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UPDATES CONTINUED

earier

27 DECEMBER 2002
Finished the flap close outs and the aileron tips. The smell of resin certainly clears out the Christmas hangover.

29 DECEMBER 2002
Second attempt at flap close outs because there were some small air bubbles. These were drilled out and laid up again with more epoxy. Peter took his Marigolds off to make us a very nice Spaghetti Carbonara for lunch. The threads of glass fibre cloth added some extra texture. Spent the afternoon doing the very fiddly aileron roots which have a bolt recessed in each one.


The bolt is very fiddly to get in the right place

31 DECEMBER 2002
Filed off the ends of the flaps and ailerons, then made the foam pieces for the aileron mass balance weights. These weights stop the ailerons fluttering in turbulence, because if they flutter too much the whole aircraft disintegrates causing extreme embarrassment and a lot of inconvenience.

2 JANUARY 2003
Peter examined Ian's foam pieces for the aileron mass balance and graded them 'prototype' (=rejects) so he made some himself. Whatever else happens to this plane, it will certainly have the best looking set of aileron mass balance tabs when it is finished!

One of these is a reject and one is OK. Can you tell which is which?
Apparantly, only accountants can do this.

3 JANUARY 2003
Ian cleared up the mess left by Peter then prepared the ailerons for their hinges. Got it all lined up, put the epoxy flox on and tried the first pop rivet. This worked perfectly except that the rivet was not fully through the hole so it missed the hinge. Spent the next hour drilling it out and started again. Cleared up and left the aileron on the workbench to cure.

LATER, the same day
Peter arrived home to find that all the lights had fused. When he went into the garage he discovered a complete mess. The rack which stores all our metal tubes and assemblies had broken and crashed down onto the workbench severing an electric cable (hence the blown fuse). The falling debris also knocked over a container of resin and gouged a hole in the work top. Incredibly, despite the impact the aileron was undamaged. Just goes to show how strong these fibre glass structures are.


Here is the offending rack, now rebuilt to a higher standard

The reason for the failure of the rack (which Peter had designed and built) was nothing to do with the quality of Peter's construction. Quite naturally, he blames the glue gun which Ian had purchased as being of insufficient standard!

4/5 JANUARY 2003
Peter spent the weekend clearing up the workshop and repairing the tube rack. He then finished the last two aileron mass balance tabs.

7 JANUARY 2003
Finished the second aileron hinges without any hitches, then we cut out the ply pieces for the thigh support. We decided to spend the next few weeks on the cockpit module. We will leave the wings until the weather improves and we can move the fuselage outside to give us more space in the workshop.

Later