Spent the afternoon starting layout of the elevator and epoxying 2 joints at the end corners of the elevator. I’d previously laminated several pieces and now I’m ready to “bring it all together”.

I’m building the elevator over a full size set of blueprints – the plastic protects the drawing underneath. Click on the image for a larger image.

There are 5 of us guys in our Experimental Aircraft Association hangar, each building a different type of airplane, and sometimes there’s more talk than work – especially on a beautiful, warm (hot in the hangar!) Sunday afternoon.

One of the guys asked, “How’s the real estate business?”

“Terrible” I replied – catching him a bit off guard. I explained the lack of inventory is driving the market place into a frenzy right now.

“But that’s good for you, right?” he asked.

I explained that a grocery store makes its money by how many times it can move (sell) that can of corn sitting on the shelf. If it only sells the can once a year, that’s not good. But if it can sell that can of corn many times a year, that’s good. That’s like the real business – if we don’t have inventory to sell, that’s not good. And the market place is all gummed up right now, but that’s another story for another day.

Here’s a shot of what the inside of our hangar looks like. Geoff’s building a sheet metal airplane called an RV-9, a very fast cross country airplane. My work space is in the back, under the light. I’ve got 2 finished wings (the lower wings) hanging in the rafters and 2 wings in a cradle (the upper wings).

Once I’ve finished the elevator, I’ve got to build the small “wing” that’s over the fuselage that connects the 2 upper wings together. In olden days (1930s), that’s where the gas tank was. If I want longer range, I too could put a gas tank up there. We’ll see!