It was great to get a visit on Friday from my friend Michael, who I haven't seen in quite some time (~20 years!).
Back in junior and senior high school we were best friends and were like glue. Among our many crazy adventures was an attempt to build a hang glider out of wood and plastic sheets (my building and decision-making skills have improved since then!). It surely would have brought us grievous harm had another friend not broken it in half by stepping on it, thus putting an end to our early aviation adventures as the Wrong Brothers, as Michael's father called us.
In recent years, unbeknownst to each other, we both got our pilot's license. Michael is way more famous in this regard as he is the pilot that crash-landed a plane on the Major Deegan Expressway in The Bronx borough of New York City after an engine failure over the Hudson River and walked away from it. Read all about it here. He had a Gopro camera inside the plane that recorded the whole crash and you can see a still from that here (it has a link to the video, but that link looks broken sadly).
Now that the center and rear are well connected, it's time to take off the center skins. Left side off.
Time to finish riveting this assembly.
Both sides off.
Left side all riveted.
Backside view.
Right side done!
Working on the center two rib connections. Finished those up.
View from right, working on the right center rib. More difficult from this side because you don't have the luggage door opening.
Now for the longeron connections. BTW, if you followed the manual you'd have the side skins on at this point and in my opinion that would make it WAY more difficult to rivet these connections.
Two outside left ribs done. Got one done on the other side too. The two center ribs will be much more difficult because the elevator torque tube is kind of in the way and it's more of a stretch physically to get to them. Still do-able though.
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