Prep - March-April 2005

The first thing I did was assemble a worktable to help with the construction process. Here is the result minus the shelf I haven’t installed yet.

Here’s a shot of one of the blueprints on my wonderful new table.

I spent most of March and April getting my Falco parts manufacturing factory set up. Since I don’t have a garage, I decided to set up an instant shed to protect my tools in the lovely backyard seen in the pictures (pool included). The tools I have aquired so far are:
• Sears Craftsman 14” bandsaw
• Delta TS350 10” table saw
• Dewalt 14.4 volt variable speed XRP cordless drill
• Dewalt 3/4 inch electric planer
• Starrett 1000 mm rule with 32’s and 64’s of an inch and 1 and .5 mm
• Starrett combination square set (300 mm), same gradiations as 1000 mm rule
• Makita 4341FCT Barrel Grip Orbital Jig Saw
• Jet 650 CFM single bag dust collector

The construction manual suggests starting with the easiest wood parts to construct. The order they suggest is tail ribs and wing ribs, then fuselage frames, then the wing spar. I decided instead of ordering and milling all the wood myself that I would order wood-to-size kits to save the equipment and time necessary to select and mill the wood. The company Western Aircraft in Canada makes wood-to-size kits for the Falco. There are three varieties, the tail group, the wing group, and the fuselage group. There are so many parts in these groups that Western Aircraft usually collects some orders form multiple Falco builders to pump out a few at a time. When I called, they said that they were about to start cutting wood for the fuselage group. It would be months before they could start on the wood for the tail group which I wanted to start with. I really wanted to get things going so I just joined the party and went in on the fuselage group order. One of the things I really like about Western Aircraft was that they go out and hand-select the Spruce they use to mill to ensure good aircraft quality wood.

  |   Home