees. I completed all of the aft lower fuselage details as well before flipping it over, and I will say that it's easier to work on that area with the fuselage upside down than right-side up (easier on your back, even.)

[Bryan Cotton]

March of the clecoes - silver to copper.

Got everything in the nose drilled in except the gussets on the end of the floor and firewall stiffeners. Ran out of silver clecoes so had to start updrilling.

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

I have shinny polish envy. Looking great. Yes the lower aft floor details are a pain to install while working with the fuselage upside down. I have a secret trick, a rolling stool with a pneumatic seat. I had my fuselage up on two large saw horses, and with the seat all the way down I was able to duck and roll under the upper longeron and then turn on a flashlight and work relatively comfortably without causing too much strain.

[Bryan Cotton]

I have a rolling non-pneumatic seat. Can't roll under the longeron though. Have to roll the seat under then crawl in. Managed to not open my head up on the clecoes sticking down from the spar tunnel but it was close. Can't say I didn't try.

Regarding my '99 Saturn comment in Scott's thread, I am one of those folks who likes to squeeze every bit of value out of a major purchase. After 175K it is showing its age and using some oil. When Adam is 15 we will pull it off the road, after giving him some initial lessons using the old clutch. Then I plan to get another car and rebuild the Saturn with him. Silly idea, but what I am really building is a mechanic and a kid with self confidence. We should be done with the Waiex by then.

Funny Saturn story- a couple weeks ago I was leaving home to pick up a rental car for a business trip. A half mile from home, where I was pulling out into the road, the axle snapped. I was going up a slight hill. Was able to back up into a bank parking lot, do a 2 point turn, and coast home to my driveway. Felt like a glider pilot again. I haven't had a car payment in 14 years but the tradeoff is little things like this.

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

Bryan,

I can totally understand and respect your approach to vehicles. Not to derail your thread, but I have a similar story. A few years ago I got into bio-diesel, and had not one, but two early 2000 era VW's with the 1.9L TDI engines. They were great little cars. I had a Mk IV Jetta and my wife had a New Beetle. For over a year and a half we were driving on fuel I was producing from waste cooking oil obtained from my work cafeteria. Until one day when a bad batch was used, and I completely ruined a set of injectors and the Injection Pump. This series of TDI engines used the timing belt to run the injection pump, so the fix was very time consuming (although not so expensive). I found a guy online who was a pretty good diesel mechanic (self taught on the TDI's) and he had a spare used pump. He was actually from Aurora, IL but happened to be in the C'bus area so helped me by rebuilding my engine injection system over a few July evenings.

After that experience, we decided to part ways with the home brew fuel, and the old TDI's (both were approaching 200K miles) and I got into our company lease program. I figure as a Honda employee I should support the company that is putting bread on my table with the vehicle I drive.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled program of drilling and cleco'ing

[Pickleman]

"Silly idea, but what I am really building is a mechanic and a kid with self confidence."
Not silly . . . Brilliant! My youngest comes to the hangar a couple times a week. We homeschool through a charter school program. My senior high daughter takes two to three classes at the local community college a semester and will have a full year of four year transferable credits done when she graduated high school. I'm ok with college level Algebra, but statistics? What cruel bastard invented THAT? She gets mostly "A's" there. My son will start there his junior year.

Right now he is rebuilding a pair of Rupps Roadsters for us, a '70 and '72. They have been stripped of paint, sandblasted, and painted via krylon rattle cans. He is learning to solder brass now, as the float was full of holes when we stripped the carb. He is learning a great deal rebuilding the Techumseh motors, and will take the rebuild all the way through licensing them at the DMV. A kid can learn a lot with old cars, minibikes, and motorcycles--even if he doesn't work on them later, he can avoid being ripped off from mechanics later. My oldest son still comes to the shop constantly. We are building laminated reflex deflex bows for Christmas presents . . .

Confidence is an awesome thing to build in a kid!

[Bryan Cotton]

Here is how I located and clamped this stiffener clip for easy drilling:


On the other side is a nifty set of #40 lightening holes, with a pattern very similar to the pattern on said clip:


Unlike Scott, I did not make any progress last weekend. Crazy Boy Scouts.


It was a good campout though. We cooked a turkey over a fire on a spit. Adam did the lashings while I was off working with a kid on fires.

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

Excellent Bryan! Make another stiffener to have a matching part to the matching holes! Then it will all make sense.

I was joking with my son he should be going on a Boy Scout campout this weekend. They did their fall Shoot-o-ree two weekends ago and it got down to 32 at night and was raining, but no snow. He complained about the cold...and the adults cooked for them in a heated mess hall. I should show him Your outing and tell him to "suck it up"

[Bryan Cotton]

My progress has been dismal in November. Starting to get going again though on the gear by reindeer looks bleak. Will need a new rhyme. The only updrilling I have left is about half of the 3/16" bolts in the nose. Then the upper firewall goes on. Here Adam is riveting my new spar tunnel angle on:

How much longer before he is stronger than me? Not there yet but I fear that day is coming!