First Rivet

After giving the build room a good cleaning and sweeping the floor I finally un-boxed the rudder kit and began marking, clamping, drilling, deburring, cleco-ing, and eventually, riveting the skeleton of the rudder together.

Time today: 4 hours

Total time: 4 hours

Rudder kit arrived

This week the CH750 rudder kit arrived along with some additional tools I ordered  (more clecos, handi-clamps, drill bits, files, shears, etc) from Spruce and Amazon. Now to restore order to the assembly room.

Building Skills

'Building Skills' can be taken two ways I guess... so maybe more properly 'Building building skills'...

This past weekend I attended the EAA SportAir Workshop for Sheet Metal Building Basics held near Hobby Airport here in Houston. I was taught proper techniques for:

• Rivet Selection
• Rivet installation (flush, universal, bucked, squeezed, and pull)
• Rivet removal
• Measuring & marking
• Drilling & Match drilling
• Deburring
• Dimpling
• Countersinking
• Bending

In the interest of time cutting has been removed from the workshop so that laborious task remains a minor mystery. Since I plan to build this plane from sub-assembly kits I don't expect to do a lot of cutting anyway. If/When I get that 8'x4' CNC table I am working on functional, I may wind up cutting out parts with it. It would save an awful lot of money.

I can now begin to order sheet metal tools and the first CH-750 kit () as I have been practicing self control by not allowing myself to purchase those items until after the workshop.

Engine Progress

William Wynne is currently (re)publishing a checklist of things to do to prepare for running an engine at one of his Corvair Colleges. Since I intend to close mine at the next Texas Corvair College (likely in March 2016) I need to pay attention and begin preparing. So, let's sing along:

First: Choose a displacement.  I have chosen the 3000cc or 3300cc displacements. The difference between the two is the choice of crank; other than that, all the same.

1000 : Crankshaft Group

• 1001 -  Crank will be the aforementioned Weseman reworked stock crank or their new 3300cc 'stroker' crank. Final decision will be based on the cranks performance numbers after testing has been completed.
• 1002 - Crank Gear - included in 1001
• 1003 - Crank Gear Key - included in 1001
• 1004 - Crank Gear Gasket - included in 1001
• 1005 - Rear keys (2) - TBD
• 1006 - Fuel pump eccentric - TBD  (Core)
• 1007 - Spacer - TBD (Core)
• 1008 - Bronze distributor drive gear - TBD (Core)
• 1009 - Oil Slinger - TBD (Core)
• 1010 - Main Bearings - TBD
• 1011 - Connecting Rod Bearings - TBD

1100 : Camshaft Group : Buying entire group from WW for $400.

1200 : Case Group

• 1201 - Case - I have a 'YN' series case, which is good for the conversion but needs to be altered slightly for the 3000cc jugs. It is currently sitting in some corner of WW shop.
• 1202 - Main Case Bolts and nuts (8) - TBD (Core)
• 1203 - Pipe Plugs for Oil Galleries (2)

1500 : Cylinder Heads :  Weseman too probably.  My engine came with 140hp heads and aren't suitable for use on the WW conversion, so I will likely just sell them to a Corvair 'car guy' and get fresh heads from the Wesemans.

2000 : Rear Oil Case Group

• 2001 - Rear Oil Case Casting : TBD
• 2002 - Rear Oil Seal - TBD
• 2003 - 5/16" Hold-down hardware
• 2004 - 3/8" Hold-down hardware
• 2005 - Case to Block Gasket - TBD
• 2006 - Oil Pump Assy - TBD
• 2007 - Oil Pump Gaskets - TBD
• 2008 - Oil Pressure Regulator Piston - TBD
• 2009 - Oil Pressure Regulator Spring - TBD
• 2010 - Oil Pressure Regulator Plug - TBD
• 2011 - Plug Washer - TBD
• 2012 - Adjustable Pressure Regulator - Future

2100 : Harmonic Balancer Group :

• 2101 - Harmonic Balancer - TBD (Core)
• 2102 - Balancer bolt and washer - TBD (Core)

2400 : Starter Group :

•  2401 - Starter - TBD
• 2402 - Starter Mounting Bracket - TBD
• 2403 - Tail Bracket - TBD
• 2404 - Fine Gear - TBD
• 2405 - Top Cover - TBD
• 2406 - Top Cover Gasket - TBD
• 2407 - 5/16" Top Cover Hardware (18) - TBD
• 2408 - Ring Gear - TBD

2500 : Hub Group :
 3000 : Weseman 5th bearing.  I have already chosen the Weseman 5th bearing and my crank has already been delivered to them. Mine failed the tests to be reworked, so they sold me a replacement crank for $300. If I choose not to go with the 3300cc displacement, this will be my crank and bearing.

3100 : N/A

3200 : N/A

Initial Engine Status

I am going to be using either a 3000cc or 3300cc FlyCorvair conversion...  probably the 3300cc since I need that low-end torque to make sure I can make those short take offs on high density altitude days.

Right now my case is with William Wynne and my crank is with the Wesemans getting reworked and its 5th bearing installed.  I will likely wind up trading it in on one of their recently announced 'stroker' billet cranks to get the 3300cc displacement.

Why this plane?

I have been agonizing over which plane for years. My desire is to fly out of my own back yard and even tho my back yard is almost 5 acres, the longest strip I will be able to construct is only 700' feet long. Solid STOL performance is required and the CH-750 is very hard to beat. Fortunately my available space points into the prevailing winds. Unfortunately there are a lot of trees growing in my runway and it may take me as long to clear it as to build the aircraft!

Conventional wisdom says that I should have no problems getting off the ground and above the trees within the available 700'. Landing is a bit of a concern, but not a whole lot with practice. If I come over the north end at 20' AGL and 40mph, I would have a full 12 seconds to full-stall a landing at 35mph and then come to a stop. I could almost do that in my Grumman AA5 (of course it would eat 1200' of runway because it was landing at 60mph and floated like a feather with those low wings in ground effect).

Ordered Plans

Finally pulled the trigger on a set of plans for the Zenith CH-750 and the Amateur Built Certification Kit from the EAA.

I still need to finish cleaning and painting the work areas and building a dead level work table before I can order the first kit from Zenith.

Still not done with shop prep, but the plans package arrived yesterday (8/27/15).