Skip to main content

Build Update: Aileron/Flap Alignment June 14 2017

After a few more days of drilling I was nearly ready to take the skins off and prep them for riveting. The only thing left was to updrill the holes in the rear spar. The first step was to bring the ailerons and flaps home from the airport. Next I consulted the plans to find how the control surfaces are meant to be aligned. As I was reviewing the plans I found that the hinge had been riveted 1/2" inboard of where it was should have been.





It was determined that this would cause more difficulties down the line if I didn't do something about it. My dad told me that I would need to drill out the entire hinge line, and for a minute I was excited. "I had never drilled out rivets before!"


I assembled the required tools
  • Drill
  • #30 Drill bit
  •   Drill Lube
  • Punch (for removing the mushroomed part of the rivet)


That night I learned the secrets of drilling out rivets. Reduced speed, High pressure (20-40 pounds it felt like) Well lubed drill bit, and a hole lot of patience.






After 30 or so rivets and 2 hours I came across the last 4 rivets. These would be no easy task as they were guarded by the Aileron's counterweight mount. This would require a new tactic but I had no idea what that would be! My dad however was an expert on rivet removal, He pulled out the dremel  and began plugging it in. This was the perfect solution as it allowed me to grind the head of the rivet clean off, along with a fair bit of the hinge's aluminum. (but the hinge was scrap anyways). The thin cutting wheel of the dremel made it easy to reach the previously out of reach rivets. Before I turned the tool on to cut, I rehearsed the cut physically to make absolutely sure I wouldn't damage the counterweight mounting bracket.








 Now that the hinge was off, I needed to prepare the new hinge for installation. It turns out you don't have to carefully measure your hole positions for a Sonex hinge, because you can use a template to easily drill perfectly spaced holes.

I've found that much of building is about saving as much time as possible while still making things perfect.

I drilled and clecoed both ends then the middle. Once the template was securely anchored, I went down the line drilling each hole.



A glance at my watch revealed I had yet again fallen into a building stupor and again it was past 10PM, Oh well Who needs sleep when they have an airplane project, I know I can get by without!

Thank you so much to everyone who has aided me.

Mr John
Paul Shadwick
Stan Whitfield
Ron Sipple
Ralph and Joyce Shultz
Paul and Beth Duff
Paul Hockin
Nicholette Shultz
Gordon Fern
Anon Anon
Jeannette Shultz
Mike David
Jonathan and Julia Wolfe
Jon Palmstrom
Laurie Burns
Donna Mickel
Dana Baker
Mrs Nadine
Eric Johnson
Tammy Reap Hayes
Jeff Shultz
Brandon Lenart
WP Maesh
Michael Couillard
Mr Anonymous
Joe And Judy Green
Mrs Brenda
Mrs Cathy
Paul and Vickie Laberge
Judy and Roger Kemmerle


The purpose of this blog is to document and share my experience of building and later flying an airplane. In the first portion, I will thank all the wonderful people who donated to me. Then in the second section I will post a building update, hopefully every 3-4 days ,explaining what I have done  in detail and with pictures. Finally in the third and last section, I will post my flying adventures, and any maintenance I do. Thank you or your support and interest, I am pumped to be executing this project.



Popular posts from this blog

Build Update April 5 2018: Dissasembling the Aerovee

The engine I bought was already built, and had not been run. My dad and I planned to take it all apart to give me a better understanding of the engine, as well as to identify any problems before they got bad. The Arovee engine was heavy and awkward to move. at the time it was sitting on the workbench with everything installed. Going into this I had only enough sense to tell you which cylinder is the #1, 2, 3, and 4, and I knew some of the terminology, such as crackshaft. I frequently asked my dad "what do you call that part?"  we began unbolting stuff in roughly reverse order from the manual (if you're familiar with sonex plans, you're used to backwards) In under an hour we had stripped many of the external parts off and the engine had lost at least 20 pounds! A box was designated as the hardware box, so it'll be like legos trying to find the right bolts and nuts again when I reassemble it. the important part is that they're all together and no...
Read more

Build Update August 7th 2018: Brakes, and Glareshield

Today I got a ton of work done on my hydraulic brakes system. I assembled the mount for my master cylinder and through some testing and pretending to sit in the cockpit to get a feel for where I want my brake lever, I located the exact position. I drilled and clecoed the whole assembly. with it in place, the real work behind hydraulic brakes set in. I cut my 12' length of tubing into two pieces, one for each brake. In order for the brake lines to get from the master cylinder inside the plane, to the brakes on the wheels, I had to drill a couple holes in the firewall at the front of the plane. One of the worst things that can go wrong with these brakes is having a line break. If that happened I would loose all pressure and have no brakes. If the brake line touches something, it will likely vibrate against it in flight, if it does that, eventually it will break. To prevent my lines from breaking and loosing their fluid, I use a larger size tubing, that just bar...
Read more

Plane Painted

When I flew my plane to OSH23, I saw an artist painting a small depiction of an airplane. She was painting a very small photorealistic scene from a phone image. I could not believe how detailed she was able to make it! She let me watch over he shoulder as she worked. I was so impressed that I commisisoned a similar painting of my sonex. Id like to share that painting with you all. Her name is Rhonda DeGarmo. She has a lot of other work. If you're interested in getting in touch with her please reach out to me and I will pass along her information.
Read more