The "Other Airplane"

Aug 27, 2011
After a lovely summer of being on vacation (aka unemployed), I finally went back to work this last week. So its taken me a few days to adjust and get back to the pedal plane project. Elisabeth, Charlie and I had the evening free and were able to jet back over to the parents place so Charlie could play with grandma & grandpa while I worked in the wood shop.
I spent a grand total of about 30 minutes drilling pilot holes in the two fuselage pieces and sanding the edges to match up the left and right sides. The rest of my time was spent working on the small scooter plane (about 45 min)

PEDAL PLANE:
As you can see from the pictures, I clamped the left and right fuselage sides together and continued work at the drill press. By clamping both sides together, I can guarantee an exact fit for all the bolts/screws during assembly. This whole process is rather simple and surprisingly quick if you have the correct drill bits ready to go.
Next, I used a basic palm sander to clean up the edges. Since I had used the table saw for my long cuts, there are a few burns & burrs in the wood. A palm sander, for the most part, cleaned this all up nicely. I decided to only "lightly" sand the edges at this time. I don't want to take too much off before the main assembly begins.

Time: 30 Min
Total Time: 4.5 Hrs

Project area

Drilling pilot holes

SCOOTER PLANE:
I don't know if its really called a scooter plane. I just call it that because its a foot powered toy -- much like the flinstones car.After several years of this plane collecting dust in the hangar (wood shop), my last project is to attach the upper wing. As you may have noted from previous posts, the upper wing came off after nasty ground loop by a very excited younger brother (Tim) about 10 years ago.  Since this plane is already very heavy (made from Oak), I used a pine 2X4 to cut a small block (rounded the front & back for aerodynamics) in order to connect the upper wing to the upper cowling. Its not really that glamorous, but I think it will do the trick. I used two 5/8"X2" dowel rods to connect the block to the cowling. Once that glue dries, I will connect the wing struts (Oak) to the lower wing & then slap on the upper.  Too easy, right?
My goal is to have the scooter plane complete for Charlie & his cousins by Labor Day weekend.

Marking the wing struts for dowels & screws