Last Modified June 8th 2003.

May 2003, Wing Filling Continues

1st May Not quite over the flu.

2nd May Tidied up the underside surface of the port wing ready for filling.

3rd May No building due to the Pikes Point Airfield 21st Anniversary Air Race.

4th May I applied the profile filler strips to the surface. Each of the strips is around 1cm wide by 0.5cm high and is applied with a notched spreader. Despite the fact that the strips are so small it takes 900 grams of filler to cover the wing with strips as shown.

5th May Did a partial coarse profiling of the strips

6th May No building, working in Nelson

7th May Completed the coarse profiling.

8th - 9th May Fine profiled the trailing edge.

10th May Fine profiled the leading edge. As the leading edge is quite critical to performance I kept the profile lines very close to the surface until 20cm behind the leading edge. Beyond that point the profile line rises in a gentle convex curve until it reaches the spar. This is needed to account for the ridge that occurs at the cloth overlap on the spar. Behind the spar the same principal is followed so that the profile line is on the surface for the final 20cm.

11th May Filled the wing surface. I've decided that the easiest way to handle bulk filler is to make up 450g (300g part A and 150g part B) batches of filler. Prior to combining the two parts I microwave the filler for 20 seconds which softens it slightly and makes it easier to spread. I then dump the lot out of the container spread it over the surface in the area to be filled and then use a straight bar to level the filler between the guide lines. If there are any small voids or dips at this point then they are ignored, the idea is to get the general shape set at this time.

12th -30th May Very little plane building is being done at the moment as I am pretty well tied up with work. Over the remainder of May I sanded back the surface to a rough profile, filled any voids and then did a second sand back.