Pages 10-01 Through 10-04 Tail Cone Assembly About Half Done

Another 10 hours on the builders Hobbs.

Wow we made some serious progress today on the tail cone.  I was feeling bad about not getting any building done in a couple weeks.  My son and wife really helped me today in making some  great progress.  My son worked on tapping the tie down bolt in area of the skid plate and then worked on getting the skins of the bottom half of the tail cone done.  My wife brought us out pizza for dinner and got recruited to help my son with the clecoing and riveting the skins on.  A bit of disappointment as we realized we were missing two bushings.  I am not sure if we managed to lose them in the move to the hangar or we just missed them in the initial inventory.

The only major issue on this work was the number of squeezed rivets.  My hands are killing me from squeezing them all.  Below are some pictures of the progress we made today.

My first real cross country.. or at least a try at it

So my wife and I really wanted to get out to Utah for a concert.  I thought what a great chance to actually fly somewhere.  It would only be about 450-500 miles each way.  We made our plans and headed to the airport early in the morning.  I got the weather brief and it sounded like as long as we got off the ground pretty quickly we were going to be ok.  We would be traveling up to Wyoming and going over along I-80 to avoid flying over the mountains.  We got off a little later than we wanted but the first leg of the trip up to Laramie WY was just smooth and really beautiful right after sunrise.  I had been told that the weather at Laramie, especially the winds could be an issue.  As it turns out the winds were calm and it was a decent landing.  We gassed up and got the weather for our next stop in Rawlins WY.  It sounded not too bad but we needed to get there and see how our next stop, Rock Springs was looking.  Rock Springs was just getting a little windy.  As we got about 20 mins out of Laramie we started hitting turbulence.  It steadily got worse and got beyond moderate turbs.  I decided that another 3 hours of that was not going to work for either myself or my wife.  We diverted back and landed at our home airport in Denver.  Even though we didn't make our destination or the show there, we had a great time just flying.  We ended up with a whopping 3.5.

Here is a shot at Laramie and the great FBO there, Cowboy Aviation.

My First Passenger

This is a little delayed as I actually had this flight a week ago, but I wanted to post it up here.  My first passenger was my wife.  It was awesome.  I flew the Gobosh down from Centennial in south Denver to Meadow Lake in Colorado Springs to pick her up.  It was a nice flying day but man was it windy at Meadow Lake.  It was a head wind but 25 knot gusts are 25 knots.  We got off and flew around south of Denver for a while before landing back at Centennial.  It was really cool to actually be the PIC with a passenger.  Here is a quick picture of my wife and I in the Gobosh.

Pages 09-06 through 09-09 Stabilator Completed

Another 15 hours on the builders Hobbs.

I am very happy to be finished with the stabilator.  It felt like a major accomplishment to finish my first large piece of the plane.  It certainly wasn't without some frustration.  It took considerably longer than I thought it would have.  I decided to hold off on putting the counter weight arm in until I get to final assembly of the empennage.  I will be moving the stabilator into my new hangar when I get back from travel next week.

Speaking of hangars.  Here is me in my new hangar over at Meadow Lake airport near Colorado Springs (KFLY).  This is where my -12 will be based and assembly will continue.

Pages 09-01 - 09-05 Stabilator Spar Box Completed

10 more hours on the builders Hobbs


Well as expected the stabilator has been more of a challenge than the previous parts.  The spar box has taken me longer than I had expected it would.  I guess it really is just more complex than the previous pieces.  If I don't see another nut plate I would be happy.  Hand squeezing some of these rivets is also a challenge.  The longer rivets in the counter balance arm flange was a serious challenge and I am using the Main Squeeze.  The nut plates are just a pain to me to get properly aligned and squeezed.  It got easier by the end.


I am hoping to get the rest of the stabilator finished tomorrow but we shall see.  I am really trying to get the empennage kit completed soon as I expect the wing kit this week or next and I am out of room.  I am hoping I can either store the finished pieces in various places in the house :)  or in a hangar if I can get that arranged this week.  I think I am at the point where I really need the hangar.

Pages 08-01 through 08-04 Finished the Anti-servo Tabs

4 more hours on the builders Hobbs

Ok I guess this may be the last of the easy pieces :)  They seemed to go together fairly easily.  The only trick appeared to be the jig that Van's provided for the hinge piece drilling locations.  They were just a little too snug to fit into the spaces between hinge eyelets.  In the end it all worked fine but it seemed like just a few millimeters off the sides of the jig would have made for a perfect fit.

I started on the stabilator too.  I will post more about that experience tomorrow hopefully when I get some more of it completed.  That was the impetus for my comment about the last of the easy pieces.  The directions for the initial rivet placement on the first pieces of the stabilator had me confused for quite a while.  Maybe just me and flattened pictures.  Had to drill out 4 rivets.  I guess that isn't so bad in the end.

Here is the picture of my finished anti-servo tabs.

I am a pilot!!!

Ok so my build has slowed a bit due to work travel and of course wanting to get my sport pilot cert so I can fly my -12 when it is done.  I have managed to get one of the anti-servo tabs done and will finish the other one tomorrow and start the stabilator.

On to the main news.. I passed my sport pilot check ride this morning at Centennial AP, just south of Denver CO.  The weather was so incredibly nice.  It was just a great day to fly.  In all it was only a 1.3 and it was over before I knew it started.  The pattern was busy today but seemed to open up when I needed to do my pattern work.  Very few bumps and the practice area was mostly empty.  I am so happy to be done and off to learn how to be a pilot.

Now I am really focused on finishing the -12.  I told Mitch from Van's that I wanted to bring it down to Sun N Fun next year.  We shall see if I can pull that off.