stangflyer
I like 'em "BIG"!
Actually I have. I have been studying the plans for about a month now. The wood does look good and it seems to be very quality wood as well. However... I am not very pleased right now. Let me explain.
I started tinkering this evening by going through the wood and inventorying everything. As far as I could tell, it was all there. So, according to the plans, the left side is built right on "top" of the plans. I layed out the fuse and protected them with plastic wrap. I've been doing this for years and as long as a guy is cautious, the plans stay perfectly clean with no glue droplets or cut marks. I then started laying out the formers. First one, then another and before I knew it I had all 23 fuse formers layed out and basically resting in position.
I kept tinkering and before I knew it, I had "officially" started the build with the angle cut of two 1/4x1/4 inch balsa sticks then glued them together to make a fuselage longeron. Yep, it is now official. Make one cut or one glue joint and the build has started. LOL. I positioned the wing saddle support and decided I would keep adding parts as per the plans. Bottom fuse crutch...check. Top (forward) fuse crutch...check. Hey, hold the phone...
missing the top turtle deck crutch,
the canopy crutch
and the lower rear fuse crutch.
Not to mention I am also missing two 1/4"x 1/4" balsa stringers for the lower sides of the fuse formers. This is "NOT" the way I wanted to start this build. So I guess I need to round up the two balsa stringers. Not a huge deal on that. Michaels and Hobby Lobby are basically down the street. Hobby Clown (Town) is just a short ten minutes away in Boise. The problem is going to be the three missing crutches. I am going to try to locate some 1/2"x1/4" balsa and then pin it to the building board over the plans. If I moisten them before pinning them into position, they will take the shape needed from the plans. At that point, I could actually start gluing the formers to the crutches.
These are not such big concerns really. It is just the idea that "what if" I am missing more pieces from like say, the wing construction or worse yet, the major construction for the landing gear and such. Plus, when you pay nearly $1000.00 for a kit with plans, canopy and glass parts, you expect to get all that you paid for. I did speak to Pat from Solo Props yesterday and posed the hypothetical question regarding missing parts. (I am always thinking ahead of the game. Guess because I have been there more than once) Since he purchased PCK's from Larry Katana, it has been a night mare for him. He is still finding orders that have not shipped that were originally ordered and paid for from way back in January. Yes, January of 2018. He is not even taking orders for Solo Props and a new cut kit is about 5 months out due to his back log. He told me there would be nothing he could do about replacing damaged or missing parts to a kit. So "that" as they say...is that! I just hope nothing else is missing from the kit.
Other than that, the plans are beautiful and the wood is nice and I really enjoyed "tinkering" for a couple of hours this evening with the big Stang build. This is going to be one fun ride. I have missed building.
I will update all y'all tomorrow after work.
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