Sonex #1279

Month: May 2025

  • Starting on the workshop

    With my dad in town to lend a hand, we started by building a set of stairs to the second level of the garage, which will be used for storage. Previously I only had a rickety metal ladder. We put hinges on the top of the stairs so they could be hoisted out of the way, to move things in and out more conveniently.

    It gets very humid here in the warm season and I was worried about the engine in its crate. I soldered a spare SHT4x to an ESP32-C3 with esphome and added it into Home Assistant. Relative humidity was about 50 %. The addition of a small heater dropped that to below 40 % in a few minutes. I will monitor it over the next few days as it dries. I also added temperature control so the temperature in the crate does not get too high.

    The Jabiru 3300 in its crate with a little heater, and battery bank-powered esphome sensor.

    Over the next day the humidity dropped to a much more tolerable level, despite heavy rains.

    Most of the work so far has been clearing out all the old clutter and dead projects. A newly available storage space about 800 m down the road will allow me to store wood, the abri-tempo, and other stuff I don’t need very often to clear up space for airplane parts. That shed is missing a wall at the moment.

    I sent my letter of intent to MD-RA officially starting the build in the eyes of Transport Canada, and paid the first government fee of $125+tax.

    Going through the hardware that came with the kit, there seems to be a big mismatch between the hardware I counted and the hardware the plans ask for. There are far too many countersunk driven rivets for example, and I have some bolts that are not in the hardware list at all. There is some hardware missing, including an AN46-7A eye bolt that costs $101.75! Two are needed, good thing I found one.

  • Transportation

    The plane being in Essex ON near Windsor means I had to transport it about 1,100 km to get it home. A large enclosure would be required due to the delicate nature of the unassembled components and the long spar caps. I had considered renting a storage container and getting it shipped, as there are transport companies that can ensure the container remains level during loading on the truck, but there were no storage container services that serviced both Quebec and the Essex area. I thought about renting a U-Haul truck but there were none available. The loading height would also be difficult to deal with. U-Haul trailers were too small at 12′.

    I found a guy renting trailers locally and he had a 16′ available with a ramp door. Perfect! I booked it for the first weekend in May, way back in February, and decided to tow it with my parents-in-law’s 2019 Mazda CX9. I would need a helper, as the seller, James, is 80 years old, so my dad volunteered to fly in that weekend.

    The hitch receiver on the CX9 had never been used, and the rust had to be filed out of it, making this the first metalwork I had to do for the airplane.

    Ready to hit the road!

    We arrived about 7 am to start loading the plane, which took a little over 2 hours.

    Myself and James with the fuselage loaded.
    Last check from the side before closing up.
    Last check from the back before closing up.

    We used 480 litres of gas for the trip averaging about 21 L / 100 km at a cost of $645. Plus $460 for the trailer rental (no taxes!) plus $410 for two nights of rentals the bill for transportation was about $1500.

    Tucking in at home.

    Next steps will be to continue cleaning up the shed and building workbenches and tables. I will also start reading the plans. The first steps on the actual airplane will be to inspect the portions already completed.