When we left off in Part 2, we had just finished drilling the holes in the forward spar and finished all of the final prep on the frame parts. Now it is time to put all of that together. I began by riveting the doublers to the spars and then riveting on the hinges. For the doublers, I chose to use AN470AD-4 rivets rather than the Cherry Aluminum AAPQ pull rivets supplied in the kit. This is simply a personal preference thing and is not in any way intended to indicate any p

If you are interested, this Episode began here, and the whole build process began here. Last time, we had just finished drilling the first side of the side skin / Fwd spar joint on one side, leaving roughly one side to go. 9/12/26 - 9/13/26 - I flipped the assembly over so that I could once again level and drill the second side. As mentioned last time, but with better photos this time, I was concerned about the way the L/E skin fit prior to drilling. With very few clecos ho

If you need a cure for insomnia, you can start the series here. The next major sub-assembly to tackle is the Vertical Stabilizer (VS). It is very similar to the Rudder, except for where it is different. For starters, there is no skin rolling with this structure. Secondly, there are considerably more parts in the VS. I am used to the way that Van's does their Vertical Stabs, I have built several of them (RV-7, RV-12, RV-9, RV-8). On the RVs, the VS stab skin is all one pie

Last week, you remember, we had just finished getting the rudder frame drilled on the right side and everything ready for final preparation. All of the pieces ready to go together permanently. 8/29/26 - At he end of last week's session, after deburring all of the holes and cleaning the parts, I hit them with the coating that I am going to use on this project. I am using a product called "ProtectaClear" made by Everbrite Coatings. It is a clear protective layer that is a ver

With the inventory almost complete, I finally get to start on the fun part. It took some time to work through all of the hardware, but I think it will be time well spent int he long run. This is basically all of the hardware for the kit. Pictured above are almost all of the Rivets, Bolts, Nuts, Washers, Screws and other hardware for the whole kit. I do have some separated out for the wing kit, but this is mostly all of it. All of that hardware fits in the Galley Cart with ro

Now that the crate is empty, it is time to inventory all of this stuff and make sure that they sent everything that they think they sent. Shelves are starting to fill up. Saturday 7/18/26 - Since my Dad was kind enough to volunteer to go through the four boxes of hardware and little pieces, I continued with the bigger pieces. I got through the Rudder kit, the Vertical Stab kit, The Horizontal Stab and Elevator kit and the Wing kit getting the big pieces unwrapped, inventorie

After ordering our Rans S-21 kit in November 2025, it finally showed up in July 2026. While the wait was painful, I think it will be worth it in the long run. Just a few parts, some assembly required. Just like Ikea. Having ordered kits from Van's, Glasair, and Murphy, I think this may be the only time I have ever ordered a kit with nothing back ordered. Well, the Murphy Elite order didn't have any back ordered items either, but that was just a tail kit. In this case we o

Let me start by saying that I have been very fortunate to have had all of the opportunities outlined here and I am very grateful for that. The road that led me to the point where I am going to build another aircraft is a rather long and winding one. Of course, it helped that I grew up around airplanes and was exposed to them early and often. It was that experience that led me to join the Air Force in 1985 which gave me a lot of training and experience in aircraft maintenanc