Wing Tables are finished

I went back to Lowes and bought two 4X8 flooring panels and with the help of my loving wife stuffed them in to my jeep.  I got them home and quickly cut them to size with my circular saw and screwed them to the table frames.  So I spent a whopping $65 on these tables and I am really happy with them and their price.

 

Time Spent 2 hours total time spent 5 hours.

Wing Tables

Well since TPS is beginning to wind down and the Thanksgiving break upon me I decided to give Rob at Raven Aircraft a call to see what kind of timeline I was looking at for my wing kit delivery.  He told me they could ship out in a week or so.  So that all being said I decided I better get cracking on some wing tables.  I decided that my tables were going to be 33″ wide by 96″ long by 30″ tall.  I also decided on going with two separate tables.  I quickly drew up a sketch to figure out how much wood I would need.   I ran down to Lowes for my lumber on my way I decided to go for a quick flight since I hadn’t seen my airplane in 4 weeks due to the stress at school.  Anyway I digress…I picked up the wood which cost approx $40 and went to town in my basement.  I emerged a few hours later with 2 tables that all they are missing is table tops (which I couldn’t fit in my Jeep)

Time spent 3 hours

Ordered the New Wings

Well with school quickly approaching the end with only 73 days left (who’s counting :^) Well I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my new wings from raven. They will be S-2C tips (quarter rounded) with a 52″ aileron span (approx 3/4 wing) aluminum ailerons. I also plan on recovering the entire plane and installing a new set of elevators and rudder with strap hinges and squared tips. Yes folks again I am taking my plane down for a long time but this might very well be the last for a long time so I will be making it worth it. I have also decided on a paint scheme which is below,  I think its a nice twist on the Yellow/Red and Black we know and love from Mr. Wolf’s hangar

This rebuild should be fun I plan on using Stewarts Systems for the whole plane and the plan is this

1: Graduate USNTPS (Dec, 11 2009)

2: Receive Kit from Raven on or about Dec 11, 2009 (maybe sooner than that but I promised myself no working on it till my final report was in and being graded)

3:  Build Wing and test fit and cover while keeping my airplane in a relatively up condition so as to stay flying while I build the wing

4: take the fuselage home and recover that replacing the elevators, rudder (maybe light sand the fuselage and repaint using the Stewarts Systems

5: re-assembly of fuselage

6: re-assembly of the entire plane and go freakin test fly the damn thing and really enjoy all the mods I have done.

Sound Good?  Well it all starts with Graduating from Test Pilot School easier said than done :^)

Big News!

Well in my last post I discussed building new wings.  I still have plans to build new wings however it will have to be put on hold for about a year.  Yesterday I got great news.  For those who don’t know I work as a helicopter flight test engineer (Civilian Aero Engineer) for NAVAIR which is short for the Naval Air Systems Command.  We do all the flight test for naval aviation.  Well it turns out that a very select group of us Federal Government Engineers have an opportunity to apply for the United States Naval Test Pilot School http://www.navair.navy.mil/USNTPS/.  Yup same school that John Glenn and every Naval Astronaut Attended.  Since I started work out of college 4.5 years ago I have always dreamed of going to TPS.  Yesterday I found out that I was selected to attend as a member of Class 136 Fixed Wing Flying Qualities and Performance course.  This is huge news but also a life changer.  I will get to fly tons of cool airplanes such as T-38’s, T-6 Texan II, F-18’s maybe a Mig 15 and a number of other different aircraft.  I will have to devote my life for 10 months starting in February to school. It will be a lot of work but also very rewarding.

Unfortunately I will have no time to work on the plane the way I have in the past 3 years.  It looks as though I will have enough time to do the Wolf cowl mod but not the wings.  This is just cause I should be able to finish it before school starts in February.  Once school starts there will be no more working on the plane.  #1 mission for 10 months will be school. I know this is sad news for those who follow my blog but this is a once in a life time opportunity and there is no way I would pass it up.  I think less then 100 civilian engineers in the world have had the opportunity to attend it will be sweet and I also look forward to building new wings next winter.

New Wings!!!

Well since this was the last contest of the season and seeing that my wings are really showing their age I decided that my winter project would be to build new wings.  I have spoken with both Raven and Wolf aircraft about kits and Wolf isn’t ready yet with their kit but they owe me a call back on timing.  I have always leaned toward Raven and they have working examples of folks already building.  I have heard from others that the kit is excellent quality.  So we will see what wolf comes back with and I will make a decision then.  I plan to make this decision in the next couple of weeks.