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Last Modified December 10th 1998
November 1st Sanded back the second surface on both stabilators and then filled the fishing line slots and a couple of patches which were still low. I also filled the leading edges of both stabilators. As I had a bit of filler left over at the end I filled the original fuel filler indent on the top of the fuselage and also an area on the starboard side which was indented during the cockpit module installation process.
November 2nd No building. Public meeting to discuss the future of our local Air Training Corps.
November 3rd -8th No building. A deviant e. coli bug laid into me and I ended up in hospital! All well now - back to building.
November 9th Assembled the rudder arm parts supplied by Graham Singleton. This arm will be located to the aft of the rear bulkhead and will drive the new tailwheel via cables and the rudder via the original Europa drive arm. I discussed how to attach the AN115 thimbles with Alister, my technical counselor, as I wasn't particularly happy with using clevis pins here due to the fact that I didn't want my rudder driver dependent upon one small pin. The spacing between the arm and the bracket precluded placing the bolts in from the top so in the end we decided to use AN3-5 bolts fitted from below the arm and a washer and MS21042-3 locknut threaded on from the top. To prevent any departure of the nut (which is going to be pretty tough as there are some six threads clear) a hole has been drilled through the shaft of the bolt and a pin inserted. Reduxed the fuel filler surround into the filler recess.
November 10th Sanded back the filler in the old fuel recess and on the starboard side of the aircraft where I had used some underneath the spar hole. At 240 grit you can't tell where the original surface ends and the filler begins. I am going to have to use a bit more filler on both areas as I have a couple of low patches still.
I fitted the damper mechanism to the fuselage retract arms. This is quite an entertaining task. Version 4 of the original manual shows the clevis pins being inserted from the inside but this is impossible to achieve with the shock absorbers added to the damper mechanism. The XS manual corrects this and has the clevis pins inserted from the outside. That is a challenge in itself as there is not a lot of clearance between the retract arms and the walls of the tunnel making it difficult to correctly locate the pins as they pass though the arms and the bushing in the damper block. I used a file as a lever arm to push the pins through as far as I could and then used a vice grip to squeeze the clevis pins through the rest of the way. I then fitted the inside washers and associated split pins and secured the pins.
November 11th - 12th Remounted the outrigger assemblies ready for my open day on Saturday.
November 13th Remounted the trim tabs.
November 14th
Open day at the workshop. In between visitors I did some odd
little bits around the workshop. First to receive attention was
the throttle assembly. This was a simple matter of fitting the
cables and bolts according to the manual and ensuring that the
tension was not too tight on the handle.
The aircraft was semi rigged outside to show the aircraft off
- any yes, I can get the tail through the garage door. With the
wing lift pins in place it wasn't possible to fully rig the wing
so I followed the procedure for setting up the wing incidence.
First job was to refit the wing incidence guide to the upper
surface of the wing. Once the bondo that I used to attach this
had set I jacked the back of the assembly jig up until the lip of
the door was horizontal. I then 
adjusted the
wing until it was set a 2.5 degrees to the fuselage and, sliding
the wing inwards until the pin touched the fuselage side, marked
the point at which the forward pin touched the fuselage side. I
drilled the hole with a 13mm drill bit (the largest that
would fit in my drill) and this allowed the tip of the pin to
move in far enough for the wing to be rigged. I will open the
hole up later once I find out where I put my round file!
For those that are interested, I have a new digital camera. I am now using an Olympus D-220L. The photos are taken in Hires (640 x 480, 16 million colours) with minimum compression set. They are reduced in size to 320 x 240 on the PC using LView3 Pro.
November 15th Took the top off the aircraft and continued work on the rudder control and tailwheel system. I cut a 3" diameter hole in the inner skin of the aircraft where the tailwheel attachment bolt will go and, with the foam removed, cut back a flange in preparation for the glass lay-ups. I removed the pitch push rod from the aircraft and marked up its replacement in preparation for having the rivets added. I elected to replace the push rod as I may have made an error with assembling one of the ends and I wasn't comfortable with what I had done. I took the opportunity to make this rod 1cm longer than the previous one to give me a it more thread within the end fittings. I also took care to measure the length of the complete assembly with rod ends so that I could easily fit the replacement item.
November 16th - 18th Away at a conference in Taupo.
November 19th Drilled out and attached one end of the pitch tube using Loctite 638 and eight pop rivets. I sealed the rivet holes with tape to prevent making a mess on the floor and lined the top 1.5cm of the other end with tape to retain a clean surface for the bearing retainer. I then poured a thinned coat of zinc chromate primer into the tube, swirled it around and poured as much as I could out again after which I applied one coat of primer to the outside surface and left it to dry.
November 20th No building
November 21st Shaped a block of foam to act as a spacer on the back of the stern post. This spacer allows a shear web to be created on the back of Graham's stern post which is curved to accommodate the rudder. I cut out the foam where the tailwheel bolt will be fitted and then scuff sanded around the lay-up area. I decided to modify my trim tab movement restricting brackets and follow a rather neat design I saw in the UK. Instead of having brackets that were bolted on I am changing this to a simple foam and glass assembly with a slot in it for the arm to move vertically yet restrict horizontal movement. I glued a couple of pieces of 1/4" foam just forward of the trim tab slots and then shaped this to give a 3/4" gap for the arm to move in. The top of the slot has a cross piece to add strength while the underside is left open to allow the arm to be removed if required.
November 22nd Laid up the cloth into the tailwheel bolt area. I floxed a small piece of ply into the centre of the slot I had cut in the bulkhead for the rudder cables and then laid up three ply bid fore and aft of the bulkhead to overlap the slots by around 5cm each side. Laid up the cloth over the tow area and laid up glass over the sternpost. Sanded back the micro on the U bolt to create a pleasing shape around the nuts then painted on a coat of resin. I had thought about applying a single layer of bid over them but it proved just too hard. Drilled the holes through the AN3-5A's used in the pivot assembly. To drill the holes I took a piece of 1/2" thick aluminium and drilled a 3/16" hole in from one end. Having judged the correct position for the hole though the bolt I then drilled a 1/16" hole perpendicular to the large hole. It was then a simple matter to put a bolt into the hole and use the small hole as a drill guide. With the new bolts inserted into the swing arm supporting the AN115's I fitted an AN split pin to act as a stop for the lock nut. The AN3 bolts are free to spin in the hole and are fixed in position against the AN115's. I fitted AN100 thimbles to the front two AN115's and nicopressed cable to the thimbles. I duplicated the nicopress sleeves in accordance with Europa's current cable specifications and tested them with a nicopress go-nogo gauge.
November 23rd Cleaned up the glass lay-ups from the weekend. I came to the conclusion that I should have left the work on the trim tab arm until I had finished the tailwheel mod lay-ups as one of the lay-ups goes along the sides just where my assembly goes! Oh well, that's what comes from not reading ahead in the manual. So that I can do the triangular side lay-ups I will cut a slot in my assembly by the side of the fuselage to allow the cloth to pass along the fuselage side. Once the lay-ups are set then I'll fill the slot with flox and apply a small bid lay-up over the area to regain stiffness in the assembly.
November 24th - 26th No building, working in Wellington.
November 27th Rearranged the workshop to give me more room around the tail.
November 28th Removed
the bit of foam at the top of my tab arm support as it was
deforming the shape of the tail area. I shaped then bonded on the
ply stern support to the stern post. Following discussions with
Andy Draper while I was in the UK I decided to add a small towing
bracket to the underside of the aircraft so that I can winch the
aircraft back onto the trailer. The new tailwheel assembly cannot
be used as a winching point hence the need for an tow bracket. My
design basically copies the tail skid used on the tricycle
version of the Europa. The attachment point consists of a
stainless steel U bolt designed to attach 1" pipes. I cut
out an area of skin and foam from the inside immediately forward
of the aft bulkhead. A 4" x 2" piece of 3mm ply was
bedded in flox to surface and flox built up around the edges to
create a flat surface. A three ply bid lay-up covers the ply,
overlapping onto the inside skin by 2" all round and lapping
up onto the forward face of the rear bulkhead. A pair of
5/16" nuts was screwed onto the U bolt as far as they will
go and the backing plate supplied with the bolt fitted over
these. The plate was then epoxied to the bolts and small pieces
of foam epoxied into place to form a rough covering shape around
the nuts. Thick micro was liberally applied around the foam and
allowed to set. I drilled a 1/4" hole between the two bolt
holes to act as my aft drain hole.
I fitted the remaining cables to the swing arm and added cable adjusters to all of the cables. I am double nicopress sleeving each of these cables in accordance with Europa's cabling policy for the rudder cables.
November 29th Did the glass lay-up in the underside of the fin. Spent a bit of time with pieces of paper working out the shape of the glass pieces that would be used to reinforce the sternpost. I am glad I can do this with the top off. Doing the tailwheel mod with the top bonded on must be an interesting experience. Refitted the pitch push rod and adjusted the length so that the counterbalance arm stop was the limit control rather than the control stick stop.
November 30th Having done the glass lay-up inside the fin my fin no longer sat as nicely as it did before. I cleaned up a couple of resin lumps inside the flange but in the end came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to sit where it was before. I had thought I would get away without having to fill the area immediately below the fin like most other original Europa builders but this is not to be. The reason for the filling is that the prototype had less angle to the leading edge of the fin and the body molding still continues that line. Of course on the XS builders don't have to worry about this bit any longer!
