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Everything has been inventoried and packed for the Dec 24 Supervised engine build. Load at the hangar Tuesday and depart early Wednesday morning.
Details and photos to follow.

Build on Christmas-Eve and test run on Christmas day? Quite poetic. I suppose you'll forgo the angels announcing the birth of your engine. Looking forward to your pictures.

Dec 2024 Supervised build.

Santa is coming early this year.

Day 1 of the supervised build: The first order of business was arrival, unload & set up. Next I discussed my concerns about the work done by the previous owner. The crankshaft and camshaft had been installed and the crankcase closed when I purchased the project. WW's inspection found that my concerns were justified and we opened the case and found the wrong bearing in the front, and 1/2 of another bearing. These issues would have resulted in failure of the crankshaft with the prop and hub departing the engine and airframe on the first run up. Then we all went to lunch.
I spent the afternoon cleaning the crankcase and dealing with the food poisoning from lunch.

WW pointing to the missing bearing. Incorrect bearing was a standard bearing. The conversion requires a .010 under bearing.

Day 2
I was feeling the after effects of the food poisoning (dehydration & blood sugar out of balance) from yesterday and was barely functional until noon.
Despite the challenges, I was able to close the case, Install the 5th bearing, ring gear, gold hub, safety shaft, and castle nut.


One of the advantages of the supervised build is the specialized tooling William has made. For example on the right side, you can see a U shaped piece of HDPE which is used to secure the crank shaft. These tools and William's methods make the assembly much quicker.

Good on you doing the supervised build with WW. It is comforting to know you are not making some fatal error, then to see it run on the test stand. I did the same a few years back, when that was a newer thing for him. A few of his good friends were there for that weekend to lend a hand also. It now sits on a coffee table in my house waiting for me to get my act together and finish up the plane.

Seeing it run on the test stand was emotional. I've been building and flying kites, model airplanes and rockets (really anything that would fly.) since I was 5 years old. Also was present when my kids were born. (full disclosure: At 5, I was cutting out the AA 707 from the back of a cereal box, assembling them, taping a penny to the forward fuselage and somehow it flew. Still love the AA orange lightening bolt livery )

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Here we are, on the test stand. This is what a Swedish ear to ear grin looks like.