March Progress 2014 - picking up the kit and starting the fuselage sides

Have been working through the month of March completing building the build table, traveling to WagAero to pick up the fuselage kit with Dale Benskin, and starting to cut/bend fuselage longerons.  Total time for the month actually constructing the plane - about 3 hours. Time to finish getting prepped for build, travel to pick up the kit, and research miscellaneous project stuff - probably around 40 hours.

Dale Benskin with an 18' long tube on my converted trailer.  My Jeep was also stuffed full of the birdcage of other misc stuff we picked up for his Piper Clipper we are also currently restoring.

My build table in basement - 19' long and my goal is to get the fuselage and wings done quick enough that this doesn't become a permanent fixture in the basement...

First bends of the lower longer on.  My first layout on the table ended up being incorrect - and I caught it just in time. Station 3 and the longeron bend are not in the same spot but offset from each other - and I had missed this. Had to erase most lines on the table from that point back and start over.  I already had the placement blocks screwed in place also....  This is no different than when I built my Sonex/Waiex - 2 steps forward and one back.

Not hard to bend at all. Just heat it up a bit and bend on the table to the blocks that are formed correctly at the bend spots.  Tubing was hot enough that the blocks charred up real good and stunk the place up pretty good.