| day |
notes |
hours |
| 3 |
Steve Evans the LAA inspector visits and has a look at the fuselage and the other components in the trailer, plus my inspection sign-offs. He agrees with my assessment of the top-hat layups and that curing with the moulding upside-down would help to avoid the problem. He suggests attaching a piece of thick ply or similar to the firewall flange of the top moulding to keep it in the correct shape while the layups cure. Most of the faulty layups need to be removed, but where the BID flange is adhering well to the moulding it need not be taken right off, just abraded in the usual way. He recommends a power file for this sort of work. Order a Ferm power file from Ishop247 and some Zirconia belts for it from CSM Abrasives Plus. |
|
| 5 |
After some back-and-forward correspondence, get a quote from Creative Waterjet for cutting the radio panel of £35 +VAT, and for anodizing £60 +VAT. That is using their material (6082 T6) - to use my own sheet they quoted 3 times the price! They pointed out that the dimensions in my DXF file were slightly larger than the size of my piece anyway, so back to the drawing board and reduce the overall size slightly to match the aluminium (rather than the composite panel outline as originally). Also tweak the hole dimensions slightly to allow clearances rather than being tight fits. |
|
| 6 |
Ferm power file, spare belts, and small long series milling cutters delivered. The working length of the 2.5mm slot drill is only about 12mm, so not really long enough for the job on the stick-top switch mount, but the 3mm slot drill has a working length of about 21mm so should be ideal. Pull fuselage out onto drive, take off top moulding & invert. Cut off forward top-hat layup with diamond disc in the angle grinder. Remove the main part of the layup & the foam. Clean up remainder of non-adhering parts of the layup, foam & flox with the power file. The angled arm is useful for getting at various nooks and crannies, but it is not held rigidly in the working position and so the belt slips off regularly. (In the retracted position it's fine, but the rod that slides in and out to apply belt tension is only a good fit in its bearing when fully home. The straight arm is better, but still can move side-to-side, causing the belt to run off-centre on the outer roller. I may be able to improve things later by inserting a shim, but for now carry on carefully. Remove the wire grips from the rudder cables at the aft end and compress the nicopress sleeves against the thimbles on the bellcrank shackles. Mark cutting points for turnbuckles just aft of battery bay by wrapping masking tape around each cable. Put top on and roll fuselage back into garage. |
1569.1 |
| 9 |
Pull fuselage out onto drive and take off top. Set it upside-down on sling. Check position of masking tape on rudder cables for appropriate positioning for access from D-panel and for symmetry. Check positioning of turnbuckle eyes - both RH & LH ones need 16 full turns to go between threads just visible at the outer end and just clear of the central hole. Set all 4 to 8 turns in from outer position. Cut through both rudder cables with Dremel cut-off wheel. Oil nicopress crimping tool. Open a AN100C4 thimble slightly to get it onto the right-hand threaded eye of a turnbuckle and crimp it closed again once fitted. Thread rear port cable through a nicopress sleeve, around the turnbuckle eye & thimble, and back through the sleeve. Fit the compressing tool and check carefully the position and length of free cable end. Tighten tool fully to close sleeve. Remove tool. Repeat whole process on starboard rear cable. 25C, 35% RH so could do some epoxy work. Mix a peg-2 (45g) batch of epoxy and add 3 doses of flox to make non-slump. Butter it into the edges of the access and viewing holes, and around the edges of the cover plates, making sure it goes well into the deeper areas around the fixing screw holes. 33C, 28% RH. Trim edges of flange layups to clear fuselage joining flanges. Scuff-sand the mating faces of both flanges and corresponding inside fuselage skin areas. Mix 42g Redux and add about 2 good doses of flox in small increments to make it a bit less runny. Butter it onto both bonding surfaces, keeping clear of the central annuli on the flanges. Position flanges and retain with well-greased clecos and washers. Wipe off excess Redux that has squeezed out, and make sure flange areas are clean to accept the cover plates. Thread forward ends of rudder cables through nicopress sleeves, LH turnbuckle eyes with thimbles, and back through sleeves. Hold in place with wire grips. Check starboard length and adjust until rudder bellcrank is hitting both stops, with no interference with LG01 frame. Cut a couple of lengths of suitable pipe from the odds and ends stack to fit inside rudder pedals and hold them at neutral. When the port cable is adjusted to get the bellcrank neutral, the cables are so slack that the weight of the turnbuckles is making them rest on the fuselage floor. Looks like the advice in the manual about fitting the simple adjusters made from metal triangles well to the rear to keep them off the floor applies to turnbuckles too. Check the remaining unused lengths of 7x7 cable and they are not long enough to reach from the pedals back to the access hole. Put fuselage top back and roll into garage. Order 8m of 7x7 stainless 3/32" cable from LAS Aerospace, and some yellow ring terminals for 3.5mm (#6) and 4mm (#8) screws. |
1573.7 |
| 13 |
Roll fuselage out. Remove clecos from flanges. Turn fuselage top over & recover washers. Smooth edges of cover plates and drill flox out of fixing holes, keeping true to original centres. Clean up inside and out where Redux has squeezed out here and there. Fit cover plates with 3/8" screws. Cut around rear top-hat layup with diamond disc in angle grinder and remove most of it including the foam. Remove the rest of the non-adhering and bulging layup with power file. Accidentally go through the pre-preg in a couple of places. Will put a BID patch there before repeating the main layup. Vacuum up the dust, put fuselage top back on and roll back into garage. |
1575.6 |
| 15 |
Roll out fuselage. Check fit of upper moulding around firewall and mark tight spots. Remove the top. Grind down top edge of firewall with angle grinder. Clean up bulges and lumps of excess resin on both mouldings around joint line with power file. Replace top and re-check fit. Mark new tight spots, repeat the remove, grind, replace and check exercise several times until satisfied no further improvement in fit seems possible. Find a piece of ply the right size to fit across the front of the upper moulding. With upper moulding right-way-up, flat on the ground, position ply and drill through firewall flange and ply in 7 places and fit M4 screws with washers, to keep firewall flange flat when upside-down. Turn over to check and centre area between door apertures is still resting on the ground and deforming slightly. Put a couple of wooden blocks under the edge of the ply and that fixes it. 29C, 41% RH outside so could have done some layup work if I'd had everything ready. Get some tarpaulins from the trailer. Tape 2 of them together with duct tape to make a piece long enough to cover entire fuselage. Drape over fuselage lower half and secure in place with duct tape. Roll covered fuselage round beside trailer. Move upper moulding into garage and then decide it will fit better tail out so remove and replace other way round. Get some foam pieces for the top-hat formers from the trailer. |
1578.9 |
| 16 |
Clean up some resin blobs on inside of fuselage top moulding with power file. Bandsaw a couple of foam pieces 200mm long by 30mm wide, leaving them much deeper than needed to allow for shaping. Round mating face of forward piece slightly to match curve of fuselage. Gradually carve ends out to fit ends of door mouldings, using spherical burr in Dremel. Much easier to get a good result with that than with files. When satisfied with fit against fuselage, trim to correct depth with bandsaw and round outer edges slightly with Perma-Grit block. Repeat for aft foam block. Abrade all bonding areas. Vacuum off dust. Cut 3 off 160mm x 280mm & 3 off 200mm x 290mm BID rectangles. Find a couple of scrap BID pieces to cover the paces where the pre-preg was sanded through to the brown foam during the removal of the previous attempt. Mix a 60g (peg 3) batch of epoxy. Wet out BID patches in place over worn pre-preg areas. Add 2 doses flox to remainder. Butter onto mating faces of foam blocks and set in place. Form flox corners along edges and ends of foam. Mix a 90g (peg 5) batch of epoxy. Lay 1 layer BID in place on foam former, persuade into shape and wet out. Repeat for other former. Lay on 2nd layer on each former, stipple down and wet out. Mix 30g (peg 1) batch of epoxy. Lay on 3rd layer on each former, stipple down and wet out. Add peel-ply in many small pieces to cover complex shapes. Lay a piece of polyethylene sheet over the fuselage moulding to form curing tent. Set fan heater going inside it at half-power, thermostat 3.5, giving 27C, 44% RH by the time I'm leaving the garage. |
1584.5 |
| 17 |
LAS Aerospace order arrives with 7x7 cable & yellow ring terminals. 24C, 47% RH in curing tent and layups well cured; samples look good. Turn off fan heater and dismantle curing tent. Remove peel-ply. Layups look much better than the last time! With Dorothy's help, move fuselage top moulding out onto drive, keeping upside-down. Note that with the top-hat layups cured, the centre of the windscreen surround no longer deforms to let the ply panel attached to the firewall flange sit on the ground, so it's obviously doing its job! Roll lower fuselage round from beside trailer onto front drive and remove tarpaulins. Some of the duct-tape joints have not performed well and there has been minor leakage of rainwater into the fuselage, but most of it has drained through onto the wooden dolly. Remove ply panel from top moulding and turn it right-side up. Remove lifting handle from LG01 frame. Dismantle starboard rudder cable from CS21. Remove aft end from turnbuckle eye where it was held with wire grips. Tape that end to the end of the new piece of 7x7 cable with duct tape and carefully draw it forwards under the pulley. The duct tape creates too much of a bulge to pass through the SRBF guide slot but fortunately I can just reach in far enough to take off the tape and feed it through by hand. Cut thimble off old cable and re-make thimble loop, keeping thimble tight up to sleeve with enough free end showing. Re-assemble onto CS21. Cut at aft end, about 200mm forward of rear bulkhead. Rain threatening so re-fit lifting handle and put top on fuselage. Roll it back into garage. |
1586.6 |
| 20 |
Roll fuselage out of garage onto drive, take of top moulding. Remove lifting handle. Dismantle port rudder cable from CS21. Remove wire grips at aft end of cable. Tape remaining length of new cable onto the end of it and pull through under pulley as far as guide block. Take off tape and thread through. Cut thimble off old cable and make new thimble loop. Re-assemble to CS21. Cut thimble loops off aft ends of turnbuckles. It's getting warm enough to do layups outside, so turn top moulding upside-down onto sling. Apply cling-film around area where containment bulkhead touches top of fuselage (damping the fuselage surface seems to help the cling-film adhere). Cut 2 off 200mm x 200mm BID. Mix a 45g (peg 2) batch of epoxy. Lay 1 piece of bid central on bulkhead contact location and wet out. Lay 2nd piece on top and wet out. Apply peel-ply in several pieces and leave to cure in the sunshine; 35C, 24% RH. Set rudder bellcrank neutral and decide on a convenient point for access to turnbuckles from rear access holes. Mark each cable with a dot of inspectors lacquer. Remove rear port cable from bellcrank and cut it at marked spot with Dremel cut-off wheel. Thread end through nicopress sleeve, RH turnbuckle eye with thimble fitted and back through the sleeve. Adjust to leave a nice length of free end showing and compress sleeve. Repeat for starboard rear cable. Replace both cable shackles on bellcrank. Put one of the recovered 30mm lengths of heatshrink sleeving onto the aft end of the starboard forward cable and retain from sliding down under the pulley with a piece of masking tape. Thread the cable through a nicopress sleeve, through the LH eye of the starboard turnbuckle and back through the sleeve. Temporarily secure it with a wire rope grip. Repeat for the port forward cable. Check neutral position with tubes inserted to centralise pedals, and that full travel from stop to stop is available without any interference between starboard nicopress sleeve and LG01, and between the the bottom of the starboard CS21 and LG01. Adjust lengths slightly until satisfied. Compress nicopress sleeve on starboard turnbuckle. Check again for neutral position and full and free travel. Adjust port cable slightly, check again, then compress sleeve on port turnbuckle. Interpose an old steel paint scraper blade between the starboard cable and its free end for protection while cutting, and cut off free end to about 15mm. Repeat on port side. Remove the masking tape and slide up the heatshrink sleeves to butt up against the nicopress sleeves and cover the free ends. Shrink the sleeves with the hot-air gun, taking care not to play it on any part of the fuselage structure. Leave everything out in the sun for another couple of hours until the temperature starts to drop (20C, 55% RH). Layup well into cure by now so put top back on fuselage and roll into garage. By bedtime, it's 21C, 47% RH inside the fuselage. |
1590.8 |
| 21 |
Do some more work on the drawing for the radio panel holes. |
|
| 22 |
Continue work on radio panel holes. Need to finalise locations of various switches such as trim disconnect etc. Change main circuit diagram to show 20A fuse for power outlet socket & 10AWG wire feeding it. Roll fuselage out onto front drive. Take off top and invert onto sling. Remove peel-ply from splash moulding for top of containment bulkhead and trim off excess cling-film. Check that splash moulding will actually detach from fuselage by gently lifting edges slightly. File about 1mm off top of bulkhead with coarse grit belt on power file. Replace fuselage top and check clearances. Forward face of containment bulkhead needs to be taken down at sides to match curve of fuselage, and a tiny bit more trimming is needed on the firewall. Take top off fuselage. Chamfer bulkhead with power file. Grind a little off firewall with angle-grinder and smooth with Perma-Grit block. Re-fit fuselage top and bulkhead is now about 1 or 2mm clear of the fuselage inner skin. Mark another area on firewall that needs minor trimming. Take off fuselage top. Mask around all faces of top of containment bulkhead with masking tape. Mix a small batch of polyester filler and put dots of it on the 6 top corners of the bulkhead. With Dorothy's help, lift fuselage top into position and lower straight onto bulkhead without sliding. Leave it alone for filler to cure. Get XTW06 and F10 out of box 10 in trailer. Adjust height of starboard side of top moulding slightly with mixing sticks as spacers to get good fit of top & bottom joggles against each other. Drill through top & bottom flanges 3.1mm and fit cleco with washer. Repeat on port side. Fit another pair of clecos to flanges about a third-way aft along the door apertures. Fit another pair of clecos to flanges just aft of the TS05 link rod restraint bulkhead. Insert F10 sternpost and clamp in correct position, so that it butts up against the edge of the foam on the starboard side (see manual page 32M-3). When happy with alignment, drill through F10 at overlap between top & bottom flanges and insert cleco with washer. Fit clecos to hold F10 at top and half-way down starboard side of top moulding. Fit another 6 clecos holding F10 to starboard side of bottom moulding. There is now a bit of space between port side of lower fuselage and F10. Initially I thought the TS05 restraint bulkhead might have sprung the sides too far apart, but then notice that the bottom radius of the fuselage is also slightly larger than that of F10, so it must just be manufacturing tolerances. Fit 6 clecos to port side which pulls it all together OK. Use outside calipers to establish the position of a line on F10 1" above the outside skin. Sight forward against a rule held across the aft end to establish the centre of that horizontal line. Start a pilot hole with the 3.1mm drill bit, then fit 7/8" (22mm) grit-edged holesaw and bore right through the base of F10. Check that the tailwheel arm fits in the hole. Reverse clecos in sternpost, and remove all others, to minimise risk of snagging & damage when moving fuselage around. Put a dab of inspectors lacquer on each of the stiffnuts securing the rudder cable thimbles to the CS21s. Roll fuselage into garage. |
1593.5 |
| 23 |
Roll fuselage out onto drive. Remove 3 clecos holding F10 sternpost to top moulding. Carefully lift top moulding and it pops off the splash moulding easily, leaving the layup firmly attached to the top of the containment bulkhead. Remove cling film, carefully scraping it off a few places where it has got stuck in wrinkles. Smooth off rough edges of layup with Perma-Grit block. Dismantle bulkhead from fuselage. Smooth off a couple of protruding lumps of epoxy around brackets on fuselage floor with fine belt on power file. Grind off excess polyester filler from outer faces of bulkhead with large and small spherical burrs in Dremel. Remove some of the masking tape around the top of the bulkhead and replace with pieces of polyethylene sheet. Scuff-sand the bracket bonding area of the splash moulding. Cut 8 pieces of BID 100mm x 75mm and lay them out on polyethylene sheet in 2 stacks of 4. 27C, 45% RH outside so no heat needed. Mix a 45g (peg-2) batch of epoxy. Wet out BID. Cut polyethylene sheet into 2 pieces and apply each in turn to the prepared areas of the splash moulding and bulkhead. Remove polyethylene sheet and stipple out bracket layups. Add peel-ply in several pieces. Notice that the bulkhead flanges of the brackets are not inclined to stay in position, so put some polyethylene sheet over the peel-play and clamp the layups very gently against the sides of the bulkhead using wooden blocks to spread the pressure. 28C, 38% RH. Leave to cure outside. Remove TS05 for access and make sawcuts in top and bottom of TS05 restraint bulkhead to split it into 2 halves. Spring sides apart enough to get a Perma-Grit file in between the halves and file each face in turn until no longer pressing together. Will re-join with BID patches when happy with dimensions. Mark a line across the bottom of the fuselage 160mm forward of the forward face of the sternpost. Try the tailwheel arm XTW06 for fit and it won't go forward far enough to line up with the marked line. Either the hole in F10 will need to be enlarged upwards or the aft end of the fuselage and F10 will need to be relieved to clear the arm. Remove the clecos holding the sternpost and take it out for better access. Mark the centreline of the fuselage floor as well as possible by sighting forward to pitch pushrod etc. Cut a 80mm diameter disc out of light card, centre it on the lines and mark around it with a felt-tip. Remove lower rear access panel (for better access!) and try cutting inner fuselage skin with a knife. Give up soon and use the smallest cylindrical burr in the Dremel instead. Once cut all round, prise off inner skin with a large old screwdriver. Put top back on fuselage. Move layup (now well into cure) inside and roll fuselage back into garage. Post a query on Matronics e-mail list about the tailwheel arm. |
1597.9 |
| 24 |
Check yesterday's layup sample for cure - seems fine and a knife scratch produces chip shavings rather than curls. Remove peel-ply and polyethylene sheet from layups. In the process the polyester filler starts to crack off, but it's easy to re-establish the correct relative positions of brackets and bulkhead. Holding everything in position, drill through a bracket & bulkhead 4.8mm and insert a AN3-5A bolt. Repeat on other side. Now that the holes are correctly positioned, remove layup assembly from bulkhead and chip & scrape off remains of polyester filler. Clean up edge of brackets with Perma-Grit file. Mix a small amount of 5-minute epoxy and apply it to 4 off AN970-3 washers. Place them in position on the holes just drilled in brackets and bulkhead, and fit well-greased AN3-5A bolts and temporary plain nuts to hold the washers in alignment while the epoxy cures. Make a proper list of switches and lamps and where they will be fitted. Replies on Matronics list about fitting XTW06 from USA seem to favour making a groove in F10 and the fuselage bottom, but there's nothing from any authoritative UK source yet. |
1599.0 |
| 26 |
Do some more work on listing switches, lamps, fuses, breakers etc to make sure I have not overlooked where anything needs to be connected or mounted. Pull fuselage out onto drive. take off top & invert onto sling. Check fit of splash moulding while attached to bulkhead, as I'd noticed the brackets were springing apart when separated from the bulkhead and wondered if it had somehow cured into a distorted position. However, it fits perfectly and the exact location is easy to find, it just clicks into place. Mark a line around the splash moulding with a felt-tip pen to assist when bonding later. Re-assemble bulkhead to lower fuselage. Start removing foam from the circle cut in the inner skin for the tailwheel arm mounting. First try scraping with a knife, but not much good. Fit a large cylindrical burr with teeth on the end face to the Dremel and that is more successful, carving out the foam without damaging the outer skin. Fit large Perma-Grit countersink bit to Dremel and chamfer the inner skin and foam all the way around. Try the power file to remove last traces of brown foam in the middle, but there's not enough room to use it. Fit a large conical Perma-Grit bit to the Dremel and sweep that gently across at a shallow angle (being careful not to touch the chamfered edges), and it does a satisfactory job. Also use it to improve the profile of the chamfer in a few places. Vacuum off dust. Mark up 3 off 140mm squares of BID (80mm + 30mm + 30mm). Matronics list replies prompt me to look again at the build manual and it does advise removing material from F10 & the fuselage bottom to make XTW06 fit. |
1600.5 |
| 27 |
Roll fuselage out onto drive. Take off top moulding. Cut out the 3 pre-marked BID squares. Trim off corners to make octagons. Scuff-sand bonding area around tailwheel arm mount with flexible Perma-Grit sheet. Vacuum off dust. 29C, 30% RH. Mix a 45g (peg 2) batch of epoxy and paint bonding area with it. Place 1 piece BID in position and wet out, stipple down. Repeat for 2nd and 3rd layers of BID. Cut and apply a circle of peel-ply to fit depression and other pieces to fit around it. Leave to cure in the sun; 30C, 29% RH. Cleco sternpost F10 in place on lower fuselage moulding. Offer up tailwheel arm to check where relief needed. File a little of the top of the hole with a half-round TC file. Start to file a hollow in F10 & fuselage bottom with a Perma-Grit convex file but it's quite hard work. Try the power file with a coarse belt and that works much faster, while still being able to maintain the desired profile. Mark a transverse line on the peel-ply of the (now-cured) layup for the centre of the mounting pad, at 160mm forward of F10 as before. Keep filing at the rear until until the eye of the tailwheel arm easily reaches the centre line. Move fuselage on wooden dolly around on drive until level thwartwise, then block up aft end of dolly to level it fore-and-aft. (Hoped to use the bottle jack from the trailer to get it in the right place, but it seems to have lost all its hydraulic fluid.) Set up the Quigo laser level projector on a level with the base of the aft fuselage and adjust it so the horizontal line is just kissing the bottom of the fuselage. Prop a white board against the fuselage and draw a line on it along the projected laser line. Measure 235mm down and draw another line parallel. Sight across while adjusting to get the end of the XTW06 tailwheel arm level with that line. Measure the distance between the flat at the forward end of XTW06 and the new fuselage floor level (with peel-ply still in place) as 30mm. Lower dolly back onto its wheels, put top back on fuselage and roll it back into the garage. |
1603.7 |
| 29 |
Roll fuselage out onto drive. Take off top. Remove peel-ply from tailwheel arm mount depression. The 30mm distance from the fuselage floor to the flat on XTW06 can be filled with 3mm for XTW15 plus 7 layers of plywood & BID at 3.75mm each (26.25mm) for a total of 29.25mm. Draw up the stack of plies in CADintosh to plot the fore-and-aft width of each one, tapering from about 90mm (the 80mm circle plus chamfer) to 25mm (XTW15 width). Draw a 90mm circle on sheet 2 of 3mm ply and fretsaw it out. Offer it up to the position and guess how much to take off the sides - about 25mm each side looks OK. Chamfer the edges on the belt sander to make it fit the contour of the depression. Starting to look promising, but realise I should have left it wider as the sides aren't quite touching the bottom of the depression. Saw an oval about 55mm wide based on a 90mm circle. After quite a bit to and fro between checking against the fuselage and taking a bit more off with the belt sander, that piece gets to be an acceptable fit. Cut a rectangle 70mm x 90mm and chamfer its edges. Too wide at first so trim a bit off and re-chamfer. Paying too much attention to the fit at the ends means I forget there have to be rounded protrusions on the sides to fit into the depression, so scrap that and think again. Mark the outline of the existing piece on the 3mm ply and circumscribe a 90mm circle on it. Fretsaw out the resulting profile. Offer it up and the curved sides need considerable reduction. Trim & chamfer on belt sander, re-check fit, repeat until satisfied. The fore and aft ends will need chamfering on top for the layup, but leave that until later. Repeat cut & try for 3rd layer, starting with an 80mm square with 90mm arcs drawn on its corners, and notching the ends to produce the required profile. For 4th layer, cut a piece 69mm x 80mm and trim & chamfer to fit as before. Starting to get the hang of this now. 5th layer is a piece 58mm x 95mm, which only needs trimming and chamfering straight along the sides, to finish as 82mm wide. 6th piece cut as 47mm x 95mm, trimmed to 91mm wide. Final 7th piece cut 36mm x 100mm, trimmed to 94mm wide. Put top back on fuselage and roll into garage. |
1608.5 |
| 30 |
Roll out fuselage and take off top. Chamfer forward and aft ends of 6 plywood pieces (bottom one doesn't need chamfering on top as it lies within the depression and is completely covered by the 2nd one). Mark out and cut 14 off pieces of BID 200mm x 200mm. Cut about 20mm off each corner. Abrade bonding area well with flexible Perma-Grit sheet and vacuum out dust. Mix 60g (peg 3) batch of epoxy. Decant about half of it off and add a couple of doses of flox. Spread flox onto 1st plywood piece and set into position, checking that it is level thwartwise. Lay 1st layer of BID on it and wet out. Lay 2nd layer of BID and wet out, which uses up all epoxy. To make sure I don't forget where I am, note each layer of plywood & BID as I place it. Spread flox on plywood layer 2, set in position, checking level and pressing down well. Lay on BID layer 3 & stipple down. Mix 45g (peg 2) epoxy & finish wetting out BID. Lay on BID layer 4 & wet out. Spread flox on plywood layer 3, press into place, drape BID layer 5 over it and wet out. Lay BID layer 6 & wet out. Spread flox on plywood layer 4, press it into place, checking level as before for each layer. Lay on BID layer 7 & stipple down. Mix 45g (peg 2) of epoxy, finish wetting out BID. Lay on BID layer 8 and wet out. First batch of flox is starting to gel, so add 1 dose flox to remaining epoxy, spread onto plywood layer 5 and press it into place. Lay on BID layer 9 & stipple down. Mix 45g (peg 2) epoxy and wet out BID. Lay on BID layer 10 and wet out. Spread flox on plywood layer 6 and press into place. Lay on BID layer 11 and wet out. Lay on BID layer 12 and stipple down. Centre wets well, so spread flox on plywood layer 7 and press in place. Mix 30g (peg 1) epoxy and wet out rest of BID. Lay on BID layer 13 and wet out, lay on BID layer 14 & wet out. Apply lots of peel-ply in small strips, trying to make sure there are free ends for easy removal later. Put top back on fuselage and roll it back into garage. It was down to about 20C & 60% RH outside by the time I'd finished the layup, so turn on fan heater at half-power and thermostat 3.5. Soon brings it to 25C, 45% RH inside the fuselage. Leave heater on overnight. |
1612.7 |
| 31 |
21C, 50% RH. Turn off fan heater. Fly to LAA Rally as passenger in Tim Houlihan's Europa. Find 3 Hartwell H-5000-2 flush latches left among the reduced items on the LAS Aerospace stand for only £5 each (Aircraft Spruce list them at $158!). Also find a compass reduced to £85 on the AFE stand, along with a very neat hourmeter for £5. Brian Fogg gives me a 4-port manifold he made for his fuel system and didn't use because he made one of the ports the wrong NPT tapping for his preferred setup. Check again with Neville Eyre the recommended procedure for cowl installation, as I'd forgotten some of what he said on the day I collected mine from him. |
|
go to list of milestones
go to previous page of journal 
go to list of narrative pages
