Carlson Skunk Works

November 29th, 2013

AMF 14H MARANDA SN:1026 Making Sawdust November 29, 2013

Posted by Roger in AMF 14H Maranda SN1026, news

How about this? Another post within a month! Yeah, I know. Just barely. BUT I did make it!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I have a huge amount to be grateful for and I praise God for all that He has provided for me, my family and friends. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal with three of our children, our grandson, and our friends Sandy and Una (pronounced EE-oo-na). Una and Sandy are single ladies that our family has adopted, especially for celebrations like yesterday.

Since we had two “adult” sons home with us, and they had arrived on Wednesday and spent the night, I had two “willing” helpers to provide some lifting assistance to mount the wings on the airplane. So Sawdust is now looking much more like it will eventually fly!

The temperature was in the high 20’s and low 30’s as we loaded the left wing into the back of the pickup and headed to the airport. We repositioned the fuselage and mounted the right wing first, then we moved the sawhorses, unloaded the left wing from the pickup and mounted it to the other side of the fuselage. Then I opened the hanger doors as wide as I could get them and found out that the east door has a problem and won’t open all the way. We ended up getting the plane out of the hanger by swinging the tail around and maneuvering the left wing outside first, then turning the fuselage around and backing it out to get the right wing out of the hanger. I am going to call the airport manager and let him know about the door problem. Right now it is not a big thing, but when the plane is ready to go in and out of the hanger more often it will become quite an issue.

OK. So, of course, you are wondering where the pictures are. We were so busy and excited to get the wings on, that we didn’t get any pictures until after the fact, but what I have follows:

Front view. You can see the full wingspan and the hoerner wing tips.

It is starting to look like an airplane! Here you can see the “gull wing” look that the tapered leading edge provides at the wing root. The horizontal stabilizer is finished, so I need to get it mounted to the fuselage on the next warm, sunny day.

Well, the fuel tank is currently where the seat will be. One of the next tasks will be to figure out how to mount the fuel tank. Also, the ailerons need to be built and mounted. Building the ailerons and doors will be the focus of this winter. Those can be built in the basement where it is warm. I already have most of my tools moved back down there, so they are ready to get going. The first item is to finish the elevator, then it will be on to the ailerons.

I followed the lead of Randy Holland and built up an area of a rib for the purpose of providing a mounting point for the pitot-static tubes. The area of the rib just behind the forward spar that has been built up is right in the middle of the picture. If you don’t know what you are looking for you will probably miss it.

The plane is back in the hanger and I am busy digesting turkey and pumpkin pie.

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