Aug 12, 2022     Elevator skinning continued       Category: Empennage

Once the top skins cured over night, I popped the elevators loose from the bench, lightly sanded and trimmed excess cloth, and trimmed the trailing edge to the next recommended measurement. I tacked them back down and filled any low spots and let that cure, then sanded again. The bottom skins then went on fairly easily. After that cured overnight, I popped everything loose, trimmed excess cloth and lightly sanded. I need to trim the trailing edge down to the recommended 7" chord and then they are ready for filling and sanding.

  Aug 08, 2022     Skinning the elevators       Category: Empennage

After gluing the cores to the tubes, I filled and sanded all low spots. I then cleaned up and prepped my building surface and reset the saw horses to very that everything was sturdy and level and straight. Following the book I laid down grey tape and made my measurements. I screwed some scrap wood to the edges of the surface to butt the leading edge of the tubes against and tack glued the elevators down, making sure I had a left and right and marked the top of each. I trimmed the cores to the required chord. Some parts of the cores were a little short but nothing to worry about. Cutting the strips of uni to the required size took some effort, but a large cardboard cutting mat my wife had from the fabric store helped as it had a grid and a 45* angle premarked.
The layup went smoothly. Letting everything cure for a day, then I will pop these loose, trim and lightly sand, then flip over and do the bottom.

  Jul 20, 2022     More elevator work       Category: Empennage

Got second elevator core bonded to torque tube. Very pleased with results. Now to fill, sand, and prep for skinning.

  Jul 17, 2022     More elevator work       Category: Empennage

Glued elevator tube to right elevator

  Jul 15, 2022     Elevators - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Started on the elevators.

  Jun 11, 2022     Finished skinning copilot side winglet - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Applied the fiberglass to the outboard side of the copilot winglet.

  May 30, 2022     Winglet Outer Lay Up and NAV antennae - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Made the NAV antennae per the book and installed it, filled in low spots, and sanded. Then skinned it.

  Apr 18, 2022     Second winglet Lay Up - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

While prepping the outboard side of the first winglet for the antennae, I decided to go ahead and skin the inboard side of the second winglet. It went a little faster and came out a little nicer. I am taking various measurements from each and comparing them. So far they are pretty close to exact.

  Apr 08, 2022     Winglet Lay up cured       Category: Empennage

  Apr 07, 2022     Winglets - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Set up, trimmed and put first lay up on the pilot side winglet.

  Mar 28, 2022     Final canard lay up's - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

The final lay ups on the canard are two layers of UNI. They came out well. After curing over night, I measured and marked a centerline on the the canard and trimmed the ends back to 178". This concludes construction of the canard. Next step for it will be filling and sanding and priming.

  Mar 23, 2022     Canard Upper Skin lay up - (4 hours)       Category: Empennage

After laying up the lower canard skin, I flipped the canard, removed the straight edges, and prepped the top for the upper skin lay up. I sanded the top smooth, filled in low spots with dry micro, and resanded the top. I flipped the canard upside down again and sanded down high spots in the lower skin where the straight edges would be attached. I then bonded on the straight edges with 5 minute epoxy and after that cured, flipped everything right side up again. After a little more sanding the top and a good vacuuming, I microslurried the top and laid on the skin. Wetting out went well except for curling the fabric around the leading edge. The best technique turned out to be, getting on the ground and pre wetting the bottom skin, then using my fingers (with gloves on) to curve the wetted fabric around the ledge slowly with quite a bit of pressure. Try not to move side to side, but push from the front to back.

  Mar 18, 2022     Canard lower skin lay up - (4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Canard Lay Up 1 lower skin triax. This is my first real major lay up I have done. Went well.

  Jan 30, 2022     Prep canard for skinning - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Per the book I temporarily attached the H-beams to the top of the canard to align it for skinning the bottom. The H-beams were a little short so I sourced some 2"x2"x8' aluminum angle from Lowes and attached it end to end via carpet tape to one of the H-beams. That gave me enough length to properly lay up the trailing edge of the canard.
To properly place the other H-beam from the leading edge (it is ok that it is short because it it just used to make sure the canard is flat) I made a mark on the canard jig and pushed tooth picks in the foam in about 6 places down the length of the canard. Then set the H-beam next to them, thus properly spacing it.

  Dec 11, 2021     Started canard - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

I decided to start working on the canard. Followed the book and have it nearly ready to skin. The punch tool marked the bolt locations and then predrilled the holes with a 1/8"bit in the little drill guide to get them straight. That made drilling and tapping to the final size easy.
The canard LE and TE cores were pretty easy to prep and install per the book.
The book said to glue the two 34" canard extensions to each end of the spar core, however my kit had one piece 57" and the other about 28". In the interest of keeping things symmetrical, I cut the short piece in half and glued a half to each end of the longer piece. I then cut that in half, and attached to each outboard end of the canard spar.