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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2015 09

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1 Wrap a bungee around LG08 arms and LG01 frame to hold the LG08 against the stops. Slide new LG12 into the guide slot and attach it loosely to LG08P with the first bolt & plain nut in the lower aft hole. Wedge top end of LG12 against the forward face of the down gate with a couple of split mixing sticks. Tighten nut to hold LG12 firmly against LG08P. Dismantle the tight fit drill to check the bevel gear engagement. Seems OK with no shims and only a spacing washer on the drive shaft to push the driving bevel into better engagement. Fit the longer 1/4" bit to the tight-fit drill head and drill through the top hole in LG08P into LG12. Fit a bolt and plain nut to that hole. The forward lower hole is very close to the LG01 frame and the head of the tight fit drill fouls it. A longer 1/4" bit would be nice if I had one! Then notice that in the kit there is a 1/4" collet, so fit an ordinary 1/4" drill bit to that and try it for access. It's just a bit long - the head of the tight fit drill is now fouling the tube on the opposite side of LG01. A search for shorter 1/4" bits turns up a letter E bit that looks promising, so fit it in the collet. The brake pipe is also getting in the way, so remove the bottom P-clip on the LG02 swinging arm to allow the pipe to be pulled up into a loop clear of the working area. Start drilling but not much seems to be happening. Withdraw bit and have a look at it; despite being brand new and unused, it is not sharp and does not have a good clearance on the cutting edges. Give it some attention on the grinding wheel and try again - now cutting freely. Fit the remaining bolt and plain nut. Remove bungee and move lever gently to the up gate to check that the LG11 strut will not foul anything when attached. Notice that the lever seems a tighter fit in the guide than the original. This is exacerbated by it being at a very slight angle (port aft edge touching the aluminium guide and starboard forward edge touching the SRBF rubbing strip). Its also not going home fully in the up & down gates. Clamp LG11 to LG12 with Mole grips and drill, using the hole in LG11 as a guide, through LG12 4.8mm. Check fit of bolt. Remove bolts holding LG12 to LG08P and remove LG12. Deburr the holes. With the Tesa micrometer, the original LG12 measures 4.958mm thick and the new one measures 5.073mm - about 4 and a half thou thicker. Increasing the bend at the bottom of LG12 to make it go further home into the gates should also tend to reduce the angle between the lever and the guide. Clamp the bottom end of the new LG12 in the vise with soft jaws as before. Get out the aluminium and steel bars used for bending. Clean up their ends with a fine flat file then clamp them to LG12 with a spacer block as before. Check appearance against original LG12 - new one looks slightly less offset. Bend slightly in small stages until visibly more offset than original. Unclamp and measure offset on a flat surface - now about 17mm. Assemble LG12 to LG08P & LG11 strut. Now dropping nicely into both gates, but although now pretty much parallel to the guide plate, still seems to be rubbing very slightly. A close look at the SRBF rubbing block from underneath shows that the lever is at a slight angle to the face of the rubbing block and is only touching along its bottom edge. If that edge were relieved it would increase the clearance at the port side with the guide plate, as well as increasing the contact area between lever and rubbing block. Remove LG12 again and file the rubbing block with the coarse side of a TC file, while trying to avoid touching the guide plate. Deburr port edge of guide plate where a few small burrs have been raised. Smooth off edges of LG12 where witness marks were left by scraping against the guide. Re-assemble LG12 to LG08P and LG11 with plain nuts. All looks good now throughout travel, with a visible gap between port side of LG12 and edge of guide plate all the way along. Replace retract lever handle (3mm hex key and 10mm deep socket). Re-fit bottom P-clip for brake line on LG02. Do another cigarette-paper check of each LG08 against its stop - both stops trap the paper when the retract lever is in the down gate - perfect! Lift LG02 and drive in LG04 pin from port side. Fit washer and split-pin on starboard side, opening the slip-pin just slightly to retain it. Fit wheel to swinging arm, lining up by supporting on the cushions I'd been using to support my head while working underneath. Insert all bolts except the central through-bolt and start them on their threads. 2337.1
7 Re-fit cross-piece to aft end of sub-dolly. Roll fuselage out onto drive. Insert central M5 socket screw from port side of wheel, fit stiffnut on starboard side and do up firmly. Do up other bolts (1 port, 3 starboard, 2 on brake) firmly. Trim off frayed end of EURO13 bungee with new razor blade Slide on a length of 03-0390 heatshrink sleeving and shrink in place with some extending beyond the end of the bungee. Repeat on other end of bungee. Tie one end of bungee to starboard end of top tube of LG01 with 2 half-hitches and secure with 1 tie-wrap. Thread other end down behind LG02B bungee anchor tube. Try pushing the sleeved end under the anchor tube from aft side but instead of making it easier the extra thickness of the heatshrink has actually made it slightly more difficult to push the bungee under the tube. Instead of using a screwdriver as before, find a 13" length of 1/4" silver steel and grind off the sharp edges at each end. Wearing a leather glove, use that silver steel rod to push the end of the bungee under the anchor tube. It can then be pulled through fully by gripping the free end of the heatshrink sleeve. Repeat until 5 loops completed around anchor tube. Getting harder now to push on the silver steel rod, so find a small cube of wood, drill part-way through 1/4", round the corners opposite the hole and use that as a handle to push on the rod. Can now get much more pressure easily on the bungee and the 6th loop goes through more easily. Not enough length left for another loop so will have to start tensioning the bungee. Roll fuselage back into garage. 2338.7
8 Roll fuselage out onto drive. Tension bungee loop by loop, holding tension on each in turn with a spring clamp. (Thought I might be able to use the cleco-plier clamps I got at the LAA Rally but although they clamp the bungee well, they are too small to brace against the structure.) Take end around anchor tube once more. Notice that the heatshrink is starting to pull off the bungee so take it off and apply a new piece. (Ideally the heat-shrink should be applied with the bungee stretched and thus thinner than the relaxed diameter - but I can't figure out any way to achieve that.) Take the free end around the anchor tube once more (which makes 7 loops around the top tube, not counting the ends) and tie off to the top tube with some length to spare. Check the feel of the retract lever and it's actually a bit too light. Reduce the bungee tension until there is no spare at the end, tie off again and re-secure with tie-wrap. Now the retract action feels about right. The lever will go into the up gate (which has already been relieved a bit) but the tire and brake assembly are still a bit close for comfort to fixed items in the tunnel. Check lever position against the felt-tip pen mark on the guide to get comfortable clearance in the tunnel. Because of the large leverage, very little lever movement away from the edge of the up gate is actually required. Move the lever to the down gate and open the up gate aftwards slightly with the narrow belt on the power file. Finish the gate squarely into the corner with a square hand file. Try the retract action and now everything looks fine in the tunnel. The bottom face of the LG02 swinging arm is almost in line with the underside of the fuselage, so that seems satisfactory all round. The LG12 retract lever is now rather close to the port side of the guide at the aft end of its travel, so file back the aft end of the SRBF rubbing strip a bit more to improve that clearance. Pushing the top turns of the bungee as far to port as possible seems to provide enough room to get at the flap horn area, so it may be possible to re-fit and adjust the flap pushrod without undoing the bungee again. Roll fuselage back into garage. 2341.0
10 Find a suitable piece of melamine-faced chipboard and hold aft end of FL20 pushrod against it with spring clamps. Draw outlines on board of aft section, both sides of aft-most bend, with fine felt-tip pen. Mark position of aft end. Lightly clamp pushrod in vise with angled aluminium soft jaws, just forward of the aft-most bend. Gently push free end with increasing force until I feel it give slightly. Remove from vise and check bend against lines on board. Bend has increased slightly, but I think it needs a bit more. Return to vise, bend carefully as before. Check the angle again, then bend one more time. Align the part of the tube forward of the bend with the marked lines. Put a screwdriver through the forward fork end to locate it over a point on the floor. Keeping forward end static, move aft end to line up with original marked position. At the critical point, the tube upper surface is now 7mm below the marked line, so I think that should be OK. Slide pushrod into tunnel. Fit new FL19 horn plate to LG08S. Separate FL21 horn from old FL19. Fit horn to pushrod fork with clevis pin. Bolt bearing at aft end of pushrod to FL15 cross-tube lugs. Fit FL21 to FL19 with 1 bolt, nut not quite tight. Move retract lever to up gate. Cross-tube is almost in contact with the stops on the back of the baggage bay. Adjust FL21 to pull FL15 against stops and lightly clamp FL21 to FL19. Check for fouling between FL20 pushrod and CS12 aileron link rod - there is about 5mm clearance at the critical position (sticks fully to port). Remove clamp from FL21/FL19 and move retract lever to down gate. 2342.6
11 tick Roll fuselage out onto drive and chock tail-down in position for rigging wings. Lower dolly then find the tire is fouling the sub-dolly cross-strut - I'm sure it wasn't doing that before. Lever main dolly forwards on sub-dolly a bit and wheel is now clear of cross-strut when main dolly lowered. Set dolly height so that the wheel is just clear of the ground and free to turn (and thus won't interfere with manoeuvrability of sub-dolly). Pull trailer forward, sweep pine cones etc away from ramp area. Open trailer and remove stuff obstructing access to wings. Roll out port wing and rig. Insert temporary spar pins and pip pin, but notice that the other pip pin is missing from the plastic tray they normally stay in. The tray got knocked over while rolling out the fuselage the other day; I thought I'd picked up all the contents, but anything I missed should still be somewhere in the bottom of the fuselage. Take out all the cushions etc and have good look in all the storage areas and in the tunnel etc but no signs of it. I suppose it could have dropped out one of the slots in the fuselage but can't see it anywhere on the garage floor. Lift the surface-water drain cover and check down to the bend in case it's fallen in there, but find nothing but leaves and small stones. Don't think I have touched the pip-pins since the aircraft was rigged on 20 June, over on the grass. Have a look around there in case it was dropped when dismantling, but no sign. Decide to use a piece of 1/4" silver steel for now. Try it on the fuselage socket and it goes in quite smoothly. Move engine, roll out starboard wing and rig it. Spar pins go in OK but the silver steel rod is reluctant to enter the pip-pin hole, although it has a rounded end and the holes appear well aligned to the eye. Tap it lightly with the plastic mallet and it goes in a bit and stops. Not happy with that, so try to remove it - won't budge! Clamping the Mole-grips to it and twisting does not work, nor does hitting the Mole grips up from below with the 4 lb club hammer. Stop for lunch and a think. After lunch try again twisting steel rod held in Mole-grips, with builders from next door wiggling wing-tip, but to no avail. Drill hole in underside of wing fairing opposite underside of socket. Try driving steel rod up using a 5mm brass rod as a drift while the wing is wiggled, but the brass just bends after a few blows and the steel rod does no move. Find a M6 socket-head screw that is long enough to reach the bottom of the rod and try using that as a drift in the same way. No movement in the steel rod, and on the 3rd or 4th blow catch my hand on the end of the flap hinge bolt, taking a neat groove about 20mm long out of the base of my thumb. After applying a plaster, start up the air compressor and try applying a single-point bit on the air chisel to the end of the M6 socket-head screw. No joy, even with one builder wiggling wing-tip and other twisting steel rod in Mole-grips. Try yet again unsuccessfully with club hammer (taking more care over the trajectory of my hand!) then finally try removing spar pins to permit more wiggle. With energetic wing-tip wiggling, twisting with Mole-grips, and club-hammer blows on the M6 screw as hard as I can muster upside-down, the silver-steel rod eventually starts to move and is driven out. Slide spar out to check condition of socket and pin. Fuselage socket is fine, shows no signs of distress. Hole through wing pin is a bit scuffed - clearly the taper ground on the silver steel rod was not shallow enough and it had gone into the pin at a very slight angle, then jammed. Run a 1/4" drill through it to clean it up and deburr top and bottom with a fine Swiss file. Check fit of one of the tailplane pins separately in socket and pin - both fine now. Re-rig starboard wing and insert a tailplane pip-pin. Insert temporary spar pins. Put retract lever in up gate and clamp FL21 horn to FL19 horn plate as far forward as I can with finger pressure, using bits of mixing stick as softening to protect paint. Check flap position - not quite fully up either side. Move retract lever to down gate, re-position bottom of FL21 as far aft as possible on FL19 and re-clamp. Move lever to up gate. Both flaps now pretty firmly against the stops on the back of the baggage bay. Clamp digital level to starboard flap close to root and parallel to original flap end closeout. Cycle the retract lever a couple of times and check angles. Gear up, 23.4 degrees. Gear down, 50.2 degrees. Hence travel 26.8 degrees. Move level to corresponding place on port flap and repeat measurement process. Gear up, 24.1 degrees, gear down 50.2 degrees, travel 26.1 degrees. Feeling somewhat wrung out after the traumas earlier in the day, I'm inclined to regard that as acceptable. Arrange cushions on port seat base and backrest and sit in place to try retract action. Movement fairly easy, although a bit more resistance is noticeable about half-way on the upwards travel. The bungee could be tightened just a little to compensate for the extra load of the flap mechanism. Put the lever in the up gate and crawl down the back to see if there is still clearance between the FL20 pushrod and the CS12 aileron link rod. Very hard to see, but seems to be just about clear with sticks fully to port. De-rig wings and return then to the trailer. As it looks like rain, roll fuselage back into garage. Remove FL19 horn plate from LG08S and disconnect pushrod fork from FL21 horn. Drill through 2nd hole in FL21 into FL19 4.8mm. Fit bolt and nut. Remove clamp. Tighten both nuts fully and apply inspectors lacquer. Re-fit FL19 to LG08S and apply inspectors lacquer to nuts. Check again FL20 pushrod clearance where it passes underneath CS12 aileron link rod - just clear when sticks fully to port. The reduction in clearance from that seen yesterday is because of the slightly higher positioning of the fork connexion on FL21, and also, I think, the tension in FL20 straightening the bend slightly. Leave the retract lever in the down gate. Check for availability of pip-pins from LAS Aerospace; they no longer stock the original part number, but offer French parts which are claimed to be identical. The 1/4" diameter by 1.1" grip length is about £23. Will need to check if Europa factory has any in stock. 2349.9
14 Send e-mail to Karen at Europa factory asking for price and delivery info on a spare wing pip-pin.
15 Karen replies by e-mail saying that the pip-pins are in stock and they are £30.36 plus delivery & VAT. More expensive than LAS Aerospace, but the LAS Aerospace ones may not be fully compatible, so reply to Karen placing an order for one. Find (after some false starts) the journal reference on 2002-07-10 to the spring roll pins I used to replace the original pip-pin rings. Not sure where the rest of those 1/8" x 7/16" coil spring pins are now, so do some internet research into availability. Mostly what turns up are slotted spring pins, but what I want are coiled spring pins. Can't find any of the correct imperial size, but Technifast list 3mm x 12mm which would be OK. However, their price is £3.27 per 100 and the minimum order quantity is 400! Send an e-mail requesting a sample. Further research turns up Automotion Components who appear to be able to supply smaller quantities - but it turns out a first order on their website has to be for £10 or more. Their price is 2p each for the 3mm x 12mm coil spring pins so order 500 - maybe I can offer some of them to others! Original pip pin holes were measured at 0.111" (2.82mm) so can be reamed out to 3mm instead of 1/8", but I don't yet have a reamer that size in stock. Order a 3mm reamer and a few drill bits to replace some missing ones from Tracy Tools.
16 3mm reamer delivered from Tracy Tools, and first consignment of 3mm x 12mm spiral pins delivered from Automotion Components.
17 Pip-pin delivered from Europa factory, but the top is quite different from my original. The diameter of the top plunger is much greater and would require a much thinner wall on the extraction tool. It does have a slot and perhaps a hook tool could be used in that to catch a cross-pin - although the holes for the wire handle do not appear to extend as far as the slot and would need to be drilled through. The part illustration on the LAS Aerospace website appears identical to what Europa have supplied. Vacuum horizon & DI sold on eBay. While looking for the right-angle adaptors for the horizon, notice that the wiring diagram for the MGL TP1 gauge has the yellow wire missing. It's not too vital as it's not connected, but update the drawing to include that. Right-angle adaptors not found anywhere - wonder if I accidentally left them in the vacuum pump box, so e-mail the buyer of the pump kit asking if he's found them. Further searches for the original wing pip-pin are fruitless - including a thorough rake-over of the grass where the aircraft was rigged on 20 June. However, while looking for the right-angle adaptors, find the original 1/8" x 7/16" pins, which turn out to be slit coil pins after all.
18 Vacuum pump buyer says he will check for the right-angle adaptors on Tuesday when he visits the hangar. Pack gyros & the one remaining faulty right-angle adaptor and despatch them. Note when checking the wirebook for other items that only one USB outlet is shown on the misc diagram; also there seems to be a few discrepancies about fuse and wire sizes. Add the dual-USB outlet to the misc diagram, but need to sort out the numbers for the new wires and how to make the junction.
19 Package received from Technifast with 3 samples of their 3mm x 12mm coiled spring pins. Still thinking about possible places the original wing pip-pin could have bounced to when the plastic tray fell off the space between the headrests. Try fishing around in the void around the fuel level sensor in the port headrest, but the magnetic pick-up tool is too rigid to get in any distance. Tie a length of 80 lb fishing line onto a small magnet and thread the line through the spare length of brake pipe BS116 that doesn't seem to have a purpose. That makes a stiff but flexible magnetic probe. Fish around with it in all directions from the fuel sensor head, but nothing found. Replace plain nuts on bolts holding LG12 to LG08P and LG11 to LG12 with stiffnuts. A bit of a fiddle with the bungee in place, but do-able with patience. Apply inspectors lacquer to those 4 nuts. The legs of the split-pin in the clevis pin of the FL20 pushrod fork are still only slightly spread in case I had to take it out again. Satisfied the adjustment is now OK, so bend them out fully to secure it. Check what size spanner needed for the brake pipe fitting (12mm) but decide to leave it for the moment as access is poor with the fuselage inside the garage and it's too dark to take it outside. 2351.4
21 Start cross-checking wiring diagrams and databases for inconsistencies (fuse ratings, wire sizes, etc) and make a list of sections completed. Add new wire numbers for double USB outlet. Decide that the supply-side flying lead of the single USB outlet could go direct to a Cinch connector block, which would be much better than trying to join 3 large wires with a butt connector. Check hole sizes required for USB outlets. Search for & order some short USB mini cables, both straight and right-angle. Leave exact positioning of double USB outlet for Dynon D2 & Airbox Aware 2 until I see how the cables might be best configured. Looks as if I may not have enough length of cable for the other (cigar-lighter) power outlets; and anyway it could be 12AWG instead of 10AWG for the roof outlet. Make a note to order more 12AWG. Notice that several fuses are marked 3A in one document and 5A in another. This is probably because I hadn't got any 3A blade fuses in stock, so order some from CPC. Print out photos of previous lockwiring on wheel hub & brakes. Roll fuselage out onto drive. Remove the temporary seals and do up the brake pipe connector to the slave cylinder. Make sure all bolts on wheel hub are tight, then find the holes in the 3 on the starboard side of the hub don't line up as nicely as before for the lockwiring. Undo those 3 and swap them around to restore the original hole arrangement. Fit lockwire to those 3 bolts and to the 2 on the brake assembly. Roll fuselage back into garage. Do some more wiring document cross-checking. 2352.5
22 tick Remove altimeter setting knob. Check thread size, expecting it to be Unified, but it turns out to be M4. Thought I had some hex brass in stock that could be used to make a shaft extension but can't find it, only round brass and hex steel. Could use round brass, but hex would be better so defer that for now. Start to check where XLG12A downlatch pivot should be positioned on LG12 retract lever, but can't seem to find a spot that gives the right geometry in all aspects. Print pictures of the original for reference. Find that the optimum place is given when the lower edge of the latch is just above and about parallel with the top face of the guide plate, and the stop screw bush is in contact with the front edge of LG12. Clamp the latch onto the lever with a couple of cleco clamps. Re-check position and mark the hole position through the FL10 bush onto the side of LG12 with a long-nose felt-tip pen. Spot drill 4.8mm through the bush. Sight through again to ensure nothing has moved, then unclamp latch and drill through at the spot 1.5mm. Re-check alignment and then drill 3.2mm. Check alignment again then drill to final size of 4.8mm. Fit pivot screw & offer up spring to assess position of hole for tail. Mark the area with a felt-tip pen and scratch it with tip of spring to mark the hole position. Remove screw and drill 1mm at the marked spot. Assemble screw with spacers, spring, washers and stiffnut. Insert stop screw and pull back spring to catch it. Fit sleeve, washer & stiffnut. Test action - seems perfect. Apply inspectors lacquer to both nuts. Order brass hex in several sizes from GLR Kennions Ltd. 2354.3
23 3A fuses delivered from CPC. I've been trying to figure out where I could mount the slip ball I got in a clearance sale at the LAA Rally, and it looks as though it could go underneath the TRX-2000 collision warning box. It would have to be spaced slightly away from the panel to clear the head of the panel fixing screw, but it would be easy to make up some threaded pillars. There isn't room for it to fit centrally aligned to the TRX-2000, but it seems the best compromise. The only other possibility might be to hang it off the top edge of the instrument module, but although that would bring it close to the eye line, it would look a bit untidy. The fitting holes suit M3, and find a couple of M3 x 16mm button-head screws to secure it. Also find I have a couple of 6mm male-female M3 threaded hex brass pillars which would be ideal to space it off the panel. All I need now are some M3 stiffnuts, and for added security I could tap the holes in the panel. Find some strips of wood for sizing the baggage bay support ribs and cut them to suitable lengths. Crawl into rear fuselage and pull baggage bay bulkhead into place with my head and shoulders through the D-hole. Secure to aft face of baggage well with 8 clecos. Clamp the pieces of wood together in pairs to make adjustable-length measuring sticks. Position one at forward and one at aft end of all 4 support ribs, shining a light through from underneath to confirm alignment with marks. Once all set and clamped to length, remove them, take out clecos and remove bulkhead again. Stick lengths at the 8 measured points are:
port outer forward 196mm
port outer aft 180mm
port inner forward 214mm
port inner aft 213mm
starboard inner forward 213mm
starboard inner aft 213mm
starboard outer forward 197mm
starboard outer aft 180mm
The corresponding ribs are very close in size to each other, which shows things are coming together reasonably square and true.		 2356.2
24 Hex brass delivered from GLR Kennions Ltd. Balance of spiral spring pins delivered from Automotion Components. Cut rib shapes from pieces of corrugated cardboard and tape in position on underside of baggage bay bulkhead. Climb inside rear fuselage and try to get baggage bay bulkhead into place without deranging the stuck-on cardboard pieces. Couldn't manage it without scraping off the 2 at the port side - a bit worrying that it may be impossible to fit the bulkhead in once the ribs are bonded to it! Fit clecos to hold it in place along the forward edge. Check fit of card ribs at starboard side - outboard fine, inboard just slightly tight. Position port side card ribs using mirror to ensure alignment and they are very similar to starboard ones - out board OK, inboard slightly tight. Remove clecos and find that by rotating the bulkhead forward about its forward edge, the top of the D-hole frame can be flexed to clear the fuselage roof and the ribs can come out without impediment. Get out sheets 2 & 3 of the 3mm plywood. One of the outboard ribs can be got out of the remains of sheet 2, and the other 3 will come from sheet 3, leaving quite a lot of it spare. Hacksaw off just over 20mm of the 5/16" brass hex. Chuck in lathe, face off, centre drill and drill 3.3mm to 10mm deep. Tap M4. Reverse in chuck, face to 20mm long, turn outer 5mm down to 4mm diameter and thread M4 with tailstock dieholder. Try out on altimeter - could do with being just 5mm longer - and the male thread could be 7.5mm as the hole in the knob is 8mm deep. 2358.1
25 Get out the small layup board and clean off the epoxy nibs and runs. Trace the card patterns onto the 3mm plywood sheets, with the major grain running vertically on the ribs. Cut out with a tenon saw, cutting inside the line on the bottom edge as the manual calls for 3mm less than the measured distance. Re-check heights against card templates after cutting and plane a little off the bottom edges of a couple of them. Cut a couple of pieces of polyethylene sheet big enough to cover the layup board and place one on board. Lay the ribs on it, with the access covers, in 2 groups of 3. Will need 2 off 700mm x 330mm and 2 off 650mm x 250mm BID. Find a large Europa factory logo on an old sign left over from a Rally, scan it and print it out twice on paper. Trim around each circle. Make small alignment marks for the logos on the top surface of the access covers. Mark out and cut 4 pieces BID to the above sizes. Mix a peg-7 (120g) batch of standard epoxy. Paint onto the upper face of one of the access covers and carefully lower Europa logo onto it. It will slide a little at first for alignment but soon sticks fast. Repeat for 2nd access cover. Wet the adjacent rib then drape a 700mm x 330mm piece of BID over all 3 ply parts. Slightly tricky with the surface already wet, but manage it without any serious snag or puckers. Stipple with brush to wet out fully, adding more epoxy over logos. Lay 1 piece 650mm x 250mm BID dry on the other 3 ply pieces and pour remaining epoxy onto them. It's not flowing too well (19C, 61% RH on floor beside layup) so turn on fan heaters. Apply peel-ply to 1st 3 panels. Other 3 only wetted in centre, so mix a peg-3 (60g) batch of epoxy and complete wetting-out. Apply peel-ply. Had originally intended to flip the whole setup to lay up the other side but decide against doing that until this side has cured. 21C, 56% RH. Cut off about 29mm length of the 5/16" hex brass and make another altimeter setting knob extender as yesterday but 27mm overall with 7mm male thread. Check on altimeter in-situ and it looks and handles perfectly now. Leave fan heaters running overnight for epoxy cure; now 22C, 50% RH; by bedtime 21C, 45% RH. 2363.4
26 20C, 40% RH at breakfast time, layups well cured, turn off fan heaters. Back in the evening after our walk, it's 17C, 50% RH. Turn on fan heaters. Turn ply pieces with layups over onto the 2nd piece of polyethylene sheet. Lay the remaining BID pieces in place over the 2 groups of ply pieces. Mix a peg-10 (160g) batch of epoxy and pour some onto the BID on each ply panel. Stipple to wet out fully, then apply peel-ply. 20C, 48% RH. Leave fan heaters running to cure overnight. 2364.2
27 21C, 48% RH; layups well cured. Turn off fan heaters.
28 Cut layups on ply into individual pieces with padsaw. File down BID edges to match plywood outlines with Perma-Grit block. Find a couple of wooden blocks with chamfered corners that can be used to keep the ribs square to the bulkhead while bonding. Cut each block in half to make 4 support pieces. Abrade the bonding area on the underside of the baggage bay bulkhead with Perma-Grit sheet. Mix 25g + 10g Redux and add 2 doses flox to stiffen it. Apply to the bonding lines on the bulkhead with a mixing stick. Likewise spread Redux along the top edge of each rib in turn, set in place, apply a strip of polyethylene sheet along the bond and clamp a support block in place to keep the rib square. Add another strip of polyethylene sheet on the other side of each rib and smooth out the Redux fillet underneath it. Vacuum pump buyer says he's found the adaptors and will send them on. 2366.8
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