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Last Modified March 9th 2000
February 1st - 4th Stefan's rowing isn't doing much for my build progress. Getting up at 4:45am each day to deliver him to rowing practice and following that with a day at the office doesn't leave a lot of energy left at the end of the day for building. I spent a bit of time each evening refining the microcontroller code for my RPM/MAP gauge and constant speed propellor controller.
February 5th I wasn't quite satisfied with the surface on the port side of the fin so I did a layered fill. Using 0.55mm fishing line as a depth guide I applied a thin layer of filler across the whole side of the fin. Sanded back most of the filled parts on the port side of the aircraft.
February 6th Sanded the port side of the fin. As the fishing line technique leaves such a good surface this only took about 15 minutes. Filled in the lines left by the fishing line. Continued sanding the underside of the aircraft.
I am laying in cable ducts on the port and starboard sides of the cockpit. These consist of 20mm x 50mm tunnels running in a line just underneath the door between the firewall and the aft bulkhead. This size is enlarged in the baggage bay area to allow for the fuel lines to be catered for in a subdivided area of the duct. A small downward joggle is required at the forward end to drop the duct underneath the instrument panel. To create these ducts I first stuck foam of the required size along the side of the aircraft using double sided tape to hold it in place. Packaging tape is then applied over the top of the foam to act as a release agent. I will do a two bid layup over this then, once the layup is set, tape over the vertical surface and so another layup that will act as a cover. The whole layup will be removed, the foam and tape extracted then the main layup bonded to the fuselage. 20mm wide slots will be cut to give access to the inside of the duct at strategic points (like over the tie wraps) and the top cover attached with removeable fittings. This job is being made considerably easier with the aircraft on its side - though I'll leave the starboard work until I flip the aircraft over!
February 7th Sand..... Fill.
February 8th Finished the starboard side of the aircraft. I can't find anything else to sand or any areas left to fill.
February 9th - 11th No building, far far too much work.
February 12th -13th No building, SportAvex 2000. Well I lie actually, as I did a bit more sanding when we got home!
February 14th Sanding.
February 15th - 16th I am fitting go faster housings around all of the flap fittings on the aircraft in order to minimise drag. To make the housings I first designed the basic shape, ensuring that the flap acuating arm would have enough clearance at all points of travel. The shape is a very rough reversed airfoil with vertical sides approximating the shape of the flap arm assembly underneath the aircraft. I carved two blocks out of foam, hollowed out some space underneath to accommodate the flap arm and then covered the shape with packing tape. I laid packing tape on the underside of the aircraft all around the flap arms and then, using more tape, fitted the blocks to the underside. Next glassing day I will apply some mould release was to the area to be glassed and then layup three layers of bid to form the shape. Once trimmed, the moulds will be attached using rivnuts and screws.
February 17th - 18th No building. Rowing competitions.
February 19th Laid up the glass on the flap hinge housings and then laid up a single layer of deck cloth around the edge of the wing socket area on the starboard side of the fuselage. The cloth that I added weighs only a tiny fraction of an ounce but will stop the filler that I built up around the wing fairing from getting chipped. Later in the day I ripped the flap hinge housings off the aircraft and removed the foam from the inside. I applied filler to the wing socket reinforcing ready for it to be sanded back in the morning.
February 20th A
bit of sanding had the wing socket area looking good and I turned
my attention to the inside of the aircraft. I finished off
covering the wiring duct foam on the port side then added a small
duct running up the windscreen. This duct will cover the two
headset cables and the power supply cable for the Active Noise
Reduction system.Two plies of bid were laid up over the ducts,
lapping onto the tape covering the fuselage sides by 2cm. Later
in the day I pulled the duct off the aircraft which came off very
easily thanks to having done the layups over the tape.
February 21st Trimmed the edges of the ducts and trial fitted them in the aircraft.
February 22nd Reduxed the ducts into the aircraft.
February 23rd Sanded
back the edges of the ducting.
February 24th No building, SAANZ Auckland meeting.
February 25th Applied filler over the duct. The surface had a few dents in it over the aft portion as I had to leave a space in the former to cater for the fuel pipe that was already in place. While I did my best covering the slot where the tube went with packing tape it did sag a little under the glass.
February 26th No building, rowing competitions.
February 27th Marmalade (the cat)
and I put the starboard side of the aircraft into primer.
Actually I don't think she pulled her weight as I did all of the
work while she just sat around supervising the job.
I applied four coats of original Polyfiber Smooth Prime and then two coats of UV Smooth Prime at two hourly intervals. I only have one gallon of UV primer which Polyfiber substituted for the Silver Shield that I orginally had so I am limiting its use to the final couple of coats of primer. As well as removing the need to have two types of primer, I found that UV Smooth Prime has a lot better coverage than the original Smooth Prime.
In between coats I filled the underside of one of the flaps and fitted replacement undercarriage swing arm bolts. The bolts were torqued to 144 inch pounds and safety wired in place.
February 28th Spent an hour sanding back the fin using 240 grit paper. The result is one that you don't just want look at - you have to feel it. The closest thing I can come to describing how smooth the surface is would be to compare it to taut satin. For the rest of the priming I think I'll stop at the four coats before the first sanding and then apply four more coats of the UV Smooth Prime and then do a second sanding. Smooth Prime sands very easily and I was easily able to sand back two square metres of surface in the hour. There was definately a feeling of awe in the workshop last night when I looked at how good the finish was coming on.
February 29th Primer sanding
