Carlson Skunk Works

We have encountered quite a few interruptions to the Sawdust project since the last post. However, I have made some progress by taking advantage of bits and pieces of time and am pleased to report that the horizontal stabilizer is now complete and the elevator is making progress.

I have the horizontal stabilizer hanging in the basement workshop waiting for the elevator and elevator hinges to be completed and attached.

The stabilizer end caps were made from a nice piece of basswood that I got from Patrick Schutt at Schutt Log Homes. Patrick has his own sawmill and produces lumber from trees near his home in Missouri. He is also building a Maranda, and is using wood that he has cut locally. Anyway, the wood that I got from him was very nice to work with, was nearly as light as balsa and is a bit firmer than balsa.

Here are the pieces that will become the elevator. At the time of this post things have progressed farther than what it appears. All of the elevator ribs have been completed, sanded and the gusset slot cut in the trailing edge. The two end ribs have been glued in place and are awaiting the removal of the staples that have held them in place while the T-88 cured.

I am taking a bit of a departure from the plans in that my gussets and trailing edge will be done a bit differently. I am using a piece of 1.5mm plywood 80mm wide that runs the full length of the elevator in place of the gussets. This plywood will have a wedge of wood glued to it to form the trailing edge of the elevator. I used this same idea on the trailing edge of the wings and it worked really well. I will be taking more pictures of the build process and expect to post them in a couple of weeks.

EAA Chapter 1091 will be helping with the first fly-in of the season in Cambridge, NE. Breakfast will be served and our chapter will be helping with Young Eagles flights and we will have the Plane-Train giving rides. Later this summer we will be doing the breakfast for the Holdrege, NE fly-in and airshow which will be part of Holdrege’s annual Swedish Days celebration.

One of the interruptions that delayed this post was to drive to Dallas to see our grandson. He took us to the Frontiers of Flight museum at Love Field.

This is well worth the time to stop and see if you are ever in the area. This is the only place where I have seen the Flying Pancake.