So with the top nose glassed, it was time to mark the cutlines and remove the canard.
I used a 3-foot section of Nylaflow tubing to help me mark a nice spline forward of the canard...
The aft cutline was simply where the F28 bulkhead sits...
It was time to make the cut! You would think taking a blade to the airplane would feel "normal" by now... but no... the adrenaline still kicks in every time!!
For the forward cut, I used a dremel cut-wheel since it makes it easier to cut the curved spline...
Especially around the corners...
With the cuts made, I used a knife to slice through the foam underneath...
I pulled and pulled on the canard and couldn't get it off! And then I had a "Oh crap!" moment - I had totally forgotten that the canard was BOLTED onto the F22 bulkhead! Since I haven't cut my nose hatch yet, there was no way for me to easily remove the canard bolts! The only way was to dive under the instrument panel and blindly reach in with a wrench and hope to remove the bolts. After a few tries, I finally got it!
The canard was now happy to come off and I set it on top of stands to get to work on the inside of the canard compartment.
In Chapter 24 (page 24-3), the plans say to glass the backside surface with 2 plies BID. However, I figure why let this compartment go to waste? Sure it's a tight space, but the Long-EZ doesn't have spare room anywhere, and I wasn't going to let this space go to waste. Perhaps I can fit a small tool bag, or spare parts... who knows, I'll find out later... for now, let's turn this into a valuable storage compartment!
So I started out by milling out as much foam as I could...
On the lip, I made sure to sand down to the glass for a nice glass-to-glass lip...
The front side too...
I made sure the inside corners had a nice fillet for a smooth transition onto the top surface of the canard...
The compartment is just about ready for glass!
I failed to take a picture, but I cut the handle off the brush, and used it to wet out the fiberglass inside the compartment... it was easier than I thought and worked out great!
After cure, I trimmed all the edges and overhang...
I wanted to make sure whatever I end up putting inside of this compartment doesn't fall aft and into the avionics bay... so I decided to make a small bulkhead.. I took scrap H45 3/8" thick foam and glassed 1 ply BID on one side...
I then traced out the opening and trimmed it... (never mind the marked lines... those were on there from before)...
Perfect fit! The glassed surface faces the inside of the compartment...
I then prepped the backside of the lift tabs...
And put a flox corner all around the edges...
The backside was now ready to be glassed!
I applied flox to all flox corners and all around the bulkhead.. and installed the bulkhead in place... I then micro'd the bulkhead's aft surface... and painted plain epoxy to the lift tabs...
Installed 1-ply BID and wetted it out...
I'll leave the forward corners bare for now... I will glass these later when I finalize the fuselage geometry...
Look at ALL that extra storage space!!! Ok, so maybe I won't be able to fit golf clubs in there... but an emergency kit or two for sure!
With the canard storage compartment complete, it was time to focus on the forward face of the F28 bulkhead...
I'll glass this surface later on when I work on the nose compartment...
I had purposely covered F28 with tape to protect it... it was now time to remove the tape and prep F28 for glass...
Notice how I added a bit of space on top of the "per plans" F28... this was in order to get the canopy, canard top and nose top to all spline beautifully...
I made a flox corner all around the top for a nice strong edge...
And a flox corner around the corners as well...
I painted plain epoxy into the flox corner and applied flox...
I then installed 1-ply BID...
After cure, I trimmed everything up perfectly flush and re-drilled the canard pin holes...
The pins are still dry fitted and will be floxed in permanently later on...
I then reinstalled the canard to test fit it... PERFECT!!! I will glass the forward surfaces when I figure out how I want to close out the elevator torque tubes later on...
And there you have it... the canard top cover is complete!
No comments:
Post a Comment