Got some good work done today. Got the first batch of parts ready for priming. They won't get done for about ten days because I'll be away next weekend at the annual Good Vibes Skydiving Boogie in Motueka on the NZ South Island. The second batch will be longerons and baggage ribs/angles, and then the third batch will be skins.
One of the nerve-wracking jobs today was the notching and trimming of the F-887 upper longerons for the VS attach bars. Not so much the notching, but the trimming. It wasn't difficult; I just wasn't sure what was required. To do the notch I drilled two 1.5mm holes in each corner of the notch and used a junior hacksaw followed by a series of smaller files. That was easy enough. The issue for me was trimming to length. There was nothing specific in the instructions about it, but there was a note on the drawing that said to trim to length after match-drilling. I decided to trim to the length of the side skins which I had marked on there when the fuselage was assembled. The second picture shows the end result on the left upper longeron.
I'm hoping to get the long upper longerons and some of the other long parts alodyne dipped, and maybe even primered, locally at Alpha Aviation located at Hamilton Airport. Not only do I know one of the guys that works there, but my wife also met one of the guys who actually does the chemical processing and he says they have a heated alodyne bath capable of dipping the longeron in one go! I'm going to see if I can get away from work early tomorrow afternoon and pay those guys a visit.
