Walking the Defiant

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming….

to walk the Defiant. Today was musical hangars with the airplanes. I got sick and tired of going back and forth between the hangars to fetch this or get that. Invariably the tool I needed was never in the hangar where I needed it.

With a little creative hangar-ing Betty found a new home, the Legacy went to the storage hangar and the Defiant went to the workshop hangar. Most importantly all the tools that had migrated out of the workshop hangar have been put back into the tool box where I can find and account for them. It also helps that the water/gatorade fridge, stereo, and microwave are in the workshop hangar. Oh and the restroom is right at the end of the building too. That also made it a good time to clean, organize, purge, and plan.

At Deer Valley, we have large and small T-Hangars. I currently have 2 small hangars, but am nearly to the top of the list for a large T-Hangar. The Defiant won’t fit fully assembled in a small hangar. I can either have the wings on or the canard on, but not both. By measurement, it should fit fully assembled in the large hangar once I get it.

I can still get plenty done in this hangar. I do plan to mount the wings back to the fuselage sooner than later to finish things like the rear cowl installation and finishing and rudder actuation. The other reason I need to get the wings on is to learn more about Brian’s coordinate system and level references for his DDA. I will also be able to use the jigs that came with the project to determine level references by finding the wing incidence, roll, and chord waterlines for the main wing. This will tell me a lot about how to align the canard to accomplish the mounting.

The interruption to our regularly scheduled airplane work is now over. Stay tuned for some details on the rear engine cooling air diffusers.