After quite a long time... I'm really not sure how long... a year or a bit more I'd guess, I began to mix epoxy again in the quest for completion of N3WE, the Cozy Mk IV experimental aircraft project currently consuming my garage.

I've been on hold because I've been working on an MBA, and recently changed jobs. Now that I have settled into the new job I realized that I have plenty of time in the evenings Monday through Thursday to complete schoolwork and that I can work on the plane Friday through Sunday. Because if this I no longer plan to wait for graduation to resume work on the airplane and now plan to work on the plane consistently again, making steady progress and providing regular updates by Tuesdays on the week's progress.

So... In the name of getting back on the horse and riding off into the land of epoxy I am pleased to say that I accomplished a couple of important steps toward continued progress;

First - What normally happens if there is any break in building is that the garage tends to be a collection point for stuff other than that associated with building... boxes... shoes.... kitchen things... ya know... stuff that we don't want to deal with immediately. That got fixed. The garage is clean and again organized for building.

Second - Because of a past experience with my epoxy pump (see here), I don't trust it anytime that it has been sitting for any period of time. So it is now cleaned and tested for correct ratios. (Advice: If you use a pump, make sure your epoxy is at the temp of your hot box where you keep ready epoxy when you test the ratios. Epoxy resin changes viscosity as it warms and it can effect your ratios coming out of the pump. I once spent over an hour tuning my pump to perfection, to then put it in my hot box and two hours later the ratios were again off. Not a ton, but off... Done.

Third - I had needed a metal cutting band-saw for quite some time. A few weeks back I bought one and "threw it into the garage" for later assembly when I was ready to start again... Assembled... tested... ready to cut metal things!!!!

Fourth - Here the real progress begins.... I have had some trouble wrapping my head around the alignment of the landing gear legs, worrying about doing it correctly so that the aircraft tracks correctly on the ground... I finally got the gear in the plane, aligned and the MKNGs are now curing in place in the fuselage. This leads me to tomorrow's task. I will take out the landing gear and fill in the void under the MKNGs with flox (not the plans foam) and finish the landing gear attachments fully. This will include the washers on the outside of the attach points. That will make sure that I have something curing... I'll update the chapter sections tomorrow after I have some pictures and can explain what I have accomplish. Probably going to be: chapter 9 - Step 3 & chapter 9 - step 6

Fifth - The plan for tomorrow. Finish the gear attach points, move to the landing brake and get this curing at the correct alignment in the fuselage. (Two things curing).

A while back I read an article by Cory Bird (the guy who build 'Symmetry' - The grand prize winner at Oshkosh last year) and his comment to builders was... "Ensure you have something curing every day. This will result in steady progress toward completion." That might be a bit of a paraphrase, but effectively that was the point. I'm going to try to make this happen. Curing is good.