Mark builds "Yankee One" in Saratoga, NY. Are You Ready For This?

[Mark Keneston]

Mark,
VT 1
This week,
Attachment 8966

I showed you mine now show me yours!

12/5/2018 PROGRESS UPDATE
Hi again from the balmy northeast. With an early snow season, the YankeeOne kit arrived by Yellow Freight the day before thanksgiving. I had some experts with a four-wheel drive loader outfitted with forks in place of the bucket to move this jumbo-size box off the truck. It was picked up from one end and hauled out of the truck to the lift gate. Once the opposite end was on the lift gate, a choreographed dance was performed with precision to lower the big box to the ground.
CubCrafters’ Northeast/Great Lakes HQ secured a space 45’x25’ in the back of our hanger at North American Flight Services, Saratoga County Airport. This will be our home for the next 6-8 months during the building process of our EX3, aptly named “YankeeOne”. At this point we have not chosen paint/color scheme. However, we know the scheme itself will be in concert with our schemes offered at the factory. I do not expect any Yankee pin stripes on this hot rod.
Once the crate was open I quickly got to unloading it. Our parts team and shipping department are consummate experts when it comes to packaging, crating, and loading. The boxes are all marked per our three basic kits (Fuselage, Wings, Finish), so when you receive your kit you can organize the wing kit parts in one area, fuselage and finish kit parts in separate areas. I suggest a large table and a chair. Get comfortable, you are going to have a few hours invested in doing your inventory of the parts. During this process I learned that you will be circling back to the boxes/parts once the inventory is finished, so I do NOT suggest mixing any parts from the kits even though you may have a process in mind for organization. The parts you need to build the wings are in the wing kit, so keep it separate.
I had a little interruption during the inventory process with a ferry flight of an XCub from MN-AZ, so I lost a few days, but I think the inventory process can be done in two days by one person without interruption. It took me a tad longer. So now with the entire inventory done, I have my horses set up, the fuselage is out of the box and on the ground, and I have the right wing spars on the horses ready to assemble. Now to remember which box those brackets are in? I got it!
Stay tuned and look for these blog updates as well as our posts on the forums and live updates on Facebook. We also have a time lapse video coming your way periodically so you can see the steps and follow along. As always, you are invited to the hanger to check out the build in process. If you are flying in, the airport ID is 5B2. We have fuel, courtesy car, and local hotels. If you arrive commercially, you will be arriving in Albany, NY (ALB). We encourage groups and hope you will bring the young people in too. Stay tuned we’re just getting started. Mark-

[Mark Keneston]

A steady and daily process on the build of Yankee 1. The left wing is in progress with the spars and tubes in place. Now riveting center ribs and soon I will place the ribs inside the spars. It’s a labor of love! MK

[Mark Keneston]

One of (our)my customers lit me up today with a very nice surprise and gift. Chip has become a friend and a loan shark at the same time since I borrowed some of his kit tools. Thank you Chip! I will do my best. Thank you also for the inspirational sign

[Mark Keneston]

Now starting to progress nicely on the left wing. I was challenged by the manual at first. It’s not assembling a piece of furniture. In our manuals you see all the parts and pieces in the drawing even though you may not be installing ALL those in that picture. Toss in alittle type A personality and I could quickly get sideways. I think I have it figured out now..

so we are well into the left wing with center ribs, drag tubes, drag wires all installed. I squared the wing which was challenging and there is a trick. I also installed both pulley brackets and the reinforcement strip on top of the rear spar. Another area requiring precise actions. By tonight, I had the tail ribs on and Friday I will hope to be around to the leading edge side. #yankee1

[40m]

VT1 is in the booth, FAA has cashed my check and I'm heading to Florida to hook up with Chuck and Jim
on Thursday to get a little air time and stone crabs. Oh Judy, by the way did I mention Sebring just happens to be on while we are on our first vacation in six years. Smack, hey what did you do that for? Reality check.
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[40m]

Vt 1 N40M starting to show her colors.

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[Mark Keneston]

Vt 1 N40M starting to show her colors.

IMG_0639.jpg

Wow! looks very nice G. Im thinking of colored stripe to go with this and Bright Red keeps coming back to me. Orange could work and lime green too.

Talk soon. Don't sit with the crabs, you won't enjoy that. MK

[Mark Keneston]

Wow! looks very nice G. Im thinking of colored stripe to go with this and Bright Red keeps coming back to me. Orange could work and lime green too.

Talk soon. Don't sit with the crabs, you won't enjoy that. MK

Up to speed now and maybe a week to go on the left wing and it could be ready for cover. Have you heard of "The Turtle and the Hare"? Well we are steady at it but today was a day of office work, follow up calls, cleaning and photos of a brokered plane and yes alittle test flight too. All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy. Visitors welcomed! MK

[Mark Keneston]

Up to speed now and maybe a week to go on the left wing and it could be ready for cover. Have you heard of "The Turtle and the Hare"? Well we are steady at it but today was a day of office work, follow up calls, cleaning and photos of a brokered plane and yes alittle test flight too. All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy. Visitors welcomed! MK

And for my short test flight, I left Saratoga and went east over Saratoga Lake where the geese are keeping a safe
zone of water open for night time. Over the Hudson that is now freezing up and then alittle fly by for the ski race
team where my boy is training tonight. It was a fantastic work day and this was the perfect night cap. I’m pretty blessed all in all. Thank you!

[Mark Keneston]

And for my short test flight, I left Saratoga and went east over Saratoga Lake where the geese are keeping a safe
zone of water open for night time. Over the Hudson that is now freezing up and then alittle fly by for the ski race
team where my boy is training tonight. It was a fantastic work day and this was the perfect night cap. I’m pretty blessed all in all. Thank you!

Update on Yankee 1

http://cubcrafters.com/c/2018/11/mar...ds-yankee-one/