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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2025 07 |
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Navigation & Acknowledgements |
Did some more dual at SFS this month, two sessions of circuits; I am very rusty and finding it hard to make neat circuits and stabilized approaches.
| day | notes | hours |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | Tidy up garage floor enough to roll out fuselage onto drive. Using the diamond blade in the MiniTool jigsaw, trim back the excess of the interior layup on the repair to the crack at the aft end of the flap slot. File the edges back flush with the aperture. Brown foam appears exposed in a small area at the bottom of the aperture. Clean up with acetone and paint over with 90-second Araldite. A check of the engine installation manual shows that I need to enlarge the propshaft hole in the cowling to within 25mm of the spinner diameter. Mark a line 25mm in from the outer edge of the balsa spacer ring. Loosen all cowling screws slightly to see if the cowl can be shifted upwards a bit to centralise the propshaft in the cowl hole. Some screws are quite hard to shift, and others need to have the head recess cleaned out - obviously, despite greasing the screws, Redux got into some places it was not needed. Cowl refuses to budge with all screws loosened - looks like excess Redux has bonded it in place. Remove all top cowl screws and pop the cowl off the spots where it has lightly bonded so that it can be removed. With small round file, clean off excess Redux from holes in Tinnerman washers, and rub off inside faces with emery paper. Cut along the marked line on the propshaft hole with the MiniTool and sand smooth to the line. Remove lower cowl and start to cut the propshaft hole on it but manage to break the diamond blade. Look for spares but none in the usual place, so try a steel blade. Not successful, very slow and prone to bend because I can't get the soleplate flat against the workpiece - balsa ring too close. Instead try with padsaw, but that is very slow and hard to direct along the line. Finally switch to fretsaw with spiral blade that cuts in all directions and that is moderately satisfactory although it tends to cut a wavy line. Smooth off with a file and emery paper. Open up the screw holes to the full internal diameter of the Tinnerman washers (as done before for the upper cowl). Pull fuselage back into garage. Lay upper cowl on top of engine. Store lower cowl on aft fuselage. |
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