Yesterday's Sonexlog has been updated with two new pictures and all the text. 
 
It is worth a second look. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

Here are the latest pictures. 
 
No text yet, I started putting together the Sonexlog late Monday evening but the post says Tuesday. I will get the text in Tomorrow evening. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

My Dad came down again today and we finished the left side panel. I will add those pictures to yesterdays Sonexlog when I put in the text later this evening. 
 
Here are the updated pictures. Now with text! 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

A new Sonexlog is up. The pictures are here. 
 
It's posted without text for the time being, but the text is coming soon. My Dad is coming down tomorrow and we should finish the left side panel. I got it all deburred and cleaned up today after finishing off the right side. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

Only a little work done since the last post. Had a great day for flying Thursday. 
 
The left side has been completed to a stage just a little beyond where the right was. I'm finishing up the phenolic blocks and mounting them and will finish upsizing the rest of the bolt holes next - some are done on the left side. 
 
No Sonexlog today 
 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

And the guest worker was? 
 
You will have to go see the pictures to find out. 
 
I now have a left panel to go with the right. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

Watched some ball games and did taxes. I didn't get back to the shop until today. I have updrilled all the rivet holes. Bolt holes are yet to be done. I will updrill them at the same time I updrill the bolt holes for the left side panel. 
 
No pictures put up yet but I probably will have some tomorrow. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

Here are the latest pictures from today. 
 
I also updated the previous post with text. You can see the text and pictures of that post here. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

I have posted pictures but there is no text yet. I will get to it in a day or so. 
 
Until then, you just have to guess at what's going on. Not that hard. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

Getting close to assembling the forward side skins. I drilled the flap phenolic blocks which finished off a page of plans. I then finished pilot hole drilling on another set of parts from another page of plans to finish that page. 
 
There are still four angle pieces to finish on another page. They have been held until the last because they need to be bent. I don't like bending angle. It is hard to control, but after some whacks with a hammer for two angles and using a steel plate as a lever on the other two, they have the correct bend. 
 
Now I just have to shape them and pilot drill them and all the parts for the side skins will be finished. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

No pictures yet, but I worked on several pieces yesterday and today - although I did have to watch the White Sox home opener yesterday. 
 
I drilled all the pilot holes for the lower longeron and started on the upper longerons. The upper left side has some tricky slots and my first attempt got them too wide. 
 
So I cut another one and started making the slots again with a different technique. Today I finished both of the upper longeron assemblies which finishes off another plans page. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

Continuing the saga below. Wednesday, we got Chris up for a flight test and the short hop to C56. 
 
I flew on Thursday and it was back to making parts. 
 
Here are a few pictures of Chris's plane and my parts. 

Posted by: Bob Meyers

It's late Monday night to me but really April 1st, but this is no April Fools joke. 
 
I have meant to start posting more small and regular text posts to the blogs because I think my home page and Sonex Logs do a good job of covering the obvious visual progress. 
 
More and more of the progress is going to be non visual however. Over the last four days I have made some parts, including the final two engine mount angles, but I have also spent two active days doing related but non building tasks. 
 
Don't worry, the Sonex Logs will catch you up, but the rest of this post is about the other tasks. 
 
Chris Williams, the builder Sonex N732SX, has been rebuilding his engine and is also in the midst of moving out of his hanger at GYY and into a new hanger at Bult field C56. 
 
On Friday, along with some modest help loading up his friends truck with his stuff, I got to assist in his firing up the rebuilt Aerovee for the first time. Alas we were not successful in getting it to turn over. The cold was starting to get too us as the wind picked up and we got enveloped by shade, resulting in trouble shooting that was no longer paying dividends. 
 
We managed to verify fuel and air was getting to the cylinders; that both ignition coils were firing and the manual timing marks were all in the correct position. All we got was some backfires and run down batteries. 
 
The process for me however was great, I got to see all the pieces operating in detail if not in full cooperation with each other. We speculated about what could be tried and when we got home even exchanged a few e-mails about what we found researching what to do next. 
 
Over the weekend, Chris could only work on Saturday morning and he let me know afterward that after reviewing all the trouble shooting we did the day before and a good comparison with his setup and the manual, he found the major issue. 
 
The ignition coils were hooked up to the wrong cylinders and were firing 180 degrees out whack. When he switched them trigger leads around it fired right up. 
 
He was however unable to get very far with the tuning. He decided when we got together on Monday as prearranged he would switch needles in his Aerocarb and then we could do a two man tuning. 
 
The new needle has a richer mixture at wide open throttle than the old needle. We started out by gradually leaning the fuel metering until we got close to where it needed to be. 
 
Then we started the process of making small incremental changes to the metering until we had the optimum settings we could get. However, these setting were still not quite right getting much closer. 
 
Unfortunately the weather closed in and with the rain, our trouble shooting was done for the day. Chris is going to talk with Sonex just to get a better idea of how to move forward from here and we will get together Wednesday to see if we can get the all set for flight test and the short hop to his new hanger. 
 
Until then, his Sonex is resting comfortably in my hanger as his pass and lease were up. 
 
Tuning with two people really helps as we could quickly make changes. I have learned a lot about how the Aerovee should perform and this experience will help me tremendously when I am ready to start up my engine. 
 

Posted by: Bob Meyers