Olan Hodges

I didn’t get alot of time today as I was busy with work, school (grading), or church stuff. But I did get four ribs installed. Good progress and trying to keep it as neat and tidy as possible.

I got the shims in while we were at Lake Texoma. I got those trimmed and installed. I then got the first two full ribs installed in each tank. I’ve been watching some people on how they keep their installs so clean and they talk about keeping a clean workstation Read more

Well I did end up having a little bit of time today before Kate got home to do some work. I got the forward inboard ribs installed because they would be fairly easy with the squeezer and not having to have sealant over the entire rib flange. I double checked Read more

Another day that I didn’t get much time to work on the plane as we are prepping to go to my mom’s this weekend and I also needed to do some automotive maintenance on my wife’s car as well as the boys. But I got all of the stiffeners installed Read more

I didn’t get nearly as much time as I wanted tonight as I had church duties that came up and took two hours of my time away, but I’m still happy with my progress. I hope to wrap the rest of these stiffeners up tomorrow.

I got a little bit of time to work tonight and finished up the left wing tank stiffeners. Not much else to report besides that.

I’ve only got four more stiffeners to complete on this side. It was basically rinse and repeat for each stiffener. I hope to get the other stiffeners done on both sides by Wednesday but I have somethings I’m doing tomorrow night so fingers crossed I get the time.

I took a little bit of time today before going to bed to make sure the sealant I had installed yesterday was curing well. It is definitely cured pretty well since it is pretty warm outside. I cleaned up a little bit that I did not cleanup yesterday. Luckily it Read more

It was quite a learning experience today. I got the end ribs done first. I realized quickly that the sealant is very hard to control and gets EVERYWHERE. I had done it in small quantities for the rudder and other components but it was at the very end of the Read more

I realized I didn’t scuff up the edges of the ribs. I went back and did that. I hope I was able to scuff it up enough in the dimples but I’m pretty sure I did. I also made and bought some tools to help with the sealant process that Read more