The Devil is in the Details

Over the past week poor Joseph was polishing and touching up the paint on the winglets and the cockpit. I told him to stay home this weekend and to not worry about the glider.

When I came in on Saturday, the glider was waiting for me in the booth, ready for me to start trimming out the details.

The first thing I noticed was the painted registration and tail letters were blended smoothly into the white paint.

My first task was to add the Libelle logo to the tail, which I had vinyl transfers made at Fastsigns.

The transfers were better than the decals I bought. They too looked like they were painted on.

My next tasks was to rivet the serial number plate back on, and grind down the screw ends in the hat shelf cover.

A happy milestone since the plate was removed four years ago!

I then added the speaker, and GRP straps to the inside to secure the speaker wires.

I adjusted the release cable under Roberts guidance, secured the turnbuckle with safetly wire, swedged the T-handles for the Release and Pedal adjustment.

I also spent most of the day cleaning the bearings and removing the years of dust and grime that have been collecting on them.

The water ballast dump system controls were added ....

... and tested.

As I was walking out of the booth this evening, this is what I see!

Sunday, I will be finishing getting the antenna reconnected and tested, and continue the clean out of dust and grime build up.

 

Getting Closer and Closer!!!!

Last week, Joseph and I spent nine days working to finish painting the glider and put a dent in polishing it out!.
 
Saturday both wings were brought back into the shop.

They were cleaned and then sanded down with 400 grit to get them prepped for painting.

 
Saturday and Sunday we painted the wings.

 

Monday it was snowing and too cold to paint, so we started polishing out the top of the right wing, and prepped the area of the bottom to get it ready to paint the competition letters. Also, the horizontal, rudder, and ailerons were painted

We also brought in the fuselage, and prep sanded the primer for painting on Tuesday

Tuesday morning, the fuselage was moved into the booth, and was painted.

We had another set back when I found out that the blue accents were not in compliance with the type certification of the Libelle, and the blue paint that was on one of the winglets had to be removed. We had to repaint the rudder due to some moisture contamination in a couple of areas.

Wednesday, yet another set back, Robert wanted us to move the wings back into the trailer to make room for a cleanup and repair on another glider.

We were able to bring in the right wing to get the bottom prepped for the competition letters. Later in the day, we moved the fuselage back into the booth and we masked the registration numbers and the competition letters.

By late afternoon, the blue paint was applied.

Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same as Wednesday. There were a couple of setbacks with painting and cleanup. The wing spar stubs needed to be painted, and the horizontal need another coat.

Saturday and Sunday, we did nothing but remove the masks and fine sanded the wings and fuselage for the final polishing

Joseph did the final polishing on the wings! They are like mirrors!

Although it was no milestone event, the wingtip wheels were finished and painted too!













All that was left after nine days of work is the fuselage, horizontal and rudder need to be polished.

If all goes well, the glider will be ready for me to finish the interal linkage inspection with Robert and perform the final trim out of the cockpit this next weekend. Then assembly, W&M,W&B, and then out to test fly!

The week to finish the painting

This is the WEEK!... We are finally able to paint!!!!. OMG after 4 years the glider is white again!

Photos to follow!

I will update this post at the end of the week, I took this week off from work to get this plane done.

As it goes, we just finished painting the wings. They are awesome! All that is left to paint is the fuselage, canopy, ailerons, and rudder!.


Mid-week update

I was told that the blue markings that were originally planned, cannot be used due to the fact that they are a violation of the Type Certification of the glider. There was even a question on whether or not I could use the blue on the registration and competition letters.

4 years now .... and nearing the home stretch!

Update on the project - Mid-March

We are now just a little over the 4 year mark on when I first found this Libelle on the SSA Classified Ads. So, where are we?

I created a punch list of things left to do:

Wings
            Mount winglet spring pins.

Fuselage
             Forward wing alignment bar primed, painted gray.
            Cockpit back and inside under ledge – painted gray.
            Safety wire on bolts in gear well – release turnbuckle – Aileron cantilevers.

 Canopy
            Repaint interior frame.
           

Horizontal Stabilizer
             Primed and painted

Rudder
            W/B - painted.

Ailerons
            W/B - and painted.

All we need now is a couple of weeks of good steady warm weather to paint the plane!

I'm still optimistic that we will be done by the end of April!

Getting Closer!!

Over this past week, Joseph knocked out the repair cleanup on the horizontal stabilizer.. 

..... and the fairing.

He was also near to the finished on the canopy frame.




All there is left to cleanup and prime are the ailerons.

This week, I picked up the metal wingtip wheel frames and can start on making the fairing covers for them.

They will be mounted to the winglets after we get the glider assembled and we can see how they will need to be positioned to prevent the ailerons from dragging the runway during the take off roll.








The shop at the airport is geting busy, and Joseph will need to break from the Libelle project over the next 3 weeks. But that will also be about the time the weather will hopefully warm up enough to allow us to apply the paint!

March 1st 2014 - Getting close to the 4 year mark

Joseph has been working on the Libelle off and on over the month of February. The left wing is primed and just about ready for paint.

 

He finished painting the elevators, but now we need to get the underside of the horizontal stabilizer and fairing repaired and finished.

This is another first.. I haven't seen this tail like this for 4 years!

So, just the tail and the canopy is all that is left before we can paint!.... Now all we need is some warm weather!

The winter work continues

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!