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Tom Riggs and his Skyraider project. |
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Nice panel loaded with the good stuff. |
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Right wing installed and folded back. |
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Left wing installed. |
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Both wings installed. |
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Rear shot showing both wings and instrument panel. |
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Time To Rap Some Rag
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Tom starts the blanket method of fabric covering on a wing bottom. |
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The fabric has been glued down and shrunk tight with an iron. |
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Tom opted to rib stitch his wing. The blue lines were snapped for stitch spacing reference. You can see the long needle being passed forward through the wing to the next stitch line. |
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The two wings are ready for paint. The Polly Spray has been applied and the wing tips are installed. All they need now is the silver and color coats. |
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The blanket method is used on the fuselage as well. The bottom gets it first. |
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The blanket has been loosely fit and trimmed. It's now ready to be glued down. |
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This is a very exciting time for the builder of a fabric covered aircraft. The bottom and one side has been installed and ironed tight. She really starts to look like a plane now. |
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Engine Cowl
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Fitting the engine cowl with engine installed. |
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Left side with air filter installed. |
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Top view. |
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Top left. |
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Painting
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Tom's wing rotating device as used in his one man painting operation. |
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Wing in the verticle position. |
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Spraying Polybrush on the fuselage. |
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Spraying the control surfaces. |
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The wing with a white base coat. |
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Another shot of the wing. |
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Fuselage in white. |
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Everything is white now. |
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Shop full of white airplane parts. |
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Finishing Touches
Tom was able to complete the Skyraider in time to receive the EAA Centennial
data plate. Below are some pictures of Tom's finish work.
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Ready for some trim color to go along with that nice rudder. |
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Putting the trim on the nose bowl. |
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Cockpit. |
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CHECK out that tail. If you look real hard you can see Tom's other passion in the background. It's his classic BMW motorcycle. |
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Just one more control cable... |
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Attaching a wing. |
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Wing folding. |
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Looking good in the pasture. |
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In the shop ready for the big day. |
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First Flight
While many of us were at Sun'n Fun this year Tom made his first flights at
Flanagan Field.
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Time to load up for the first flight.
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Ready to unload from Tom's custom scratch built hauler.
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Flight over Farmville.
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Updated
Tuesday February 26, 2008
