Myaffordaplane

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More Information

The front part of the fuselage is to the plans.  I will not cut out the gussets for the motor mount until i'm ready to mount the engine.  I'm using a Zenoah G50DFW which has a very different motor mount from a Rotax.

 This is where a big deviation from the plans begins.  I'm making the tail top post start at the wings and then go down to the tail.  This actualy makes the top piece of aluminum 5 inches shorter.  It also eleminates the need for the center gussets.  Both of those save weight.  The shape is also stronger than the shape in the plans.

 As you can see here I'm using 2x2x.125 C channel instead of square tube on the tail.  This will shave 6 lbs off the tail.

This is the whole fuse after just 2.5 hrs of work.  Next is the gussets and then I'll start on landing gear.

It took about 3.5 hrs to cut out all the frame gussets and drill the holds.  I still have a lot of sanding to do on all the edges to make them all fit perfect and remove any stress risers.

 The seat came from a friends sprint car.  I will have to trim it some and add lightening holes.  It is heavier than it looks.  I will use leather and foam to cover it with.  It should be comfy.

I made these blocks on my milling machine to fill in the space around the solid rod that the wing strut bolts to.  I have made some stuff on my lathe but this was my first chance to make something on the mill.  It was pretty fun.

They fit good.  I will run two bolts through each of them.  one straight through the solid rod and one through the other side.  I made 3 of them.  The third will go in the center and have two bolts through the fuselage.  These blocks should give my square tube some torsional strength once bolted through the rod.

I'm using 2 x 4 rectangle tube for the gear mount.  I wanted it stronger than the 2 x 2 because I will be using gear with only one piece of 4130 that mounts to this rectangle.  That will be my next thing to get started on.