The EMG-6 has been quiet for nearly six years. That was not a plan. California’s business climate had gotten onerous enough that it no longer made financial sense to stay. The break-ins at Hangar 7 were the final straw. The cost, and the data we lost, was pretty devastating. We are only now recovering financially and starting to rebuild what disappeared.
The whole project is in Kingsville, Missouri. The new shop is Hangar 8 — the eighth hangar we have owned, and a name that keeps the California work in Hangar 7 where it belongs. The building is up. The inside is not finished. ZIP System on the hangar walls, open trusses in the wood shop, machines on the floor. We are working in it anyway.
The mezzanine over the hangar is where most of the EMG-6 parts inventory lives. Spare components are on the walls and in the ceiling.
That corner is the welding shop. CNC plasma table, bead blaster, MIG, TIG, and gas welding. A mill. The walls are still ZIP System. The tools are already at work.
N103MX was the first EMG-6. That airplane was damaged in the Hangar 7 break-in. A lot of the parts were stolen. What is left exists in pieces. We may resurrect it — rebuild the fuselage that is missing — but that is down the road.
N751ZB is almost flyable. Almost. That is the gray boom and the white tube fuselage in the wood shop — Sparky’s second airplane, in pieces, getting put back together. It is getting a Rex 30 electric motor. We are looking at other powerplant options too. Those will wait for a later note. Getting this back on track is going to take time. Right now I am working on building an airplane.
The woodworking shop
The woodworking shop is on the opposite side of the main shop, with the hangar in between. It can be closed off from the hangar for dust control.
The main shop
This is the main working shop. Machinery and tools. Between Rainbow Aviation maintenance classes it is a video and photography studio. This part of the building is nearly finished — heat, air, and lighting you can actually work under.
10QT is in the main shop, getting a Polini 303.
The Polini 303 — Thor — on the bench. That is the engine going on 10QT.
Can you start building from the plans?
Yes. The drawings are still there. Download them and start.
What we cannot do, at this point, is support a builder the way a shop should. Not until we can reproduce parts — not until we can even walk someone through it. Treat this as a passion project I am sharing with the aviation community: the blog, and the plans online. If you build, you are on your own until we get further down the road.
That is the current status. More as Hangar 8 gets finished and N751ZB comes back together.