Covering: Fuselage: Right Side

The fuse is now completely covered and fully tautened. First, however, are pics of two coats of glue applied to the perimeter of the envelope area and ready for fabric.

Next pics show right panel tacked onto structure with thinned glue.

Finally, pics of completed covered right side from front back views, following trimming and ironing of glue joints. Note the bushings for the horizontal stabilizor are now visible. Slits were cut for them to emerge through the tautened fabric.

Next couple weeks will be spent applying patches and tape, among other things, to the fuse.

Preliminary Avionics Panel Design

Following is a rendering showing my first shot at designing the avionics panel for the plane. As a result of building a tandem aircraft, there is not a lot of space up front for instruments; therefore, included a partial glass cockpit for situational awareness and engine diagnostics plus portable gps for navigation. Eliminating individual gages saved lots of space. Felt more external utility with a portable gps (e.g. backpacking, driving, boating etc., plus potential for XM weather later). Have redundant pitot-driven steam gage flight instruments for backup. Radio and transponder are small round units up top for additional space conservation.

Covering: Fuselage: Bottom & Left Side

I have begun covering the fuse. I started with attaching the bottom fabric panel and then the left side. Took about a week to install each panel. Next will be the right side.

Starting with the bottom, first pic shows two coats of glue applied to the bottom longerons.

Next pic show fabric panel attached and glued to bottom.

Next couple pics show bottom panel trimmed, glued around structure, ironed, and slightly tautened at 250 degrees.

Next the left panel went on. Following pic shows panel clamped and ready for attachment with thinned U500.Next pic shows the panel glued to the outer left side and ready for fabric to be trimmed and glued 3/4 of way around tubular structure.

Next several pics show finished left side tautened at 250 degrees. Note at the battery door opening the fabric had to be cut and wrapped and glued to inside perimeter of opening. In addition, several BRS bridle fabric penetrations (not shown) were needed on the top left side. I decided to reinforce these with 3.5" patches. The bridles were routed over the Station 3 cross member and will be installed below the skylight and fabric to prevent exposure to UV and moisture.

Here are the wings staged on the wing stand I made. Certainly freed up more space in the shop.

Paint Scheme Design

I believe I've come up with my final paint design. The inspiration is from a Citabria that I used to fly in MT. Superflite Matador Red and Insignia White will be combined to create the scheme below. Three view line drawing jpegs were obtained from Rans and brought into AutoCAD, then scaled, traced and hatched. The drawings were useful in estimating quantities of paint product, which will be ordered later this month. I hope to begin painting this Summer.

Furnace and Wing Stand

After a shakedown period, I finally got my Dad's old furnace on-line. Sure nice to work in a non oxygen-depleted atmosphere at humidity levels below 100%. Here is final install pic:

I was ready to mount the fuselage on the rotisserie stand, however, I needed to do something with the wings. Therefore, I devised the following wing stand to stage wings, both now and after covering and painting. I also wanted something that I could use to transport completed wings to the airport where they will be attached eventually. It was dimensioned off of a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" plywood with height set to accomodate 50" wing. It has heavy duty castering wheels. Should hold all of the smaller covered pieces between wings. Next step is to mount wings and get the fuse on the stand for covering.

Covering: Left & Right Elevators

The last of the control surface pieces and doors are now complete, having finished the elevators. First pic shows two coats of U500 applied for installation of bottom panel.

Next pic shows bottom panel tacked on with thinned U500 and then ready for trimming of fabric and gluing of fabric around tube.

Next pic shows final glued on panel, trimmed and ironed and ready to be tautened with the iron.

Rib stitching was completed like before, along centerline of elevator.

On the bottom side of the right elevator, a lexan exit ring was installed to daylight trim control wire. A lexan drain grommet was also glued. Both are ready for patches.

Here is completed bottom of right elevator with both top and bottom panels glued on and tautened stepwise with an iron. Patches also glued on and ironed. Ready for pinked 2" tapes.

Here are both elevators following gluing of 2" tapes and final ironing.

Next phase of work will be covering the fuselage.

Covering: Right Horizontal Stabilizer

I'm reaching the end of covering the smaller items, having just completed the right horiz stab. Next are the two ailerons and then on to the fuselage and wings. Some production time was lost on this item, due to a week-long stream restoration training in NC and installation of my Dad's old furnace in my shop. I wired a programmable thermostat to run the LP furnace, so that I can arrive to a pre-heated shop. This will provide huge incentive to initiate daily work, which is mostly occuring in evenings following kid bed-time. The new setup will also vent all of the off-gas outside. Previously, I just ran a propane space-heater which did fine heating things up quick, but it flooded the room with moisture and robbed the room of oxygen--not the greatest situation.