Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/142883
I f I C a n D o T hi s you'd want to do this, well, if you make a small dimple in the metal right where you're going to drill a hole, that makes the drilling much, much easier. Until I learned this trick, my drill bits tended to wander while I was working on a practice project, resulting in big ugly scratches and holes that were nowhere near where I wanted them to be. Coincidentally, a couple of careers ago I was a police officer and an emergency medical technician, and I carried a spring-loaded center punch with me all the time. In addition to dimpling metal, they're used to break side and rear windows on cars as part of what we called "vehicular extrication." When using a punch, the windows shatter into small rounded pieces that can be brushed out by hand, making it possible to reach someone who is trapped inside a car so he can be treated. Or in some cases, arrested. Anyway, I used them to rescue people in car accidents, and now one rescues me from the embarrassment of drilling a hole in the wrong place and ruining a part. I started this by saying how much I like clecos, but it's more that I just really, really appreciate having the right tool for the job. Just about everything that most of us do in aviation finds us standing on the shoulders of giants, but I don't think many of us grasp just how many. When the time comes to fly our CH 750, I'm going to make it a point to think not just of the Wright brothers and Zenith designers Chris and Sebastien Heintz, but I'll give my thanks to Jean J. Blanc for the cleco and Frank Spalding, who came up with the springloaded center punch in 1908. I also owe a debt of thanks to Harry Oakes, who in 1973 invented something called the unibit, but that, too, is a story for another time. EAA's Zenith CH 750 is defnitely looking like an airplane, with the wings and landing gear in place. Tail surfaces are next. Tis project was started in late September 2012 and plans are to fy it before the snow fies in Oshkosh later this year. 44 Vol.2 N o.7 / July 2013 Photography by Jennifer Bowen