BUILDING A PLANE IN SEVEN DAYS

[SteveSlater]

One of the highlights of the 2016 LAA Rally is the challenge to build an aircraft from a kit in just seven days. It is truly international challenge, with a team made up of LAA volunteers and members of The Airplane Factory from Capetown, South Africa who manufacture the Sling aircraft kit. They began work on Saturday morning in a marquee specially erected on Sywell Aerodrome and will continue to work till next weekend, when the completed aircraft is expected to make its maiden flight.

You can follow the build online at http://www.airplanefactory.co.za/media- ... ing4-build

[John Dean]

Looking forward to watching the progress on Friday.

[Chris Martyr]

Should cause a lot of interest at the rally and a very good initiative on behalf of the kit manufacturers.

I hate to sound like Mr Boring from Boringville, but I do hope that they emphasise the importance of treating the metal correctly prior to assembling it all. Some of the faying edges did look as if they had had a thin smear of Duralac , but I also saw a lot of bare aluminium which could have done with a dusting of etch primer as well. I don't think there was any JC-5 jointing compound there either , otherwise those nice young ladies would have been wearing nitrile gloves , as it is pretty obnoxious stuff.
Yes I know I sound like killjoy #1 and it is just a stunt for the show , but I would hate for prospective punters to be led into buying something that is actually quite work intensive and will probably take a bit longer time to build to an airworthy standard.
Treating metals correctly prior to assembly cannot be over-emphasised. Take a look through Malcolm McBride's archives .
Not being grumpy , but it would be a bit of a choker to finish a lovely new aeroplane , just to have horrible white powdery bits and bubbles coming through after a few exposures to moisture.

[Ian Melville]

Hi Mr. Boring

I am guessing the aluminium was 6061, which has better corrosion resistance than the usual 2024. This is often left untreated, though I personally wouldn't. I thought the joints look chromate primed rather that Duralac, which you will know sticks to everything like shyte to a blanket, and gets everywhere. I also thought JC-5 was used where parts are likely to be taken apart, it's also darn expensive.

Etch primer on it's own is not a lot of good as most are porous, and need a top coat. Dusting of Chromate, that would make sense, though nasty stuff.

[rszemeti]

You are correct, the Sling4 is mostly 6061-T6 which has better corrosion resistance than 2024 ... 2024 is usually "alclad" ie a few microns of pure aluminium on the surface to improve the corrosion resistance, however as the UK is pretty much entirely classed as a "salt air" enviroment, chromate and jointing compound are recommended.

I had a conversation with Francis on the subject when I was considering building my CH750 out of 2024 instead of 6061 .. in the end I opted to import the 6061-T6 as the 2024 just sounded like too much hard work!