Week 165 - 4 January 2006

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We got back into the project tonight spending most of the night using up elbow grease sanding. The three of us was there plus Dale Beck helping also. When you get four people sanding against the fiberglass cloth it got quite noisy. We feather sanded all the seam overlaps and smoothed out anywhere the epoxy was heavy and/or bumpy. We did this to the top side of the fuse and horizontal stab, the topside of the center wing, both sides of the outboard wing sections and all the hatches we have made.

With this done Greg had to leave to take care of another commitment.

About the same time Jeff Laven showed up to check out our progress. So we started mixing up some epoxy to use as the second coat over the fiberglass cloth. We ended up mixing up 250 grams of epoxy to cover every thing mentioned above. I got sloppy and spilled approximately 25 grams of epoxy, therefore only approximately 225 grams got actually applied to the airframe.

Catch ya later!

-- Gary Himes

Week 166 - 11 January 2006
More of the same as last week, sanding and applying the second coat of epoxy to the bottom sides of the wing and fuse plus bottom side of the flaps. The crew was Dale, Greg, Rick and myself applying a total of 200 grams of epoxy.

Enjoy the pictures and see ya next week!

-- Gary Himes

Week 167 - 18 January 2006

Building this Plane and having every detail on the web has been a wonderful experience. I know people are following the site who are building their own "17" and giving positive feedback. There has been those who have already built their "17" and send us suggestions and ideas. We also have just plain ole airplane lovers following the site as well. Thank each and every one of you!

Just a short time ago, one of the builders who is already flying their plane, wrote me and told me to hang in there. Once the time comes to start priming parts, enthusiasm will once again abound. He said the wood grain starts to trick your eyes and it will look better with primmer on it. Also with the primmer on, he claimed it turns itself into a different object. Man-o-man was this guy right on!

My guess is, you have already figured out we started priming tonight.

The first thing sanded and primed was both outboard wing sections. All three hatch doors found they way under the sanding and primer along with both flaps. Next the top of the port side horizontal stab was sanded and primed. There was lots of sanding required before applying the gray primmer. The primmer really does make the parts look different, and while some blemishes seem to go away others pop right out.

While Rick and I were sanding and priming, Greg and Dale were busy making molds to vacuum mold. We bought the window kit but seven of the small windows were not included. Dale just happens to have a machine to do vacuum molding so once again it is Dale to the rescue.

Once again enjoy the pictures and we will see ya next week.

-- Gary Himes

Week 168 - 25 January 2006

Greg had a previous engagement, there was missing. Dale Beck showed up again and had the windows which he vacuum formed. They really looked good.

The entire night was spent sanding and priming the main section of the wing. There are places which are not yet sanded enough, but that's what good about sandable primmer.

And once again, boy was that guy right. Covering up the wood grain with primmer really does make it look like a different object.

Stay tuned for next week, when you will hear someone say "Hey, all this sanding is hurting my arm!"

-- Gary Himes

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