Fuselage covering work

Installed ten protective fabric doilies on the tail at various locations such as the attachment points for the flying wires and the horizontal stabilizer.

One of the tail doilies installed

Also installed protective doilies around the nose wheel bracket attach points, plus a few alternate main gear attach points that would be used if the plane is ever converted to a tail-wheel.  Also installed a grommet and doily for the header tank drain opening in the bottom of the fuselage.

Two doiles at nose wheel bracket attach points

We spent a bit of time determining exactly where to place the gascolator, as we want to ensure it's placed at the lowest point along the fuel run, and want to keep the fuel-line routing as clean as possible.  The location we chose is beneath the passenger seats.  A grommet and doily were installed in the fabric at the location where the gascolator drain will protrude out the bottom of the fuselage.

Gascolator installed, with hole in fuselage beneath it

Ten additional tiny patches/doilies were also placed on the fabric at the landing gear attach brackets locations (inside surface of fabric).  These were mainly placed there to plug up some small air gaps that still existed around those brackets.

Small patches added at gear attach points to prevent air filtration

We installed plastic fairings and doilies at the points where the rudder cables exit the fuselage.  Although we spent a lot of time lining these up to get it right the first time, we didn't.  We tested it out by installing the rudder and cables (temporarily), and then watched the cables on both sides as the rudder was moved to the left and right.  The cables and fairings worked great for "most" of the rudder travel, but we had a problem at the full left and right positions because the cables were rubbing the fairings slightly.   We didn't want any interference, so decided to remove the fairings and do it over again.  Before we removed the fairings, we installed patches on the inside over those locations just to ensure that the fabric would not stretch and mess up the fabric on the right or left sides.  We then removed the fairings, cleaned up the glue, and reinstalled the plastic fairings.   Still need to add doilies over these.   Hours: 15

Rudder cable fairing installed

Fuselage Fabric, Inspection Rings, Doilies

Several updates since the last posting.

We shrunk the fabric for both left and right sides of the fuselage to 300 degrees F.  We opted to stop at that temperature and not go any higher because the fabric was plenty taut, and we noticed (like other builders) some minor deflections (scalloping) in the fuselage tubes so didn't want to create any unnecessary strain on the fuselage by shrinking to 350 degrees. 

We also made some custom 5" aluminum inspection rings (5" outer diameter, and about 3.75" inner diameter) for both sides of the vertical stabilizer to allow for easy access to the elevator bolts and control fork.  These rings are larger than standard inspection rings to make it easier to access those parts and still have the necessary movement needed to control the elevator.  We spent a little bit of time bending these aluminum rings into shape so that they would sit relatively flush against the curving surface of the vert. stabilizer.  We actually had to remake one of these rings because it didn't fit flush enough against the fabric and started lifting away from the fabric in a few spots after gluing, and it then got bent out of shape a bit when we removed it.  But overall, this was not a big problem and was easy to fix.  After gluing the rings in place, we cut out the inside fabric, and attached doilies on top.  The doily fabric was wrapped inside the hole which finished off the inside hole edge nicely. 

Elevator access holes

Two additional plastic inspection rings were also installed (with doilies), one on the bottom for access to one of the servos for the autopilot, and another on the side for access to the ELT.

Inspection ring for easier access to the ELT

Two plastic grommets were installed on the fuselage bottom for pass-thru holes that are intended for landing light wiring, and doilies were likewise installed over these grommets.

Grommet for landing light

Two thin aluminum ground plane panels (each was 8" square) were made for the transponder antenna and ADS-B antennas that will be installed on the bottom of the plane. Holes were drilled for installation, and some glue was applied to the surface. 

Two antenna ground planes (transponder and ADS-B)

Lastly, two 3" round protective doilies were cut out and and installed at the handle location on the right side of the fuselage.   Hours: 11.0

Fabric Shrinking and Baggage Opening

We shrunk the fuselage fabric to 275F.  This tightened the fabric up nicely.  We then glued the perimeter of the baggage opening.  The opening fabric was then cut away and trimmed to give the correct glue overlap.  And finally the four sides were glued down.  We'll shrink the fabric to the remaining temperatures once the baggage door opening is completely dry.   Hours: 1.5

Baggage Door Opening in Fabric

Fuselage Covering

We started covering the left side of the fuselage.  Due to our previous "recovery" we had to order additional fabric from Aircraft Spruce.  When we placed the fabric on the fuselage we quickly became seriously concerned that Aircraft Spruce had short changed us.  We measured what we received and sure enough, we were 0.2 yards short.  Luckily it was "JUST" enough but we were able to make it work.

We had to locate a critical cut in the fabric where the rear aircraft movement handle protrudes.  We asked the other builders on Facebook and WingsForum about how to proceed.  We took all the comments and came up with a hybrid method.  We created a patched that fit on the inside of the handle.  We marked the location and cut a slit.  We also cut additional fabric around the protruding handle tubing.  The fabric was  slipped over the handle.  We placed the fabric patch on a piece of wax paper and applied 3 layers of adhesive. Once dried, the patch was put on the back side of the slit that wsa cut and then glued into place.  The wax paper was removed when the patch glue dried.  We then secured the fabric around the handle with adhesive.

We proceeded to trim the fabric and glue the edges down around the perimeter of the left fuselage.  Extra care had to be taken around the curved area on the vertical stabilizer.  When the perimeter was completely glued, we went back over the seams with a low temperature iron to make sure everything was secured completely. We finally cut the left windows opening, wrapping the excess fabric around to the backside, securing it with glue and finally finishing it off with an iron.  Hours: 11

Handle with Patch

Back side of handle with Patch

Window Openings Complete

Fuselage ready for Shrinking.