One third of building an airplane is covering. Covering is when you put the fabric or aluminum on the skeleton of the plane. Since we are building a Superstol, we will be using fabric. The covering process involves painting multiple layers of glue on the metal bars that are going to touch the fabric, laying pre cut fabric on whatever part of the plane your building, applying some glue on the fabric where the metal bars are touching the fabric and, finally, ironing the fabric. Ironing the fabric makes the fabric shrink and become taught, which makes it stronger and more aerodynamic. It makes sense, then, that covering is one third of building the plane. Although my dad and I have not started covering, it should only be a matter of days until we unroll the fabric. After that, all we have to do is the avionics, engine, cowling, wire the ELT, cut and install the windows, fasten on the main wheels and, the big one, paint the fabric. If my dad’s calculations are correct, we are 65 to 70% done.
Flying and building on the farm
Operations amongst the cow pies