Just one word: Plastics

There won't be many posts this week. Why? Because the temperature is hitting 90 every day here and I'm cutting plexiglass. I can't believe I've gotten to this part of the project this fast -- 6 years and 1,800 hour. Yes, I know, that's laughable, as some people would have 500 hours on the old bird by now.

I can't explain it, although I'd like to claim it's because I'm slow and deliberate, painstaking in my attempt to get things "just right." I'll give you the "slow" part, but as I'm slicing each piece of plexiglass, I'm about spent after one cut. It's nerveracking; perhaps unnecessarily so, but it is. And even on these small slices off the front and back of the canopy, I use a bandsaw (just bought it Saturday) with 80 and then 150 grit sandpaper, then 220, then 340, and then 400 to make it nice and smooth. The edges are better than the edges on the canopy as it was delivered.

I'd like to thank the Web sites of Dan Checkoway, Walter Tondu, Dave Parsons, and Richard Horan for providing me with so much valuable information on working with plexi.

Walter and Dan are both coming to Oshkosh and will be at the barbecue. Dave was hoping to be there but he's just been hired by Dynon Avionics to work on some spiffy new piece of equipment. How great must it be to combine aviation -- a hobby-- and a profession?

Hanging out I got an e-mail from the folks at South St. Paul airport. They've got a T-hangar available. I'll visit it this morning. I don't really need a hangar yet, but maybe this would help me get airplane parts out of my son's former bedroom, which my wife would rather have as an office.

This weekend: It's impossible to keep up with all the fly-ins. But on Saturday, the Minnesota wing of Van's Air Force, is holding its quarterly meeting at South St. Paul. Then we're visiting David Maib's RV-10 project.

Hotline Update: Rob Riggen is heading out of town, and I'm busy with airplane building. So this week's issue -- such as it is -- will be out on Friday, instead of Saturday. And there will be no issue next week.