Laying out the center keel pieces went relatively smoothly. I'm definitely getting more confident at the basic tasks of applying micro and fabric, then wetting the fabric out. 2.25 hours for this step. I could have done it more quickly, but I wasn't in a rush. The first picture is of this work. NOTE: I later discovered that the layout guide in the first few pages of the plans does NOT indicate reversing the seat back and duct side pieces so one is the mirror image of the other. Don't lay things out the way I did! When you draw the seat back brace, for instance, don't draw a rectangle and bisect it to make two triangles. If you do, the fiberglass skin on one piece will be on the outside, but on the other it will be on the inside. Make sure your layouts are MIRROR IMAGES of one another.
It's also getting to be time to clean my epoxy pumps. I'm using the disposable West system pumps and they're getting all gummed up. I'll try some acetone and see if I can clean them up a bit. I'd really like to avoid MEK.
04/21/04 (30 minutes):
It doesn't sound like much, but tonight I did the important step of glassing the other side of one of the two seat back braces. I neglected to make one of the pieces a mirror image of the other (hint: don't follow the layout guide in the beginning of the plans) so one piece had glass on the inside, the other had glass on the outside. By the time I'm done, I'll have an extra layer of glass in there, but there's no sense stripping it off.
I made a major decision in this step. Because I am installing a fuel-injected auto conversion engine, and will be using the pumps themselves to select the source tank (see John Slade's site for a similar configuration) I don't need the fuel selector valve. So, how much do I skip of this step? I'd like to maximize my usage of the available space without making it impossible to retrofit an alternative down the road. At the same time, if I do go with my current plan it would be a shame to waste the space here. What I ended up doing was installing the plywood inserts to support the landing brake pivot, but not making the fuel valve mounting bracket. If I have to go in later to put it in, it will be a pain, but not impossible. I also need to return my fuel valve to Wicks.
4/27/04 (2.5 hours):
I've been very busy with work getting an important project out the door, and this past weekend was busy with family stuff. Like, ummm, getting my wife up in a Cozy! Marc Zeitlin came down and treated her to a ride from 3B0 to MMK and back. Not terribly long flights but enough to convince her I'm doing the right thing.
Anyway, my time has come in 5-minute chunks but I slowly managed to get the heat duct partially assembled. At this time I've completed assembling the unit, making the hole for the fuel plumbing (which I won't be using anyway, but if I need it for anything else the hole is there now...), installing the seat belt attach point, and making the 7-ply tapered UNI layup. I screwed up my measurements and made this layup a bit longer than it should have been, but longer is better than shorter. The extra length is near the instrument panel, and since there's nothing up there that's an interference fit (and some of this gets cut away for a throttle anyway) it's OK.
Avoiding air pockets around the seat belt attach tube was tough. If you're reading this and haven't done this step yet, I strongly recommend you use some extra flox on the top side to make a very gentle taper fore and aft. I made a fillet, but it was too tight and I had to use a lot of weights and clamps while it cured. I still ended up with a small bubble I had to fill.
4/29/04 (2 hours):
Tonight I glassed the other side of the seat back brace with 2-BID, as well as the top and side of the heat duct. (Yes, one brace side and one duct side; see above - my other side is already glassed because of a mistake.) I forgot to radius the edge of the heat duct, so the BID didn't fold over very well and I ended up with a radius anyway - of air.
I found a clever way to fix this before a cure, though, as long as the edge is straight. Basically, you use plastic and heavy flat weights (more drywall cutoffs) to weight down the top surface; don't lay the plastic against the side(s), just let it overhang freely. Then allow it to mostly cure - a little before knife trim, while things are still tacky but getting fairly stiff. Lay another strip of plastic against the side, and use a stirring stick or similar to burnish the bubbled area back against the foam. The bond won't be perfect but at least it will be flat. As you're doing this, if you want a good bond, you can inject a drop or two of epoxy as you work your way along. Burnishing will spread it out. This works on all sorts of bubbles; I wish I had thought of this while working on the fuselage sides.
4/30/04 (30 minutes):
I'm pretty happy today. I not only bought a bunch of materials for the next few chapters (I delayed the brakes and seat belts for now to save some money), I also bought a Sharp Zaurus SL- 6000. Unless something better comes along this is probably going to be the display module (four will be used) in Galileo, my glass cockpit setup. It's a sunlight-readable PDA with a drop-down panel for a keyboard, great for flight planning. Since it's a PDA you can bring it into the FBO for flight planning, weather avoidance, data analysis, etc.
I also took the small but important step of floxing in my center heat duct. I used the bottoms of the instrument panel and seat back as level-check points to the longerons at the front and middle of the duct, and laid a long straightedge across the back. I had to trim the seat back's slot for the duct a bit to get it to be perfectly level, but after that it worked fine. You can just barely see in this picture that I did NOT install the brace yet. I screwed up the angle of the seat back a bit, only two degrees but it's enough to prevent the seat back brace from fitting perfectly. Once the center duct has cured, I will fit the seat back brace in perfectly, so I'm not just filling air holes with flox. Almost done with this step...
05/01/04 (1 hour):
I must be really taking my time because it seems like a simple operation (floxing and taping in the duct and brace) is taking a HECK of a long time to do. However, I'm also fixing mistakes as I go, so I'm only doing a few joints a day, and there are a lot of joints - three joints where the duct meets the instrument panel, two in front where it meets the seat back, two more behind the seat back, and two between the brace and duct. (Total of nine joints to tape.) I could do this all at once but the nature of my mistakes (bubbles, missing glass layer, etc.) requires the side I'm taping/fixing to be facing down, so I'm only doing one longitudinal side at a time.
This all goes back to one seemingly simple mistake, when I started this step. If you read above, you'll see I didn't make the pieces mirror images of one another (I thought I was doing that correctly, but was not). Instead of just making new pieces (I didn't have enough material) I decided to fix the missing/wrong glass layers as I went along. This has turned out to be a mistake. The foam here is only worth a few bucks, and I could have had a new piece SHIPPED IN and made, and be done with this step by now. Live and learn.
The only good part of this step is that my time estimates are getting more accurate. I'm at 16.5 hours now, and will probably just make my 18-hr estimate. Of course, I've looked ahead and read the next step in more detail, and I now think I've seriously underestimated the time investment there. Oh well. Live and learn. =)
05/03/04 (2.5 hours):
Wee HAW! This step is FINISHED! Tonight I put a BID tape inside the heat duct, and the last of the tapes around the front end. On to step 3!