Painting Practice Parts

The two frames that Ed welded up earlier were sanded to remove the galvanized coating.  The parts were wiped down with Acetone and then hung on the painting rack.  The painting rack was nothing more than a board between two ladders and the parts were suspended with safety wire.

Once the parts were hung, Michael mixed up some epoxy primer paint (4:1, epoxy paint to catalyst ratio).  Three good coats were applied to the parts and allowed to dry before moving them into the garage for a complete cure of the paint.  Hours: 1.5

Painting the Practice Frames

Fuselage moved to hangar

Today we towed the fuselage to Cox Airport. The modified trailer (with the new upper deck) worked great.  We had to drive down a long winding road to access the hangar, and there were several trees with low-hanging limbs in the way.  Michael drove slowly while I moved the branches out of the way with a large push broom so that they wouldn't catch on any part of the fuselage.  But we made it to the hangar just fine.

Michael had added an electric winch at the front end of the trailer, and this made loading and unloading the fuselage a piece of cake.   After  backing the fuselage down the ramps, we wheeled it into the hangar.  We then covered the fuselage with thin plastic sheets to help keep the dust off.   Forgot to take pictures, but we had a few visitors (including a hangar mate and also the airport owner) that were pleasant distractions.  Hours: 3.0

Loading Fuselage for Transport

We spent the day building and attaching ramps to the flatbed trailer.   The fuselage was then wheeled out of the garage and a winch was used to slowly get the fuselage onto the trailer.  Then the whole fuselage was strapped down and a few blocks were attached to make sure the fuselage doesn't move during the transport to Cox Airport.  Hours: 3

Ramps in place awaiting Fuselage

Fuselage extracted from garage and dollies removed from mail wheels

Strapping down the airplane

Strapping down the airplane II

Covered for the night, ready to head to Cox Airport

Removing Horizontal Stabilizer

We continued our work on getting the fuselage ready to transport to the hangar at Cox Airport.  Today we removed the flying guy wires supporting the horizontal stabilizer and placed all the hardware into labeled bags.  The two attach pins were removed, labeled and bagged as well.  The two, now free, horizontal stabilizers were set aside and will  be one of the first items to be covered with fabric.  Hours: 0.5

Wings removed and stored

We are going to start the next phase of the airplane construction soon (fabric covering).  But in order to do this, we need more room in the garage, so we removed the wings this past weekend, and moved them to the shed.  We stored them by hoisting them up in the rafters (same way we had stored them earlier).  We also removed the struts and hung those on the walls in the shed to get them out of the way.  We still need to transport the fuselage to a hangar to get more space in the garage, but that is a task for another day.  Originally, we planned on storing the wings in the hangar, but figured they would be safer in the shed since hangar space it currently tight with 2 other airplanes sharing the space.   Hours: 3.0

Wings stored near roof;  lift struts attached to sides of shed

Transport Trailer Work

We are getting close to the point of adding fabric to our project.  In order to do this, we need more room in our garage.  We plan on taking the fuselage and wings to Cox Aerodrome where Michael has a hangar.

In order to transport the fuselage with gear attached, we needed to create a platform on top of Michael's utility trailer.  Holes were drilled in the railing at uniform spacing.  These holes were later used to up-drill into the 5/8" plywood deck.  A 2x6 backbone/joist was placed down the middle with 4x4 posts.  1/4" carriage bolts were placed in the holes going through the plywood and aluminum railing.  A nice 45 degree corner cut was done for looks.  Hours: 5

Center Joist being constructed

Ed cutting the plywood deck

Decking cut to shape, rear view

Decking cut to shape, front view

Vent line work

We made good progress after finally coming up with a good plan (probably the 10th plan after the first 9 "good plans" didn't work out).  We had planned on using 1/2" rubber fuel hose to connect the vent line to the header tank, but after a test run, we found that it was not flexible enough and was getting crimps (which closed up the tubing) when we tried to snake it from the wing tank vent to the fuselage.

So instead, we decided to use a flexible fuel line with PTFE lining. The brand we used was Earl's UltraPro hose.  Of course, it's more expensive, but it's really the right material for the job.  It is super flexible, smaller outer diameter, lighter, and (reportedly) lasts longer.  The connectors also swivel which makes installation much simpler. Below is a picture of the hose with a 120 degree connector attached on one end.

Flexible fuel line (Earl's Ultrapro Hose)

We sistered a brace (manufactured by Mike) to the root rib in order to strengthen it because we needed to make some cuts in the rib to make room for the vent line.  The brace is epoxied in place, and a few rivets were added to keep it in place.  This brace may not have even been required since the fuel tank provides a lot of support at the root of the wing; but we figured it's better to be safe than sorry, so we added it.

Brace sistered to root rib

Next we epoxied (and screwed in) the aluminum vent fitting to the fiberglass tank.  This is a relatively large fitting, but it allows us to install a larger finger-strainer, and still accomodate 1/2" tubing which is recommended for venting the header tank to the wings when using a  Rotax 912is engine.  We used Hysol 9460 epoxy which is fuel resistant. Hours: 4.0

Vent line fitting (finally) installed