Howdy Everyone,                                           6-25-96

Sixth in the series.

Well I've been getting enough questions like "Got the airplane done
yet?" That it is time once again to do an update on the Skyarrow
progress. 

We are a 3 way team.  My Dad is retired BSME, brother Dave, BSME & MSAE,
and myself BSEE, so we are constantly re-engineering stuff.  No wonder
we are taking so long! (The old saying is, "Shoot the Engineers, and
build it!") Well I have a real hard time doing that.  I just can't do it
half way.  I mean hobbies should be done right, otherwise they wouldn't
be hobbies? The original goal was to finish Skyarrow in 1 year.  Well
that date went right on by.  Then the next goal is by Oshkosh, but I can
tell we aren't going to make that one either.  Now the next goal is to
be done before the next snow.  A couple of reason.  1) My brother Dave
is moving to France for 3 years.  That kills 1/3rd the building team. 
Now that 90% of the big parts are done, there is zillions of little
parts to do, and the zillion parts are taking a lot longer time to
install. 

Since the last update, we've painted the fuselage, it is sitting on the
landing gear, engine is mounted on the engine mount, but not in the
airplane.  Rudder cables are run, flap linkage, brake linkage, fuel
shutoff, fuel lines and pump, and engine cowl mounts.  Work in progress:
fire wall, oil tank modification, carb mounting installation, and cable
routing, and final sanding of the control surfaces before painting. 

Now here is where we really get into a time sink.  We are planning to
add a full engine monitoring system with, get this!, voice warning
system, female voice just like an F-15, VERY COOL.  Then we are planning
to add electric choke instead of running all these cables to both carbs. 
Since I work on F16/F15 engine programs at GE for 8 years I ordered
Fighter joysticks so now that I have all sorts of extra buttons on the
joy stick, I can move some front panel switches to the joystick.  Then
since the engine monitor will replace about 3 other gauges, the
instrument panel will be redesigned.  I think you are getting the idea. 
Each great idea any one of the three of us have we usually have to
redesign 2 other parts to integrate it in. 

I have kludged a really lame Web page up so you can see a picture of our
progress.  Don't laugh, I haven't had any time to work on the web page
at all. 

http://seidata.com/~jzigan

Jim