I purchased the plans for a Mustang II over a year ago. This afternoon (01/25/2002) I started the first work on the plans. Time will be logged in this page. This time does not include all the time spent preparing for the begining of this effort. I have read many books on aircraft sonstruction and reviewed the work of many other builders. Now, it's my turn!
| Item | Time | |
| 01/25/2002 | Transfer rib outlines to mylar (dura-lar) material. | 2Hr |
| 01/31/2002 | Cut out the mylar patterns | 2Hr |
| 02/01/2002 | Bought MDH board to transfer mylar paterns to. | |
| 03/27/2002 | Transferred Rib Patterns to MDH and rough cut. | 6Hr. |
| 04/2002 | Cut and sanded 6 Formblocks (FB) while on assignment in India. | 12Hr. |
| 06/01/2002 | Started finish sanding form blocks 12 & 14. Some work on 2, 4, 8, 10, and 17 | 5Hr. |
| 06/03/2002 | Final cleanup on FB 12 & 14. | 1 Hr. |
| 06/04/2002 | Final cleanup on FB 8 & 10 More work on 2, 4, and 17 | 3Hr. |
| 06/08/2002 | More work on FB 2 & 4, Cut out 6 | 2Hr |
| 06/09/2002 | Got a recip saw and cut out remaining FBs. Course Sanded as well. | 4Hr |
| 06/10to06/12 | Finished sanding the wing rib FBs to shape. | 6Hr |
| 06/15/2002 | Reviewed FBs for fit against the plans. | 1Hr |
| 06/16/2002 | Get more tools. | 1Hr. |
| 06/17/2002 | Get two sheets of 2024T3 and layout all ribs. rough cut nose ribs. | 5Hr. |
| 06/18/2002 | Rough cut to size all .025 wingribs. | 3Hr. |
| 06/19/2002 | Finish cut to size all .025 wing ribs. | 5Hr |
| 06/20/2002 | Drilled all pilot holes in .025 ribs. | 2Hr |
| 06/21/2002 | Met Rick Henry on his way back from Alaska. | NA |
| 06/21/2002 | Drilled all alignment & corner relief holes to size. Cut corner relief notches and aileron bell crank openings. | 3Hr |
| 06/22/2002 | Pulled cable for RMRFI then did some cleanup on ribs. Marked new tool from scrap for drawing lightening hole outlines. | 2Hr |
| 06/22/2002 | Replaced one of the #3 ribs and trimmed nose rib and cut corner radiuses. Filled low spot on formblock #7. Finished tool and drew lightening hole outlines on all ribs. | 4Hr. |
| 06/23/2002 | Started cutting lightening holes. Drilled out the 1/8" center holes to 5/16" and nibbled the opening big enough to start cutting. | 3Hr. |
| 06/24/2002 | Cut most lightening holes(6 ribs left). Use a nibbler to open the center hole and then av-snips to cut. Why so much work? Dunno, but I seem to like it :-) | 6Hr. |
| 06/25/2002 | Cut remaining lightening holes. Use a nibbler to open the center hole and then av-snips to cut. | 3Hr. |
| 06/26/2002 | File to smooth and debur ribs. | 6Hr. |
| 06/27/2002 | File to smooth and debur ribs. (finished .025 center ribs for outer wings and started nose ribs.) | 6Hr |
| 06/28/2002 | File to smooth and debur ribs. (finished .025 nose ribs - all 32 parts) | 6Hr. |
| 06/29/2002 | RMRFI - No work | |
| 06/30/2002 | RMRFI - Showed two ribs to Chuck Garton of EAA Chapter #43 he indicated that I was on track. | |
| 07/01/2002 | Made templates on milar from full sized drawings in the plans. | 3Hr. |
| 07/02/2002 | Made a few more templates and I cut all .025 2024 full size parts. Started cutting 2024 .032 parts including 6 center and inboard wing ribs. | 8Hr. |
| 07/03/2002 | Continued cutting .o32 material. | 5Hr. |
| 07/04/2002 | Celebrated the 4th by working on my airplane. More cutting of .032 material and started cutting bulkhead and other full size part form blocks. | i7Hr. |
| 07/05/2002 | Used up first .032 sheet and went back out to Alreco to get another one. Continued work on form blocks and cleaned up last of first .032 sheet. | 6Hr |
| 07/06/2002 | More work on form blocks, They are rough snaded to shape. A little fine tuning left. Cut out lower cener section skin. | 5Hr. |
| 07/07/2002 | Didn't do as much weor today. Some writing and reading the plans. Cut several pieces from .032 including one bad flap spar and a good flap spar hinge reinforcement. | 4Hr. |
| 07/08/2002 | Read the plans more. Recut the flap spar reused the bad piece for Elevator forward spars. | 2Hr |
| 07/09/2002 | Cut forward horizontal bulkhead and misc parts. | 1Hr |
| 07/10/2002 | No work today. Preping for trip. Packed all cut parts except ling pieces. | 0Hr. |
| 07/15/2002 | Cut lightening holes in center section ribs. (first cut holes in form block and used router). | 8Hr |
| 08/20/2002 | Started work on MII again. Sanding outer wing ribs(center rib lightening holes). | 2Hr. |
| 08/21/2002 | Sanding outer wing ribs (nose rib lightening holes). | 3Hr. |
| 08/22/2002 | Sanding outer wing ribs (outer edge). | 2Hr. |
| 08/23/2002 | Sanding outer wing ribs (outer edge). | 3Hr. |
| 08/24/2002 | Polishing outer wing ribs (nose ribs with scotch brite drill pad). | 3Hr. |
| 08/25/2002 | Polishing outer wing ribs (center ribs with scotch brite drill pad). | 3Hr. |
| 09/05/2002 | Started bending flanges on outside edge of nose ribs for outer wing panel. | 2Hr |
| 09/07/2002 | Continued bending flanges on outside edge of nose ribs for outer wing panel. | 2Hr |
| 09/09/2002 | Continued bending flanges on outside edge of nose ribs for outer wing panel. | 2Hr |
| 09/16/2002 | Started bending flanges on center ribs for outer wing panels. | 1 Hr. |
| 09/18/2002 | Continued bending flanges on center ribs for outer wing panels. | 2 Hr. |
| 09/20/2002 | Continued bending flanges on center ribs for outer wing panels. | 3 Hr. |
| 09/20/2002-11/04/2002 | Read plans and had parts evaluated by several people. Specificilly had Mustang II builders evaluate ribs and had Doug Sikes (Tech Councellor EAA 648 give feedback). | 5Hr. |
| 11/04/2002 | Fluted wing nose ribs for outer wing panels. | 2.5 Hr. |
| 11/05/2002 | Fluted wing center ribs for outer wing panels. | 2 Hr. |
| 11/06/2002 | Work on center section parts. Ribs trimmed. | 1Hr. |
| 11/08/2002 | Filing on Center Section Ribs. | 2Hr. |
| 11/26/2002 | Have been thinking about how to get the nose of the rib bent for those wet wing ribs. Today I filed reliefs into the test rib. | 1 Hr. |
| 11/30/2002 | Filed and sanded first center section rib to completion. | 1 Hr. |
| 12/01/2002 | Filed and sanded second center section rib to completion. Also filed verticles for bulkhead station 162.0 | 1 Hr. |
| 12/02/2002 | Filed and sanded third center section rib to completion. May need a little more work. | .75 Hr. |
| 12/04/2002 | Filed and sanded forth center section rib to completion. May need a little more sanding. | .75 Hr. |
| 12/05/2002 | Filed fifth center section rib to completion. Will need sanding. | .75 Hr. |
| 12/06/2002 | Filed sixth center section rib to completion. Will need sanding. | .75 Hr. |
| 12/07/2002 | Filed seventh center section rib to completion. Will need sanding. | .75 Hr. |
| 12/09/2002 | Filed bulkhead sta. 162.0 plus other parts. Will need final trimming, filing, and sanding. | 1.5 Hr. |
| 12/10/2002 | Filed bulkhead sta. 138.0 plus other parts. Will need final filing, and sanding. | 3 Hr. |
| 12/11/2002 | Filed parts from bulkheads, aileron parts, and control support positions. Also trimmed remaining parts. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/12/2002 | Filed more parts - about 6 more ready for bending. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/13/2002 | Filed more parts. Currently have around 40 parts ready for sanding, polishing scratches, and bending. Around 75 left to file. Many are small parts like seat clips and aileron corner clips. These small parts are about 20 - 30 parts that are rectangles from 1" x 2" to 2" x 3.5". Other fairly small parts are seat and wing walk stiffiners. | 3 Hr. |
| 12/14/2002 | 4 more parts - bulkhead gussets. | 1 Hr. |
| 12/15/2002 | 2 more parts - Fuel tank straps. | 0.5 Hr. |
| 12/16/2002 | 10 parts - lots of little gussets and clips. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/17/2002 | 12 parts - Bulkhead stations 167 & 187.5 and 8 seat gussets and clips plus a couple of fuselage formers. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/18/2002 | 6 Parts including parts from bulkheads and 2 wing walk stiffners. Started rough filing on 6 remaining wing walk stiffners. | 1 Hr. |
| 12/19/2002 | 12 parts - including four more bulkhead verticals for cockpit area and finish work on wing walk stiffners. | |
| 12/20/2002 | Bunch of little parts including seat stiffners and bulkhead stiffners. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/21/2002 | Bunch of little parts including seat back corner gussets. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/22/2002 | Bunch of little parts including flap nose ribs. Two small pieces plus flap spar and spar support remaining. Then time to start making more parts. | |
| 12/23/2002 | Two small pieces plus flap spar and spar support filed. | 2 Hr. |
| 12/24/2002 | Merry Christmas! | 0 Hr. |
| 12/26/2002 | Filed rough edges off vertical fin skin. | 1 Hr. |
| 01/12/2003 | First day back at work on the MII after the holidays. Some other projects and stuff have gone on. Today I made a Bob-Stick and flanged two lightening holes on the scrap center section rib. This does not count towards completion but the time spent was educational so it gets logged. | 1 Hr. |
| 01/13/2003 to 03/15/2003 | Its been slow lately. I made two center sections ribs and bob-sticked the lightening holes. These are the outer ribs for the center section. I also separated the remaining center section ribs at the spar location. | 3hr |
| 03/16/2003 to 04/24/2003 | Took some time off to work on other projects but I did get all the center section ribs (except the two small ones) formed, flanged, fluted, and lightening holes flanged. | 5 Hr |
| 04/24/2003 to 04/30/2003 | Made the last two center section ribs from scratch. I found that I could not use the part of rib from a longer rib piece as the lightening holes got in the way. I went to the scrap bin and got some .032 and made these from scratch. (Note I still need to flange the outer wing ribs and completely make the end ribs for the outer wing panel. | 5 hr. |
| 05/29/2003 | Had five people look at my wing spar today and all recommended to build with it as is. This is the center section spar that I purchased at oshkosh last year. | 1 hr. |
| 06/10/2003 | Took my CS ribs parts to last nights meeting. Members looked them over and one pointed out that there were some rough places around some of the radius areas in corners. Recommended cleaning them up a bit more. This morning I got out the files and emory cloth and cleaned them up. | 2 hr. |
| 06/12/2005 | GADZOOKS!!! Almost two years to the day since I put an entry in here. Well, I have done a couple of minor things that did not get logged, but today I started filing the cap strips. Some were done but others still have the shear edge and I dressed the edge with a file on the three longest strips of one group. | 2 hr. |
| 06/13/2005 | Sanded the spar cap strips that were dressed yesterday plus the ones that were already files. | 1 hr. |
| 11/20/2005 | Experimented with corrosion protection. Jasco Prep & Prime was applied to test coupons to see the effect of the product. | 2 hr. |