Homebuilders’ work in progress

October 13, 2011

Homebuilders’ work in progress

We welcome submissions from our builders and hope to make this section a very active part of the homebuilder’s process. We would love to fill this page out with representative photos of projects, through completion, from any or all of the builders of our planes.

PL-9 (Hall Brothers) The first collection of photos are from the Hall brothers who also provided the captions below the large photos.

“This photo is of my brother and the homemade press brake. We’ve mounted it in the shop hydraulic press to get enough pressure to bend the main wing spar flanges.”

“This is my brother standing near the wing spars with the flanges which were bent on our homemade press brake.”

“This photo is of the left and right wing spars with compression struts and some ribs. We were working on the fuel tank area at this time.”

“This is my horizontal stabilizer in the jig with all of the elevator parts ready to go together.”

“This is my completed vertical stabilizer and rudder waiting for fabric covering.”

“Here is the elevator under construction in the jig.”

“This shot was taken as we were fitting the leading edge skins to the ribs. We formed the nose radius in our homemade press brake and then pulled the skins the rest of the way around the ribs with straps and clamps.”

“This is my completed horizontal stabilizer and elevator waiting for fabric covering.”

“This picture is of the leading edge skins all clecoed on ready to be removed, deburred, primed and then riveted in place.”

“This shows some of the slat ribs in place as we are preparing to fabricate and rivet the slat skins to the ribs.”

“This photo is of the leading edge slat ready for the top skin.”

“This photo is of the completed leading edge slat.”

“This is a picture of the completed flaps mounted to the wing trailing edge.”

“This view is of the nearly completed aileron on the bench.”

“This is the wing with the flaps and ailerons attached almost ready for covering.”

PL-2 (Brian Ford – Australia) Brian Ford also provided captions for his photos.

End of a LONG wing!

Engine being installed.

0320A2C engine installed on PL-2

Carburetor intake (heat box ready for welding)

Starting fibre glassing the windscreen canopy frame. Wax rebates can be seen for allowance for windscreen fitting.

Showing carbon fibre fill and hat sections formed in lieu of aluminimum tubes.

It fits!

Ready for final trim.

Plaster mold for windscreen and canopy. Used casting plaster over and aluminium frame as per Paz building manual. This took 7 months part time.

Windscreen – gray tint. A-grade Perspex formed easily straight from the oven to the mold.

PL-9 (Jason Boddy – New Zealand) Jason says the photos in this group reflect about 9 months of work.(May, 2004)

Frames 1 2 3 4 being assembled on jig and tacked together.

Frame number 5 being assembled on jig

Rest of frames assembled and joined together, with tail section setup. At this stage the fuselage is ready to have the longerons put on. This joins all the frames together.

The entire fuselage assembled on the jig with all piping installed. At this stage is only tacked together and ready to be fully welded. This should be welded by July 04. Then all the standoffs will be installed.

PL-9 (Philip Mac Cabe and Terry Coughlan – Ireland) Philip and Terry sent these photos of their completed fuselage frame.

Philip writes: ” We sent the finished fuselage off to be sandblasted and primed earlier this week and are collecting it tomorrow. I’m enclosing a photograph for your website, taken the day we moved it to the sandblasters. It was raining heavily that day, you can see the drops on the tubes. It’s difficult to get a good clear view of the structure but you’ll be able to make it out OK I’m sure. We also have the undercarriage just completed and I’ll forward a picture of it standing on it’s wheels next week.”