Tinhawk update

[EricP]

We have taken the engine back off the nose of the Tinhawk and are doing "trim work" on all pieces as they come off to prepare them for priming and painting. Brent will go over entire fuselage to ensure all welds are good. Once all disassembled we will sandblast and prime and paint fuselage. Brent continues to "finesse" the cowling, especially the nose bowl. Lots of work in hand building a metal nose bowl! The fuselage looks quite bare now with virtually all structure removed from the tubular steel fuselage. We still have one belly pan to make and Brent has to finish the wing tips but other than that all major structures are built and just getting ready for prime and paint.

We use Brent's car lift as our engine "hoist" to take the engine off the nose.

[jaredyates]

Cool! It took me about a year and a half to get from that point to the first flight, but I suspect that you guys will be able to do it much quicker.

[EricP]

Not sure we will be as fast as you Jared.... but a year and a half sounds about right. Brent was finishing the "mouse doors" on the cockpit doors tonight. A few more pieces to make but for the most part I am doing finishing work as he does the final build work. We are getting ready to start priming!

[Battson]

Why Tinhawk? Did you make the wings from recycled cans?

[EricP]

We call it the "Tinhawk" because Brent (my building partner) is a hot rodder / fabricator. He can do all sorts of metal work and the guys that do that call themselves "tinknockers". So when he decided he wanted to make the wing tips and nose bowl from raw sheet aluminum as well as fab some extra parts like wing root fairings I started calling it the Tinhawk. No fiberglass. All metal. We jokingly say we are allergic to fiberglass like Bob is "allergic" to electricity! We hope to make full metal wheel pants once we get it flying. Brent seems to like the name so I guess it may stick.