Got to that lovely stage where you tension up the ratchet straps and suddenly a collection of aluminium starts looking like a wing.…

Had a little marathon effort last night and got the entire bottom skin riveted.  Remembered to first pop the rivets that sit underneath other objects (eg jury strut brackets), which made it all go smoothly.  Drilled a hole in the tank channel for fuel hose (easier with it out of the structure) and positioned the Savannah fuel tank support before riveting.

Tomorrow I'll ask my wife to assist with flipping the wing.  Then it'll be time for playing around with the tank…

Well this is embarrassing, I just realised I haven't posted an update for almost a year!

Left wing is upside down on the bench.  Had a good day on it today, drilled all the pilot holes out to 1/8", clecoed in the front strut fitting, made the strut angle bracket and attached the fitting doubler, and made a start on the flaperon brackets.

Almost bought a Continental C-85 until someone pointed out a forum post on this site advising against it.  Will wait until a good 912 comes…

Milestone reached today - finished the right wing. (Well, as finished as you can get without a fuselage).  Skins riveted, trailing edge is solid riveted, flaperon bracket supports riveted, fuel tank installed.

Made a wing stand out of timber and carpet (the idea came from someone on the CH701.com site) and my workbench is now clear for the other wing...…

Thread sealed the return fitting and tightened up.  Removed the tank from the wing, added a small section of fuel line to the return and clamped it off.  Clamped the end of the main line too.  Added 20 litres of unleaded to test (placed the tank in the carport next to the car, figured after the test I can just drain it into the car!)

Seems to be no leaks around the fitting at the moment, will give it a full 24 hours or more just to make sure.

Received the…

Based on some excellent suggestions from others, I bought some lightweight 7mm corrugated conduit (used to tidy up wires in car engine bays) with clamps to suit.

My wife assisted in running a lightweight string through the conduit, I then installed it using some home made 0.025" brackets and taped the ends of the string to the root rib and tip spar.  Now, if I decide to install tip lights, just a matter of taping the wires to the string and pulling them…

Slotted in the Savannah tank last night.  Fits like a dream!  I made up a couple of brackets fitted to the ribs to support the rear of the tank, clecoed on the front brackets that bolt to the tank, and ran fuel line through grommets in the tank channel and rib #1.

The tank feels well supported and pretty much immovable, and the top surface looks like it will be very close to the top skin.  I'll run a straight edge over the ribs and pack out the top of the tank with cork strips or…

Completed the right tip.  I've decided not to install lights, as far as I know they're not required for RAAus rego and I don't plan to fly at dusk.  In any case, I can always make an access point in the tip later if required.

Really don't know why they didn't make the entire tip out of plastic, it would have been much easier to install than a separate nose tip!…

Last week I disassembled the wing, deburred everything and primed the joint surfaces. 

I decided to rivet the rear structure - rear spars to rear ribs, rear strut bracket etc - but not to rivet the ribs to the main spar at this stage, in case any shims were needed to pack out the nose ribs.

Riveted the lower trailing edges and lower rear skin to the framework, turned the wing over (carefully!) and clecoed the nose ribs back on.

This week I clecoed the nose skin…

A while ago I bought a set of wheels and brakes off a crashed Savannah.  The seller was in Adelaide, so I asked a bloke who lives nearby and who bought the engine from the same plane to pick them up for me.  The seller told me he'd throw in any other Savannah bits in the hangar.

Well, he delivered them today, and not just the wheels - but the main gear, the nosewheel fork, the rudder pedals with toe brakes and master cylinders, the flaperon mixer, Y-stick... and…

I was ashamed to see I hadn't done a build update since February 2012 - 18 months!!

Had actually done some building work in that time (not much, admittedly) - but have done the rear spars, clecoed the top skin on the right wing and flipped the wing over.

Today I got back into it after a few months of no activity, drilled the bottom skin and positioned it, and got a few clecoes in.  Glad to break the seal again and hopefully will be doing more building in the…

PLEASE tell me the spars are the hardest (physical) component of this plane to create.  After 286 solid AN5-6 rivets my left shoulder, neck and lower back are aching.  I know there's a few more to go... some longer ones on the spar root fittings, a few in the cockpit, not to mention those pesky little 3-3 suckers on the trailing edge... but I'm over it.  After this plane I never want to see a solid rivet again, let alone set one.  I'd have a ceremonial "chucking the bucking bar" in the dam,…

Cut out the 8 flaperon brackets and 8 slat supports from 0.090".  I don't have a bandsaw, but it's amazing what you can do with a table mounted circular saw, a belt sander and some patience...

Tried the new 5.5" solid rivet driver on the remaining spar rivets on the starboard spar.  Found it tends to kick around more than the short heads, so even more care has to be taken.

Commenced solid riveting on wing spars.  Almost completed one spar - found it difficult to set the rivets along the top of the spar doubler because of the bend at the top, so have ordered a 5.5" head which should be long enough to prevent the spring on the air gun from hitting the bent section when setting.

Happy with most of the rivets - had a couple that I had to drill out and re-set because of damage to the head caused by the gun slipping, but 99% worked fine.

Also cut the…

Got the root doublers, strut attachment doublers and tip spars bent up the other day.  Due to the happy combination of a Saturday morning to myself and the kids both sleeping for 3 hours in the afternoon, I pilot-drilled the doublers & L stiffeners to the spars and cut the extrusion to shape for the front strut attachments.

After some solid riveting practice, I'm now ready to attempt riveting the spars together... nervously... (jeez I'd hate to bugger it up on the last rivet!!)

With the tail feathers completed it's time to crack on with the next item (in order of increasing difficulty) - the wings.

Started by cutting out the rear rib blanks.  I tried the router method described in the Homebuilt Help dvd - unfortunately only got half way around when the bit stopped cutting and jammed.  Not a total loss though, the plywood templates are still useful - now I drill and screw the template through the aluminium onto the workbench, and cut around it with an Olfa…

Well, as much as anything is finished before final assembly.  

I drilled the 5/64" holes in the outer hinge pins, assembled the centre hinge point (bloody hard to cut a 2.5mm length of 1/4" tube for the bushing!) - got it all together and swinging freely.  

Only thing really left to do is source some sheetmetal screws and put an inspection hatch over the hole in the bottom skin where the trim servo is.

I sat the whole assembly upside-down and wiped the lower surfaces…

Last night I trimmed skins to size, deburred, cut out slot in trim tab spar for control rod and filed all the edges.

I'd seen other people use a Dremel tool to do the control slot - I don't have one (used to, think I lent it to someone!!) - but found that a step drill, used carefully and with wood clamped behind the aluminium, worked fine.  Even on the 0.016 skin.

I also made a doubler (just 0.016) for where the trim servo is riveted to the top skin.  

Still need some…