07 Apr 2005
Yay!!!

I've done it! Finally, probably with complete disregard for sanity, I ordered the Sportsman tail kit on Thurs, 07 Apr 2005!

It will be shipped sometime after 21 Apr 2005. Glasair Aviation is waiting for some parts to complete the whole kit, and then they will ship it.

30 Apr 2005
Still waiting for the tail kit to ship. Lori tells me they are waiting for one skin and some hinge, but it should be here "soon". I'm anxious to get it, but I guess it doesn't matter until I get the air compressor issue worked out, so I probably have a couple of weeks anyhow.

04 May 2005
The tail kit shipped today!!! :-) Lori wrote to tell me that they are still missing one skin piece, and some hinge material, but they wanted to give me the option of getting the rest of the kit so I could get started, and they would ship the backordered parts to me at no additional cost. Of course I said yes! The tail kit will hopefully be here within a week or so.

07 May 2005 - about 3 hours
Decided I had better get started on building the work table if the tail kit is to arrive soon. Made a trip to Lowe's and bought some more tools (of course!), and the lumber to build a 2x6x36" table following the EAA table plans loosely. I changed the size to 2x6 foot so I could use a single table for the rudder jig. I'm building mine with a 1.5 inch lip around the edge of the table to make it easy to clamp things in place.


08 May 2005 - about 6 hours
Finished up the work table today.


13 May 2005 - about 4 hours
The tail kit arrived today!!!! Actually, turns out it had been sitting at the terminal since 09 May (Monday), but I never got the voice mail that they claimed they left for me. I just happened to call to see what the status was, and they told me it had been sitting there. *sigh*
Well, at least it is here!!! I had them deliver it to the house so it was waiting for me when I got home from work.
You'll note the big box covered by the blue tarp - I'm STILL waiting for Campbell Hausfeld to come pick up their broken air compressor. To say I am less than impressed with their customer service is an understatement.


Okay, so now I have to figure out how to get this thing apart... :-)
There are a few screws holding the top on - it came off pretty easily with an electric drill.

Here's what you get:

Opening the boxes shows slightly more interesting things... *grin*
I didn't take pictures of all the skins when I inspected them. Not sure why, I guess I was so excited I simply forgot! :-)

I spent awhile looking over the parts, and checking them against the included inventory sheets. As expected, there were two of the major components missing due to being backordered, one skin for the elevator, and one section of hinge material. These are supposed to arrive at GA around 06 Jun according to Lori. There are some other minor things - I'm missing a couple of rivets here and there, but nothing critical. And no, I didn't count the 750 rivets in that one section in the parts box!

I worked until about 10pm, and decided to call it a night. I had a minor tragedy, though. When I removed my contact lenses, I got an intense pain in my right eye. Felt like a meteor was in there, and I figured I had something on my finger, even though I washed my hands well. Since I could not rinse it out with saline, I figured I had a small splinter from the crate or a sliver of aluminum shard stuck in my eye. After awhile, it was less intense, and when I closed my eye it didn't hurt that much, so I figured I got it out and I went to bed.

14 May 2005
MAJOR pain in my right eye!!! Okay, no more fooling around. I got dressed and drove myself to the hospital. I somehow had managed to scratch the cornea in my right eye - "corneal abrasion" in medical terms. I've been wearing contact lenses for over 15 years and have *never* had anything like this happen. The doctor gave me some vaseline-like goop to put in my eye every 4 hours, and told me it would take 2-3 days to heal up enough to stop hurting, and come back if it didn't. After 3.5 hours at the hospital, and goop in my right eye, I didn't really feel like doing anything with the tail kit, so I took it easy for the rest of the day.

15 May 2005
The pain is less intense in the eye, which is a relief, but it is still irritating, and I can't see that well through the goop. I did manage to take apart the wooden crate and get it out of the way. The sides are held together with screws and staples. At first I tried to take it apart with a small pry bar after removing the screws, but that didn't work so well, so I used the right tool for the job:

I flipped it over and took the bottom off (held on with screws), and then the sides. It came apart pretty easily using my "special tool". :-)


Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow and can start setting up for the rudder assembly. I need to mount the vertical board from one end of the worktable to mount the rudder parts for construction. I've also decided to go with simple rattle can self etching primer rather than mess with a 2 part and try to use a spray gun. I'll hopefully be able to pick up some Sherwin Williams 988 on my way home from work tomorrow. I'm of the opinion that if I did nothing in the way of priming that the plane would last for 20+ years without corroding, so anything I do is just a bonus. Lots of people have had good luck with the SW 988 so I'm going to give it a try.

17 May 2005 - 3.25hrs
It took me a couple of days to get all the misc stuff I needed, and fortunately the eye did not hurt at all today, so I decided to get started. I found two cans of Martin Senour 7220 at a local NAPA store, which is the same thing as the Sherwin Williams 988. I also ordered 4 cans of 988 directly from SW, which should hopefully arrive soon. The two cans from NAPA should easily last me until then.