Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Just finished posting progress made up thru the day after Christmas 2015. I am mostly playing catch up, from having to divert to different parts of the project due to waiting on parts or BM instructions. Since I am SN #20, it has taken some time for SPA to catch up with some of the early builders, but it seems that future builders should be good to go. Anyway, I am also waiting to get the interior painted before joining the fuselage halves and trying to get as much done as possible while that is being done.

I made a post on the web site a couple of days ago, and just this morning have finished up the construction pictures and narrative, which you can find at: http://pantherbuilder.org/PantherWeb/Fo ... index.html if you are interested.

<Opinion>
For new builders, or those who have yet to decide protruded or flush, I highly recommend that you NOT flush the fuselage. I am seriously disappointed with the dimple job that I had to do so the steel cage fuselage would match the flush of the aft fuselage. If I were to make this decision now, it would be to flush as much of the flying surfaces as I choose and not be concerned about going protruded anywhere other than MAYBE the leading edges, and would definitely go all protruded on the fuselage. The only squeezer you can get for the wide section on the longeron for the forward fuselage is very expensive, and I could not justify it for that little bit of use. The other option, which I document in the next post, is to make one using a clamp, which works OK, but I will also show you a picture that you may not want to be seeing on your Panther.</Opinion>

I have been working of the forward fuselage, builder manuals 8 and 9, for the last two weeks. Progress is very good as it is not so difficult, with few exceptions.

Details of the construction can be seen at:

http://pantherbuilder.org/PantherWeb/Fo ... index.html

Planning on finishing up the cheek install today, then to the BM #9 to see what I can do next.

Happy building.