Year 1 Retrospective

Time flies.  Hopefully, so will my airplane in a few more years.  But where is the project now that exactly one year has elapsed?  Well, the empennage is mostly done.  There are still a few minor details to do, but it is virtually complete.  There is also the small matter of completing the wings which most people consider to be essential to the flying experience.  On the wings, I estimate they are over 90% complete with the ailerons in progress and only the bottom skins left to attach.

Since nearly all of my money has gone into the airplane, the production value of this blog has obviously suffered.  So I'll need to ask for one more indulgence from the reader. At this point I ask that you create a virtual musical montage in your head.  It is with an overpowering sense of nostalgia and with great sentimentality that you should now flip through the following photos to the tune of the Carpenter's "We've only just begun."  In order to receive the full emotional impact I'll further suggest that the reader mentally dissolve between the photos as you go.  Cue music...

So it was about 1 year ago when these boxes showed up on my porch.   

And about one week after project start the first rivet was set.

Horizontal stabilizer test flight

Our latest addition: Puppy Trina

Dimple master

Pope of all aviation?

Chuck at work

Chuck admires his work on the EAA work benches

Melanie visits

Wings arrive

flute, flute, flute...

Prime

Drilled finger: RV rite of passage

Dogs at play

Fuel tanks hold air

Pito tube

If you're still in the musical montage, snap out of it now and dry your eyes before somebody sees you!  

...And so after exactly one year here we are.  Everything we've done so far is pictured below.  Two flaps, two elevators, a vertical stabilizer, a horizontal stabilizer, and a rudder. Two wings and two ailerons are in progress.  

We raise our glasses on the first anniversary of this project and to our good fortune. We wish you the same in 2013.