It's Been a while.....

As usual, I'm a bit behind in blogging.  It's been a summer of painting, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling.

The Horizontal Stabilizer has had several coats of filler on it and sanded many times.  When the airport is so far away, it's difficult to make the 25 min drive each way for a 10 minute session of sanding and adding a coat.  A word of advice for other builders would be to keep it at home as long as possible.  I'm considering moving it back home once the wings are completed and can be removed so the plane fits easily in the 2 car garage.

The other things we have been working on are the controls and the seat.  I've found that there is a lot of making a part 2, 3 or even 4 times.  This summer we created our second seat with some help from Ken Jones.  He had some left over fiberglass that was terrific for the seat.  It was very heavy and one layer on each side can support my weight as I enter and exit the plane.  We will need to load test it to 3G's  (2 people at 200 lbs each, *3 = 1200 lbs of static load!)   I think it may need one more layer, but it's going to work out.

After the seat was ready, it was time to work on the first control surface.  The Rudder.  The Rudder pedals have been completed for a while and were installed.  They now have cables attached and move the rudders.  I have tested them by putting all the force my legs can push on each pedal and nothing has failed.  I would like my welds to look more professional, but I'm confident they will work.

I have been concentrating on learning things that will make me more efficient in ordering materials and in planning.  I have been  learning DeltaCad after seeing the many drawings my dad has made for the airplane.  I did not understand how he made some of the drawings and while I trusted my dad, I wanted to understand.  As much as I appreciate his help, I want to know I could do it if he wasn't there.

With that in mind, I loaded DeltaCad's free 30 day trial and ran through the tutorials.  I have since drawn my kitchen floor, my hanger, and 1/5th scale wing ribs from the AS5048 Airfoil Coordinates. If you're interest in learning a very easy to use 2D cad program, check out http://www.deltacad.com .   There is a 30 day free trial, after which it costs $40.  The tutorial will walk you through everything you need to know.

We Went to "SloshKosh" 2010 and I was personally very disappointed.  It really should have been canceled.  The only good things I got out of it was spending some time with my dad, and getting started learning to Gas weld with Oxy-Acetylene.  I have always heard how difficult it is but I was surprised that I did not find it that difficult.  I may be able to make my own custom length engine mount after all.

Seat #2

We were unhappy with the first seat we made.  We glued ribs on the bottom of the shapped seat, then fiberglassed the top, then between the ribs on the bottom.

This was not strong enough, so we decided we probably would have been better off fiberglassing all the way around the foam sheet, then adding the ribs to the bottom.

So, we setup the Hotwire Bandsaw (Pictured at left) and made a new template.  We also decided that the bucket of the seat should go lower.  We can always add padding, but we would never be able to remove anything to enable a taller person to clear the canopy.

The Template was connected to the foam by 4 nails pushed into the foam. This works well and is easy to work with.  Pictured at left, I am cutting one of the 4 pieces using the template and the foam bandsaw.

When using the foam bandsaw, I always try to push away from the table so the hotwire stays vertical and does not impact the edges. 

Below are the 4 foam ribs that fit between the spars for the seat.  They all came out great.  You can only see 3 because the third is behind the side of the fuselage.

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!