Hi Everyone,
My girlfriend and Iare about to begin construction on a new Skybolt. We received our plans a few months ago along with the "D" supplement although we haven't completely decided on that or the "S". We believe there is around a 20# weight penalty on the "D" and we are on a mission to keep this plane as light as possibe. I have experience with vacuum-bagging composites and have ideas for some non-structural carbon-fiber parts.
We are very much building this plane together. She has been flying whenever she can over the last 10 years and I have built all sorts of things over the last 30 years. It took us all of about 30 seconds to decide on a biplane and the skybolt won because she wants to do some competition aerbatics and we still want to do a bit of cross-coutry travel with the plane. I expect by the time we are done with this project, I will have a pilot's license and she will be able to build all sorts of things.
We managed to wrangle a pretty good "show discount" out of Aircraft Spruce at Osh-Kosh and are headed down there at the end of the month to pick up most of our 4130, Spruce and plywood. As soon as we wrap up a couple of furniture projects that are on the bench, we plan to dive in.
We found an interesting way to get acquainted with Poly-Fiber. We built a skin-on-frame kayakusing the complete Poly-Fiber system including the paint. We should have the final coats on that shortly.
One disappointment has been we really haven't found any rag and tube builders up here in Northern California. Everyone seems to be in love with Aluminum. We will check out another EAA chapter when we get time.
Looking forward to getting ideasfrom the group.
Jim
