Cutting support angle brackets

Tonight I measured and cut my 1 1/4 inch x 1/8 inch thick steel angle in 4 pieces, each 13 inches long. I used the recprocating saw with the metal cutting blade - the same one I used to bevel the corners of the wing stands. This was like cutting through butter compared to the 1/4 inch thick wing stands, so it went fairly quickly.

The widest part of the wing spars is about 7.75 inches wide, so a one foot long piece of angle would allow the spar to just fit nicely on the entire support. Since 4 inches are aligned with the inside edge of the wing stand, that leaves 9 inches for the spars to rest on, which should be plenty. I opted to cut them a little longer than necessary, mostly to allow for the 1/4 to 1/2 inch adjustment that may be needed to level each angle after attaching them to my wing stands.

I also measured and marked the 4 support angles for the first of two holes that need to be drilled in each support bracket - one for the attachment bolt to the post, and the other to accept the bracket that will hold the 5/16 inch threaded rod. I expect to be drilling most of the remaining holes tomorrow after work.

No pics tonight, but I did manage to visit Aaron Miller's build log to check up on his progress since we got the wing stands welded together. This post shows some pics he took of me "in action" with a welder in my hand. Dangerous stuff for sure! Looks like he is up and running with both his wings. I envy the room he has in his basement. Before long he will be wheeling his entire airplane out of the basement and onto his taxi way where he will taxi all the way to the runway for his first flight.

ON another note - Looks like Van's has officially indicated on their facebook page that they have reached a new milestone of 8000 flying RVs! What an amazing accomplishment, considering that they were already the most popular flying kit airplane manufacturer when they only had 6500 of them flying not so long ago. Guess I better get busy and finish this thing!

And finally, looks like friend and fellow builder Ron Duren made the big move to KBJC last weekend. Congrats to him - he really put in a lot of work to get things to this point, and I think he is well on his way to a probable first flight some time this coming spring.