New HW builder in Washington state

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livendive
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:07 pm
Location: Washington State

New HW builder in Washington state

Post by livendive »

Hey folks, I'm Dave, I live in southeastern Washington State, a place referred to as the Tri-Cities. I got my PPL in July 2023, have a high wing S-LSA (Aerotrek A240), just passed 300 hours, and I'm working on my instrument rating. I've been following Sling aircraft for about a year and a half and finally placed an order yesterday for empennage and wing kits. I'm currently looking into classes (just registered for EAA sheet metal class) and tools and will be building mostly in my garage for the convenience (I work full time, but mostly from home). I do have a hangar at KRLD that will be helpful for storage and once my build gets to the point of wings attached. My build budget is tighter than I had planned, so my build has got to be of the slower variety.
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stathis
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2024 3:56 pm
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by stathis »

Welcome to the forum Dave. I live in the Seattle area, KPAE is my home airport. I am starting a TSi build in a few months at the Airplane Factory. I will be at the EAA Sheet Metal at Fremont CA. Assuming this is the class you registered, I will see you there.

Stathis
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ibgarrett
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Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:22 am
Location: Westminster CO
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Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by ibgarrett »

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the building group - you're gonna have a blast! This might be a bit of a stretch, but reach out to Synergy Air (https://synergyair.com/all-classes/cate ... damentals/) and see if they are doing any courses in their Bend location. Their website doesn't show anything in OR, but that's where I went and took a day long course which I thought was pretty good.

If you haven't stumbled across The Sling build videos from Evan at that's a really good series to watch. In building the HW the empennage is nearly identical to the Tsi - it's just the rudder/horizontal stab are much bigger. The wings are the same as well. Where everything will diverge will be in the core fuselage - but that's beyond the sheet metal aspect of things.

I know many of us have lived/died by this video and it should be helpful for both the HW and Tsi up to the center fuselage.
Brian Garrett
Poobah
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 31, 2022 2:41 pm
Location: Seattle WA

Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by Poobah »

Hi Dave!

I'm a TSi builder in the Seattle area - currently finishing up my build at Midwest Sky Sports.

Are you planning on coming to the NW Aviation Expo in Puyallip on Feb 22-23 ? Planning on going and happy to say hi.
livendive
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:07 pm
Location: Washington State

Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by livendive »

stathis wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 9:56 am Welcome to the forum Dave. I live in the Seattle area, KPAE is my home airport. I am starting a TSi build in a few months at the Airplane Factory. I will be at the EAA Sheet Metal at Fremont CA. Assuming this is the class you registered, I will see you there.

Stathis
Yep, the Fremont EAA class is the one I was referring to, and I'll see you there. I'm also going to the Rotax classes at Torrance March 18-21.
livendive
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:07 pm
Location: Washington State

Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by livendive »

Poobah wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 4:35 pm Hi Dave!

I'm a TSi builder in the Seattle area - currently finishing up my build at Midwest Sky Sports.

Are you planning on coming to the NW Aviation Expo in Puyallip on Feb 22-23 ? Planning on going and happy to say hi.
I hadn't heard of that expo, but it looks interesting. I'll probably attend if weather permits flying to KPLU.
livendive
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:07 pm
Location: Washington State

Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by livendive »

ibgarrett wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 4:42 pm Hi Dave,

Welcome to the building group - you're gonna have a blast! This might be a bit of a stretch, but reach out to Synergy Air (https://synergyair.com/all-classes/cate ... damentals/) and see if they are doing any courses in their Bend location. Their website doesn't show anything in OR, but that's where I went and took a day long course which I thought was pretty good.

If you haven't stumbled across The Sling build videos from Evan at that's a really good series to watch. In building the HW the empennage is nearly identical to the Tsi - it's just the rudder/horizontal stab are much bigger. The wings are the same as well. Where everything will diverge will be in the core fuselage - but that's beyond the sheet metal aspect of things.

I know many of us have lived/died by this video and it should be helpful for both the HW and Tsi up to the center fuselage.
Thanks Brian. I've found that video and am using it as the starting point on tools and tables. In his video on preparing parts for assembly, he references a separate video on the subject of corrosion prevention, but I haven't been able to find that one yet.
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lutorm
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:00 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: New HW builder in Washington state

Post by lutorm »

livendive wrote: Wed Feb 05, 2025 3:27 pm In his video on preparing parts for assembly, he references a separate video on the subject of corrosion prevention, but I haven't been able to find that one yet.
I don't think such a video was ever made as part of this series. Evan has a video on his own channel that discusses corrosion protection, though.
Blog of various projects: https://blog.familjenjonsson.org/blog/
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