I heard from Stu today that he needs his shop back. I didn’t ask for how long — I suspect he may be not quite as enthused about having a large part his shop taken over with what seems like an indefinite project, especially when I’m not there for a week or two. I’ve been dealing with a bunch of other things that have been deferred on the house and cars, and admittedly a couple of those days have been just inertia – and trying to figure out the best way to deal with the aileron/bracket interference. I did tell him it would take 2-3 years to get to the point where I was ready to take it to the airport for assembly, but being told that and actually seeing the impact are two different things, of course.
At this point I’ll build a movable wing storage rack for the two lower wings, and move them to the hangar at Millard as soon as I have the left wing varnished. Those wings can live there while I figure out my next move. My garage is not currently in a state suitable for building. It’s too cold in winter to work with epoxy, and unbearably hot for much of the summer. It was workable for aluminum construction on the RV-7, but the epoxy used for this plane is less tolerant of temperature extremes while working on assembly. I’ve been planning to install a mini split heat pump in there for heat and A/C; I think I’ll move ahead with that.
Tail surfaces can be built on a single 4 x 8′ sheet of MDF. I think I can free up enough space in the garage for that, and once done they can hang on a wall either at home or at the hangar. I need to review the fuselage plans to see how much workbench I’ll need for that — with any luck, a 2 x 16′ bench would do, so maybe I can just split the 4 x 8 down the center and make a single long bench for the fuselage. The upper wings will be the challenge. I really need at least 11 x 4′, so I just need to do some planning.