Support Sun n'Fun

I started (accidentally) volunteering at Sun n' Fun during the tornadoes in 2010, and have gone from gopher to working in the Air Boss stand during the show. While the show must normally go one, the organization has correctly decided to cancel the show for this year.

Sun n' Fun is a 501(c)3 charity, and it's unsure if it will be able to survive the loss of the show. If you'd like to help support the organization and it's charitable efforts, please consider buying a cool 2020 t-shirt commemorating The Greatest Airshow that Never Happened

https://shop.flysnf.org/

Our prayers go out to everyone affected by the Corona19 virus.

Fun in the sun

Courtesy of Dan Nickens, Giuliana got her first SeaRey flight at the Garner's Landing fly-in

And she won a prize in the drawing, a PFD donated by the SPA. 

Then we went to work at Sun n Fun in Air Ops. I was able to share a few words with The Man

Sparky got her yellow "rookie" Air Ops hat

and was recruited by Greg Koonz to help in the ribbon cutting part of his act. 

In the meantime, Jim was hard at work, and kindly sent some pictures of the hardware mounted on the support trays. A center support will be added later.

Spring 'n Sun 'n Fun 'n ....

Last year I went to the annual SeaRey fly-in at Garner's Landing as a way to meet other builders and research my build, and visited the factory the next day for even more info. Tuesday I was at Sun 'n Fun and ended up working in Air Ops the rest of the week when the tornadoes hit.

It was so much fun I did it again this year, but I also spent a morning with longtime SeaRey guru Jim Ratte. Jim filled me up with some great ideas about how to solve some of the problems with my build, and at Garner's both Eric Batterman and Dan Nickens kindly took the time to fill my brain up even further. Since I got back a couple weeks ago I've been sifting the information, processing it and looking at my kit in new ways. I've gone by the hangar and talked to Osp about what I've learned, she's told me what she's been thinking, and we're slowly coming up with a plan for this year.

One big decision I made was not to try to have her flying this year. If I knew what I was doing it might be possible, but it would also take a lot of the fun out of it. So I've pushed my engine back to a Spring 2013 delivery and we'll spend this year working out the kinks, taking our time, and doing it right.

It's becoming a tradition that I go to the Garner's fly-in

and Sun n Fun. I've met some great people,

learned a lot,

and had a hell of a lot of fun.

Even got to be part of Manfred Radius's ribbon crew this year, which I can finally admit was on my bucket list. 

The front fell on.

Where have I been? Does this give you a hint?

You can read all about it here


When I installed my electric trim I noticed that at full forward travel it just touched the lower boom tube, so I played with some spacers until it fit better. I also replaced the undrilled bolts with drilled bolts and castellated nuts on any parts that rotate. I'll be going back and replacing them in a few other spots on the aircraft like in the landing gear, and will use them on any rotating parts in the future.

However there has been a mod to the springs and I have to go back and split them, plus I also have to add the mid rudder cable pulley to the bolt on the right. I'll get to that later, I'm glad I was able to figure the basics out for now.


With that (almost) complete I started on the cockpit.

 
I should have supported the parts higher, I had a bit of a problem lining them up.

I finally skipped ahead a step and added the upper side tubes. This set things a bit better, even if it's a little awkward getting into the cockpit to work.

 

When I installed the joysticks and control linkage I also substituted drilled bolts and castellated nuts. 

If you didn't know, today's title is a variation of the classic comedy routine by Clarke and Dawe "The front fell off"