Isaac Shultz's Sonex Project

Riveting the Fuselage side panels was extremely satisfying! After a few day's hard work, I had built up these huge 10' long metal structures!   I used cross ties that were akin to the vertical stiffeners. They were a C-shaped channel piece, with a prepilot drilled hole pattern that perfectly matched the spot they went. I clecoed them in place wit ha small cleco, and moved on to the next step. And of course, once you accomplish something in your kit, don't forget to celebrate!  The Forwardmost cross tie is a full box, if you have ever been inside a Sonex, this was the piece you sat on before sliding down into the seat. In front o it is the cockpit, behind it is the baggage compartment. to make this box shaped cross tie, I used (per the plans) 2 C-Channels and 2 flat pieces of metal. everything was prepiloted, so all I had to do was cleco it in place between the fuselage sides. once in place it was held by both the splice pl...

When I laid the fuselage plans out on my bedroom floor, I started at the minor details and flipped trough to full assembly. Although the plans specify how to fabricate every part you need, My project came with most of the small parts produced at the Sonex factory. In earlier kits you were given raw materials and used the plans to make each part. While the majority of my parts have been produced, I still need to check them against the plan to make sure they are built perfectly. Starting at the back of the plans I came across the first task of the fuselage, Fabricating the rudder cable fairlead blocks. I gathered my materials, Phenolic (a composite material), drill and drillbits, and as always the pans. I laid out the dimensions for 4 blacks on the oversized piece of phenolic, I was careful to account for the thickness of the bandsaw. With the blocks cut to shape ,all the remained was to drill the 4 corner holes, and the large center hole. The blocks were set aside for later. The ...

 This time there is a lot to unpack, I missed last week's update so there's twice the content this time! There were 4 main things I accomplished this week. 1. Finish wings 2. Build wing cradle 3. Prep for starting the fuselage 4. Begin fabricating aft fuselage components I will start at the beginning, finishing the wings. Where I left off I had been finishing off the right and left wingtips. This continued up until the point where I applied a final coat of micro which would cure in a day and be ready to sand, right? Well not when you add only 1 drop of hardener to your epoxy/micro mix. For nearly two weeks I have been waiting for the epoxy on my wingtips to cure fully. Since the wingtips were going to take a while, I made busy working on a wing cradle. My dad's website provided a great design for a Sonex wing cradle. I read the plans and reviewed the materials list. Total expected cost, $60. I was ready to go to the hardware store when my dad reminded me th...