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Last Modified May 16th 2001
1st - 10th April Now I have met some mean critters in my time but the flu bug that hit me was the meanest. At one stage I did contemplate reaching for the chainsaw instead of the panadol to get rid of the headache.
11th - 12th April No building.
April 13th First up, a lesson on how not to install the door gas struts followed by a lesson how to!
The first step of fitting the gas struts is straight forward. Drill an 11/64" hole in the tang on the door and then tap the hole for the 5mm thread on the ball joint used to support the strut. The next step has you open the door until there is a 1m gap between the door lower edge and the door flange. The manual has you mark the point on the rear flange where the gas strut sits in this condition and then drill a 5mm hole. Therein lies the twist. The manual does not state how far up the rear flange to drill the hole. There is a lip forward of the flange which restricts the drill position while, on the starboard side, the read of the flange is obstructed by the fuel tank filler if it has already been fitted. I used the foward lip as a guide which resulted in the hole being half way up the rear flange. Fitting the strut and closing the door results in a problem I have seen on several Europas. The back edge of the door lifts up when the door is closed and results in a rather ugly looking step between the door and the fuselage.
Not willing to accept this situation I came up with the following attachment method. Establish the position for the lower attachment point for the gas strut according to the manual and mark a line on the rear flange perpendicular to the aircraft skin at that point. Using the gas strut as a guide mark a point on the perpendicular line which is the lowest practical place to fit the gas strut. Using a #1 eye ball, drill through the forward lip to intercept the drill mark and then continue to drill through the rear flange. Fit the gas strut ball joint according to the manual. Closing the door will now result in the door forming a nice line with the fuselage. To fill the hole in the forward lip layup a small piece of bid over the hole on the inside of the aircraft and apply peel ply. Once set, fill the other side with your favourite filler.
With the starboard door tucked away I finally got round to applying filler to the port door.
Europa has issued a couple of mods recently which I decided to fit. First was to replace the original clear PVC fuel pipe used for the sight gauge with an alternative style. This came about following an incident in the UK involving a gyrocpter where PVC piping shrank and pulled away from a connector in flight. My fuel sight gauge design means that there is only 50 or so centimetres of this piping in the aircraft and this was easily replaced. The other modification is optional and replaces the engine mount spacers and bolts with ones that are 1/16" longer. The net effect is less engine vibration being transmitted to the fuselage. Replacing the spacers and bolts without the engine in place is simple so I decided to go ahead and do it.
April 14th Today was a big painting day. I primed one side of each of the control surfaces with six coats of UV Smooth Prime. I also applied three coats to each of the doors until I noticed a small area on each where I wasn't happy with the filled shape. In between coats I fitted the wall lining on the port side of the aircraft. There was so much painting to do that I was able to paint almost continuously in two batches of three coats each. By the time I finished the last piece the first was dry enough to accept a new coat though after two hours of roller painting I need a break so went and threw ZK-UBD around the sky for a while.
April 15th Flipped the control surfaces over and applied another six coats of primer. I drilled the 1/4" holes for the four seat belt attachment points and two holes through the fuselage side slightly up and aft of the side seatbelt attachment points for the cables and pitot /static tubes to exit the aircraft. It is my intention to use the seat belt bolts to attach a bracket holding a multipole connector for the wing cables.
April 16th No building.... packing.
April 17th - 25th No building, on holiday in Australia with the family.
April 26th Covered the pilot's seat temperfoam block with cloth. I am using a cloth supplied by my exhibition stand builder for the interior cloth on the aircraft. The cloth is used to back exhibition display panels and, as well as being very light, is velcro receptive. To attach the cloth to the aircraft parts I am using a diuble sided fibreglass woven tape which sticks like you wouldn't believe. The other good thing is that I found a very cheap source of this tape at a local bargain house and have enough to do the entire aircraft for less than US$20.
April 27th Did some measuring of the inside panels in order to create card templates for cloth cutting
April 28th Sanded back the primer on one of the stabilators. I have come to the conclusion that it is definately better to apply three coats of smooth prime, sand it back and then apply another three and sand back a second time rather than try to do all six coats and then sand. The reason for this is that if the smooth prime dries too quickly you end up with small roller marks which go almost all the way down to the surface and you end up with a very patchy coat.
April 29th A sad day. Nathan's cat was killed on the road outside the house. I am going to sorely miss her help and building advice as I work on the plane. She never featured in photos in this log but regularly came and inspected progress. No building.
April 30th No building, too much working.
