Category Archives: The Hangar

Last weekend my buddy Glen and I woke up early to get a jump on traffic for moving the aircraft.  The plan was to grab my fuselage and take it to the shop, return and get his and do the same.  This would be followed by both set of wings.  I had bought some wheels from Harbor Freight and bolted them to my gear legs.  We figured we could place the tail wheel on the tailgate of my truck while we sat there.  Then we could tow the fuselage, very carefully and slowly, to the shop.   

    
    
    
 After getting the fuselages in we went back for the wings.  The wheels on the wing stands are way too small to try and tow with the truck so we decided to just walk them along the street and bike paths.  It is around a mile to the shop so not a big deal and it went very well. 

    
   We then situated the parts so they fit the best. 
    
    
    
    
 So there you have it! We are in and ready for the unpacking and orginization.  It will take me a little while to get everything in order and ready to start building but we are getting close.  Get ready for the blog to get busy again!  Thanks to Glens daughter, Shannon, for helping move the parts and taking the photos!

I borrowed a trailer from fellow RV-8 build/friend Tom Ellis to move my fuselage from my garage to a storage unit. I put a 4″ wheel I got at Harbor freight and put it in the tailwheel fork to make Nuveen fuselage a little easier. Trisha and I were able to move the fuselage out of the garage and onto the trailer pretty easy.  A few ratchet straps to secure it and we were often running! A 15 minute drive and we had it at the storage unit and unloaded.  

         Sad that the building is on hold for a few weeks, but very excited to get into our new home! Thanks Tom for the use of your trailer!

Time: 4 Hours

Today started out really good with being able to sleep in for a coupe extra hours which was really nice. The first task for the day was to get the Harley prepped for its winter siesta. Some minor task like getting the battery ready for removal so I could keep it trickle charged over the winter. I got my trailer loaded on the truck and loaded it up. An hour later I had it safely tucked away at our work hangar and covered for protection. When I got back home and in the Hangar my goal was to design and build the new workbench for the fuselage. After several drawings and measurements I decided on 24″ high, 36″ wide and 7′ long. So off I went on the build.

I put a 3/4″ plywood top on it along with some cheap carpet I got on clearance at Home Depot. Now how to get the fuselage from the higher table to the lower one. I figured on a way to slide the fuselage forward after lining up the two tables. All went well until the last 5″ of the slide. I had the fuselage on the new bench and all was well except I wanted to slide if forward 5 more inches. That’s where I really screwed up. While pushing from the back the lower two tabs of the firewall caught on the carpet and bent aft as I slid forward. I noticed this after walking around to check if I slid it forward enough. Ugh! I sighed and worked to bend them back to their normal position.

Wow those look bad! No cracks but look bad. I texted my friend and expressed how stupid I was. He said they look bad and the best course of action might be to replace the firewall. I knew that was the answer I would get. I’m so deflated right now. That job will be a big one as all the previous work would have to be undone and new parts ordered. So lots of time and money will be needed to fix this 5″ and 5 second error. I’m hoping that maybe its can just be a cosmetic error and be able to leave it as is. Right now I feel like shelving this build! How could I make a simple stupid mistake so easy? I’m not sure but I did and now I will have to figure a way out. So here it sits until I figure it out.