We're going to have an online meeting ...

[msatin]

Wing is now covered (except for small center section)
A few of lessons learned - from a newbie persepctive
-Not always necessary to cover entire section with 1 piece of film. For the top of the wing I did the end caps first with one peice, and that came out much better
-At first, I was moving the iron around quite a bit - concerned about melting the film. After a while, I learned to keep the iron in one place for a little longer, to allow more time for the adhesive to work, and the shrinkage to occur
-I found the heat gun to be very effective in larger areas where there were no spars. Low setting from far, and slowly bring the gun closer. As with the iron, hover over an area until you see the shrinking occur. It sometimes longer than in other areas.
Still a long way to go, but a respectable 1st effort.
Next is the fusealage

[davidk]

I think that looks great... can't wait to see it on the field.  Nicely done!

[Frank v B]

Mark,

Great first effort.  Surely it passes the new 50/50/50 rule*.

Now see how good it feels to have built your own plane.

Frank

* Fifty bucks if you can see a covering mistake at 50 feet and 50 km/hr.

[davidk]

Sheesh... I thought I only had to worry about 50 feet up and 50 feet out.  Now, in addition, I have to fly at 50kph so I won't see all my mistakes???

In real numbers that's 31mph.  I think we should only have to pick one metric..

[msatin]

Except for a few tweaks (that I will request in-person suggestions for) the StevensAero Shaft is finished. Everything is working - whether it will fly and stay in the air is another story. 
Thanks to Michael, Bruce and of course Frank, for their suggestions and help.
A few quick notes:
1-I did find the heat gun quite helpful - especially in areas where there aren't a many contact points. The heat gun shrunk the covering without touching it. Seemed to make the area more uniformly taut.
2-I have a sock on my iron. Seemed to allow the iron to glide more smoothly over the covering. Unfortunately the pointed end of the sock tore, which at first I was annoyed with. But quickly realized that I now had an iron with essentially 2 heat settings. One setting where the sock remained, the other where it was torn. . It actually worked very well this way
3-followed Frank's post regarding retrofitting a film hinge, and although did not come out as neat as I would have liked, they do work fine.

[davidk]

Beatuiful.  It'll fly... and fly well, I'd bet.

[Frank v B]

It will fly just fine.

Looks good.  More than good enough for the 50/50 rule.

Mark, see how good it feels to have built your own plane.  Wait 'till you see it fly for the first time.

Frank

[bweaver]

That's great Mark. Looks fantastic.

Now that you have started. You won't be afraid to tackle many, many, many more!  The achievement of building is just one kind of success. Next is to have fun flying it (them).

[piker]

Fantastic, Mark!

I hope you enjoyed the process along the way and are already thinking about the next build.

I think you'll find the stress level of the first flight of your own build will be higher than usual, but the greater excitement and sense of accomplishment will be experienced seconds after take-off.

Congratulations!

Robert

[msatin]

Thanks Gents.

Regardless of how it flies, I did enjoy the process
My workbench has been cleaned, and is ready for the next one.
Another easy build. If I enjoy that one also, I will move onto something a little harder

[Michael]

Nice airplane, and a nice covering job; certainly way better than my first covering.

[msatin]

Thanks Michael - Your tutorial was really helpful!