Update on the Panther – Paint Job and Chance to See it Fly
The wings are back from the paint shop and they look amazing! The colors turned out exactly as we hoped. The cowling, canopy skirt and the tail fairings are being worked over by their awesome body guy. Sunday consisted of getting the fuselage prepped for paint. Sanding down proud rivet heads, scuffing and scotch brite. […]
Fuel Tanks, Firewall, Cowling and Canopy Skirt
I started assembling the left fuel tank today with the Flamemaster and things went very well. All of the end or butt ribs had been sealed except for one right one, so I started with that. This way it would have time to cure before I got around to it. I have been mixing in […]
Sticky, smelly and everywhere
I started the process of sealing the fuel tanks on the end ribs yesterday. I am dealing with a learning curve here since I have never done this – but all in all it went fairly well. I started by clearing the bench and laying out all the tools I needed and the parts I […]
Fuel Tank Update
I have been working on prepping the fuel tanks this week. Getting the skins fitted to the ribs and updrilled went very well once I figured out how to keep the skin from shifting. Bob Woolley and I followed Tony’s lead and fabricated a cross member to keep the skin pushed down and lined up. […]
Meet Panther Beta Builder Tony Spicer
Being a beta builder for the builder means you get to be the first set of builders for a design. That is great – right? What it also means is you get to work out all of the bugs, figure most of it out on your own and work with little or no plans. It […]
Fuel Tanks, Canopy and Knowing Yourself
Today was a good day in the shop. Bob Woolley, beta builder of the Panther sport version, assisted me with fitting the second fuel tank skin. We followed Tony’s instructions and all went very well. The fuel tank skins are all pre-drilled by the CNC shop and pre-bent in house, so it was just a […]
Update on Panther Prototype
Here are pictures of the fuel tank fuel senders, attach brackets,rudder pedals, fuel tank assembly, and the tail spring.
Fuel tank
The fuel tank skins are shown below in the fuel tank jigs. We will be starting on the fuel tanks this week. Pictures will follow along with the build. Usher type fuel caps will be used and are on their way. Our beta builder Tony spicer will be constructing his own fuel tanks as well. […]
Aileron Bell-crank Assembly
The aileron bell-crank assembly details are shown in the pictures below. There will be slight modifications made to the assembly shown, regarding bolts and washers, but the main idea is shown.
More On Panther Wing Fold
We have had a few more questions regarding the wing fold mechanisms/assemblies and thought it worthy of more visual aides. Here are some additional pictures below, with a video of the wing fold process at the bottom. Here you can see the aileron paddle joiner plates. This configuration allows the wing to be pulled out […]
