Here you can see that most of the tubes are tacked into place. Everything has been checked and triple checked for straight and square.

Installing the front steering tube:

I couldn't find both 2"x.058 and 1 7/8"x.058 tubing so I had to go to the next smaller size. The smaller tube goes into the larger tube and rotates to provide steering. I checked with Wicks, Aircraft Spruce as well as many smaller metal supply places and just could not find any 1 7/8x.058. A quick look at the "load allowables" table shows that a smaller tube can easily handle the loads.

The tube is angled back 18 degrees and that is pretty easy to establish however, getting the angle right as well as centered and absolutely vertical is a little tougher. Below shows how I accomplished this. I placed a carpenters square on the last plywood jig making sure it is perfectly aligned with the centerline and squared with the top. I then placed a long tube in the front, stood back and sighted down to compare the long tube with the carpenter square.

This shot shows how easy it is to get very accurate alignment. Using this method you can get extremely precise in the vertical alignment as well as the centerline.

By welding the tubes to the side of the front tube, it allows a little more room to move the rudder pedals forward a slight bit. Carl Unger and his co-designers were apparently leg length challenged. I'm 6'2" and ummm...husky, so I need just a tad more leg room. On a side note, I increased the length between the forward stations by a few inches for a total stretch of 7 inches. This will give the passenger a little bit more leg room  and allow the front seater to not be hitting his knees on his chin. I haven't decided yet if I will add back seat controls but this will make it easier to position them if I do. However, even a small stretch has consequences. But with very simple mathematics we can easily move the large, heavy weight we call an engine, back a couple of inches to compensate. I want to keep this as minimal as possible as the Breezy is a well balanced flying machine as is. Others have done an even longer stretch and it doesn't seem to affect the flying qualities so I should be in good shape. The other negative to any change is that it will invariably add weight. A lighter airplane will always perform better but I feel this change is minimal enough to be well worth it.

Just about time to start welding in earnest!!

More fitting and tack welding

more fitting and tack welding...

This is about as close as you have to fit the tubes. On the lower part of the joint I can just slip a 1/16th welding rod in at the widest gap. You can get by with a slightly larger gap occasionally but if your fit is a lot worse than this you probably need to take it out and redo it. Even if it is tack welded, it's very easy to grind off the tack weld and pull the tube out. You can almost always find a place where you need a slightly shorter tube and then use the removed tube after you cut off the end.

I placed all of the diagonal braces where I could...

Here I used a clamp to hold the tube in place while I tack the bottom. Then I can remove the clamp and tack the top of the tube.

Eventually, I had to remove the plywood jigs so I could place the remaining tubes. You can now see why I placed slots in the plywood... I only remove one station at a time and fit and tack the tubes at that station. That way, you can keep everything straight and true. Once we start welding, things will start to move around, sometimes quite dramatically. However, by staggering the joints when we weld (skipping around and not welding consecutive stations on the same side) we can mitigate this almost completely. Also, keep in mind that as long as the wing, tail and engine are in reasonable alignment with regards to each other, it doesn't really matter how the rest of the fuselage sits. You could be sitting in the seat listing thirty degrees to the port and the plane would fly just fine. But since aesthetics is important we will try to keep everything nice and straight!

My son is a sophomore at Vanderbilt and he always helps me out when he visits. He is actually building me a shelf/stand for the small refrigerator he got me for the shop for my birthday! He's got quite a bit of experience now building various things. He's done composite work on some aircraft parts, helped me build the shop, helped build a wood fired pizza oven, built a recumbent bike and helped me put a Chevy 350 engine in a Datsun 280z car amongst other smaller projects. He is a great help and I love working with him.

I constantly keep checking level at all stations. Now is the time to slightly tweak the frame while putting in the diagonals. All of these extra tubes are what locks in the shape of the frame.

Fitting the tubes....

Cross pieces are put in first to establish the stations. Then verticals are placed using a plumb bob to make sure they are exactly vertical. Of course, on the stations that have a plywood jig, I use that to establish the vertical.

Below is a little time saver. I used some scrap aluminum (cardboard would probably work better) to make a pattern since there were quite a few of the same cut on the 7/8ths inch tubes. Just place it around the end of the tube and use a silver pencil or sharpy to trace the pattern.

I tack each tube in as I go since this type of simple jig is not intended to hold each and every tube.

This is my place to post pictures and talk about my Breezy Project. I'm doing this to have a place to keep a log of the building progress and maybe help out another Breezy builder.

Building an airplane is not that hard, really, though to be fair, I have built several. Still, it's like the old question: "how do you eat an elephant?"...answer: "One bite at a time". I think as I go along you'll quickly get the idea that building an airplane (or any complex machine or structure) can easily be broken down into many, simple, small tasks.

So let's get started!

First things first. Just what the heck is a "Breezy". Well, it is a very simple, no frills airplane. How many frills does it lack...ummm...how about no windshield, no cockpit, no covering, no seatbelts...okay, I got carried away, there are seat belts. Still, as you can see, it's designed to maximize the wind in your face, feels like your flying on nothing sensation!

This is Matt Hlavacs beautiful Breezy and it serves as a source of inspiration to work on my project everyday (when possible).

The Breezy has been around for almost 40 years but you can still easily purchase plans from one of the designers, Mr Carl Unger. Just mail him a check for $120.00 (8751 South Kilbourn, Oak Lawn, Illinois 60456-1021 phone: 708-636-5774) and he'll send them to you right away!

The first step is to build a jig (fixture) to hold the pieces in position. This can be as simple or complex as you want. I have built some elaborate jigs and fixtures in the past but for the Breezy all we need is to hold the three longerons into position so we can fit the cross pieces.

I started with a simple 2x4 frame on my table. Mine was 16" wide which seems to be a good overall width. Of course, try to pick good, straight 2x4's.

I then placed some 2x8 cross blocking.

After the blocking was in, I used a string to mark the centerline.

Now it's time to layout the actual jigs at the various stations. This is simply a cross section of the stations with holes (slots) cut out for the longerons. I try to put a jig in just enough places to hold the longerons in proper position and to define the shape. It's very important to lay these out square as you can then use the top and bottom of the jig for alignment i.e. you can set your level on top of the jig etc.

I used a piece of scrap tubing to align the jigs on the bottom. What you can't see is that I also used small blocks of wood on either side of the tube on the cross pieces to hold it in the exact center. Of course, use your string, level, plumb bob etc to ensure that everything is straight and level. A jig can be simple but ultimately it must be accurate to have an acceptable finished part.

Refer often to the plans so you don't make stupid mistakes. Almost any mistake can be easily corrected in airplane building as long as you catch them early. I stretched the forward part of the fuselage slightly for better leg room so I was just double checking the measurements.

On the original Breezy, the upper longerons were cut and butt welded everywhere the stations changed. I chose to heat the tubing and bend it to the proper position where it necks down towards the forward part of the fuselage but in retrospect it probably would have been faster to cut and weld the pieces together. The Breezy is a well proven machine and either way will be plenty strong as long as you don't stray too far from the plans as far as maximum weight, engine size etc.

In the shot below you can see the small blocks of wood used to center the lower longeron. I also positioned most of my plywood jigs so that I could clamp my cross piece directly to it. This helps keep the frame square when you put in those first few cross pieces.

Next, we'll continue to fit tubes and tack weld them in...