Last Modified March 31st 2003.

March 2003, Wing Filling

1st - 2nd March  No building, overseas guests

3rd March No building, working in Christchurch

4th March Sanded back the high spots on the first section of filler

5th March No building, working in Palmerston North

6th March Sanded back some of the wing tip

7th March No building, working in Wellington

8th March  Filled have of the remaining section.

9th March Finished the first surface. Well I say finished as I haven't been too fussy if a small tear appears in the filler as Superfil is very easy to patch up later.

10th March  No building

11th March Sanded the entire wing surface. Boy am I going to get fit doing this! Once I had the entire wing surface looking reasonably flat I applied a marker coat and continued sanding. The marker coat is showing that the blade I am applying the filler with is too flexible as I am getting a slight indent in each of the rows. I'll find a stronger blade and fill the low areas during the next build session.

12th -19th March. Odd days fill, even days sand.  I wonder if I could sell this as an aerobic exercise as two hours of sanding is a really good workout.

20th March No building

21st March 1/8th of the way there. The leading section of the port wing underside is now complete.

22nd -28th March Far far too much work to be able to go into the garage and sand. Some people have asked how I can build a plane, write this log and run a company at the same time. Most of the time I can do it but right now work demands have to come first and my hobby second.

29th  March Had to do some work around the house today :-(

30th March I sanded back the aft section of the wing and then did a close survey of the surface. I made up a batch of filler then heated it up with a hairdryer to create a very thin mix. This was then applied with a long straight edge over selected areas to adjust the surface. I might add that, at this point of the filling, you can't see any variance in the surface but I can feel the slight variances when running over the surface with my fingers.

31st March No building