Meet Jim Ratte, the SeaRey Specialist

When I was down at Sun n Fun I took a morning to get some advice from a highly respected SeaRey builder, Jim Ratte. Jim is expanding his business and I can't recommend him highly enough. 

A very good week

I could cover up the way the week started, but I won't. I tried to remount the fuselage using the original holes, but it didn't work, the holes didn't match and I finally sanded the replacement patches off and started over, filling in the holes with an epoxy/filler mixture.

I also elongated the channel bracket mounting hole slightly, so I could adjust them side-side as I was installing the frame.
 

Previously I installed the doublers, then lowered the frame into the hull. This caused problems since with them the frame was tightly fitted to the hull, and if I was off just a little I bent the doubler. I finally realized it was smarter to leave the doublers off, lower the frame into the hull, THEN insert the doublers.Worked like a charm, and I was able to even out the doublers, instead of having one thick one and one thin one.

 

I wasn't as lucky with the drilling this year as I was last year, I ruined a couple doublers when my drilling was not exactly perfect. It took all day of drilling, marking, redrilling, trimming, but I finally got the doublers exactly right. I filled the holes with thickened epoxy, put the frame together and inserted the bolts, let it set up then removed the bolts. Perfect, tight, fit. 

I also tackled the front stringer/crossbeam issue. It was installed offset laterally to the left by 1/2",

 
and uneven longitudinally by 1/4".

Last year my solution to this was to cut into the stringer, weakening it. I talked to other builders and found this was not an uncommon problem with the hulls, and the solution was to notch the channel brackets so they could be adjusted fore/aft to fit with the rubber spacers (this is where I got the idea for notching the bulkhead channel brackets.). I hated to do it, but I found it easier to disassemble the front cockpit, removing the floor pan for easier access.

Like the bulkhead stringers, I filled in the holes, added doublers, redrilled the holes, trimmed the stringer to an even plane, and reglassed the stringer.

And I had to take a minute to assemble the hull, sit in it and remember what I'm working toward. I love the light in the morning during summer.

I've also been working on the design of the panel, using a program called XPanel. Here's the "D" version of the panel, still got some changes to go. Note the analog airspeed indicator and vertical compass in the top for easy reference, engine instruments will be displayed on the Dynon, lights across the bottom flowing in needed sequence from left-right, and accessories (heater, bilge pump) above them.

I didn't like the color I had been using for the interior, the tint was shaded toward yellow, so I shifted to a light tan. I'll be on the road for the next several days for work, when I get home I'm hoping to have something really cool to show you, if the contractor can pull it off.

Prepping for the mate, it was time for odds and ends like cutting a bilge drain hole. I found some gaps in the hull-foam seal so I filled it with a resin slurry. I'll mount the bracket when I flip the hull for some work on it I'll tell you about later.

I kept trimming the turtledeck fitting at the aft clusterbracket until it now fits..

A puzzle was getting the turtledeck far enough aft to cover the hole for the aft flying wires. I finally shifted the bulkhead angle aft, and it fit fine, so I'll have to adjust that bracket in the future, but at least I got that figured out.

Moving on, I mounted the fuel tank sump squeeze bulb.

And I'm still working on fixing the damaged hull section, now just fine-tuning the underlip portion.

D'oh!!!

Last year when I did my frame-hull attachment I messed up one hole and ended up hogging out the stringer.






Tonight I went in to reglass that, but started thinking. When I did my bulkhead I had reversed the channel bracket bolt, thinking that it was incorrect (page 10) because bolts hould always go "down, back and in". Looking at how far I had dug into the stringer for the frame mate it struck me that maybe there was a reason for the bolt to be upside down, so I tested the channel bracket with the bolt in from the bottom, and double checked the manual.







Sure enough, I had screwed up by redoing it "down back and up", the channel bracket bolt MUST come in from the bottom so you don't dig too much of the stringer out making room for the nut. So I spent tonight adding/fitting foam, and I'll reglass the stringer tomorrow.

A rose by any other name.

Another thing left unsettled over the winter was the n-number. FAA rules say you can make up your own n-number but the letters can only be on the last two spaces, and it could not start with a 0.

All the good versions of __SK were taken, I tried several number sequences and finally settled on 615MK, for my birthday (61) and 5MK as a stylized version of my initials.

But I kept hearing grumblings from OspRey, she just didn't like the n-number. I asked her one day and she told me it was because it wasn't HER name, it was mine. And by coincidence MK was also Einar's wife initial's Michelle Ketilsson. I knew I had to make a change.

It was at Sun n Fun that I started mulling some other options, and it was there in front of my face: 05PY. OSPreY. 105PY was taken by a balloon, but 305PY, 705PY and 805PY were available. After talking it over OspRey got her new n-number reserved, N805PY.


Today was spent at the hangar taking the hull off the frame and thinking about where to go from here. Plans are afoot.

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. 

Jenny

Back in December Einar told me he had purchased an antique altimeter from a Curtiss Jenny. He kindly loaned it to me for a few days, and I posed it with the radio controlled Jenny kit I have been building for the past several years. It was incredible to hold it and think of the things it had seen, and the men and women who had sat behind it....

A few weeks later Einar got together with me and said "Steve, we're going to build a Jenny." I said Yup, it's downstairs in my shop.

Einar said No, I've purchased Jenny serial number 2918 from Ken Hyde, we've got 5 years get her flying in time for her 100th birthday, and you're going to fly it.

Holy shit.....