Over the month of January, and the first weeks of February, the temps were too cold in the hanger to do much work, so Joseph focused on some of the small stuff.
As he attempted to do some work, he ran into difficulties with the primer and paint due to the cold. but was able to get the rudder primed and the elevators primed and painted.
When he was working on getting the seat back painted, the cold slowed the curing processes even with lights on to keep the part warm. I ended up doing the work at home.
The new head rest was attached
.... and the seat was resealed and painted.
Mid-February has been unusually warm here in New Mexico. The warm spell gave Joseph the opportunity to start priming the wings.
Joesph's attention to detail and being extra critical of his work has provide excellent results.
The right wing has just a primer coat on it, but it is virtually flawless.
.... there is no apparent wave in the reflection of the wing.
We will see how it all turns out after the wings are painted and polished out!
The left wing will be primed this week, and then the finally work on the horizontal stabilizer.
We are shooting for a completion in April!
Hi John, looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteDo you also have photos of the work on the winglets ?
Greetings,
Ronald de Vries
The Netherlands
Hello Ron. I do not. Robert and Joseph documented the photos and I have not seen them yet. It was an interesting mess though. The winglets thickness did not match the end of the cut wings. They were about 4mm thicker on the top and bottom of the wing. The wing ends needed to be thickened to match. But the results were flawless.. Joseph is quite a craftsman in his own-right.
DeleteJohn, thanks for warnijng me :-)
ReplyDeleteI am planning to add the wingtips also....next winter.
Was the total difference 8 mm (4 x2) or 4 mm (2x2) ?
Was the deviation all over the cross section ?
How did you (or Joseph) adjusted the profile of the wing ? With filler ?
If you get the photo's it would be very nice to share on the blog or elsewhere so newbies can learn from it. I would expect the winglets would match the profile of the wing were it is intended to be cut off. Any idea why it did not match ?
Thanks for blogging your porgress and frustrations :-) ...keeps us going...don't give up !!!!
Ronald
Hello Ron, yes the thickness was the issue. But that might be due to the fact that when I cleaned off the wings of Gelcoat, my wingtips also had a lot of bondo on them. So, I cleaned that off too. It made the cord top and bottom slightly narrower than it was originally. You will need to make sure the trailing edge of the wing matches the trailing edge angle of the ailerons. Then you will need to align the winglet with the leading and the trailing edge. The instructions and emails with Streifeneder were not very clear as to the "accurate" placement. If any bondo is used to even out the thickness of the cord, you will need to make sure that the surface is properly prepared for the bondo to bite into, and after the bondo is cured and smoothed out evenly, you will need to epoxy a layer of 90070 glass over the bondo to strengthen it., or it will crack and chip off. Keep in mind; you still want to keep the tip as light as possible. I hope that helps
DeleteJohn