First things first....

My garage where I am going to build my Searey is 5.7m x 5.7m which should be plenty of room. The first thing I did was to paint the floor in an off white 2 pack paving paint to give me more light, make it easy to clean and so I can find small objects when I drop them. I then bought some knock together workbenches and a 2 door metal storage cabinet to store more sensitive parts of the kit like electrical components. I also fitted a vice and a bench grinder. I am fortunate to have plenty of hand and air tools left over from my old car importing business so don't have to buy much in that department. In fact I am probably a little over tooled (if there is such a thing) with regards to building a Searey as you really don't need much more than a drill, rivet gun, a few screwdrivers, some AF spanners and sockets, tin snips and a few other bits and pieces.

Anyway the workshop is just about ready and I have started to coat the inside of some of the fuselage parts with Linseed oil to help prevent corrosion. I have been advised to boil the Linseed oil even though it has already been manufacturer boiled to thicken it up to help it stick. My first attempt at that caused an environmental disaster.... I turned up the heat too much and it caught fire and burned up the whole litre! Reminded me of the oil fires in the first Gulf war! Anyway it worked OK on the second attempt.




To stop the oil pouring out various drill holes and the other end of the tube it's a good idea to plug them with some masking tape, preferrably the blue stuff that isn't hard to get off after a few days. Then I just poured a few mils into one end of a tube, swished it around and emptied the remainder into a bucket. I'll do this to every tubular part on the Searey.

Next item on the agenda is to start bolting the fuselage together! Should be interesting....

It's here!

My Searey has finally arrived all packed up nicely in its crate with no transport damage...

I will be building it in my garage (or more professionally my ACF - Aircraft Consruction Facility) over the next 12 months. Although the manufacturer estimates a 500 hour build time I expect to take much longer.

The first step is setting up the ACF by painting the floor, fit workbenches and storing the various parts away from insects and animals (I live on the beach near rainforest so have to watch out for various animals and salt air) then its onto corrosion proofing the various alloy tubes before assembly.






Almost ready to fly!