Kneeboard Notes

I've written a couple of notes in the past few months about repairing the minor skin buckles in our Dream Tundra. It turns out that Dream has re-designed the belly skin, doubling the thickness, then adding another doubler over that. We asked them to double the skin thickness for the chin skin - and when all three part showed up, the number of holes to be matched, and the number of rivets that had to be drilled out and replaced was daunting.

Meeting your heroes can turn out to be a disappointment, a let down. But this is not always the case. And the news of John Glenn's passing reminded me that yes, indeed, there are heroes that live up to the name.

After several months of waiting on new pre-punched parts to be made and delivered by Dream Aircraft for our Tundra, we finally received a big box of belly skins and repairs are underway!

Some days, aviation isn't about experimentals - it can be hard to pass up the opportunity to get a ride in a classic! Today was such a day - the EAA's Ford Tri-motor is in town (giving rides out of the Carson City, Nevada airport through the weekend.

Formica covered workbenches are wonderful, and I do admire the way they look when the shop is all cleaned up. They are great for maintenance jobs that require grease and oil once the airplane is flying. But for efficient construction of airplanes, give me a sacrificial workbench surface.

We're working to assemble the right spar of our Xenos motor glider, and one of the tough things I found on the left spar...

Ed. note: These notes are part of Paul Dye's article about attending Lycoming's engine assembly school. For such “simple” engines, Lycoming type power plants, there...

Whenever I find myself in Oshkosh in the "off-season" for EAA meetings and vents, I try and drop in on our friends at Sonex...

We've finished up the left spar for our Xenos motor glider, and that means starting what seems like a whole new airplane project to...

I keep getting asked how our Tundra repair project has been coming along, and since I've talked about it here before, it is only...