88.5 Hrs – Ch 14 – Main Spar

Cut out the foam pieces for the main spar section after getting together all the foam needed.

Finished cutting the foam pieces to size and contoured the ends of the spar on CS2 and CS4.  Microed the 3 pieces of CS1 together, and called it a night.

Microed the spar top, aft, and bottom pieces together and connected per the plans.  Instead of using the pine sticks to hold the spar bottom on perpendicular, I used the Wayne Hicks suggested method of adding the spar front section on, adding nails, and adding weight to keep everything in place.  Seems like it worked ok.

Cut out all the metal parts for the spar, and started filing down the edges where specified in the plans.  Then I microed the end caps on to the spar.

Cut out and shaped the interior bulkheads and marked the spar to show where the bulkheads and aluminum inserts will be placed.

Cut out the rest of the interior bulkheads and marked the rest of the measurements for the hard points.

Vacuumed the foam for the spar and cut out pieces of fiberglass in preparation of tomorrow’s layup.

Micro slurry’d the foam inside and added 1 ply of BID on the entire inside.  Added the inboard bulkheads, and added BID to both sides, lapping onto the sides.  Added the 3 plies of UND, then the LWA1, and added 1 BID.  Added 1 additional BID to the outboard bulkheads, lapping 5″, added the LWA1′s on each end, and covered with BID.  Added nails around the LWA1′s so they wouldn’t shift, and weighted down.  Added the center bulkhead and glassed both sides, lapping onto the spar.  I had micro’d the center bulkhead in place, like the rest of them, but for some reason, the plans say to flox that bulkhead in, even though none of the others are.  I will have to check with Dennis to see if it makes a difference.

Trimmed last night’s layup and drilled the 1″ holes in the interior bulkheads.  Covered the edge of the holes with dry micro.  In talking with Dennis, sounds like the “flox to connect the center bulkhead” was a type-o.  I slurried the inside faces of the fore facing foam, covered with 1 ply BID, and peel ply’d

Sanded the rough spots on the inside of the spar so that when I reach into the spar to add the wing attach bolts, I don’t cut up my hand.  Vacuumed everything and attached the top (forward) pieces, glass side down.  Added weight, and cleaned up micro leaking out the edges.

Traced and cut out the templates for the spar trough.  Then created a sanding block for the spar troughs.

Started sanding the top spar trough, but the template was not quite fitting over the spar.  It appears that when I laid boards along CS4 and added weight, it added some inward curvature, which caused the edges to have some gap which added some extra width when trying to lay the templates on the spar top.  Decided to wait until I could get a hold of Dennis before I moved on.

In talking to Dennis, it doesn’t sound like it should be a big deal.  Sounds like he uses the templates to drag back and forth to sand to the final shape.  In order to do this, I cut off the notch where they hang over CS4 (spar front).  Seemed to work pretty well.  Turned the spar over and repeated the process for the bottom.

Marked the locations for the LWA4 and LWA5 metal inserts, and routed out the foam down to the fiberglass of the inside layer.  Glad to see the center line mark for the inside layup showing through the glass.  Floxed the inserts in place and let cure.  Had some time left, so I cut out the shoulder harness blocks from 1″ x 1″ spruce, which will be inserted after the spar caps are done.

Sanded a radius on the edges for the shear web.  Micro’d the surfaces, and glassed 4 layers of UND at 45 degrees.  Finished with peel ply.  Trimmed the edges after cure.

Cut out some 2″ strips of 1/4″ plywood and used as a dam for the spar trough.  Measured the trough size, and matched the height of the dam.  Screwed to the spar with drywall screws after predrilling.

Glassed the spar trough.  Glassed all 11 full span layers (maybe 12), and was able to get the sections at 64″, 61″, 55″, 40″, 36″, 32″, and 24″ from center.  I was not able to get layers in the 58″, 52″, 48″, 44″, and 28″ from center locations.  Not sure if I did not get the spar trough thick enough, or if the glass I used was just thicker than normal.  (The stuff I started with was certainly thicker looking)  I will have to get an opinion on that tomorrow.

After talking to Dennis (again), he verified I should try to get those layers in there (which I suspected).  After the first batch of layers was somewhat cured, I was able to run a bead of hot glue on top of my dams to add some height.  Added the missing layers in the spar trough, and added peel ply for final cure.

Trimmed the ends of the spar caps (top), removed the dams, and rounded the edge so UND will lay over later.  Turned the spar over, and added the dams to get ready for the next layup.

Repeated the spar cap layups for the bottom spar cap.  Finished with peel ply.  After cure, I removed the dams, cut off the ends, and sanded the edges to a rounded edge.

36.5 Hrs – Ch 13 – Fuselage Nose

Created the backing plate for mounting the brake fluid reservoirs.  After verifying fit with the brackets, I floxed it into place and was able to add 1  ply BID along the bottom edge for good measure.  Took this time to add the 2 plies on the back side of the lift tab holes, too.  Then I took some various tubing and screwed them to the table on a piece of plastic.  Then I wet out 1 ply  BID, and cut into strips.  I made sure the strips were thick enough that they would lay over the tubing, tuck in along the bottom of the tubing, and still have enough for a flange on both sides.  After cure, I will cut these into 3/4″ pieces to use for cable and tubing supports.  Then I will be able to flox to the fuselage and cover with 1 ply BID.

I thought that before I close up the nose, it would be best to try to get everything done possible in the nose area, before it gets less accessible.  I routed some tubing in the nose for electrical conduit and glassed with 1 BID.  I also added one of my home made tubing supports for the pitot line as well.  Finished with peel ply.

Flushed out the pitot line and reinstalled in the nose.  Finished connecting the support with 5 Min Epoxy flox and 1 layer of BID with peel ply.

Created some metal bands to secure the igniters to the aft side of F0.  Mounted nut plates to the rear of the bands after bending properly around the igniters.  Note that before I attached the nutplates, I used the holes to drill the holes in F0.  Then I ran AN3 bolts through the front side of F0 into the nutplates on the other side to cinch the igniters tight against F0.

 

Decided to form some lenses tonight.  Started by cutting some pieces of the 1/8″ acrylic in the rough size.  Laid one piece on some t-shirt material, and put in the oven at 275 degrees to soften it up.  Then laid into the nose cone to get the curvature.  The piece was a little too large and would not curve completely, so I marked a closer outline and cut on the sabre saw.  Went through the process again and I go the curvature closer, but not close enough.  I will have to try the Wayne Hicks “composite Cleco” method to hold down the corners.

Instead of waiting for the weekend, I was feeling ambitious and decided to glass the bottom of the fuselage top and flox/tape in place.  Added the extra BID around the flange area as specified in the plans.  Used peel ply on the edges, making sure to leave enough room for the BID tapes after floxing back in place (or so I thought).  Since it’s hard to see the underside after it’s floxed in place, I found a few places where I laid BID tapes over peel ply.  I removed the glass from those locations after trimming the edges, and will have to fix during the next session.

There was some flox that needed to be cleaned up on the outside edges where I re-attached the nose top, so I cleaned that up with the Dremmel tool.  Then I prepared some BID tapes.  I started with inside, where I removed the sections of BID tape because I applied them over peel ply.  I reapplied new BID tapes over those areas and added peel ply.  Then I ran a bead of micro down the edge of the nose top, so there would be a smooth transition over any offsets between the two mating pieces.  (Note:  I don’t think it’s going to matter, but part of me wonders if I would have been better off using flox for that.)  I guess if a crack develops, I will have to fix it then.  Applied the 2″ BID tapes on the sides and peel ply added.

Created the foam piece to connect the nose top to the top of F22.  The plans drawing shows this being one piece, but the M drawing shows it as two.  I decided to make it out of one piece first and attach the canard to check for fit.  Turns out there were clearance issues, so I made it in two pieces instead.  Glassed the bottom of the piece, let it tack cure, then floxed it into place, adding 1 BID tapes to the bottom joints.

Glassed the top of the piece and peel plied.

Test fit the canard, but it was fitting too tight, so I decided to sand down the glass and some of the foam to make some more room.  Glassed with 1 BID and peel plied again.

In trying to connect the brake fluid reservoirs, they weren’t wanting to connect with enough space between the brackets for the reservoirs to fit.  In trying to make it fit, I ended up crushing the foam when tightening it up.  Cut out a section of the front glass where it was crushed, and removed the foam behind it.  I used the front glass I cut out as a template for drilling new holes.  I cut a birch plywood piece to fit in the hole, and then used the template I cut out to drill the new holes in the plywood.  Floxed into the hole after putting Vaseline in the nut plate holes.  Put some Vaseline on the bolts, and bolted the brackets on, which clamped the wood to the fiberglass backing till cure.

Removed the bolts and brackets, sanded, and glassed with 2 plies of BID.  Then peel plied.

20 Hrs – Ch13 – Fuselage Nose

 

 

 

I have been working on the project, but I have been bad at updating my logbook lately.  Time listed is conservative, when you take into account there has been a lot of time spent figuring out the electrical wiring of the electric nose lift.  I tried fitting the lift in the opening and connecting to the strut.  I was not able to get the end of the actuator lined in NG4A so the bolt would go through.  Turns out NG3A and NG4A were not parallel with the strut.  At the time, I thought the strut was too thick.  I had sanded through the torsional layers, but that ended up being a mistake.  So after removing the NG3A and NG4A again, I added the torsional layers again and floxed NG3A and NG4A again.  I added the torsional layers again and floxed NG3A and NG4A again.  Tested fit again, and this time the end of the actuator wouldn’t quite fit into NG4A, but I devised a way to spread it apart a little so it would fit.  I found a bolt that barely fit into the opening, then I removed it and added a nut on the end.  Then I fit it in the opening and started removing the nut, which ended up spreading apart the ends.  This worked perfect, and the actuator fit.  Than I added some layups on the sides to strengthen the NG3A and keep it from breaking loose and sliding down the strut on a hard landing.  I essentially used 2 strips folded back onto themselves to make 4 layers.  I also used a flox roll between the layers, up at the edge of NG3A, to make it a bit thicker there and block it from sliding.  Peel ply’d and let cure.

Fit the nose strut back into the fuselage and fit the electric nose lift with brackets into the nose assembly.  Connected with one bolt (per the instructions), marked the holes to drill on the brackets, drilled the holes on the drill press, and reassembled.  Tested with a battery.  Works as advertised!

 

Carved the nose foam per instructions.  During the assembly of the nose bottom, I did not have the glass trimmed properly, figuring the excess would be hidden, but that bit me in the butt when sanding the curvature.  Sanding foam with glass in the way, makes carving very difficult.  I cut out some of the micro and glass that was in the way.  Unfortunately sanding got a little too deep behind F0 on the pilot’s side, so I will have some finish work to do there.  Not too bad, but enough for me to notice.

Glassed the fuselage nose bottom, 2 plies BID, with an extra layer over the nose strut.  Finished with Peel Ply.

 

Cut open the opening to release the nose strut cover from the fuselage bottom.  Ended up cutting too deep and cutting a slit through the torsional wrap by accident.

After consulting the Cozy list to see if I was going to have to remove the cover to fix, I found out that I would.  Turned out to not be a big deal.  The slit was 3.5″ in length, so I only needed to remove 5″ of the cover.  Added some flox into the slit and covered with 2 ply BID.  Let cure fora few hours, and then positioned the gear into the fuselage, and added the additional 3 plies to replace the part I removed.  Finished with peel ply, and back to forward progress.

Glassed the back side of the gear door with glass overlapping onto the front strut.  I used flox in the corner toward the bottom for a better hold, then used micro in the corners up the rest of the way.  Thinking this will help hold better, should there be a hard landing on the front strut.  Finished with peel ply.

After talking with Dennis Oelmann yesterday, he gave me a few pointers on carving the top of the fuselage nose.  In using the template for carving the nose, it sounds like the carving template may have originally been for the narrower F28.  If you use the thicker F28 and use the template (presumably for the thinner F28), you end up with what looks to be a kink in the nose.  Regardless of the reason, I have seen where builders have had that issue, so I was listening…  Dennis recommended first installing the canard.  Then use a long flexible ruler (or something similar) and lay it from F28 to F0.  It will have to bend over the foam to get the proper curvature, and then I removed foam until there was a nice fit.  The most important part is to be sure that when the ruler is laid across the curvature, that there is a distance of 3/4″ to 1″ gap between the ruler and the canard.  This extra thickness at that location should solve the issue with the kink in the nose.  I guess time will tell!  Then I started with the nose door.  I cut the 3 layers of BID out per plans, trimmed to proper dimensions, and transferred to the nose which I already had box sealing tape applied for release.  Added peel ply and wait for cure.

Trimmed the edges of the nose door and added 3 layers around the outside edge on the bottom side, 1″ thick.  Placed back on the nose and weighted in place to keep the proper form.

Marked the nose door on the nose after trimming the edges of the door.  Sanded down the foam for the door to fit into.  Wasn’t enough time to start glassing though.

 

 

 

 

Micro’d the foam and added 2 plies of BID at 45 degrees.  The BID wasn’t quite wide enough for the whole nose section, so I had to have a small section of overlap.  Finished with peel ply and covered the nose door area with saran wrap and put the door in place.  Weighted the door in place with a wood contraption that I created that placed pressure along the edges.

 

 

 

 

Started by cutting out the nose door, and then cut the top off that I just finished glassing two nights before.  Then I floxed the corner of the aft edge of the opening, and added 2 plies BID.  Finished with peel ply.

39 Hrs – Ch 13 – Fuselage Nose

I used duct tape to dam up the sides where I cut through to reposition.  Mixed up pour foam and added in the void.  I opted to do this instead of micro and foam scraps since it will be much easier to contour later if I don’t have micro to sand through.  After the foam dried, I sanded down and reapplied 2 layers of BID on the seams, and then 3 layers BID buildup over the lift tabs.  Finished up with peel ply.

Removed peel ply on the NG30′s, and reassembled the nose gear.  Trimmed and dressed the fiberglass from the night before, and reinstalled the canard to check measurements.  Still look good!  Cut out the 2″ urethane foam for the top of the nose and sanded to the proper dimensions.  Decided to start over, as I sanded way too much off on one side of the top.  Oops.  After getting it just right, I glued it on temporarily with dabs of 5 min epoxy and turned the fuselage upside down for the next step.

Apparently I didn’t use enough dabs of epoxy, as the top fell off over night.  Since the fuselage is upside down, I was still able to glass the foam edges of the nose wheel opening.  After Kim woke up, we flipped the fuselage back over and doubled up on the dabs of epoxy this time and turned back over.  Added a few nails this time until I’m ready to carve.  I also was able to find some Blazer driving lights (RE774C) that will work, so I snatched them up.

After doing some shopping at the hardware store, I found some nuts and bolts to mo0unt the lights.  Mounted them for a test fit and verified clearance in the nose cone.  Turned the lights on while holding the nose cone in place temporarily.  Marked the pattern on the nose cone.  Marked the center marks on the nose cone.  Did this by first finding the center of the nose cone.  Then taped a piece of string around the circumference, folded in half and marked the string, then folded again and marked the 1/4 points.  Then put the string back on the nose cone and transferred the marks onto the nose cone, which gave me center marks top and bottom, as well as center marks left and right.  Then I was able to come up with a lens pattern for the headlights.

Cut off the end of the pitot tube, and drilled out the end to 7/16″ bit, and tapped using 1/4″ NPT.  I was concerned about bolting the lights too tight and c rushing the foam, so I decided to remove the foam and fiberglass on the bottom of NG31 where the lights attach, and replace with 6 BID for reinforcement.

Trimmed the layup and tested lights for fit again.  The outside flange was catching the fiberglass curve, but was able to bend for clearance.

Found a piece of 3/4″ conduit from a coworker to fit the pitot tube into for the removable pitot.  Didn’t fit, so I used a 5/8″ drill bit to bore out the hole.  Then I cut the rest pretty much as shown on Wayne Hicks’ site.  In my attempt to drill out the pitot tube perfectly center for tapping new threads, I found that I still got off enough to cause problems.  The pitot tube would bind when screwing onto the fitting, unless the fitting was allowed to move around to compensate.  Since the fitting will be floxed in, that won’t work after cure.  I shortened the conduit to the correct length and was able to grind down part of the pitot tube where the wall thickness seemed a little thicker than the rest.  Hopefully that will allow the pitot tube to be removed after the flox dries.  Added some petroleum jelly to the threads of the fitting and floxed into place.

Did some additional filing on the pitot tube thread end to help it screw in and out of the end.  Sanded out a foam contour to match the pitot tube in NG31.  Floxed the sleeve in place and covered with 5 plies of BID and peel plied.

Ran tubing for the pitot tube to the instrument panel and flared the end to connect to the fitting at the pitot tube.  Removed NG3 and NG4 from the nose strut in preparation for the new NG3 and NG4 from the nose strut in preparation for the new NG3A and NG4A coming with the electric nose lift.  Also sanded down F0 some to fit the nose cone.

Removed Ng2 foot from the MKNG15 wheel assembly.  Checked fit for NG3A and NG4A after removing all the flox from the original parts.  Holes were not drilled on NG3, so I followed Jack’s instructions for drilling and floxed into place, keeping the same dimension as shown in the plans (6.71″).  This is hard to measure with all the clamps in place, but luckily I marked the sides of NG3 on the side of the strut during the test fit.  I will double check the measurement after the flox is cured.  Floxed the new NG2 foot onto the MKNG15 Assembly.  Just snugged the bolts with 2 washers between the MKNG15 and NG2 for each of the bolts.  Will torque to proper value after cure.

10 Hrs – Ch00 – Garage Preparation

Created the workstation on wheels from the Tony Bingelis book “The Sport Plane Builder”.  I made mine a little bigger to match my available space and tools.  Tony shows 30″ x 30″, but I chose 30″ x 48″.  Turned out pretty good, and I also took the chance to move my tool chest in the garage from the basement, and organize most of the clutter in the garage!

13 Hrs – Ch12 – Canard Install

Fabricated the small piece that fits between the canard and the torque tube to block the inrush of cold air.  Epoxied it in place and put one layer of BID on each side.  Trimmed them up after cure, and checked for fit. Cut out the two aluminum pieces for the front of the alignment tabs (not in the plans, but in the FAQ, section 12.6).  Drilled a  hole and added nutplates to accept the AN3 bolt.  Put in an order for longer bolts, and will flox in place when they arrive.

Drilled through the lift tab holes with the 5/8″ counter bore tool and floxed in the CNL bushings after checking alignment.  Floxed the nut plates (on the aluminum plates) for the alignment pins.  Covered with one ply of BID.  Also opened up the third hole on NG30 (passenger side) in preparation for the electric nose lift, and floxed in a BID plug.  Added 2 plies of BID over and peel plied.

24 Hrs – Ch12 – Canard Installation

Dennis Oelmann delivered the replacement canard, and it looks great!  I do have a problem with the lift tabs fitting in the fuselage, but that appears to be my fault.  I misunderstood the plans and reduced the sides by 3/8″, instead of reducing it “to” 3/8″ (total thickness) in that indented area at the top of the sides.  I will cut between the F22 and the fuselage sides all the way down to the pivot block and I will have to reattach them later.  This will allow room for the canard lift tabs, and for the drill to drill out the lift tabs.

Made the cut along F22 on the fuselage sides, all the way to the pivot blocks on both sides.  Pried the sides of the nose apart enough to fit the lift tabs on the canard.  Spent the rest of the time sanding bits of the fuselage to fit the canard and remeasuring level, incidence, and perpendicular to the centerline.  Once all was square and level, I measured the thickness of the shim, and added the proper layers of glass to duplicate the thickness for the passenger lift tab, and allowed to cure.

Sanded, did some prep work, added duct tape on the rear of the lift tabs for release, and added flox to the rear of the lift tabs, and installed the canard back into the fuselage.  This will ensure the lift tabs are perfectly fit along side F22 when the canard is at the proper incidence.

Now that the flox pads are complete for the lift tabs, I was able to drill the holes for the lift tabs.  Note: I noticed when prying the nose sides apart to drill holes for the lift tabs, the foam delaminated from the glass in a section about 9″ x 5″.  I talked to Dennis about the situation, and he suggested drilling a few holes and injecting some micro slurry into the void, which I will do when I get to that point.

Finished constructing the alignment tabs for the top of the canard out of birch plywood.  They barely reached the rear edge of the canard.  As other builders have done, I added a second layer of birch at the bottom, and contoured the edges for a nice transition.  Finished with 5 layers of BID per plans.

Trimmed the edges of the alignment tabs, drilled out the holes, rounded the birch edges, and glassed the back side with 4 layers BID.

Drilled out the alignment tabs again, and floxed the Cozy Girrls insert into the holes with 5-min epoxy.  Installed the canard again and checked the incidence.  It appears I have more positive incidence than before, and I had added some to begin with.  Time to search the archives…  There is a post from Marc Zeitlin about things he would do different if building again, and #10 was add 1 – 2 degrees of positive incidence to the canard from the revised template.  Seems that most folks fly in level flight requiring the elevators be down a 1/4″ or so, and this should fix that.  Used the smart level to figure out how many degrees I was off.  As it turns out, it was 1.2 to 1.6 degrees more positive, depending where I checked on the canard.  Incidentally, this equated to being exactly 1/2 bubble off on my torpedo level.

Put the elevators on the canard, and time to fit into place.  Remove more of the fuselage sides and edges of the elevators (to make clearance for the torque tubes and elevators), remove the canard, sand a little more, put the canard in place, check for fit, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat…

After the Canard and elevators are fitting properly, I put one layer of BID on the top of the fuselage sides where the canard will sit on.  Also mixed up micro slurry and injected into the nose sides.  This is the section where I had delamination from spreading the sides enough to fit the drill when drilling out the lift tab holes.

13 Hrs – Ch14 – Main Spar

During some down time while I was waiting for some parts, I decided to get a head start on creating the jig box for the main spar, coming up in Chapter 14.

Cut out and assembled all the pieces for the jig box, making sure everything was perfectly square.

Assembled the rest of the spar jig, and used hot glue to seal the inside corners on the bottom, to ensure things don’t come loose.  I’m sure it’s overkill, but what the heck…

21 Hrs – Chapter 13 – Nose and Nose Gear

After some discussion on the forums about how to go about floxing the strut into the castering wheel assembly, it sounds like it is better to add some BID to the very tip of the strut to make it bulbus, and then grind out the nose wheel assembly to fit, so that is what I did.  Floxed in place and added AN4-13 bolts and snugged to fit.  The reason for doing this, is because if the strut were ever to come loose in the nose wheel assembly, it cannot fall off.  Things falling off planes is bad.

After the flox has cured, I removed the bolts, added some washers for spacers between MKNG2 and MKNG15, and torqued them down.  Measured the strut, marked on the fuselage bottom, and cut out with the jig saw.  Added grease into the wheel bearings, the bearings for the pivot, and the castering part of the nose wheel.  Then installed back into the NG30′s.  Checked for fit, and will have to open the hole a bit more to get it to fit.

Floxed the strut cover in place, after cutting the hole and trimming to fit.

Trimmed the nose wheel well to fit the opening and checked for clearance with the tire.  Doesn’t appear to be much extra room in there.  Drilled a few holes on each side and put in some nails so I could position in the correct position again later.  Purchased a piece of Polycarbonate from Lowes for the windows for gear viewing.  Esthetically, I’m not real happy with the plans window shape, and the size seems to be too small from whet I’ve heard.  I decided to use more of a trapezoid shape (almost triangular), as it seems to be a more natural shape for viewing at an angle.  All personal preference, I guess.  I started by cutting out my hole in the wheel well, then cutting the polycarbonate .5″ over sized all around.  Drilled some holes for clecos, and floxed into place.  I left the protective layer on in the viewing area, and made sure to clean up all my flox.  When cured, I will remove the protective layer and clecos, and then fill the cleco holes with micro.  I used Vaseline on the clecos so flox wouldn’t stick, so I may have to drill the holes slightly larger to remove the Vaseline so the micro will stick.

Removed the clecos, but noticed the plexiglass pulling away from the wheel cover.  Put the clecos back on, and will allow to cure longer.  Created the wedge for diverting the heat, but was worried about being able to get glass on it after the wheel cover was in place.  I decided to add this piece to the wheel cover before putting the cover in place instead.  I did leave a bit of fiberglass sticking out the bottom so I could glass to the floor.  Added peel ply to the edges, and floxed in place.

Taped the edges of the wheel well after adding a bead of micro to the edges.  Added peel ply.  Used leftover micro to fill the gap between the strut cover and F28.  Also used leftover micro for the inside corners of the depression I had to create for the ruder pedals to travel.  Added two layers of BID and will trim the edges in the morning.

32.5 Hrs – Chapter 13 – Nose Gear

Carved the pivot blocks and floxed into place, holding with nails.  Cut the 2024 T3 Aluminum on the band saw and drilled the 1/4″ hole .  Verified with Dennis that this hole gets AN3 hardware, and not AN4 bolts, like I will be using to connect the tubes to each other.

 

Riveted the nut plates on the aluminum and 5 min epoxied on the pivot blocks after drilling the holes to make space for the nutplates.  Note that when drilling the half inch deep hole into the pivot blocks, you want to go slowly.  Once the drill bit punctures the glass behind the pivot block, the 1/4″ bit grabs on to the glass, and shoots out the side of the urethane.

Glassed over the pivot blocks with 4 plies of BID and started drilling a hole to add a grease nipple into MKNG6.  After testing my tap set on a scrap piece of aluminum to be sure the threads were correct, I used it on the MKNG6 assembly.  As it turns out, it wasn’t correct after all.  Upon further inspection, I had a set for n.c. (National Coarse Thread), instead of n.f. (National Fine Thread).  Will have to stop by Harbor Freight tomorrow at lunch to pick up a set.

Was able to get the grease fittings in and picked up a grease gun while I was shopping.  Cut the steel tube for making the CS-13 spacers.  Took a long time.  That stuff is hard to cut, and I now recommend picking up already machined from the Cozy Girls instead.  Also the tubing had to be drilled out a bit to receive the AN3 bolt, and the end of the rudder pedals had to be drilled out slightly for the spacer to fit into.  Bolted into place for a trial fit.  Got into the fuselage to test fit the rudder pedals, but it looked like the pedals closest to NG30 needed to be closer to NG30 so my shoes would clear each other when using them.  I removed 1″ of the white powder coating from the control tubes, and that did the trick.  Now I just have to be sure they will clear the hardware for the worm gear assembly.  Drilled the holes through the control tubes to lock the rudder pedals together and assembled.  Cut the “U” channel for the brake cylinder to fit into.  Then I cut a birch platform 2″ x 4″ for each side with 45 degree angles along the edges.  Then I screwed the slider on the brake cylinders about half way on the threads.  Positioned it on the bottom hole of the rudder pedals, and positioned the slider fully toward the nose and marked where the wood plate will be positioned on the floor, and where the U-Channel will be on the plate.

Drilled holes into the U-Channel for the brake cylinder bolt to fit into, and also two holes on the bottom, to connect to the wood platform.  Added nut plates to the back side of the birch platforms with pp rivets.  Drilled holes in the nose to act as a recess for the nutplates to fit into.  Did this by putting some grease on the bottom of the nutplates, and pressed into position.  The grease transfers onto the floor to mark where the holes need to be drilled.  Tested for fit, and added 4 layers BID on the floor under where the birch plate will be.  The BID was longer and wider by 1″ around, with the exception of the side by NG30, as there is no room for excess.  BID was 3″ x 6″, and finished with peel ply.  I will open up the holes after cure.

Opened up the holes on the fuselage floor where the birch pad will be floxed in.  After verifying a good fit, I floxed the pad in place, and added 4 layers of BID at 45 degrees.  Finished up with peel ply.

Lots of mods in this chapter, and a long chapter at that.  (Fitting that it’s Chapter 13)  Headlights are not in this chapter, but if putting them in the nose (not per plans), one has to complete during this chapter before the nose cone goes on.  I decided to go with the HID Xenon upgrade, similar to how John Basol did.  The original driving lights I purchased from Blazer were the exact size I was looking for to fit in the nose cone, but as it turned out, the housing was not deep enough to fit the xenon bulb assembly, which has wires that stick out further behind the bulb.  I found a replacement made by Pilot that look as though they will work.  Not exactly the shape I was looking for, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.  This size will certainly be easier to remove after the nose cone is on, and I am already becoming more attached to this type of light already.  I drilled a test hole to mount a light temporarily, so I could see if the nose cone would fit past the light.  It didn’t on the first attempt, but did after I moved it back a half inch.  The holes ended up being 2″ from F0.  After I had the mounting holes set up, I put a xenon bulb into just one of the lights, and left the halogen bulb in the other.  Then I connected to a battery to see the difference.  I have to say, the xenon is certainly brighter, but I also noticed that is seems to be a more evenly spread light.  They seemed to put off a bit of heat, so I will have to check to see if I will need to protect the fiberglass in those areas or not.  Then I drew a cut pattern on NG31 around the mounting holes and cut out.  The screws on the sides of the lights interfered with NG32 a bit, so I also removed some material there to accommodate, and cleaned up all my edges.  After giving this a little more thought, the pitot tube I purchased may not be able to fit in a way where I will still be able to remove the lights should they ever need replacing.  I may have to consider a few options as a solution to that…