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 Tuesday, 22Feb00, 7 hours – Kits 2,3 & 4 arrive! The wing came in one crate, the fuselage
& all the other parts in another.
It took 2 car haulers to bring them in. I had Consolidated Freightways deliver to
a local body shop, and the car hauler winches were used to pull the crates
from the trailer right on to the car haulers, no fussing about with forklifts
required. The car haulers set them
right in the driveway with the able assistance of friends Barty Moffett,
Larry Brackney, Rick Poorman, Chris Doyle, and SkyArrow builder Jim Zigan.
By the end of the day, the wing was laying in the jig, the fuselage was on
the porch, and the crate dismantled.
Inventory begins.
Wednesday, 23Feb00, 9 hours – Christmas continues! Key parts for starting the wing are
missing, but several days of work can start.
Began leveling the wing in the jig.
I’m using a homebuilt water level
for this. Once level, I glued torpedo
levels at each end as a cross check during construction. Although I’ve got the Jump-Start wing,
it’s quite flexible without the top attached. Completed the inventory.
Packing of fiberglass parts was quite good. The axles and several anodized parts were packed loose, risking
marring of those parts, but all seems OK.
The plexiglass parts are coated with a protective goop, and I located
two spots that may be lightly scratched, although I won’t know without
removing the goop.
 Thursday, 24Feb00, 4 hours – Emailed the inventory to S-H. Called Mark at S-H to tell him which parts
were critical to progress. He jumped
right on it and had a shipment out by the end of the day. Completed leveling the wing, and bondoed
the wing to the jig.
Friday, 25Feb00, 6 hours – Several new parts arrived, are inventoried
& stored. Fit & inspected top
skins, re-confirmed jig level. Cut
& installed fuel checkvalves…I’m building again! Measured all rib  locations,
confirmed that the Jump Start crew performed all steps. Found several small discrepancies: One d-rib is located 1/2" inboard of
the desired location, the baffle cutouts needed Q-cell coating, the right
outboard rib has a slight angle inward from the center to the front tip, and
the right rear spar bends 1/4" forward along it’s final 1/3 length at
the outboard end. None of these will
cause any problems, although if the D-ribs had been 1/2" outboard the
flap brackets would not have fit.
Another apparent
anomaly is the top of the A & B ribs.
These have a trough in them, although the manual calls them out as
flat. Called John Coussens, S-H’s
Engineering Manager, and enquired about the A & ribs. John informed me that these troughs would
not be feasible for a builder to make in the unidirectional layup required,
but at the Jump Start shop they  had a procedure to do so. The resulting troughs improve the top skin
bond, helping react the landing gear loads.
He mentioned that they might stop doing this, since other builders
have also called it into question. I
hope they don’t, since it looks to be an improvement.
Saturday, 26Feb00, 3.5 hours – Installed wing sump fitting using a 4”
nipple as a plug and alignment jig.
Peel plied layup, which was done with the milled fiber wet to ensure
smooth flow of water into the sump.
Laid up 4-layer sheet as stock for the control system assembly. Completed the checkvalve layup, and
fabricated the aileron belcrank brackets.
Sunday, 27Feb00, 9 hours – Retorqued the wing attach fitting bolts. Average breakaway was 10 in-lb, retorqued
to 15 in-lb per pg 2-26 for AN364-1032.
Laid milled
fiber & cloth over bolt heads on fuel tank side. Installed wing wiring conduit, bonded on
left side. Drilled & installed
inspection hole covers. Used
nutplates labeled MF-1000-06. Came up
one short, so I reached into kit #3 for a spare and found a very different
looking part. Finally settled on
MF-5000-06 as a substitute. In a
later call to tech support I discovered that different manufacturers have
different types, so long as the hole spacing & threads are the same. Cut the blanks for the aileron belcrank
backing. Alodyned the belcrank
brackets.
 Monday, 28Feb00, 1 hour – Completed wiring conduit layup.
Tuesday, 29Feb, 1/2 hour – Trimmed wiring conduit layups, finished cutting
aileron belcrank backplates, primed backplates & inspection hole covers,
one side.
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