Been tinkering with the Stratolina a little bit today, and thought that it would be a good idea to anchor the wing struts a little better, before the next rain comes in (in October, I'm sure
). If you recall, when I was setting this thing up originally, the rain came and softened the ground that was supporting the wings. Well, the struts sank, while the floats....well...floated, and the wing tried to disassemble itself. Since then, I had made a better setup for the struts to rest on, but the front ones (where most of the weight of the wings is) still kept making me nervous. Remember, the front struts were the ones that had the bottom ends cut off. That means the open ends have no trouble just tunneling their way into the soft West Texas sandy dirt.
So today, I decided to make some concrete anchors to house those front struts. As mentioned before, I'm no handy man around the house, so making a simple wood box and pouring concrete into it was a bit of a challenge to me. I made the first one and it looked great, until I pulled the wood off from around it. I didn't realize you should probably wait a day or two before doing this, and the result of removing the wood too soon, is that the sides tend to fall apart. Here's the first one........
I have just finished the second one, but I'm leaving the wood on for a while. (And NO....Jimmy Hoffa isn't buried in there!
)
Even if these blocks wouldn't be strong enough to be used on a city street, they oughta be strong enough to help support this wing. I mean, if nothing else, they're cheap insurance.
So now that I've cooled off a bit in the house here, I reckon I'm gonna go back out and tinker with the ol' Stratolina a bit more. I think I'll go play in the cockpit for a while.
Gary
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Gary
