Workshop Space

1. Empennage workshop

I built most of my Empennage in a small garden shed, measuring approximately 6 metres by 4 metres. You can see pictures of this tiny area in the empennage sections.

 

2. Final workshop

In late 2004 my wife and I moved to a small rural town in country NSW, where we have 115 acres with a long flat paddock hopefully to become a runway one day. At the same time I moved the workshop up to a friend's hangar on another farm 20 kilometres away. I had intended to spend 2 full days a week on the plane, but this did not work out.

So in November and December 2005 I had a large farm shed built next to our house, measuring 18 metres (3 bays of 6 metres) by 9 metres. One bay of the shed has a concrete slab and is enclosed with a window and a single large roller-door. It has power and lighting, and I am currently fitting it out with benches and storage. It will be my building workshop for however long it takes. When the plane is finished, it will revert to a conventional workshop with enclosed storage space for furniture etc. Here are a few pictures of progress..

Early stages

Early, different aspect

Eastern end, with brewing storm

Workshop. roller door frame

Personal door

Roller door in place. Chain block visible

The structure is all steel with a very heavy I-beam frame supporting perlins and roof beams. Inside the enclosed workshop I have added an extra I-beam carrying a roller gadget which supports a 1/2 ton chain block - useful for lifting engines etc. The shed/ workshop was finished in mid December

 

3. Moving the project home

On Saturday 17th December 2005, my Technical Counsellor (who is also a LAME - Licenced Aeronautical Mechnical Engineer) and myself rented a car trailer, onto which we loaded the fuselage and wings safely and securely. The trick is to have plenty of foam matresses to place under and between components, and to use ropes to make sure nothing moves. The ropes must be secured to strong areas of the aircraft (obviously) such as the firewall corners. I used my wing cradle which actually could have been stronger and better designed, but it all worked out OK. I have no pictures of the load, as it was intermittently raining at the time, and I had no time to spare. It took about three hours, the distance was 20km (about 14 miles). So here is the finished workshop (6m x 9m). It is a big area, but it is now very full of airplane bits. I have used the ply and timber from the QB crates to build big shelves and benches to store the canopy and big fiberglass components. I have one wing already out of the cradle to fix the aileron bellcrank platenut which was stripped. It is good to finally have the project available to work on at anytime. Six by nine metres is a comfortable workspace (until it comes to attaching wings I guess). The final image shows how I really have a nice lot of space to work in.

Finished shed

Fuse, wing and storage

Workbench, other wing, HS

VS and Rudder

Panel mock-up

More stored components

Finally ready