Last Modified February 3rd 1997

Europa #272, More Port Wing ... and Stabilators Finished

1st January Started the year by sanding another rib rebate. Only two more rebates to go!

2nd January No building

3rd January Heard from Europa today about my misdrilled spar holes. It appears that there was a fault in the spar construction. In order to rectify the problem they are going to send out two new bellcrank brackets with the flange holes undrilled so that I can drill them in situ. Of course this does mean that I will have to scrap my nicely primed and painted bellcranks!

With the two stabilators complete it was time to get them setup on on the torque tube. The stabilators and torque tube have to be aligned so that the stabilators are in line and set at the correct angle to the torque tube. The instructions suggest using hot melt glue to attach the torque tube to its temporary mounting jig. After an hour or so of playing with getting the torque tube level and so it wouldn't move during the rest of the setup I decided that hot melt glue just wasn't good enough. I used a pair of ratchet straps to hold the tube in place and then used a couple of lengths of cord to prevent the torque tube from twisting. My torque tube brackets were offset by 0.7 degrees during manufacture at Europa so, following discussion with Andy at Europa it was decided to use the starboard bracket as datum and accept the 0.7 degree offset on the port bracket. The prime consideration in this whole process is to ensure that the stabilators are in line.

4th January The humidity and temperature were good for fibreglass layups today so I laid up another of the trailing edge ribs. The stabilators have to have holes cut into their upper surface to house the pip pins locking the stabilators to the torque tube. The Europa design has these left as open holes but I, like many other builders, feel that this is a bit inelegant. Considering that the aircraft will be left outside when travelling away from home and could be subject to some fairly heavy rainfall I decided to make hole covers. An afternoon spent exploring plumbers merchants came up with matching 33mm diameter fittings. A bit of remodelling with a saw soon had these remodelled to meet my needs. To create an end cap I placed the female inserts head down on a sheet of plastic card, poured in 5mm of runny flox then poured out a glass of wine and sat in the sun.

5th January With the flox caps set I peeled back the plastic card to end up with a neatly finished cap. Having measured, and remeasured the location of the hole I drilled an exploratory hole to make sure I was in the right place. I wasn't! The positioning of these holes is quite tricky as the edge of the hole has to be lined up with the reinforcing ply buried inside the stabilator. This would be easy if you could see exactly where it was but you can't. Having now firmly established where the edge was I drew around my plumbing fitting and, using a spherical tip dremel bit, cut away the fibreglass. I then used the bit to cut and mill away the foam to the depth of my fitting. I then cut away a semi circle of foam on the outboard side of the hole down to the torque tube. Having also cut away some extra foam for a flox fillet under the glass surface I then floxed the fitting into place using extra flox to fill in under the fitting in the semicircle and laid in some bid.

6th January A bit of sanding on the upper surface finished off the insert to my satisfaction so I continued with making my hole in the other stabilator.

7th January With the starboard stabilator set horizontal and the torque tube set horizontal as well I marked the centres of the pins on the brackets as they sat against the stabilator root. With the stabilator pulled off the torque tube I drilled the two 10mm holes into which the pin ferrules would be inserted. Checking the alignment of the pins with the holes showed I was slightly out of line so I opened up the holes as suggested in the manual. The Europa build procedure has the setup of both stabilators done at once but considering that this implies that you have to keep three objects perfectly aligned I decided to do one stabilator at a time. With the torque tube and starboard stabilator set horizontally I floxed the ferrules into place. To avoid the problem of flox entering the ferrule which would bond the torque tube to the stabilator thus really spoiling my day I stuck a small piece of plastic masking tape over the interior end of the ferrule before fitting it into the hole. Having pushed the torque tube fully home I rechecked the alignment of both items and left it alone for the night.

8th January Checking the alignment of the tube and stabilator this morning showed everything still aligned and the torque tube even came out of its holes without difficulty. With the starboard stabilator set horizontally and now used as a primary reference I marked up the port stabilator hole locations and drilled the holes. Once again some readjustment of the holes was required before floxing the ferrules into place. I checked that both the stabilators were level and rechecked this visually by sighting along the leading and trailing edges.

9th January A quick alignment check this morning showed everything setup correctly and we departed for a few days of flying holiday.

10th January No building

11th January We cut our holiday short as a cyclone has turned south and will hit Auckland later today. I drilled out the pip pin holes in the torque tube today. I discovered why they recommend using a new drill bit for drilling the pilot holes. Drilling holes through four thicknesses of stainless steel is a slow and very hot process. To ensure that I was drilling vertically I fixed two small spirit levels to the sides of my drill having first checked the drill alignment with my digital spirit level. Once the pip pin holes were drilled and checked I then drilled through the holes a much longer drill bit to create a hole on the underside.

12th January No building.

13th January To tidy up the ferrules on the root cores I built up flox fillets and peel plyed over them. The underside of the stabilators require drain holes centred on the holes I previously drilled though from the top surface. To line the holes I used old marker pens stolen from my sons collection of junk. Cutting the tubes more or less to length I cut appropriate size holes in the surface and, with the necessary flox corners, bonded the tubes into place.

The last trailing edge rib layups are made either side of a 43mm foam block. Unlike the other ribs which I could layup with the layup surface flat, the fact that both sides have to be laid up simultaneously on this piece prevents a simple horizontal layup. To make the layup easier for myself I cut the section of lower surface trailing edge offcut foam off the main block from where the layup piece had come from . I then reduced the width of this piece by 5mm each side to create a piece narrower than the the width of the piece to be laid up. I then mounted this narrower piece on top of a larger block and affixed the layup core to the narrow piece with double sided tape.

14th January My replacement bellcrank plates arrived today. To ensure that I got everything in line I drilled the hole in each flange that did line up with the spar hole and then rebuilt the assembly around the new plates. Having mounted the assembly into place with the two aligned nuts I then used the other two holes as a drill guide for the remaining two holes.

15th January Having seen several emails recommending the use of Duralac chromic jointing compound as a corrosion preventative I sourced some from myl ocal aircraft spares company. I disassembled the completed bellcrank assembly and then reassembled it with jointing compound. I will now be using Duralac on every joint that links dissimilar metals in order to prevent electrolytic corrosion. I prepared some more metal parts this evening. The usual method was applied - scrub with a Scotchbrite pad until the surface shine is removed, pickle in Deoxydine and then treat with Alodyne. I went one further stage with these parts and redipped the pieces in a fresh batch of Alodyne at the finish of the process. The result is quite (and instantly) noticeable in that I now get a very much darker chrome finish on the parts with this second dip.

16th January Sprayed the first coat of primer onto my metal pieces this evening. The Badger hobby airbrush I picked up a year or so ago is really good for spraying the primer. I bought a new book on homebuilt aircraft a few days ago and one suggestion with System Three primer was to freeze it between painting sessions in order to reduce waste. I put my unused primer in the freezer last night and will see how good it is when I come to spray my second coat tonight. Carol now wants to know why there is a container of green paint in the freezer and if I intend using every part of the house to build my plane! Ordered my fuselage kit today.

17th January Freezing System Three primer works well. Take it out of the freezer, leave it for an hour and with a bit of water to thin it down it is ready to use again. I sprayed the second coat of primer. There is not much other work going on at the present time as I am running out of little jobs to do. Gave the workshop a good clean up for tomorrow. I recommend regular visitors as a method of ensuring that you keep the place tidy!

18th January No building, company "Christmas" party at my place. Much viewing of the kit.

19th January Laid up the final two trailing edge ribs. What a job! Eight layers of cloth interwoven at the front and two metal plates all to keep in line. I had to lay in two extra plies of cloth underneath the metal plates in order to achieve the correct 45mm spacing. Luckily I had read the manual carefully and had these pre cut and ready to hand in case I needed them. To achieve the correct spacing I used a hardwood spacer that my woodworking genius of a technical manager, Greg Whitcombe had made for me. Greg apologised for the fact that it was actually 45.2mm wide but he couldn't cut it finer than that! Checking the layup later in the day showed that while upper surface was fine I had a bubble against one side of the metal plate on the lower side. I will backfill this with epoxy later.

20th January No building

21st January Backfilled my bubble and started sanding back the edges of the cloth. Can't find my favourite curved sanding spline so have to use a smaller and much slower spline. The manual suggests using cocktail sticks to hold the metal pieces in place during the layup and drying period and I followed their suggestion. What they don't give instructions for is how to remove said cocktail sticks afterwards. My layup has four cocktail stick tips acting as reinforcing bars.

22nd January Finished sanding off the piece. It will require a bit more cleaning up once it is assembled into the wing in order to ensure that the top surface doesn't have a bump in it. Without the reference of the pieces either side it is not worth trying to get it too tidy in case I cut too low and end up with a dip in the wing.

Rearranged my pieces in the workshop in order to create a bit more space. I now have all of my leading and trailing edge main blocks ready for laying onto the spar. I taped and glued down the port aileron and its jig to the bench this evening. The aileron layup closely follows the method used with the rudder and I hope that I don't have as much trouble the undercut this time. Interestingly the instructions for achieving the correct undercut are worded differently to those provided for the rudder with the emphasis being on ensuring that there is enough space for the hinge rather than a definite measurement.

23rd January No building

24th January Finished off priming my metal bits then cut out the unidirectional cloth for my aileron layup.

24th January First aileron layup. This is a two layer unidirectional layup and I must say it went very smoothly. The ambient temperature is around 26 Celsius in the workshop and this means I didn't have to use the hairdryer to thin out the resin. Six hours after finishing the layup I trimmed the edges.

25th January The first layup looks really good. Having sanded all the edges of the aileron clean I cracked the jig off the bench, cleaned the bench surface and set the block and aileron in place for the second layup. As can be seen from this picture, taken after I did the second layup today, I laid in a piece of peel ply where the overhang would be cutout. The instructions do not specify this but I felt I would get a cleaner separation of foam if I did. The second layup is basically a duplication of the first and consists of two layers of uni cloth laid at 30 degrees offsets to the leading edge.

26th January I trimmed back the edges of the layup then, having marked out the line I wanted to cut, proceeded to cut away the overhang with a knife blade. The peel ply does help with making a clean edge but it is very tricky to get it out without tearing little bits of foam from the angled surface. As the foam can be easily filled with micro I feel the benefits of using the peel ply outweigh the disadvantages. Before cutting out under the foam I did contemplate bonding on a strip of aluminium to keep the edge straight but in the end decided to do this after the cutting. Mistake. It is a lot easier to do it before.

27th January Having bought a couple of strips of L channel aluminium I peel plyed one of them and painted epoxy onto the peel ply. This was placed on the upper surface of the overhang with the vertical to the edge. The second piece was tucked under the overhang and the two clamped together at various points.

28th January With the lower aluminium channel removed I now have the piece ready for laying in the bi directional cloth along the leading edge. Cleaned up the workshop

29th January First coat of surface finish on one side of the metal pieces.

30th - 31st January No building.