Fuel Tank progress, and other parts

Well, I put in some serious hours after work this week and last weekend. Spent the bulk of the time finishing up parts I needed to make in .025" sheet. To my chagrin, I discovered that I needed another full sheet of .025" to finish all the parts! I was using another person's reference material to determine how many sheets of it I'd need to build the whole plane. His reference said that 2.5-3 sheets would be enough to build the whole plane. While I had some scrap from several test pieces I am certain that the Edition 3 version of my plane requires 4 sheets. I still have to make about 55 pieces of "L" angle (4 feet long, 19mm on each side), the top "dash board" skin and a few other good-sized pieces for the plane...no way only 3 sheets could supply all that material, even if I'd never made a bad part.

 Fuel Webs and Fuel Channels (these support the fuel tanks inside the wings):

Fuel Tank Ribs (a total of 4, but only 2 in the picture):

 

One Fuel Tank fabricated & clamped together! The ribs were easy enough to form, but getting the skin measurements correct so that every seam lined up perfectly took a while. I used a 20mm-wide test strip and bent it up in stages until I had the exact bend line measurements. I also left it long, and cut the excess off after I'd bent it up, just to be sure. Worked like a charm, though...didn't have to scrap the skin! I still need to fabricate the 2nd tank skin, cut holes for drain, fuel line, return line and filler fittings, and then have the whole assembly welded. I'm hoping to drop them off at the welder sometime next week!

Baggage Angle and Longeron Gussets (just a couple basic, boring parts):

 Seat Supports. I'm still debating about whether to put in lever-adjustable seats in the plane. The original plans call for a series of bolt holes and nut plates added to the seat pan, so you can manually set the seat location. However, the seats are not not in-flight adjustable and it's not a quick operation to unbolt the seats, move them and try to figure out what position you'd like them. Further, I've heard from other 750 owners that the lever-adjustable seats (much like manually adjustable seats in a car) make accessing the baggage area easier, and egress/exit easier for folks who are less flexible. So, if I go the lever-adjustable seat route, these seat supports aren't even used, and are replaced with a total of 4 different web channel cross braces. I may have made these parts for nothing! But they sure turned out nicely. Just wish I hadn't spent a couple hours on them.

Stay tuned for more to come. I have lots of video to edit and more pictures on the way!