Montana Feedback

I have excused myself from getting my hands dirty the last couple of days due to an apparent sinus infection.  Good times.

But Don did get an answer from the bearhawk builder in Montana, with responses to our earlier queries.

Key points:

• Project was started in 2000; owner is now selling due to medical issues.  Aircraft was built in the garage of an EAA technical counselor who was involved "from day one"  (Probably because it was the owner's first project.)  Very encouraging.
• No cargo door because it's not in the plans!  (I guess it was a later, builder initiated improvement).  Relatively straightforward to retrofit, but does involve some welding.  And removal of fabric covering (which is Stits process, by the way).
• The Airframe & Powerplant mechanic who did the evaluation rated the sheet metal work on the wings as "fair" due to some imperfect riveting (rivets not flush, or not bucked/crimped perfectly).  This is good news because it is not a dimensional issue (i.e. wings are straight!).  We will want to remove wing skins and redo some riveting.
• The same A&P rated the TIG-welded fuselage cage as "good."
• All material and hardware came from a known good supplier (Aircraft Spruce).  Except the engine, which was salvaged from a damaged aircraft (engine was not damaged, but was overhauled to zero time).  Also, project includes a constant-speed prop from same source.  Bonus!
• Building logs are not 100% complete, but should be OK.
• The landing gear is 4-6" longer than called for by the plans, a modification intended for rough fields/bush flying.

Overall, this is encouraging information and makes sense.  Slightly better than I was hoping, actually.

Traffic Paint

Picked up supplies for a head-to-head test of asphalt floor covering paints. One gallon of traffic paint, and a smaller quantity of indoor/outdoor semi-gloss latex.

I plan to conduct the test tomorrow.

Walls are Painted!

The whole crew was on hand for 2-2.5 hours of painting: rolling semi-gloss over the white primer.

There is still some minor brushwork to be done before we move on ... To the floor.

Primed and Ready

After my closest-yet pass with flaking out, I rallied and spent a bit less than three hours completing the primer coat on the remaining four walls. It was all detail brushwork.

There's a darned good chance we'll skip the detailing on the topcoat, which is why I spent a bit more time.

Now for Thanksgiving, I just need to make sure I'm out of town by noon, so that my "traveling" exemption will apply for the day.

Semi-Gloss

Picked up two gallons for the top coat. It was late, and I knew Don was not coming tomorrow, so I then played the guitar instead of opening up the primer can at this hour. Oh, did I mention the Squier and Pignose have been in here for a couple of weeks?

Sang an electric version of "Jim Jones" (great natural reverb and got the creepy feeling that I was being listened to from behind the metal wall). Time to go sleep.

The vehicles in here are not what I always imagined.

Questions for the Helena, Montana Bearhawk Builders.

Was the rear cargo door left off because the fuselage frame was modified?
How difficult do you think it will be to rework the fabric skin to include this door?
Why are you not completing the project?
Have there been any design updates issued that you have incorporated since your plans were issued?
Why do you think the inspecting A&P only rated the work on the wings as fair?
Who were your major hardware suppliers?
What is the total time on the O-360?
What is the history on the propeller?
What kind of building logs did you keep?
Was this your first aircraft build?
Did you have any help along the way from inspectors or mechanics?
What kind of welding did you use for the fuselage?
What was the most difficult part of the build process?
What fabric covering system did you use?
What did you use to paint your welded fuselage frame?
Do you have any jigs or fixtures that might be useful for completing the project?
How much longer is the landing gear than the standard bearhawk?
How far along is the wiring?
Were you going to set this plane up as a constant speed prop?

How We Roll

Took the whole family and spent about 3 hours priming the walls, while the kids battled for hegemony over the tricycle and the CD boom box (Vic's old one).

Will spun The Stone Roses, Willy and the Poorboys, and Fairytale for our travails, before declaring that he was tired of listening to music.

All six walls have now been "rolled," with about 40% of the touch-up ceiling brushwork done.

Matt requested a full view of the hangar. He did NOT request the wagon, but's that's just "how we roll."

Good Enough

I hope "good enough" will become a theme here in Hangar M.

0.4 hours finished the remaining sanding, but due to some paint that fkaked off while sanding, there may be some final mudding and re-sanding.

One Day of Sanding Left

Still puzzling over how to post smaller pics from my phone. My attention span is too short to return to the problem at my home PC.

Another 0.3 hours sanding. I can't drag this out much longer, which means the weekend is just in time.

What Not to Wear While Painting

0.3 hours of finish sanding, in the same clothes I wore during my pitch at a design review earlier today.

The other day, while Don was painting, I forgot to turn out the lights as we were closing the hangar door.  I reached back in through the narrow gap with my navy golf jacket on, and as my arm brushed the wall by the light switch, I got wet paint on my sleeve.  Actually it was primer, not paint - and specifically chosen because of its renowned stickiness.

I rushed home and Lisa somehow got almost all of the the white primer off my jacket.  Then we dropped Don at the Green Line for a dangerous, nighttime, light rail odyssey back to Burbank (though Compton and Watts via the Blue Line, then the Red Line all the way to North Hollywood, thence by car shuttle courtesy of unamused girlfriend).

So anyway, today, I took that jacket off and put a denim work shirt over my customer interface finery.  It's impossible to sand drywall mud without getting white powder spots on your clothes, but they dust off pretty easily.

Petros

Dinner with the design review - Petros in Manhattan Beach.

But I stopped by the hangar and got in 0.1 hours of sanding on the way here!

White!

Don spent 4 hours sanding, cleaning, and priming 5 of the 6 walls. I showed up for the last half hour to set up the lighting kit.

We met a ragtag crew of hangar rats, who tried to rope us into several dubious adventures, and offered generous use of tools - about three hangars' worth.

One of them turned out to be a former coworker!

(Note: reader Matt pointed out I should be reducing my photo sizes. Starting next time, I will!)

Putting the "OK" in Token Progress

Okay, so I have another cold, and I'm at the beginning of an all-week, all-day design review for which we prepared all last week - and the entire weekend.

So I'm not really charged up to go work on AIRCRAFT BUILD.

And actually, today, all I had time for was to stop by the hangar, on my way to dinner with the customer (at the Chart House, in Redondo).

So I changed the sandpaper on the sander, and sanded for maybe 10 minutes.  Then I left.

Hey, I said at the beginning that TOKEN progress is okay.  It's also OK to begin and end this post with the word "okay."

Come Learn to Fly

Quiet Sunday, with the kind of beautiful, cool weather that Glenn and I used to refer to as "come learn to fly" conditions.

Sadly, I was stuck at work all weekend! Still, I got 0.4 hours of hangar improvement in yesterday and half of that today.

Sanding Almost Done

All that's left is between the ladder and the door.

There is a girder very near the left hand wall that precludes access with the electric sander, requiring hand sanding, so that is taking the most time.

Boring Day = Good Progress

0.7 hours sanding. Two walls completed today, with two left to go. Unfortunately, I will be working the whole weekend, but maybe we can still paint.

The New Kid in Town

Great expectations; everybody's watching you.

True Grit

Tonight: sore throat.  I was tempted to create a new exception for non-febrile cold symptoms.  Nope, not backing off now.  Still, I dragged my feet leaving the house and didn't get in the car until 9:30.  Hit Home Depot (closed), Lowe's for 120 grit paper, then checkout and 0.2 hours of sanding with this little yellow number, which Lisa picked up today. [See following post for photo].


Afterward, I walked Lacey to do her stuff in the grass behind the tiedowns on Taxiway Alpha.  Within spittin' distance of the old man's ramp.  I picked it up anyway.

Generacions

Back in action, this time with a belt sander.


Now this isn't your father's belt sander. 'Cause it actually belongs to MY father. Unlike my grandfather's finish sander, which actually belongs to me. That's because my grandmother (on my mother's side) gave it to me last year -- my grandfather (also on my mother's side) having passed on years ago.


Before SHORTING OUT last night after a few days of operation, Grandpa's finish sander hadn't been used since (at earliest) the first half of '95.  Probably more like '85.


Enter the belt sander that belongs to my father (on my father's side), which is technically on loan, but in a "I'll never want this again" kind of way.  Just a few days ago, the belt sander had been spurned, in favor of the finish sander. Yes, It seems this simple paint-prep job is shaping up to be an epic generational contest.  At the moment, the advantage is clearly with the fully functional and reasonably safe baby boomer tool.  Okay, that's what I must use to make some progress tonight.  But after only a few square feet, it is obvious that the belt sander is way too ham fisted for use on paint.  Of course, Don knew that already.


So should I try to repair the metal behemoth that NEARLY FELLED ME last night?  Or buy a new tool just to finish the last hour's worth of work?  My father-in-law (on my wife's side) just arrived in town, and told a harrowing tale of an old acquaintance who was fatally electrocuted by a metal-chassis power drill.  After that, my father-in-law gathered up all his all-metal power tools and dumped them in an all-metal trash can. 


Hmm.


But now I am SURE that I hear the sound of a band rehearsing in a distant hangar, and I must investigate.

Sparks Will Fly

Sanding was cut short at 0.1 hours when my grandpa's old sander tried to electrocute me. It seems wires were exposed by the petrified insulation where the cord passes through a grommet at the end of handle (right next to my un-gloved wrist!)

Last night I had lowered the (quite heavy) sander down from the ladder by its power cable. Maybe that caused it to split. It didn't spit sparks at me until tonight.

Family Sanding

Lisa and I put in about 0.5 hrs sanding Don's drywall mud. The family was patient, but tired.

RV-7 Ride

Several hours with the family and Don, with completing scraping and gluing, and Don mudding everything. Now it's just sanding before we are ready to paint.

We also met David, another former tenant of our hangar (Jay Yau having been the first), likewise with a builder site, www.rv-7.com. David stopped by having heard about us and our rumored Sonex project.

The highlight of the day was Don getting a ride in David's very impressive RV-7. Erika was very disappointed that she couldn't go too, and extracted a commitment from me that she would get the first Sonex ride when we complete our airplane.

Fair enough.

Breathing Solvents

Whole family spent 1.5 hours in-hangar: Lisa mopping walls, me on the ladder scraping and gluing, kids causing mayhem.

As a consequence of all the close contact with grime, dried paint, altitude, Elmer's, fear, children fighting, and spray adhesive, my hands were encased in sticky black goo of indeterminate chemistry (though apparently inert w.r.t. water, soap, alcohol, and baby oil). This unpleasant coating took half of Buckeroo Banzai and most of the special features to remove. Tomorrow I'll wear latex gloves.

Chinese Pilots

BEFORE

AFTER

While I was spending my lunch hour at the hangar sticking old drywall tape back on with Elmer's (really), my through the-wall neighbor Jay Yau stopped by for introductions and to see my plane.

Since I don't have one, he told me about his: an RV-7 project, and a completed Murphy Rebel which he flew to Alaska.

For the full story, Mr. Yau was eager to point me at his URL: www.chinesepilots.com.

Flakin'

No, not that kind, not yet anyway. Removed two walls' worth of dingy old flaking paint, and badly done mudding and taping. 0.5 hrs.

Don + Sander

Maybe an hour of combined team paint prep, with a plan concocted.

Paint Prep, Part Two

While aircraft trade studies continue, the stepladder has now been brought to bear.

Hangar Paint Prep

Spent 0.2 hrs proving out a belt sander and a finish sander on the dingy yellow hangar wall paint. Now I need some painting tools.

As I locked up, I took this pic of the sundown marine layer and a Cessna taxiing in.

Opening Day

Don got his keys. I came back later to clean out the hangar: 0.5 hours each of sweeping by Lisa and me.