Finishing up the Horizontal Stabalizer fibreglass

We did some cleanup of the Hozizontal Stablizer to seal the wood and close the ends of the foam with Fiberglass and Flox.  This should make it water tight and ready to fill, sand, and paint.

We also glued in the rear Horizontal Support, but have not glued in the Horizontal Stabalizer until it has been filled and painted with Primer. 

We should be ready in the next 2 weeks to glue in the Horizontal Stabalizer and begin working on the Vertical Stabalizer.

Pedal modification and Fuel Tank Mockup #1

The weekend before last we modified the pedals to accept the cables to the rudder, however, in the excitement of making progress, I made 2 left pedals.. OOPS..

I had to cut one pedal apart and make it a Right pedal, but I'm pleased with the outcome.





 
 

We also decided over the winter that our tanks would be outboard wing tanks, holding aproximatly 5 gallons each, and would be made of aluminum. Dad drew up the design in CAD and we created a mockup from Poster board.
 
I liked the size and dimensions, other than the fact the the rear end of the tank was not parralell to the rear spar.  I think this would make it more difficult to mount.   Dad is going to redraw the tank and we'll make another mockup.

Falling Behind

I fell behind in posting updates because it seemed as if we were going nowhere, then winter was here.  It's time to get back to work!   Over the winter and end of last year, we spent a lot of time changing around control cable routing so that we could easily convert between Tail Dragger and Tricycle gear.  After remaking brackets about 4 times, we finaly found a configuration that worked smoothly and was small enough on the back of the rear spar to clear the skin. 

We also discussed how we are going to make the tanks and where are they going to go.  More on that in the next post.

Elevator and spray booth

Today I trimmed up the fiberglass on the elevator and glued on the
rounded foam on the front that helps seal the gap between the elevator
and the hs rear spar. Just need to fiberglass over them and the ends
of the elevator and it's ready to spray!

Speaking of spraying, we setup a simple spray booth made of 1 mill
plastic and 1" PVC shown below.

Elevator fiberglass

Put the last coat of fiberglass on the elevator in hopes of getting
the hs completed and attached before the winter!

Hs tips

The following weekend, we made the tips of the hs out o basswood so
they would be a little more hanger rash resistant! I hollowed them
out so they only weigh a little over 4 oz each. The following
weekend, they were glued on.

I'm a little concerned about the additional weight on the tail since I
extended the HS 2ft and added basswod tips. I hope the corvair up
front will make up for the additional tail weight

Hs extensions

It's been a while since I updated my progress. Since returning from
Oshkosh, I have cut the rear extension to the tip out of pink foam and
attached them to the hs.