Rudder Pedals

I did some work on the rudder pedals. I did a test wrap of the 1" wide cloth a while back with quite unsatisfactory results. After cutting all the wrap off and sanding things flush again, I decided to go with some 6oz S-glass I had laying around. I put a similarly sized piece to seal the top and bottom of the pedals and then did a bias cut wrap around the pedal in one piece, using 3M Super 77 to make it all awesome. This is tremendously nicer than doing it with strips and the 3M really helped too. I show here one pedal wrapped except for the little exposed piece at the bottom and the other pedal with just the top end seal done. The other ends of the tube were sealed out with a hunk of foam wedged in the end of the tube. The bottoms will just stay open.

I actually epoxied them tonight too. I used an acid brush to push the epoxy down through the layer(s) of glass. It's not the most structural way to do it, but this is just a rudder pedal, so I have no doubt even this method is overkill. I wrapped the pedals in peel-ply to make a prettier finish and stuck them in a trash bag and used my vacuum to give a few inches of vacuum. It actually pulls down pretty well and I'm sure is more pressure than my tool chest's weight over the area of the pedals stacked on top of each other. This'll keep 'em flat though. Tomorrow I open my Christmas present and see how I did this go around.

I also put in two more sleeves into the cabanes that I missed the first time around. Now I simply have to replace the upper aft triangle tube that was a little short and the cabanes will be happy.

Progress is fun. It'll be nice to work through getting the tail group completely installed and take this puppy outside for a real assembly! (without the wings yet of course)

By the way, to the gifter of the drill, it works quite well, thank you :-)

Short update

I have a few pictures for this update. I am sort of in detail-mode right now. I'm out of all the big tube material from last order, so it's time to start tweaking those little details that I glossed over to make forward progress. For instance, I used my West Marine quick-link and some sampled (free!) Alliance Plastics plugs on the nose area to make the tow release. The end caps sure clean up the look of the nose too. I sampled some more end caps hopefully to close out all the 1" tubing in the seat area and give that some more professionalism.

I worked on the aileron linkage underneath the seat too. I added the torque tube doubler (missed that before), so I feel much better about man-handling the controls (though as I understand it, the control forces are actually fairly light). I also split the PVC pipe and filed away material to make a "C" shaped until it fit with just about 1/16" of gap when the C was closed up to a circle. When I glue the bushing into the frame, the epoxy will help keep this gap from opening. Additionally, I added the 1/4" retainer piece to assist holding that bushing in place. I thought about leaving this with cleacos, but they interfere with the aileron crank, so I went ahead and riveted the support piece in.

As you might tell from the photo, I'm also concentrating on replacing any short bolts with ones that clearly use the shank as the load bearing intersection, instead of the threads. This also means I have at least 1.5 threads showing outside the locknut. I think this is proper use of these bolts, but I'll still have an A&P look over the structure before I do any covering. No sense in pushing when I have wiser folks around to critique.

Last, I added a couple of the line guides for the elevator control system. They are made from 1/4" x 0.035" tube ovalized to 3/16". The tiny supports are cut from the same ovalized stock and I used a Dremel sanding drum to put a curved surface on the ends of the support. This lets the supports have better surface contact and really takes no extra time.

I shall head off comments about the test control line saying it's some parachute cord that I had laying around and is just for mockup purposes. I'll get real spectra/dyneema when the time comes for rigging the lines.

Question: Do the ailerons need some stop-blocks somewhere? My aileron crank touches the wheel at full stick deflection and makes the wheel harder to roll. Maybe Sandlin used a rounder wheel?

We have a tail!

I made a bending jig from a few spare drill bits and a bench vice. This kept from marring the surface of the soft aluminum parts. It took a few tries bending to get the right angle. I bent the pair at the same time so they have the same angle. Eventually I cut the two parts free, cleaned everything up, then started tweaking them individually... I really should mount my vice to the bench.
After a while, I mounted them to my jig and got things moving. Spaced properly and with a perfectly fitting bolt between the two tabs, I was able to match drill each of the connecting holes one at a time to have a perfect joint. Yay, one more hard step to go!




Then I finally actually mounted the tailbooms! The lower one was considerably easier with the nice alignment from the jig and all the close-up attention. The top one wasn't quite as easy. But it's done, so that's that. I used a 3/16" bolt so I can enlarge to 1/4" like I'm supposed to and take care of any misalignment.

I'm happy to sit in the seat with the tail sticking out behind me, self-supported. I just have to be careful not to lean it over and twist the two joints all to pieces.

The tail is almost on

I'm making great strides on the vertical tail, almost to the point of getting it put on the fuselage! To start, this is where I am with the vertical tail. I'm out of 1/4" tubing for the truss structure, but what I have done gives me a good idea that adding the other trusses will be pretty trivial. I did 3M the glass tape on the two rudder ribs that had not been finished. I will indeed be taking out that one finished rib and redoing it.

Here is a closeup on the lower rudder connection area. You can see the vertical tail ribs made of 1/4" tubing and the different composite rib on the rudder. The lower rudder hinge area is that crazy bolt area in the middle of the photo. I put the rudder stop blocks in yesterday too, though one is a touch longer than the other. I think I'm shooting for about 20-30deg of rudder deflection until I can find the recommended throws. I also pinched the tail skid with the intention of rounding it off somehow later.

I also have the top rudder connection pretty well completed. The hinge was a piece of cake part with a slight bend in it and the tapered rib on the vertical tail is the same as on the lower side. You can also see the horizontal tail connection part, yet to have a modification to further thread the bolt for a captured part. The rudder rib in the lower left hand of the photo is the one I'll remove and redo. It might look decent from this zoom level, but I'm just not happy with it in person. In other news, I have not put the elevator control rigging slot in the upper boom yet (that would be between the rudder post and the h-stab mount). I'll probably wait that one out until I start all the rigging.

To mount the vertical stabilizer to the fuselage, I made a little tooling jig to hold the mounting flanges the proper 1.75" distance apart. This way, I would be assured that the tail boom would fit perfectly and the fuselage holes would be match drilled to suit. Unfortunately, where I put the bend in the mounting parts meant the bolts would physically conflict with other bolts in the area, so I have to redo those parts. This next time, I'm going to leave the fuselage end undrilled until I can hold them both up to the fuselage and ensure proper clearance. I am pretty happy with the jig though! It looks ungainly, but it worked great for the test fitting.

Finally, I leave you with a shot showing the temporarily clamped beast all put together. I don't have a wonderful place to take photos, so it's a busy background, but I think the idea still gets across .... the tail is almost on! It's remarkable to put it all together like this and realize this is actually going to be an airplane :-) I'm excited to finish off the little material I have remaining and do some cleanup on the tail section. I think within the week I should be able to get the v-tail actually mounted to the fuselage and start mounting the horizontal stab too. Perhaps I'll work on the tail ribs some more as well and feel like I'm actually finishing something off. Right now I sort of feel like I've started all the major sections (less wings of course) and completely finished none of them. Perhaps the rudder should be first to finish. Who cares though, I'm having fun :-)

"Storm of the Century" aftermath

I wasn't kidding about the snow ... I took this picture just before dusk and the snow was still coming down at +1" per hour! It just quit (9pm) after starting up last night just after 9pm. 24 hours and roughly knee-height snow and definitely over my knee in drifts. I won't be going anywhere anytime soon...

I should have ordered another 8' section of 1/4" x .035" while I was already paying for shipping last order. I have a few of vertical tail ribs to go, but the aft four are all done (pictures tomorrow). It's nice to start cleaning up and seeing the vertical tail start to really stiffen up.

"Storm of the Century"

Why is it that snow inspires me to work on Goat? DC is in for "a historic snowfall" tonight according to the meteorologists on the news. I took the quiet day to work on the tail section now that I'm back with all my parts and tools!

First, I sampled a rubber/plastic handle for the control stick. It isn't much, but it's very pretty looking. I think it is a little detail that adds a personal touch to the otherwise very metallic and impersonal beast. I haven't glued it on, so I can twist it around and somehow slide it off now, but I've heard of some tricks with hairspray for bicycle handles that might work. If nothing else, I have some 3M Super 77 that will make the two parts neigh impossible to separate...

I also installed the 1/8" quick link from West Marine in the upper elevator arm (hard to see). I have the pulleys too, but figure I'll hold those off for a day when I only have enough stamina for a 10 minute job (or when I decide to get the 40 some odd quick links).

Then, for whatever reason the mood struck me and I made channels in the horizontal stab ribs for the carbon caps. They're not glued in yet, but I'm about ready to do it (and probably will tomorrow night). I realized I forgot my magic trick for the fiberglass wrap on the rudder ribs: 3M Super 77 to make putting down the cloth a breeze. The rudder ribs were torture trying to hold the glass in place while squishing it with a peel-ply wrapped layer being pulled taut. Now I just can pre-bond in the carbon spar then gracefully wrap the 3M'd glass around before saturating it with epoxy. Duh to me, that'll work super well.

Now I started on the fun stuff, making the vertical tail. I quickly made two gusset parts and bolted them carefully to the upper tube and allowing to align the middle tube with the proper twist. The middle tube with all the rivets in it was already done from my last post.














Then I made slowly the four sheet parts to attach the rudder post to the upper and middle vertical tail tubes. Making the rudder post assembly let me match drill the upper and middle tube holes perfectly. A little while later I made and attached the upper rudder hinge.

The lower rudder hinge is a simple trio of AN42b eye bolts. I'm not really sure why Sandlin used the eye bolt pair and axle concept here and not elsewhere, but I like how friction free it is compared to the elevator. I'm going to debate for a while if I should do the same on the elevator. It's the idea of adding another pair of holes so close and in a critical part, we'll see...





And then to cap off the day's work, I made the horizontal stab bracket to mount on the vertical stab. I did the front one too, but put a circular hole in it and forgot it was an eyebolt that needed to go into a slot ... so I'll remake that part later sometime. I have not yet modified the AN3-30 bolt with more threads and no head to match Sandlin's drawings. I need to borrow/buy a die set to make that one happen.



This is a bad picture, but I really wanted to get the point across that this plane is really coming together! Sure there is a long way to go, but it's fun to start making an assembly :-)

A trip to West Marine

I decided to go get some more parts for Goat. Unfortunately, West Marine didn't have any more quick links than just this one, nor did they have the Ronstan shackle RF1853. Bummer. That's okay I suppose though. I'll try again later at another store...

I also need a cheaper source for 1/8" steel quick-links than West Marine. I counted over 20 at first glance at the plans and at $7 apiece, this begins to hurt a little. Surely there is another source without as much markup.

The pulleys are super sweet though!

It's riveting work .......

The Simpsons was back on tonight! I broke into that Christmas order a bit early ... I split a tube to make sleeves for the upper and lower vertical stabilizer tubes. Since the long tubes have inserts with rivets, I thought that would be a fun way to spend the evening. I have to get to DC to do the rest of the alignment before making holes in the others ends ... something about alignment, heh. I also have another half-dozen brackets to make before I do that alignment step. Good thing the Thanksgiving holiday is upcoming :-)

Car-Tow

I'm starting to feel better about this whole car-launching thing. Here is a picture of an Australian powered Goat on an engine-off flight. From what I can tell, it is essentially tying a rope to the car bumper and attaching that to the tow-bridle of Goat. I read that for a short field, it is proper to have a ground pulley that turns the car to face the glider. This way, the driver can better see the aircraft on launch too. Of course, the driver does not drive directly at the aircraft. Also, I find a slight issue that the glider needs to have a very good sense of where the turn-around is located so the glider doesn't get pulled down. In the desert areas, the pulley isn't used and the vehicle simply drives along a road as far as the glider pilot wants, getting better altitude than if a pulley was used. Still, it sounds pretty cool since I don't know anyone in the DC area yet with a tow plane; suggestions are welcome!

Christmas order

If anyone is still reading, I just put in an order for the aft fuselage (tailboom?) section as an impulse. I had the order prepped sometime over the summer, just didn't have the guts to hit the "order" button. Despite having two other active RC airplane projects going on and the school semester wrapping up, I figure having the raw material makes getting back working on Goat more accessible when I finally get the time again. Yay!

In particular, I'll be receiving material for the vertical tail triangle and lower boom support such that I can join the tail feathers to the fuselage. I'll have material for the anti-twist bracing, as well as picking up several spare parts to finish off specific areas of the nose section. A bucket of rivets will let me finalize the cabanes too. I suppose I probably could have done work on the tail ribs, but aluminum work is more satisfying to me right now.

'least I got this out of the way before Christmas hits and I feel that pinch!

PS: I just found a plastic part company that has free samples ... so we'll see if I can get the end caps on sample!

Cabane happiness

It's growing slowly but surely.

The nose section now has cabanes with all the pieces attached! I added the compression struts to the back of the cabanes using some long rivets and two 1/16" washers. It took a bit of filing to fishmouth the tubes to match both angles and fit to the correct depth. Sort of glad that I'm bolting rather than welding.

A bike trainer stand does a great job of keeping the nose section standing upright while I'm working on it.

The central cabane intersection in progress. The main plate has the proper bolts and associated hardware. The forward cabane strut has the insert and is happily riveted. The aft strut is what needs work next. By the plans, it is about 1/4" shorter than I'd like to see. I have an extra piece of 3/4" x .035" tube that I'll cut long for this replacement piece. I also need to do the insert for it and then all the riveting. I'm out of rivets again.

Yeah I'm out of washers too... 200 washers last time wasn't enough!
I worked a tad on the kingpost too, despite that I can't assemble it on the aircraft inside! I haven't cut the large holes in it to pass through the cable connections.

I have not yet bought the tubes that go over these inner structural piece. I still need to get a vice so I can ovalize the outer housings. I think it will look better with the ovalized tubes dressing up the structural pieces.

So next I'm going to work on the tail ribs back down in North Carolina before coming back to the nose section. I'll then order the rivets, washers, and materials to make the vertical fin (aft fuselage, tail section, whatever you want to call it) so that the nose and tail are connected! That'll be four or five months from now though :-)

Summer cabane

Time has come for another post. Life is changing ... a semester away from moving, a year away from graduating (yet again), a full 20 days until getting married. But Goat still progresses at its own pace.

Just this week, I received an order for a red Nelson Booster seat. It is a tad smaller than I anticipated, so the fit isn't quite exactly right, but the idea is there. I can always make a custom one that fits later when I care, heh. I laced the seat bottom and back with 3mm utility cord from REI. It's in the climbing isles and boasts 400lb strength, so I figure it should hold my butt up just fine. I painstakingly cut and tied each side with one tube removed such that when I pushed it back into place and dropped the bolt in, all the lines are tight. That sucked. The seat back was easier because I could slide the completed web down until it was snug, but getting the spacing right took several tries. I still have yet to cement the loops in place using some ShoeGoo. The seat itself will eventually be laced onto the cord instead of using a temporary loop around the seat back. I must say, it's pretty comfortable. It's no Tempurpedic, but works for me :-)

Also I have been working on getting the cabanes installed. This meant making the temporary center section pieces include ribs connecting the leading and trailing edges. Quite simply, I could not have purchased enough washers. There is a lot of spacing distance to cover to center the ribs, but whatever, washers are cheap. Next time I'll get 2000 instead of just 200. That should cover me :-)

Anyhow, I put the new long $7 ea. AN-42B eye bolts through the spar LE and TE to make the attachment point to the cabanes. A temporary short bolt and then a few pieces of 4-40 steel rod snaked through the test holes and now the cabanes are up by themselves! The nose tube goes up and supports the front of the cabanes just as nicely as can be. I even spent this morning on the forward pieces of the cabanes, so my head actually fits up inside closed structure (okay, I'm short so not actually inside, but it's nearby). This now is the configuration that it will be for flight. Everything else goes behind me (tail, aft fuse, wings). The wings have cables that tie into the tip of the nose, so I suppose those are ahead of me, but that's splitting hairs. The seating arrangement now is fairly close to the flight configuration.

I also bought a new nose section keel piece. This will replace the one with several kinks in the upper radius. I talked with an A&P guy who suggested filling the tube with sand and using a forming jig (which I can make from plywood). I'm hoping this new part will dress up the nose to look a little more professional. I also purchased a length of 3/4" OD tubing to replace a yet-undecided pair of truss members. Nobody likes the crimped 6061-T6, but if I can figure out which crimp everyone hates and make that look reasonable, perhaps they'll stop complaining.

I also need to figure out where to buy plastic tube end inserts like you might find in lawn furniture. You know what I'm talking about, a little plastic black cap that slides into a tube and dresses up the end to prevent snags on the thin wall and make it look solid. Where can I buy 3/4" and 1" ones of those?

Oh I guess I should also mention that I bought a handful of AN-14A bolts that fit better in the cabanes to get rid of the super long ones. Between making these updates and switching out the low-profile nuts for regular ones, the cabanes are looking rather dressed up.

What's next?

I still have some finishing-out work for the cabanes and replacements on the nose, so that's the immediate plan. After that, I'll be back on campus close to the tail sections again. I'll likely work on the ribs for the rudder and the horizontal stab. Figuring out and finishing those out will be a good accomplishment and set me up for the ailerons/flaps later down the road. I'll also take the sheet stock and start cutting out parts for the wing. I don't have all that many little parts to do, so I fear this will go fast enough I'll want to buy tubes again. My next tubing order I want to be the wing spars and tail tubes. This is all that's left for an easy next-step. I take that back, I guess the vertical tail (aka aft fuselage) is only an 8-ft tube, so UPS won't destroy me too badly. That settles it, I'll finish up the tail feathers then order the aft fuselage tubes. That will keep me busy for a while. I can even go so far as doing the elevator and rudder control rigging after attaching to the fuselage. That will be awesome. Yay for something to look forward to!

Semi-Update

Nothing really has happened since the last post except for a move and two trips to move everything to DC. I suppose I have cut out a few more parts, such as the four trailing edge joining pieces and some other miscellaneous pieces. I joined the trailing edge root pieces too and started on the right cabane. I guess I have done a bit. No pictures this post because it's mostly just busy-work to prep for more fun assembly later.

I think the plan of attack is to tackle the last order that includes some hardware to finish off the cabane attachment (AN42B-26A in particular), a few more pieces of 3/4 x 0.035" tubing to serve as ribs and finish off the cabanes, and perhaps even a seat :-)

I don't know what I'll work on after this order is finished being installed because the more I look, the more it looks like the wings or tail section is next, which means about a $500 order and a trip to pick up the material so I don't get eaten for shipping. I figure I'll get all the remaining aluminum at the same time so I don't have to pay for any more shipping, which means I'll be getting the tubes for the tail section as well as a few pieces for things like ribs and wing tips. I wouldn't be surprised to double the price of the order. So much for buying into this piecemeal.

On the other hand, I still have not finished making the rudder or horizontal tail ribs, which I already have all the material for. The composite fabrication I haven't figured out as well as the metalworking (which is not arguably 100% what it should be). As an alternate, I could work on fleshing out the nose section with some part replacement and fleshing out things like pullies. This probably makes more sense to do all at once though. Hm.

Well, maybe I'll have another post this summer with an answer and some actual pictures of some more progress.

Cabanes and a wing section?

I know this is a bad picture, but here are the pieces for the cabanes laid out on the floor. They are a lot bigger than I thought they would be! I don't think I realized the scale of this project, heh!

I should note that in putting these together with the mass of brackets that I have found two more parts that are mis-dimensioned. The top triangle 3/4" OD tube should be 20-7/8" instead of 20-3/4" and the front one I have not measured yet because my remaining tube is too short to fit. Dang. Also, the cabane channel on G4W10 is too narrow; it should be 1-1/4" channel to fit around the 1" OD rear cabane tube.

I also worked on the wing! Well, I'm making a fake center section that will allow me to put the cabanes on the nose section. This shows just 6" little pieces of the spar tubes that represent the whole wing. I likely can also add a rib down just a few inches to make these sections more stable and get the feel of how they go together.

You can see the mass of brackets that are going into these pieces. So far, running on 10 pieces of bracket and still have another 6 flat ones to go. I am out of 3/4" OD tube to make the root rib, so it'll be a while before this really goes on the nose/cabanes. But, it's cool to hold these in my hand and realize how sturdy they are and get a feel of the mass of the root joint. Whew!

Order up!

It's almost sad how little material you get for an order ... I guess I did get several pounds of bolts this go-around, different from before.

This material is enough to finish off the cabanes, make the control stick assembly, and to make a test center-section so I can mount the cabanes and down-tube. After this, I'll be able to sit in my cockpit, wiggle the stick & pedals, and be fully enclosed like the final product will be!

I guess I didn't really pick up more material to clean up the nose section yet. I guess I'll get to that next order, sometime over the summer.

I started out by finishing up some pieces needed for the control stick assembly. This is where the belt sander really turned out to be useful. Such a long cut from sheet left a rough edge that would have taken an hour to file out by hand. Three minutes on the belt sander and the rough edge was super flat and no nicks were to be seen!

I haven't drilled these yet because I'm going to match-drill a bunch of these holes. The end pieces (triangular ones) will get bolted into the first hole and then I'll drill through the other hole to ensure I get a good fit. This also makes sure the holes are parallel between the two sides.

The plans show the final arrangement of the control stick assembly.

I should note, I had to redo two parts from the next page of the plans due to mis-dimensioning. They should be made from 1-1/8" x 1-1/8" angle, not 1-1/8" x 1".

The control stick as it sits in my living room. I still need to put on the aileron connection pieces and bend the (not shown) front mounting piece into a U. That comes when I have time. Oh, you can see here to the lower left the two brackets I had to redo. Bugger parts...

Out!

Yet more brackets, foam, carbon, and aluminum composites

I spent some time this weekend working on Goat. I split about 50/50 working on foam versus cutting more brackets.

I have quite a large pile growing and it's getting time for some more fun assembly! Several, if you notice, are multiples up to 4 of any individual part. For the cabanes in particular, I need one bracket each side and then a duplicate pair for the other cabane. Several of these parts also need to be match drilled to align with each other, so some of these are not yet drilled. Fortunately, only a pair of each need to be match drilled, so it's not like I have to drill through four and have them all agree!

Next I moved to the rudder to do some foam and carbon work. I typically dislike this more than the metal work which I like less than wood work. However, I took my time and vacuumed several times and it was much more enjoyable than normal.

First, let me say I am not pleased with my first rib installation job. I have determined I will pull this one off and replace it in the future. I thought it more important this go around to get a rib right before I destroyed my old one. One step forward before one step backward.

I already had the fiberglass collars wrapped around the leading and trailing edges from months ago when I did the original rib. These I sanded a bit to get rid of sharp edges (ouch, pointy!) and to create a better surface for bonding the second layer of glass. One rib was already cut, so I simply tack-glued that on with some quicker setting epoxy. This helped keep it from moving around on me. I used a straight-edge and a razor saw to put a slice down the middle of the rib. Then I took a scrap piece of carbon and ensured the hole was large enough for the rib carbon to fully seat in the foam. After trimming a new piece of carbon to length, I glued it in the slot and double checked to keep the top surface flush. Before I add the wrap, I will install the other two ribs.

I did a little metal work on the horizontal tail too. I finally had a piece of scrap 3/4" x 0.035" tubing long enough for the elevator. I squared it up and drilled holes for the bolt and rivets.

I think doing rivets is fun, so it was exciting to have six to do all at once! Maybe my next plane should include more rivets. Okay, I admit that pop rivets aren't the most structural, so maybe I would say differently if I had to use real rivets.

I also watched an EAA Homebuilders video on the proper technique for installing cotter pins in castle nuts. The elevator hinge line eventually gets this locking feature, so I thought it would be nice to brush up on (who am I kidding, learn) the proper techniques.

While I had the foam out and my scrap 3/4" tubing handy, I started the rudder pedals. They are quite simple, just two tubes and foam in the middle. They will receive a wrap of 6oz fiberglass cloth to seal the foam and give it more rigidity. Whereas they look rather unfinished now, once the fiberglass goes on, they should look and feel much more rigid.

You might be able to see that I roughed up the aluminum in order to bond the foam on. This simple step is really important for getting a good bond. Imagine that the sandpaper is making several miniature scratches in the surface that the glue can creep down into and get a grip. You can bond things to glass this way even! Don't try it though, it's a good way to ruin a window...

Brackets and that's about it

Progress is slow now that weather is better and I have school/work to do. I still have about 8 linear feet of sheet stock to cut, so expect more of this kind of update.

Just cutting parts ... mostly doing ones for the cabane area because I hope to do the cabanes next as a set. I still have a lot to touch up on the fuselage, don't get me wrong. But if I'm going to order material, I might as well be prepped for two duties at once and only have to pay once for shipping.

For the fuselage, I'm thinking of re-doing the lower tube with more effort on getting a bend with no kinks. Also on the list is to redo a few of the truss members that the holes are wallowed out or slightly off center. Most of the structure beneath the pilot looks to be non-structural in the sense that they do not carry flight loads. There are a few obvious exceptions, and that's why those pieces receive more attention. At any rate, will be fun to clean up some of the messier areas and take stuff back apart.

Snowy day again, this time for real!

Apparently I like snow :-)

We got a solid 3" with areas of +4" this morning and it's still coming down. I really like working on snowy days because it is so quiet outside and peaceful to just watch the snow coming down when arms or eyes need a break.

Actually, I haven't done a whole lot of work on Goat in a bit. Occasionally, I'll sit down and knock out a part or two. I have all this sheet stock for making brackets, so there won't be much visual progress except for a growing pile of brackets. As it stands, I have a small mountain already and still over 9 linear feet to cut!

Here is the growing collection. Most of these belong to the cabanes, but the larger ones are for the wing root area and I have a couple more roughed that didn't make it into the photo.

One last hoorah for snow!