|
|
|
|
Stevens Web Site
|
Date: 10-17-2007
|
Number of Hours: 1.70
|
Manual Reference:
|
Brief Description: More messing with the Vertical Stabilizer
|
|
Today I received a wonderful card and thank you note from Frank Wilcox, our former President of EAA Chapter 690. Several years ago, he and his beloved (to Frank and the whole chapter) wife, Margaret, moved to Oregon to be near their grandchildren. All of us missed them terribly. Frank is truly a great man, straight as an arrow and as honest as a man can be. Margaret was the den mother for the entire chapter, serving at the pancake breakfasts and attending numerous flyins. Last year, we lost Margaret to cancer. At Oshkosh this past summer, Frank came to Airventure to attend a dedication ofa plaque in honor of Margaret. It was a beautiful ceremony and we all cried and hugged Frank. In Frank's thank you card, he enclosed $200 to help pay for the rental house we had at Oshkosh. My first reaction was to send it back, because I maintain the rental house for good friends like him at no charge, but then I read the last lines of the card. He said, "buy something big for your new airplane." Frankly, I started to cry a little. It was clear what I should do. Today I bought a compass for my instrument panel in Frank and Margaret's honor. It is my first instrument and probably the most important. Just as Frank is my moral compass, this instrument will lead the way for my craft. If every other instrument fails, even if I get hit by lightning and no other instrument works, the compass will still function, because nothing can stop the earth's magnetism. I can't wait to install it in the panel. Every time I check it in flight, I will think of Frank and Margaret. How cool is that?
Down in the shop tonight, I took the Vertical Stabilizer off the fuselage and deburred all of the holes I drilled last night. I also cut off about 1/2" of the forward VS spar, as per the plans. Then, I started to fit the aluminum plate which joins the VS spar to the Horizontal Stabilizer spar and I noticed that I fabricated it wrong. Instead of drilling 11 1/8" holes in the top of the plate, I drilled them in the bottom. Doh!
|
|
Here, I used an aluminum bar and a wooden shim pack to level the vertical stabilizer spar
|
|
Here is the joining plate next to the drawing (showing I drilled the holes on the wrong end)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.
|
