The last post talked about dimpling, bending the sheet metal to fit a countersunk rivet. Its larger sibling is countersinking, which is used when the metal is too thick to allow dimpling. Countersinking is done with a countersinking tool, basically a drill with the correct angle and a pilot that holds it in the correct …
Some of the rivets used to assemble the Sling are counter-sunk, that is, they have a flat head that is flush with the skin of the aircraft. This has the advantage of giving the aircraft a more smooth appearance and also improving the air flow over the surface. Having a smooth surface is most important …
Once it became clear that building was going to take place in Sweden, I had to start educating myself on the difference between homebuilding an aircraft in Sweden vs. in the U.S. The legal requirements in the U.S are amazingly minimal. As long as at least 51% of the tasks have been completed by people …
Our new house has a very nice garage that measures 8.4m deep by 7.4m wide internally. This equates to a two-car garage with extra depth, not a ton of space. But because it was built to house machinery, it has 3.7m high ceilings and garage ports going up to that full height. As such, there’s …
It’s now 12 years since I first posted about airplane building and announced that I was going to build a Long-Ez. Since then, our life situation has changed considerably, we’ve moved across the world, received kids, changed jobs, and no plane building whatsoever has taken place… Once we had one kid and were thinking about …