Saturday, September 3, 2011

Fixes, and her launching cradle

Jetlag therapy for me is now coming to the hangar and starting with simple tasks, then seeing how the day goes. In this case I started with fixing my unplanned modification to the cockpit sides.


-----------Note: the first part of this port details me adding some reinforcing that was advised by a well-meaning but wrong person. DO NOT add these side rails, I ended up carefully chiseling them off later--------------

First thing was to mix some West Systems epoxy and thicken it up with 404 filler. Several years ago I build a Chesapeake Light Craft kayak and their excellent manual gave plenty of building tips I've used working on the hull. In CLC terms, I added enough filler until the epoxy had the consistency of peanut butter, then put it in a ziplock bag and snipped the end off.



This is an easy and cheap way to make a squeeze bag like a chef would use to decorate a cake, and you just squeeze the thick epoxy into place. 




Resist the urge to fiddle too much with it. 



 Or it becomes a sticky mess. Remember, you can always sand it down later.



I also added the support arms for the avionics, one on each side.



And picked up a piece of 6061 aluminum to mount the throttle quadrant to. I'll cut it down to size, and have a piece of nylon machined to fit between the plate and the center fuselage tube. (Thanks Hal, for the great idea.) The lower red knob will not be for a mixture control but for the "starting carbs" in the 914. More on those next year when I get the engine, but for now the 914 does not have a mixture control.




After getting home from the next series of trips that had me stuck in Newark during Hurricane Irene, then going to Japan (where there was a minor earthquake at 0200) I spent the day doing one of my favorite things, working with wood to build the cradle for the hull. For other builders the angle is 160 degrees, the base is a panel from the shipping crate with 3 furniture dollys screwed into place underneath, and scrap wood. The most expensive part was the hunk of foam to set the hull down onto.







Its also high enough that I can work on the inside comfortably from a chair without bending over and killing my back. Getting old sucks.



One of those days where I started mid-morning and went until midnight, then came back the next day for a long afternoon. I was hoping to put the fuselage into the hull this month but I think it will slip to October. No rushing this part.

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