Another good week of progress. I was able to finish up the heatduct by glassing it and I glassed the outside of the seatback keel. After a good overnight cure I dressed them up and departed from the plans a bit in the installation. (top left and center)

I actually waited to join the keel and heatduct. I installed the heatduct and let it cure in place after making sure that it was perfectly level.. I was then able to install the lower seatback keel against the seatback and heatduct. I clamped it in place and filled in the little spaces with flox that inevitably show up when you build parts away from each other. I then taped everything together per plans. Seatback to keel, heatduct to keel, heatduct to control pannel... etc. It turned out perfect. I then took a moment to enjoy the beauty in my front bushes that appeared in the unusually warm february morning. (bottom left and center)

Then my wife and I under the supervision of "The Inspector" (top left) took the fuselage off it's mooring on the floor and moved onto the table (center ) so that the new "Height Impared" sawhorses could be leveled and leveled and leveled and leveled and bondo'd to the floor (right). (Holy smokes does this stuff stink! But in that wierd way that gasoline smells. You hate it but you just want to take one more whiff) Move the fuselage back (WOW this thing is light! Woo hoo) while briefly having a dream of this thing coming in at around 1100 lbs when complete. Then out with the blue foam. Cut to size so that the pieces fit. Then weight the whole deal down and crawl under, do a bit of tracing with a pencil (bottom Left) and back off with the foam to cut the sides to size. (bottom center) So good so far...

OK.. We then threw the whole lot back on the airframe and built a small frame out of 1" x 2" x 8'.(left) Touch it with a bit of 5 minute epoxy to keep it there(right). Then wait 5 minutes for it to cure. (potty break - get a glass of lemonade - take a picture of the most beautiful girls in the world making cupcakes for St. Valentine's Day)

Take that off and put it on the table with the frame now glued to it and then start that whole making spacers thing again like the last chapter. I am MUCH better at this now. It all got done in a couple hours and I even got to micro all of the spacers in place. Now all I have to do is wait for the cure overnight and do a bit of reading about the next couple steps.

February 27, 2005

As you can tell more than a week has passed since my last update. This is because I was quite ill last week and am really just starting to feel better. This caused a bit of a delay in my workings on the plane. But, now were off and moving again and here's what's happened. That whole bottom bit has now cured quite nicely and it was time to layup the bottom. It just so happened that a new potential builder (Doug Walters) gave me a call just about the time I was gearing back up. He was calling around to talk to builders in the area and I invited him over to take a look at the goings on. He ended up calling me back on Saturday just as I was starting to think about getting my feet headed toward the garage and about an hour later there we were together in the garage, me showing off my project like a new daddy and thinking about how just a year ago I was doing the same thing with another local builder (Tony Lee) except I was the one looking to build. Well fortunately Doug wanted to see the process and I had a whole fuselage bottom to demonstrate on :-) so off to work we got. Cutting cloth, mixing micro and that whole bit of stuff that goes along with a big lay-up like the bottom.

Now this isn't the shortest or easiest lay-up in the world, and Doug's wife called a couple times wondering if we had snatched him away permanently, but Doug stayed right through the peel-ply ending to this layup. He was a great help and made me realize how much easier some of these big layups and cloth cutting can go if you have an extra set of hands about to assist. Doug became an epoxy-mixing and micro-mixing genius, making it as fast as I could use it. He even got his hands on an epoxy trowel and help put it on where he was comfortable. I know when I was just getting going it was nice to have someone show me what I was doing and how the whole composite thing worked before I could really believe in it.

Below are a couple pictures that were taken during his visit. Doug, if you're reading this, Thanks for the help. I hope you enjoyed your time over and you're welcome to come back anytime and bring the whole family. If you're Doug's wife and you're reading this, Sorry. I really didn't mean to get his into a layup this big.

Well after such a good day on Saturday, I had to get right back out there and finish this Chapter up. I trimmed up the bottom and test fitted it again to the fuselage with the help of my wife, Julie. Everything looked pretty good, so I mixed up some epoxy and flox and began the process of floxing the lower longerons and all the other parts that touch the bottom, so that the bottom could mate to it. Again, with help, I placed the bottom perfectly in place on the fuselage and weighed it down - See Below. (I am so glad to be getting some use out of that weight set I bought :-)

After that more flox to fill in the little gaps here and there and then begins the process of taping all the joints. I used the "wax paper with lines on it" method to lay out my 2" tapes. But then you have to crawl under with a couple tapes and a brush and scissors (just in case they're a bit long) put them in. (REPEAT PROCESS ABOUT 100 TIMES) At least that's what my knees told me when I was done. Then begins the peel-ply process on the tapes. (REPEAT PROCESS ABOUT 100 TIMES - AGAIN) But this time with 3" peel ply.

After all that, came the most satisfying moment. I looked at the plans to see what else I had to do and I realized...
I'm done with this chapter. Yes I know I have to let it cure and take of the peel ply to officially be done, but that is just a matter of going to sleep and then stripping the tapes off tomorrow morning before I leave for work. Then I can hi-light that last paragraph. I think I'll leave that hi-lighter right next to the plans.

I'm calling it done now... Woo Hoo

Chapter 6 completed: February 27, 2005