N917EN Appears at Alliance Airshow

from Mark Zimmermann on 29 Oct

Congratulations Students and Mentors for a job well done. Thank you Mark Kirk and Pat Stewart for taking time out of your weekend to deliver our “package” for public viewing and promotion of our Eagle’s Nest Programs.

Build Progress

Tomorrow starts another lab session and all mentor hands are welcome on deck. We have a plethora of rib cleaning and modifications to make before we can start major wing assembly. Again, this work is necessary and yet tedious to get right. Our wing team is heavily involved in head scratching making sure we do not cut where cuts are not warranted. Good job guys and gals! Any of you mentors that have extra hands on your tables, please send them over in the classroom to lend a hand in this work. Once the ribs are completed the wing structure will rapidly take shape. At this point the majority of the students will be hard into these assemblies.
Stub/aft spars will soon complete and take up residence with left and right main wing spars. These are very important components in wing integrity and serve to mount flaperons and lock the leading edge into the fuselage structure.
Tailcone construction has begun now in early stages. The aft bulkhead which interfaces with the stabilator is complete and opens the door for large components to come together.
When we gain sight of our fuselage kit we’ll need to inventory parts. Inventory is a crucial part of these airplane builds. Well need lots of eyes and memories locating these items in inventory storage. We cannot afford to misplace anything simply because it puts up roadblocks. We are told this should happen next month. I’ll need help on a non-lab day to accomplish this. More on this to come.