Roth Waiex #197

[Rynoth]

Hello all, I am the proud owner/builder of Waiex #197, and I recently created a blog for my build. I attended the October 2013 workshop and placed my order that weekend. I have enjoyed and found informative many other blogs and websites for Sonex builds that I've found here and other places, and I hope mine can be useful as well. Since I am gearing my blog more towards the audience of friends/family, I won't be getting too technical, but I hope at least the pictures and circumstances of the build can be useful to others.

The link to my blog is below:

http://www.rynoth.com/wordpress/waiex

Happy flying!

[Bryan Cotton]

Ryan,
Awesome blog and progress. Are you sure you are serial 197 and not 97? I would feel better about my own progress if that was a typo!

I see you are down in TN. My folks retired to Loudon 20 years ago.

[Rynoth]

Bryan, thanks! I've referenced your posts/pictures several times both before and after taking delivery. I am indeed #197, and as you can see from my blog I took delivery on November 18th and in a month I've put in over 180 hours. Yes, my hands hurt! I've found out a way to build in the basement of my home (and actually get it out in the end) which means I spend pretty much every waking minute at home working on it. It's just too much fun!

[MichaelFarley56]

Congrats Ryan! WOW...180 hours per month is amazing! You'll be ready to fly by next summer at that rate.

Just out of curiousity, have you decided on a gear configuration or an engine choice?

Keep up the good work!

[Rynoth]

It will definitely be tail dragger and most likely Aerovee... although I REALLY hope the aerovee turbo is viable when it comes to making the engine decision.

[Bryan Cotton]

That should give Sonex a couple months to get the turbo available!

[Rynoth]

Tonight I mated my wing spars, after 70 hours of work on them. What a rush this was to finish them and bring them together! The feeling of accomplishment is wonderful, I'll update my blog this weekend but for now I'm just going to relish in the achievement. Hopefully during the day tomorrow I can take the mandatory photo of me holding the mated spars in my hands outside.

[MichaelFarley56]

The spars look great Ryan! Those things are monsters, aren't they? I couldn't believe how "beefy" they are after building mine. Those things are stout!

I'm really excited for you; you'll love the next steps when you will be able to rivet the ribs onto those spars. Even at the skeleton stage, the wings look awesome!

Keep up the great work!

[Bryan Cotton]

Very cool. Do us prebuilt spar guys take that picture too? Seems like cheating.

[Rynoth]

I think you still have to do the mating process, which is a bit nerve-wracking (though not very difficult). But yes, it's cheating. =)

Here is the picture, as required by ancient builder code.