Happy New year

Here we are at the end of another year.  Hope you are all enjoying some relaxing time with friends and family this holiday season.

I'm on a weather-enforced vacation from CF-CLR as some arctic weather moved into our region for Christmas and I can't keep my hangar at reasonable temperatures with outside temps below about -15C. Propane is expensive!!

Since my last update, I've been concentrating on the wings and aileron fabric, and spent a little time planning for the interior upholstery.

With my daughter's help, the rib lacing on both wings was completed.  It was a laborious task and easy (for me) to get distracted and mess up, so I got a little more rib lacing experience than would have otherwise been necessary. My fingers were raw!

Anyway, look for details coming in the Wings and Ailerons sections, and have a great 2018!

October 2017

I hope everyone had an enjoyable summer. Progress on CF-CLR has been interrupted only by my trip to OSH, some day trips on Lake Superior chasing salmon, and one week off at the end of September for a road trip to Southern Ontario.

Focus has been on the wings, and with the help of my daughter, we're a little more than half way through the rib lacing process.

I also took care of something that's been in the back of my mind since I purchased the aircraft over 30 years ago.

The way the fuselage fabric forms around the door frames and lower fuselage longerons (and attached wood forms) leaves a small gap on the inside between the fuselage tube and fabric.  This gap is under the seats, and is a trap for debris which is impossible to clean out.  Anything that drops from the pilot and passenger locations.... grit, small hardware, coins, bits and bites, butts, whatever, can end up trapped.  No big deal except that eventually it shows through the fabric/finish on the outside.

My solution ... a 2" tape attached to the top of the fuselage tube and the fuselage fabric which should channel debris to where it can easily be extracted.

So the only section added to in this update is the Wings.  Hope to get into doilies, gussets and tapes by the end of the week.

Enjoy... and as always, all comments, here or on the Taylorcraft Forum, are very welcome.

July 2017

Welcome to my first update of  2017.  Subsequent to my last post in December, I took some planned time away from the project.  Given normal January temperatures in Thunder Bay often hover around -20C to -30C, the hangar, being thinly insulated and inadequately heated, is not a comfortable place in January.  So I scheduled the complete renovation of our second bathroom.  Long story short, by the time I was done I was into February.  Then took 10 days to head south for some fishing.  We were also away (in British Columbia) for another 7 weeks come Spring for more house repairs/updates which basically left the months of March, part of April, and the latter half of June for CF-CLR.

Anyway, progress has been made including assembly of the wings and partial fabrication of the exhaust heat shroud.  So this update includes the Wings and Firewall Forward sections.
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I plan to fly my 172 C-GPGK to OSH and I'll be camping under the wing.  If you see me stop by to say hello!