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.

Fabric install on right side of fuselage (recovery)

We ran into a little problem when covering the right side of the fuselage with fabric.  Everything seemed to be going well, but after shrinking the fabric, we noticed that the top aluminum stringer was severely warped (scalloped) in the direction that the fabric was shrunk.  After looking into this in more detail, it appears that the mistake we made was to completely shrink the right-side fabric before covering the left side, which caused the top aluminum stringer to bend in the direction that it was pulled.  We could have just covered the left side in hopes that shrinking that side would pull everything back to normal, but we also figured that the odds of this actually working out right and looking good were pretty darn low.  Both sides really need to be shrunk at the same time so that there is no sideways force on the top stringer. 

With a heavy sigh, we decided a do-over was the right way to fix this.  We pulled out a couple of razor blades and cut out the entire piece of fabric on the right side, pulling off the fabric from the tubes where it was glued.  Doing this released the tension on the stringer, and it thankfully returned to its original (straight) shape.  We then cleaned up the glue, reapplied new glue, and started all over with a new sheet of fabric.  Overall, this went quicker than we expected and cost us a little over a week of work, plus about $90 in replacement fabric (including shipping which is not cheap).  Just chalk this one up as another learning experience.  The good thing is that the 2nd time around, we did a nicer job of covering around the window opening because we had already done it once and had some good experience.  Once the right fuselage fabric was glued down and the edges were ironed, we did a slight shrink, just enough to smooth it out so that we had a nice surface for attaching the left fuselage fabric, but not enough to cause the stringer to deform.  

Next, we applied more glue in preparation for installing the fabric on the left side of the fuselage.  Hours: 11.5

Removing the old fabric from the right side of the fuselage

New piece of fabric installed (fuselage is rotated, so Rt side is facing down in this pic)

Right Fuselage Fabric Covering

We are in the process of covering the right side of the fuselage.  We applied U500 glue to all the perimeter tubing and also around the rear window openings and baggage door opening.  Next we laid out a large sheet of fabric while the fuselage was rotated passenger side up, and cut it to approximate shape.  We tacked the fabric down to the perimeter tubing with a little glue to hold it in place, and then we measured and trimmed the fabric to fit.  We glued the edges down while wrapping the fabric around the tubing, except for the region where the fabric overlapped the lower fuselage fabric, in which case we ensured we had at least 1" of overlap.  We still have to do some ironing, but so far, so good.  Hours: 9.5

Michael stretching fabric over fuselage

Right side glued down around perimeter

Minor fabric work around gear pass-thru

We finished up a little bit of fabric work around the opening for the landing gear.  We added a few doilies that were missing around some of the smaller steel tubes, and ironed them to smooth out any wrinkles after the glue had dried.  Hours: 2.0

Window Work

Before covering the sides of the fuselage, we drilled perimeter holes for installation of small triangle windows that are located just aft of the doors.  We used a template that we got from a friend who very generously created some for us with his CNC machine.  We made some minor modifications as some of the tab locations were different between his airplane and ours, but that wasn't a major issue as we just moved a few of the holes slightly.   Hours: 2.0

Drilling holes using window template guide

Perimeter holes drilled in aluminum for back window

Bottom fuselage fabric

This past week, we made good progress on covering the lower fuselage.  We applied multiple coats of glue to the tubing at the bottom of the fuselage, then cut a long piece of fabric.  We tacked the fabric to the edges of the fuselage, and then cut the fabric out so that we would have at least 1" extra fabric around all the edges (as required).  We then wrapped it and glued it to the tubing by applying a thinned coat of glue as usual.

Once all the perimeter was glued, we used irons to get out any kinks and wrinkles around the perimeter.  Then, we shrunk the fabric in 3 stages to tighten it like a drum.  Pretty happy with how it came out.  Hours: 7.5

fabric draped over bottom of fuselage

Michael peeking through the future landing gear opening

Ed shrinking fabric

Fabric on lower fuselage glued down and shrunk

More prep for lower fuselage covering

We found we had a minor issue with the installation of the floor underneath the rudder pedals.  We had not created notches in the floor around the rudder attachment brackets, which means that we would not have been able to remove the floor easily once the bottom was covered.  So we removed the floor, created notches for the brackets, and then fabricated some thin spacers for the brackets in lieu of the floor. After checking to make sure everything fit properly and the rudder pedals still moved nicely, we reinstalled the rudder attach brackets and bolts, torqued them to the correct values, and re-applied orange torque-seal.  We also prepped and cleaned the bottom stringer and steel fuselage tubes to prepare for fabric covering.  Lastly, we measured and cut a long piece of fabric for covering the bottom of the fuselage.

We were originally planning on covering part of the interior and installing fabric to finish off the interior, but after talking with Billy Payne, we decided to simplify the installation by foregoing this step which will reduce weight a little bit and help performance.   Hours: 3.0

Prep for Fuselage Covering

In preparation for covering the bottom of the fuselage, we are taking care of things that would be more difficult to do once the fabric is in place.  Some of the rudder pedal bolts will be difficult to access once the covering is completed, so we torqued the rudder pedal bracket bolts to the correct specification, and marked it with orange Torque-Seal.

Rudder pedal bolts torqued and marked

We also fastened some of the wiring that runs to the ELT more securely, and added protective plastic guards to aluminum metal edges to protect against inadvertent chafing if the wire should contact it.  In addition to this, we also torqued and marked the bolts that secure the ELT to it's tray.

Hours: 2.5

ELT wiring secured

Fabric for baggage door opening

We added a little fabric around the baggage door opening that makes a nice little shelf area for the transition into the baggage compartment. Hours: 3.5

Fabric around baggage door opening

Landing gear opening, baggage opening, tail access plate

Haven't taken the opportunity to append the blog for a while, so here is a consolidated update.

We ironed the fabric for the landing gear opening to tighten up the fabric that was previously glued down.  We then created several unique doilies for the openings in the fabric for the many protrusions that pop through the fabric in the landing gear area., then glued them down. Also applied a fabric finishing tape to one of the seams.

We found a few additional small unpainted spots on the fuselage that had a bit of rust, so cleaned them up, then applied epoxy paint to protect the areas.

Holes were drilled to accommodate the bottom access plate for the tail.

Lastly, two small brackets were made for the latches that will keep the baggage door closed.  The lower bracket slipped while drilling the second hole which messed up the alignment, so we decided to  fix this by shifting the bracket down a bit and redrilling.

Hours: 8

Top view of fabric around the landing gear

Holes drilled for baggage door bracket.

Fabric covering of landing gear opening

We are in the process of covering the area around the landing gear, primarily for the purposes of prevening air infiltration around the openings for the Grove landing gear.    We first attached a flat piece that will sit right above the landing gear (using Superflite U500 adhesive) and shrunk it in stages until nice and taut.

 Next we started working on the two angled side pieces.  These pieces are much trickier because of all the strange shapes and protrusions, and everything seems to get in the way (including the floor for the baggage area)... but we have an approach that seems to be working and have made some good progress.  The fabric for those side pieces has been cut to shape and mostly glued into place. We still need to take out some wrinkles before shrinking the fabric.
Hours: 7

Fabric work around landing gear area

Fabric work around landing gear area II

Landing Gear Area Covering

We've mentioned before that since we decided to use the Grove landing gear it has caused a few issues with our build and it's not documented in the Just Aircraft Builder's manual.  Since the gear will pass through the bottom fabric, we needed to control air infiltration through the openings.  In previous Blog postings we showed pictures of the additional elements we added to support the Grove landing gear.  No we are starting to add the fabric that will enclose the gear area preventing cold air from getting into the cockpit.  We added three coats of the U500 adhesive to the area in preparation of adding the fabric.  Hours: 2

Cleaning and Organizing

We've spent many hours trying to get the garage/workshop organized and cleaned before we begin covering the fuselage.  We had airplane parts placed all over the place and it was becoming increasingly harder to find various things.  We cleared off a few shelves and put labels on boxes.  "Parts removed for Covering", "Fuel System Parts", and "Landing Gear Parts" were just a few of the new storage boxes created.  We probably put 8-10 hours into this effort in total.  We are not including this time in the build hours.

Landing Gear Opening

We continued to work prepping the fuselage for covering.  Two fore/aft members were added onto the sideways members added previously.  This is forming the opening in the fabric that will allow us to pass the Grove landing gear through the covered fuselage.  Two 1/2" aluminum tubes were machined on the metal mill to tightly fit.  After the areas were roughened and cleaned with acetone, they were epoxied in place with the Hysol epoxy.

1/2" aluminum tubes epoxied in place

Computer Edited to show opening size

We also checked over the fuselage and found quite a few locations that had finish pits.  We cleaned the rust from these areas and applied epoxy primer that matched the Gray paint color.  There were a LOT of areas that needed touch-up.  Hours: 3

Baggage Door Frame and Gear Opening

We finished carefully cutting and shaping two square and one round aluminum tube to frame the baggage door area.  Afterwards, we cleaned the parts, roughed up the mating areas slightly, and epoxied them into place with Hysol.  Once the epoxy cured a bit, the fillets were smoothed with a wet finger.

Baggage door opening

Close-up of baggage door epoxy joints

Similarly we cut and shaped 4 aluminum tubes that will frame a pass-through opening for the landing gear.  Having this special opening will allow us to easily remove or service the Grove landing gear without removing fabric in the future. We epoxied the tubes between the bottom stringer and the fuselage.

Gear opening tube epoxied b/w the bottom stringer and fuselage

 We still have a few cross-tubes to cut and install to finish off the gear opening, but need to make some measurements and test a mock-up first because we want to make these openings as small as possible, but just large enough to feed the gear through.   In prep for this, we removed the tires and brakes, and put the fuselage back on the rotisserie.  This will allow us to rotate the fuselage around so we can test this out.   Hours: 8