Unseen Progress

I recalculated my 4130 needs today to fit Aircraft Spruce's product offering because I could save $150 over the cost of McMaster Carr plus I will end up with less scrap.  I also started to redesign the cockpit opening.  The current opening is 27" and I cannot easily egress so I am changing it to MiniMax dimensions of 31-3/4".  I ordered a 4 point harness on eBay.  I am holding off sheeting the fuselage until I can get the cockpit and controls figured out.

I am going to make my own design pedals that hang from above so that design is in the works too.

I won't have a ton of progress for the next couple of weeks due to the opening of Muzzle Loader deer season.

Number of hours:  2.0
Total hours:  126.6

Motor Mount Shear Web

Happy Thanksgiving!

I cut and glued in place the shear web that goes on the bottom of the motor mount reinforcement block then I glued the cross member to the front of F2 (hopefully for the last time).

Number of hours:  0.8
Total hours:  124.6

Motor Mount Reinforcement Block

I machined a test panel for the seat bottom today at work.  It looks like I will need to move the cross brace that sits under the seat further forward to help support the rear edge of the seat bottom.  I tried sitting in the seat and I think that I will need to move the forward edge of the cockpit forward a few inches as I was unable to fit my knees inside without putting a lot of weight on the fuselage sides.  I will test this further once the sides and bottom are fully sheeted.

I cut and glued the motor mount reinforcement block into the rear of the fuselage tonight.  Then I started to fit the side sheeting on the left rear side of the fuselage.

Number of hours:  3.6
Total hours:  123.8

F3 In Place

I removed the staples from the right side main gear fitting last night.  Tonight I glued F3 in place and scraped some epoxy drips here and there.

Number of hours:  1.4
Total hours:  120.2

Main Gear Shear Webs

I cut and glued the shear webs onto the main gear supports today.  I also finished touching up the sixth notch on the fuselage floor.

Number of hours:  2.7
Total hours:  118.8

Moving Forward

I started my day by removing the cross brace that I referred to in yesterday's post.  Then I glued the vertical support back in place and the two main landing gear vertical supports.  I worked on notching out the floor and cut all 6 six notches but only got 5 completely cleaned up.  I finished the night by cutting and gluing the struts and corner braces that hold the front of the fuselage together.

Number of hours:  3.4
Total hours:  116.1

F1 in Place

I cut the notches and bevels into F1 on a bandsaw at work today.  I glued F1 in place tonight and glued the right side strut to the right side main landing gear support.  I glued the final strut on the top of the fuselage at the rear just ahead of F3.  I cut the two 12mm X 12mm X 100mm main landing gear upright braces and then I traced the floor onto a piece of 6mm plywood.  I cut the profile of the floor and started cutting one notch in it but then I ran out of time for tonight.  I noticed tonight that the left side of the upper longeron was 1/8" lower than the right at F2 due to a stupid mistake.  I will work on fixing that tomorrow, among other things.

Maybe I'll start to sheet things by the end of next week!

Number of hours:  2.8
Total hours:  112.7

Front Landing Gear Reinforcements

I pulled the staples out of F1 and then I cut the 2 - 60mm X 400mm X 1.5mm front landing gear reinforcement strips and glued one to the front and back faces of F1.  Next, I glued the right side main landing gear reinforcement to the right side.  I finished the night by gluing the front legs back onto my son's moose toy that he broke.

Number of hours:  1.8
Total hours:  109.9

F1 Buttoned Up

I added some more epoxy to the left hand main gear brace to fill a couple little gaps this evening.   I mixed up a large batch of epoxy and glued the front sheeting on F1, sealing it shut.  I will add a 60mm X 400mm X 1.5mm strip of ply to the front and back of F1 as a next step.

Number of hours:  1.2
Total hours:  108.1

F1 Second Coat of Varnish

I put the second coat on the interior pieces of F1 tonight.  I cut the curves into the two main landing gear braces at work today with a bandsaw and glued the left brace in place tonight.  I hope to glue the right brace in place tomorrow.

Number of hours:  0.7
Total hours:  106.9

Varnishing F1

I put the first coat of varnish on the interior parts of F1 tonight after removing all of the staples from it.  I switched to 1/4" long staples and this improved the removal process greatly.   I took the two landing gear braces out into the cold cold garage tonight and used a 3/16" diameter end mill to cut the 35mm X 142mm slots for the main landing gear.

Number of hours:  1.2
Total hours:  106.2

F1 Aft Sheeting

I spent some time today scraping dried epoxy off a few areas and trimming F3 for a better fit.  I cut the plywood sheeting for the fore and aft faces of F1 then traced the outlines onto both sides of each face.  I finished the night by gluing the aft sheet to the aft face of F1.  It took a ton of glue,  I forgot how much plywood soaks up adhesive.

Number of hours:  1.9
Total hours:  105.0

Variety is the Spice of Life

I started this morning cutting more cross members and gluing them in place.  The next project was shaping the two sides where they meet at the back and then gluing the two sides together at the tail.  I moved on to planing the new wood that I received from Aircraft Spruce.  I cut the two side reinforcements to length that will hold the landing gear just ahead of F2 and then laid out the curved cut on the bottoms and the slots for the landing gear.  Hopefully I will get to cut the slots and curves at work on Monday.  The last thing that I worked on for the day was cutting the remaining 3 pieces of spruce for F1 and gluing them in place.  I haven't posted pictures for a while so here are some progress shots from today.

Number of hours:  3.3
Total hours:  103.1

Seat Front Brace

I cut, shaped, and glued in the seat front brace tonight.  I also unpacked and checked my Aircraft Spruce shipment.

Number of hours:  0.4
Total hours:  99.8

Accumulated Tolerances

Well I tracked through all of my dimensions tonight and found that F2 is about 6 mm further back than it should be, although at least 2 of that will disappear when the front of the fuselage is curved in.  It's a case of 1/4mm here 1/2mm there adding up to me pulling my hair out.  I don't believe that this will cause any issues.  I got F2 glued in place tonight, I plan on adding some flox fillets when it is cured.

Number of hours:  1.2
Total hours:  99.4

Forward Progress

I spent a half hour fixing what I broke yesterday.  I also machined out a test seat back to check fitment, only minor changes are required to the seat back.  The next shipment of wood is scheduled to arrive on Thursday!

Number of hours:  0.7
Total hours:  98.2

Babies and Bath Water

I cut the slopes into F2 and F3 then I fitted the notches on the bandsaw at work today.  When I got home I dry fit F2 then started to glue F2 in place using epoxy and flox.  I spent the next 3 chasing my tail trying to get things square and in their proper positions.   I did some bad math that made me think that I was off by 7mm.  This led to me to move F2 back and re-align thingsbagain.  With all the measurements, tweeking, and repositioning I ended up breaking some cross members so I decided to take F2 back out and scraped off as much flox as possible.  At the end of the night I am further behind than when I started, arrrrgggghhh.  Oh well, I will lay things out again tomorrow and triple check my math before mixing glue.

Number of hours:  3.4
Total hours:  97.5

Control Cable Route

The plans don't show how the control cables are supposed to magically route from the rudder pedals and control stick pulleys back to the wing pulleys.  The seat back is shown in the plans as solid so I laid out the approximate locations that the cables would intersect the seat back and my plan is to put a 3/4" slot in that location starting 190mm and ending 350mm from the bottom of the seat back.  I am not sure how they will route through F2 yet but that is a problem for another day.  I am also putting a 95mm X 65mm chamfer on the upper 2 corners of the seat back to allow clearance for the radius blocks that are on the top surface of the cockpit and I can run wires or fuel lines through the openings as needed.

I decided to rush things a little bit and try to sit in the cockpit sans seat.  I ended up breaking one of the bottom struts off so I had to glue it back in.  While I was at it I removed a crooked strut and glued it back in place nice and square.

Number of hours:  1.6
Total hours:  94.1

Flipped and Trimming

I flipped the fuselage this afternoon and started to fit F2 and F3.  It looks like it is flying even when it is sitting still.  I know, I should be out deer hunting but I had to pass and take care of the kids since my wife is still recovering from her surgery.

Number of hours:  1.4
Total hours:  92.5

Up to F1

I glued in 3 more struts this morning making it up to F1.  I am going to start shaping and fitting F2 once the epoxy has cured.

Number of hours:  0.7
Total hours:  91.1

4 More Struts

I glued 2 struts on the top and 2 struts on the bottom today.  I decided to put gusset blocks at the intersection of the sides and struts where possible.  The fuselage is still inverted on the work table, hopefully the only time that it experiences an unusual attitude!

Number of hours:  1.5
Total hours:  90.4

Another day, another strut

I glued the strut that is on the bottom of the fuselage at the front of the seat tonight.

Number of hours:  0.3
Total hours:  88.9