JonJay
Well Known Member
I got around to inventory and starting the Empenage kit last night.
The kit was packaged very well and all parts where there.
Instructions are sparce, plans are not very detailed, and there are a few part number mistakes. They reminded me a lot of my original 6 kit.
I was a bit surprised that the Elevator Horns where not powder coated. You would think that they would just automatically do this given that all other models are done that way. It would appear that the kit is very little changed since its inception.
I have discovered the origin of the Primer Wars. They are in the 3 instructions. They state that "Raw Aluminum and Steel Parts must be primed, however, Alclad skins do not need to be primed and priming is left to the builders discretion." ,....and thus, the war began.
All of the parst where there and I was able to easily sort things out in my minds eye and start to work. A first time builder would defineatley be challenged as some of the operations are not well defined. Having done them before on the 6, you know what to do instinctually.
My 6 kit had some prepunched skins, but no matched drilled parts like on modern kits. The 3 has no prepunched parts at all. Frankly, I was never a big fan of the prepunched skins. While they did allow for alignment, they also required the skeleton to be built exaclty. You spent a lot of time drawing centering lines on ribs and pushing them around to match the skins. With the 3, you build the skeleton and then drill and trim the skin to fit. This seem to be a logical approach and I am anxious to see how it affects layout and build time.
I did notice that the HS has no center rib like on the 6. You have inboard and outboard ribs only. That is when it hit me that the 3 is indeed a much smaller airplane. I did not expect the HS to be that much smaller, but it is. The structure is so simple that I expect to be able to bang it out in no time.
The other differences where from graduating from a first time builder to a repeat offender. The HS spar reinforcements are simple 1 1/4" wide stock you taper to dimmension. I roughed out on the band saw, sanded to dimmension on my disk sander, and they where done in an hour. I bet I spent a day on those with my 6. The fear of just jumping in and doing, the anxiety I felt with my first kit are gone. Jump in, do, done.....
This is going to be a great project.
(yes Randy, I will post pictures, maybe even get a web site up
)
The kit was packaged very well and all parts where there.
Instructions are sparce, plans are not very detailed, and there are a few part number mistakes. They reminded me a lot of my original 6 kit.
I was a bit surprised that the Elevator Horns where not powder coated. You would think that they would just automatically do this given that all other models are done that way. It would appear that the kit is very little changed since its inception.
I have discovered the origin of the Primer Wars. They are in the 3 instructions. They state that "Raw Aluminum and Steel Parts must be primed, however, Alclad skins do not need to be primed and priming is left to the builders discretion." ,....and thus, the war began.
All of the parst where there and I was able to easily sort things out in my minds eye and start to work. A first time builder would defineatley be challenged as some of the operations are not well defined. Having done them before on the 6, you know what to do instinctually.
My 6 kit had some prepunched skins, but no matched drilled parts like on modern kits. The 3 has no prepunched parts at all. Frankly, I was never a big fan of the prepunched skins. While they did allow for alignment, they also required the skeleton to be built exaclty. You spent a lot of time drawing centering lines on ribs and pushing them around to match the skins. With the 3, you build the skeleton and then drill and trim the skin to fit. This seem to be a logical approach and I am anxious to see how it affects layout and build time.
I did notice that the HS has no center rib like on the 6. You have inboard and outboard ribs only. That is when it hit me that the 3 is indeed a much smaller airplane. I did not expect the HS to be that much smaller, but it is. The structure is so simple that I expect to be able to bang it out in no time.
The other differences where from graduating from a first time builder to a repeat offender. The HS spar reinforcements are simple 1 1/4" wide stock you taper to dimmension. I roughed out on the band saw, sanded to dimmension on my disk sander, and they where done in an hour. I bet I spent a day on those with my 6. The fear of just jumping in and doing, the anxiety I felt with my first kit are gone. Jump in, do, done.....
This is going to be a great project.
(yes Randy, I will post pictures, maybe even get a web site up
)
