Cool plane, but the pilot needs a little work.
And this looks fun. Might have to scale it up a hair and fab one out with full propo.
Started a gallery for my pen turning projects. Check ‘em out.
Got a ton done on the Darby, the worst of which was sanding the main deck. Putting 2 layers of glass down before sanding helped a lot. Hell, the more I do it, the more I learn what not to do. Also fabricated a mixer thing for my drill. Overkill on mixing the activator for the glass resin is kind of an oxymoron. You can’t mix it enough. At any rate, the main deck and hatch are ready for the next phase.
I got the battery deck made, and gained a keel compartment underneath it. I still need to reinforce the false bottom to take the weight of the battery, but that’s no biggie. Both hull fittings are in place, with the fire monitor system complete up to the pump outlet. I’m still pondering how to affix the bilge pump to the hull bottom.
Doesn’t sound like much, but it was a full weekend of boat building. 19 new pix in the build gallery.
I added more pix to the Darby build gallery, then I noticed that I’d passed the 1st hundred mark.
Almost done with the basic decking. I didn’t get the chance to take pix of the fiber glassing on the main deck this evening, but it’s glassed and hardening right now. I’ll probably start sanding it, and the hatch, tomorrow.
Next up will be fitting the main deck to the hull, then working on the bulk heads and interior decking. I’d like to get it in the water soon, but I don’t know if I have enough ballast to get it to the waterline. At the very least I can test the control systems and drive it around a bit. I’m sure I’ll get some video of it in the water.
Finished machining the rudder pull-pull wheels and installed the complete rudder control system in the hull. Using the larger wheels seems to provide a very strong, accurate setup that returns to neutral with little effort.
I got the main deck assembled today. I still need to finish gluing the members, and I have to make the hatch, but it went together pretty easily after climbing the learning curve with the forcastle deck. The hatch is going to take some work, since it’s a pretty tight fit (and I haven’t even started glassing it yet), and the kit wood isn’t square on one end. Meh, it’s all part of building I guess.
I finally put the last couple dabs of green bondo on the skeg and rudder fairings early this evening and shelved the hull for that crap to harden up. I had planned on resuming work in the aft deck, built as a unit and bonded to the hull, but I figured that finishing some of the control gear would get me to sea trials faster. And I kind of needed to switch up to something completely different. Dad cut the first of two rudder pull/pull wheels out of aluminum, but hasn’t been able to work on the second. So, I decided to copy the one he’d machined. It took a few minutes to get the hang of his Southbend 10″ lathe, but it’s a pussycat once you get to know it. Almost 4 hours later I had a near perfect copy of the wheel Dad had cut. I still need to drill and tap two grub screws in each of them, but that’ll have to wait till tomorrow.
I’ll try to get some pix of them before and after I put them in the hull.
First time I’ve run up the drivetrain on the Darby since installing and fiber glassing. The motor noise in the vid is the twin Pittman motors. I’m getting close to some sea trials. I’ll post some pix of the skeg build in the gallery.
I must have one of these. With the proper upgrades it should go from freakin cool to dangerous in nothing flat.
HERE is the company site. It’s due to be released next month.
This is the latest incarnation of the rock garden I’m working on in my back yard. It’s getting bigger, but it’s been a little while back.