QaQ Ha', 'etlhmey jInmol: My vison realised

Yesterday I was presented with a birthday surprise. I was at the sushi restaurant waiting for the skilled chefs to finish creating the heap of sushi we were to eat. My family and I were thinking hard about what we could possibly do for fun without phones. Suddenly Dad passed me his phone, open to an email, as I read it for the first time, a smile spread across my face. A member of the Sonex community had chosen to sell his Sonex kit, and offered it to me for a price within my budget. All of my work had paid off, I was on the road to make my vision reality! I had long dreamed about it, but now it was happening.

The current plan is to make the long drive to the kit in April. Before we leave, I will need to clear out a workshop in the garage. Once we make it to the kit location, we will need to carefully load up the parts, taking care to wrap the finished ones in plenty of blankets.

I am truly thankful and abundantly appreciative of everyone who has helped me on my dream so far:

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

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...

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...

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.

Isaac Shultz's Sonex Project

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