Dave's Sonex Builders Log

Today I made/remade the side trim and cut out one of the canopy side tubes.

Today I layed out the bow strap. It turns out I started using 0.32 material so I had to start again using 0.25 material.

I started the layout of the bow strap today.

I started today on the canopy hinge made from a P4 hinge. After completing the canopy hinge I moved on to the longeron hinge

I fit the rudder pedals today. I had to ream the holes in the blocks a bit to get the bolts through and I also had to flip one set of the blocks over to get the bolts to line up with the brackets. I did one dry run then greased the blocks and installed and torqued the bolts. It all went together fairly well.

Today I worked on the material take-offs for the canopy and windshield components.

I finished removing the glare shield today then proceeded to work on the rudder pedal installation. I dug out my phenolic blocks and then discovered I need to order the necessary bolts. Next, I proceeded to remove the powder coat from the bearing surfaces. I reviewed the EAA home builders video where John uses a propane torch to heat up the paint and a wire brush to remove it. I tried masking the edges of the area but found this to be less than satisfactory. The tape only burns and turns into a gooey mess.

Today I started preparing my fuel tank. I followed the instruction sheet provided by Sonex. First I ran the required drill bits into the holes then I used the NPT taps to clean up the threads. The taps don’t appear to go all the way to the bottom of the thread or touch the plastic. After cleaning up the gas tank I though about ways to clean out the tank. I’ll have to think about this again closer to installing the tank. I next started to work on the glare shield by upsizing and dimpling the holes joining the two pieces of my custom glare shield.