Fabulous job there VJ, very clean indeed!  Gosh, I've got to get my Cub wrapped up and start saving for a year or two so I can start my next build...  []  Eh, what can I say...

Good luck to all of you and I pray that God will protect you through the storm!

David

It's 2 PM here and had a tree come down in my yard from the wind. Lights have flickered but so far so good. Hope you made it home Raptureboy!

I have a new found respect for the UPS man , with the wind howling and trees coming down I hear someone knocking at my backdoor (no doorbell) and he delivers my cowl from Fiberglass Specialties. AREYOUSERIOUS!

WOW!  That is something! 

How are you going to fasten it?  Any scale like fastening ideas?

Again, good luck with the storm!  Stay safe!
David

I hope that everyone got through that storm safe and sound. The wind was relentless as well as the rain! I went out early this AM to cut up and cart off to the dump downed trees on my property.

I was very busy working on my plane today as you can see. I finally got all the sheeting done on the wing as well as completing the wing tips. There is still plenty of sanding to do to get everything to fit just right... I had to stop and clean off the work bench because is was getting out of hand.After it was clean I thought it proper to have a little photo shoot. Of course I couldn't resist the temptation to place the wingand cowl on the fuselage! I was very happy to see the fit of the wing in the saddle with absolutly no sanding done yet, </p>

Oops! I see a crooked piece of sheeting. Gonna have to start over there. I do have a question. Would you be willing to ship a copy of those plan's?
Looking so good making me want to build one.

Robert, if you want to wait till I'm done I can give you the set I'm building off of as they have been copied from my originals. Just pm me your address.

That would be great. Maybe I will be done with the Citabria, Corsair, and Pitts by then.

Uh-oh, I saw a slighty mismatched rib toward the root, the leading edge just ain't gonna cut it!  SORRY!  Robert did it so I had to as well.  I mean, what do you expect ya know. 

Really, that looks so beautiful!  Great job and, like so many others have said, it's a shame to cover it!

Glad to here you weathered the storm.

Take care,
David

Boy you guys are tough! I'm doing the best I can...

Time to get the wing mounted to the fuselage. This means some carefull measuring, after all the time and effort one puts into buildingtheir plane you have to make every effort to ensure that the wing is aligned properly or you won't be happy with how it flies. This means making sure the wing is centered on the fuse andtheangle ofincidence checked and or adjusted. So first on the agenda is to install the wing anchor blocks (HF-4). These blocks are not square so you can see how I duplicated the angle from the plans. I measured from the plans the exact locations of these blocks, you can see the pencil marks.

On a side note, I'm sure you all have steel rulers similar to what's in the photo. Have you ever placed your ruler on the side of something and reached for your pencil only to have the ruler slide off of where you placed it? It's happened to me several times but not anymore! What I did was to take some of the sandpaper that has sticky back and placed it on the side of the ruler that I don't use. The friction that the sandpaper gives you stops the ruler from sliding around. It also can be used as a sanding block!

Disgustingly beautiful workmanship Vincent! The shop is so clean you might think that the real work happens at another location. The only odd thing I noticed were the containers on the shelves not being lined up with labels facing forwards! You make me want to be a better modeler

Really spectacular! Everything looks like it is going together perfectly. You're making me want one!

I like the sandpaper on the back of the ruler idea. I have one backed with a super thin layer of cork. Not sure where I got it but the cork really helps it stay in place.

SunDevilPilot

Good idea VJ.  I've had my ruler slip plenty of times, more than I could count!  My only problem is my ruler is also my combination square blade.  Guess I might need to buy something else now.  Will it never end?

Yel914, now that you pointed that out, I think I'm probably the antithesis of VJ.  I cannot keep my table clean!  I'll straighten it up, turn my back... just for a moment... then, when I turn back around, POOF!  It's a freakin' mess again!  And I mean a MESS!  Just can't understand it...

Being that I have a magnetic building board I bought a plastic handled one and glued a frdge magnet to it.

Aftercarefully marking the exact positions of the wing anchorblocks I had to trust my measurements and slice into the fuse. It was a bitnerve racking to do it... It has a lot of angles that you have to deal with all at the same time. One side is done and the other side is 3/4 of theway there. Doesn't seem like I accomplished much tonight butI am happy with the results of the little that did get accomplished.The blocks will get trimmed down after the sheeting is done. In fact I am not following the directions as they tell you to glue the blocks first,then sheet the fuse. I am choosing to do it the other way around.

PS- yel914, You may be interested to know that I fired the night cleaning staff and we'll get those can labels straightened out. LOL

Again, nice work VJ!  Real nice!

Boy, I go away for a few days and bam, your almost done! LOL. We made it throught the big one by God's grace with minimal damages and only 1-1/2 in of rain. We lost power for 2 days at my house and after being told it could be days yet to get it back we managed to finnally secure a generator and get it hooked into the panel. 2 hrs after I get it all hooked up the power comes back onOh well, I'm ready for the next one. This project got me motivated to get back to work on my Topflite P-47 again, I started Mon night and then the power went outManaged to get some sheeting on though and since the weather looks lousy for flying the rest of the week I'll get back on it. VJ, my brother sent me a picture of a huge rainbow, that stretched all across Plymouth, where he lives after the storm passed through. You got to love those UPS guys sometimes, love, hate relationship. I had him leave my new radio laying in my driveway one winter.

Glad to hear your OK and that you made it through the storm. How about posting that rainbow, maybe someone will get that pot of gold.... I never lost my power ( I was lucky ) and I got a chance to work on my Ryan for two full days!

FYI- Checkout this link,interesting history on the Ryan STA as well as a real nice virtual tour. http://www.airventuremuseum.org/coll...Ryan%20STA.asp

Stickbuilder, hopefully your still monitoring this thread, in post #259 you had asked about navigational lights for the Ryan. Check out the wing tip in the attatched photo.

VJ, Although I'm sad about the night cleaning staff being added to the ranks of the unemployed, I'll sleep better knowing the labels are straight!

I noticed that. Obviously an add on set. I've just about got one wing panel framed up, and the joiners installed. Not a Sig though.

Bill, Waco Brother #1

I am constantly amazed at the kindness and generosity of people in this hobby. I have really come to like this Ryan STA.And alittle while back I asked VJ if I could buy a copy of his plan's.He saidsure when he is done. Well today I got a package in the mail from someone I don't know. And while walking back to the house I'm trying to think of who this person possibly could be. So I sit down and commence to open this odd package. And low and behold, here, in my hand's, is a copy of the Sig Ryan STA instruction manual. Absolutely blew me away.
So!
A very big ThankYou to VJ.

Here you go VJ, a rainbow over N.H.

Your welcome Robert , it's my pleasure. I'm sure you would have done the same.

Thanks for posting that pic of the rainbow- she's a beauty!

Spent the better part of the morning down at the flying field cutting trees and general clean-up, but I did get a chance to do a few things on the Ryan. As you can see I have started on the horizontal stabilizer. Four 1/16" x 1/4" balsa strips were soaked in waterand placed on the jig that I made to dry. Tomorrow I will remove them from the jig and glue them up. Also in the photo you can see the tapered balsa strips that make-up the trailing edge of the stabilizer and the two leading edges of the elevator halves. I cut out these pieces using my "bandsaw" as seen in the photo. These balsa pieces are a bit too weak in my opinion,so to give them a bit more strength while being mindful of adding weight to the tail I am laminating a 1/32" ply to each piece.This is quite an assembly made-up of ribs!

Robert, I know what you mean buddy!  It is amazing how friendly, generous and just plain helpful this community can be.

Raptureboy, one of God's most beatitul creations (just one of MANY).  Great shot!  I hope to be able to make it back to New England again someday.

Take care,
David