The best laid plans....

Remember back over the summer, when I spent so much time so carefully cutting the stringers, remating the frame to them, then glassing and painting over the recut areas?  Well......

All the small and big jobs done, everything put back together, I was ready to drop the frame into the hull. What could go wrong? Well, for one thing, I remated the frame/hull BEFORE I reglassed the stringers. I was concentrating so hard on a perfect fit before I did the reglassing I didn't even think that the new glass would interfere. It did.

Ah well... Two steps back, three steps forward.

A little here, a little there...

While the floor pan was being done I started on other stuff. It was actually fortunate the project was held up because I kept going "Ok, still waiting on the pan, what can I do this week?" and I ended up doing a lot of work that would have been difficult with the hull/frame mated.

Some bolts got pulled and a coating of Par-al-ketone applied as anti-corrosion.

And there was a mod where the pitch trim springs are split in two. This keeps the springs from compressing/bending when the trim is run full travel.

The SeaReys controls uses bolts directly touching thin aluminum tubing, and over time these tubes have found to become elongated due to loads. Others stared adding bronze bushings to the control linkages, so I did. The bushings are available from McMaster-Carr or Aircraft Spruce.

Next was to install the aileron torque tubes. Doing this meant I was confident the frame was ready for mate, since I often rested the frame on a small stepladder while working on it, and the linkage would be in the way.


One problem immediately came up, the seat pan was in the way. 

A change to the manual, the bell crank bearing now goes on top of the bell crank, and the torque tube has been shifted to sit under the bellcrank. I will say this, PA has been cranking out revisions to the manual much better lately.

 One change I made was to replace the -A bolts with drilled and keyed ones. The fender washers will keep the tie rods from coming off the bolts in the event of failure of the bearing inside the tie rod, but I could only fit it on one side so I put th washer on the pilot's side. What are the odds of the bearing failing? Slim. What are the consequences? Catastrophic. A fraction of an ounce of prevention....

This was about when I began to get annoyed with visitors and started leaving the hangar doors closed. I'd have all the linkages set with levels...

and be bent into awkward positions under the airframe, obviously busy, trying to make a perfect alignment. Someone would stop in and want to talk, or I'd hear the same joke about "When is it going to fly??" or "Not done yet?"

What I could have used was someone saying "Need a hand?" But if they weren't going to offer, I figured I didn't want their help. Yeah, my Dark Knight side occasionally beats out my Jedi Knight side. But I try.


And everything got a pass with a torque wrench and torque sealed.

Small touches make a difference

Back in July I was looking things over, getting ready for lift and mate again, and started looking at things. I realized that the floor pan needed a touch of something, and thought about spray painting it. Of course, you can't spray paint aluminum easily, and since it would be under foot it would chip, etc, so I decided to have it powder coated.

On the way to the powder coater I thought Hmmm.... How about a touch of somthing nice, like a design, or better yet, the n-number and name? I liked that idea, but the gent doing the powder coating warned me that it was not easily done. First we'd have to get a stencil cut from the special high temperature tape used in powder coating (if that was possible), then there would be the problem of the stencil holding its shape in the oven. I decided to take the gamble, and after some problems with the stencil cutter an attempt was made. The results were as we feared, the tape did not hold and the lettering smeared.

If I had taken the time to check the internet I would have found others in the car rebuild hobby had tried doing this, their outcome had been the same, and I would not have wasted my time. Oh well.......

Instead the internet also showed me how it should have been done. After stripping and recoating the pan, I took it over to the gang at Stan's Auto Body. Jeff and Melissa told me to go around the corner to Signs Plus, who quickly cut a stencil

and while I was gone on a trip Ryan painted and clearcoated the pan. Beautiful. Exactly what I wanted.

In a twist of fate, Ryan used to work for Boeing. In Everett. In their paint shop. Painting airplanes. Specifically, 777s. Ryan has now painted the extremes, my 660,000# work airplane and my 1,400# fun plane. How cool is that????

Rollout

Detailed post to follow next week, but OspRey has had her hull mated to the airframe. The nose and turtledecks are sitting in place, and will come off this weekend as I finish other work with the mate and begin the next step of installing avionics.

A difficult decision to repair

I've been feeling pretty good about my fiberglass skills this week, and decided to take a hard look at a mistake I made. Despite being very careful I still cut the cluster bracket/aft root support hole too big on the aft end. My turtledeck was not perfect, there were already evidence of some repairs made at the factory.

I took a day and looked at it, and ultimately decided I had to fix it. Gulp......

IAW various sources, I drew a 12:1 slope and carefully sanded the inside down...

Then I made a backing of scrap cardboard and saran wrap as a backer. 

The manuals offered differing opinions about starting with small pieces and building out, or starting with large pieces and finishing with small ones. I did a mixture, using West Systems 205 fast hardener.

 And of course, Saran Wrap as a sealer until it dried.

Yeah, I laid it on a bit thick. I can always sand the excess off.

I had nightmares of epoxy running through the backer and running down the outside of the deck, making a mess. Just a couple small oozes that were scraped up with a fingernail. 

Then I sanded the patch down until there was a small depression. Safety glasses for sanding, you ask? Believe it or not, they're safety glasses with "cheater" lenses built into the bottom for us old guys.

The depression was then filled with gelcoat. Leveling the deck allowed the gelcoat to flow and fill into the depression. I hoped.

Yes!! It worked. 

Just like a big model, sand carefully and feather...

A couple of touchup spots. 

The reward is wet sanding with 400, then 600, 800, 1,000, and finally 1,500 sandpaper. THEN a lambswool buffer, followed by a foam pad and polish.

Spots to fix. 

I'd think it was perfect when looked at outside, then I'd take it in and look at it under the florescent hangar lights. Back out I'd go for some more sanding, buffing, polishing....

Here's what the are looks like on a finished and well flown SeaRey.

Remember reading about resin cooking off as it sets? Here you go.