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Last Modified January 13th 2003.
December 2002, Back to Primer1st December Flying at the Thames Airshow
2nd - 6th December I must admit that I really didn't feel like working on the plane this week. The fuselage and control surfaces are in such a forlorn looking state that trying to get enthusiasm up to get on with the stripping and sanding really wasn't there.
7th - 8th December I took the bull by the horns and spent the entire weekend stripping and sanding back the surfaces. The cowlings and the speed kit are now ready for the painter, and all of the rest (with the exception of one of the flaps and the two doors) are ready to have primer applied. Again.
9th - 10th December No building.
11th December OK, enough moping around. It's time to get serious again. While the fuselage is in its pre primer stage I am going to fix a couple of problems which I would have otherwise left. First one was that the rudder screws in the centre section of the fin had sunk into the filler until they hit the glass when being tightened. To bring these back to the surface I first coated some screws with mould release wax and then filled the indented area with flox before inserting the screws back into their holes. I left the surface slightly proud so that I can sand the flox flush with the surface once it has set.
One of the very few design flaws on the Europa is the design of the rear struts on the doors. Over time these cause the back of the door to lift proud of the surface and mine is no exception. While the doors fitted flush only a couple of months ago the back of the doors at the top are now sitting proud of the surface. This uplifting is caused by the way the gas strut has been configured with the fixed point being on the fuselage at the middle of the door and the door attach point being at the top of the door. This results in there being constant upward pressure the top of the door while the door is closed.
The fix to this is to reverse the positions of the attachment points. The fuselage side is relatively easy to do as this involves drilling a new hole and moving the attachment point. The door is a bit trickier as this requires the addition of a new support bracket the appropriate location. Luckily there are others who have gone there before and I'll be drawing on Paul McAllister's experiences to do mine.
12th December No building, working in Paeroa
13th December No building
14th December Priming day. I spent the entire day priming the fuselage and control surfaces.
15th December Started the sanding process. I only got one stabilator done as I had strained my back painting the day before.
16th - 18th December No building. I've got a project that has to be finished before Christmas and it's going to take most of my evenings.
19th December Managed to grab an hour or so to start work on the door modification. I am going to be laying in a couple of layers of carbon fibre on the aft section of the door and in order to do that I need to remove the speckle coat and gel coat on the door. I am doing this with a permagrit grinding head and am quite surprised just how thick the gel coat is over this area.
20th - 24th December No building. It's pre Christmas rush at work and Carol also wants the house tidied up before Christmas.
25th - 26th December No building - it's Christmas.
27th - 31st December No building, holidaying at Pauanui.
