Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2023 05
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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2023 05 |
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Navigation & Acknowledgements |
| day | notes | hours |
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| 18 | The long gap since my last work on the Europa is largely because of preparing for, executing, and recovering from a trip to Bali to visit Dorothy's family there. With such a long lay-off, there is also a slight psychological barrier to overcome before I can get back into the habit of regular work on the aeroplane. Get a headset down from storage in the loft. Open the trailer and get out the port door. Fit it to the fuselage (without hinge screws) and operate the shoot-bolts to hold it in place. Check measurements of the memory foam in the trailer; it is about 1 metre square. Cut it into 2 strips 500mm wide and take one in to the garage. Place 2 blocks of Temper Foam on the port seat, on top of the foam-crumb blocks already there. Place the strip of memory foam against the seatback. Wriggle across the cockpit and sit on the port seat. My head is touching the door Perspex, so less cushion thickness is needed. Take out the foam-crumb blocks and try it with just the Temper Foam. That seems fine for height, with plenty of room for the headset. However, it would be nice to have a slightly higher viewpoint, and the Temper Foam is not very comfortable to sit on, even for a relatively short time. A small grey thick cushion is too thick, but one of the larger, softer, ones with the check pattern seems just about OK. The headset is only touching the Perspex occasionally. Notice among other things that the O-ring on the choke control has hardened and split; will need to replace that. Get out of the cockpit again. Cut the memory foam piece down to the height of the seat backrest (from the blue-foam inserts) and try it for fit. It is obscuring the sight gauge so mark it again and trim to a narrower width. Set it against the backrest and put the Temper Foam blocks in front of it. Put the offcut of memory foam on top. Crawl across again and try sitting on that arrangement. The seat seems OK, but after a short time the memory foam at my back has compressed to almost nothing and my spine feels as though it is pressing directly against the seatback. Put one of the foam-crumb blocks at the base of my spine and that is better - the resulting slight recline improves headset clearance and gets my feet better onto the rudder pedals. I still need more padding higher up on my spine. Maybe the answer is a tapered block of foam-crumb (which might be more challenging to cover). Will have to do some research. |
3730.9 |
| 20 | Find a firm online that will cut reconstituted foam (bonded crumb) to various shapes. Check dimensions for backrest block. Draw up the shape in CADintosh and send a PDF off for a quote. | |
| 22 | Foam firm replies saying they cannot cut the tapered-thickness shape I proposed. | |
| 23 | Put 2x 50mm thickness of reconstituted foam blocks against backrest, with stack of Temper Foam and memory foam on the seat as before. Crawl in and sit on that. Just about room for the headset. Removing one of the upper blocks to leave just 50mm at the upper back makes it more satisfactory. Wonder if having different thicknesses at various heights would work. It would probably need to be at full thickness up to about the lumber region. I might be able to carve a taper with a sharp knife but I would prefer not to have to do that - and it would make the cover more complex to construct. | 3731.1 |
| 24 | Haul fuselage out onto drive and run out extension lead for 12V PSU. Power up panel and switch on radio etc. Open trailer and take out trolley and box that obstruct access. This is in preparation for local Beaver pack visiting, to get aviation badges by talking to a pilot. Show and talk about pilot licence, kneeboard, and logbook. Show propeller and wings in trailer. All Beavers delighted to get sitting in the cockpit, and many asked smart questions. | |
| 27 | Haul fuselage out onto drive. Re-assemble the foam blocks on the port side with the seat as before. Against the backrest, set up about 400mm high of 100mm thick composite foam, and on top of that about 200mm of 50mm thick. Try sitting on that and it feels pretty comfortable. Headset is clear of the Perspex for most head movements. Note that more width on seat cushion would be desirable. Remove port door and return it to trailer, covering with polyethylene sheet as before. Try turning the Temper Foam blocks so the 450mm length is thwartwise. They fit quite tightly between the tunnel and the fuselage side. There is only about 50mm of the seat visible beyond their forward edge. The memory foam could be slightly bigger than the present 400mm fore-and-aft and 430mm wide. The lower 100mm composite foam block needs to be 450mm wide. I think I will put the 2 layers of Temper Foam for the port side in a single cushion cover, but the starboard ones could be separate to allow for taller passengers. Straighten the starboard side of the radiator duct where it got bent when the dolly collapsed. Pause because it's getting rather hot and it's time for lunch. After lunch, get windscreen out of its polyethylene cover. Clamp in place on fuselage aperture. Mark edges with felt-tip pen where trimming is needed. Unclamp screen and grind down edges where marked with powerfile. Smooth off with short Perma-Grit block. Re-position and clamp; fit now much better. Notice that with the aft (top) edge pulled well back (particularly at the outer corners) and clamped all round, the forward (bottom) edge conforms much better to the recess and so minimal clamping pressure should be needed there. Mark a few areas where further trimming needed, remove from fuselage and grind them back. Re-fit and clamp; now looks fine, with small gap between edge of Perspex and the outer edge of the bonding recess. While screen clamped in place, apply masking tape around the edge, just clear of the recess. Shift the clamps to bridge the gaps. Remove windscreen ready to apply masking tape on the inner face, but decide to stop now as getting tired. Roll fuselage back into garage and tidy up tools etc. Re-position windscreen on fuselage and clamp it at the bottom corners to keep it in place. Notice that the Garmin GPSmap 296 battery appears to be flat as it won't fire up without panel power, so take it indoors to charge. When I plug in the power supply, I get a message "Battery missing" so I guess it must have died completely. Order a replacement from an eBay seller. |
3734.6 |
| 30 | Draw up possible fabric patterns for the Temper Foam cushion covers - a large piece wrapping around from back, top, front, bottom and overlapping onto back again (for Velcro closure), with separate pieces for each side. If the side strips were placed at the end of the large piece, there would be room for about 12 such patterns in the 6m of fabric which is about 1.47m wide. Watch some YouTube videos explaining how to make box cushion covers. The one-piece approach looks quite attractive but not sure if I want to incorporate zips - Velcro closures seem simpler to construct and less demanding on dimensional accuracy. |
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