Sam Can't Come to the Blog Right Now
Greetings all. With one week to go before Oshkosh, figured I would provide you all with a little update, and as the title alludes to, Sam is busy working long days and late nights in the shop on the Prototype to get her done before AirVenture. We have made terrific progress the past few weeks. The plane is looking more and more like a flyable airframe. We have had one of the wettest and most humid Junes and Julys in recent memory, which has made painting a meteorological endeavor. Over the last few weeks we have finished laying up all of the composite and aluminum fairings; however, finding a clear day with low humidity (and no pollen) to paint has proven a challenge. Luckily we have had a few good days the past week and this weekend we were able to actually put the finishing touches all on the Hawk.
Another huge win since the last post was that we got in our prop! It looks great and and fits perfectly after Scott did some fine machining on the hub. The best part of a torque-y Verner radial is you can swing a [relatively] big prop. Between finishing the painting, the fairings, and the prop, the P-36 has some huge ramp appeal, despite its diminutive side.
Personally, I buttoned up the last of the electrical this week and ran some conductivity tests and everything seems in good order to run a start up test. I have also taught myself to use my wife’s Cricut to cut some of the smaller vinyl decals now that we have finished painting. Scott has been working on finalizing the mounting design of, and finishing the construction of, the nose cowling. The cowling has been a challenge as the complex geometry and various materials means it is only one part design and two parts artistry. Sam has been very patient with all of us as he has been teaching us everything from laying up fiberglass to match cutting tubing. The learning process on making this cowl will definitely go a long way towards us being able to provide a nearly finished and ready to install cowl on future kits; saving all of you the toil. Trevor and I finished the underside of the airplane and riveting the fairings on the wings, while Gary finished up the horizontal. Sam in all of this has been doing everything. I’m only writing this at midnight on a work night because when I left the shop an hour ago, he was just starting a new part for mounting the cowling, and I highly doubt he will get to this Blog when he is done.
The plan for this week is to finish the whole plane (easy, right?). We want to get it ready to show off at Oshkosh and be ready to start our test program in the weeks following. While we were hoping to be flying before the airshow, we still feel confident that we will be able to bring you a finished aircraft, even if it hasn’t flown yet. Still up for this week: finish the graphics, install the audio panel, attach the ailerons, finish, mount the cowling, and connect all of the thingamajigs to the whatchamacallits. All in all, not a horrible place to be after our last full week of work.
Feel free to share your love and support in the comments below, and if you will be at AirVenture be sure to stop by and check us out in the Homebuilt area.
