Starboard Fuselage FAP Panel Glassed One Side

Laid on the UNI and BID on one side and then vacuum bagged it.

Time Spent Today: 1.5 hr

Back in the Saddle

Haven't done any work on the plane in almost 4 weeks.  A SCUBA diving vacation to Honduras took up 3 weeks of that; one week to prepare, eight days there, and one week to get back to normal.

Things are back to normal so today I got back to work by getting the starboard fuselage FAP panel ready to lay up, including cutting the UNI and BID to shape.

Time Spent Today: 2.0 hr

Second FAP Panel Glassed Both Sides

Same job as yesterday, just the next FAP Panel aft. There are two FAP panels left. The first two form the cockpit and baggage area (both now finished) and the next two form the tapering part of the fuselage back to the tail. There is a port one and a starboard one.

Time Spent Today: 2.0 hr

First FAP Panel Glassed Both Sides

Finally back in the shop.  I ran out of bagging film and it took a week to get more. I need to get better at keeping items 'in stock' to prevent useless delays like that.

Not much to say tho, we just glassed most of the inside of the forward-most HPT panel. We didn't glass all of the inside, just the parts that are not going to bend when the sides of the HPT are hinged up. This will make sense later.

Time Spent Today: 2.0 hr 

HPT has Legs and is Right Side Up

Here is the HPT both up side down and then right side up. The legs have my usual 1/2" bolts and nuts embedded in the ends so that the rig can be adjusted level on the slightly uneven floor. The hinges are some 3' stainless steel hinges I picked up off of Amazon for about $5 each. A bit of over-kill for this application maybe, but for $5 I will find many other uses for them at some point.

Time Spent Today: 6.0 hr

Hinged Panel Tool (HPT) Layed Out

The most significant thing today had to do with a push broom.  I finally got the corner of the shop slated for assembly of the plane cleared and swept. I then laid the panels that make up the HPT out on the floor to check the fit. Tomorrow I start putting hinges and supports on the HPT.

Time Spent Today: 0.0 hr ('cleaning the garage' is something I should have done anyway and so I am not counting that time toward build time)

Glassing Side One of the Second FAP Panel

While the first large layup we did a week ago came out fine, we decided to change to the Aeropoxy PH3665 hardener for 120 minutes of pot life instead of 60 minutes of pot life. The idea is that any excess epoxy in the layup would be more liquid during vacuum bagging and thus more would be removed.

It has become apparent that the vacuum pump we have been using (a 'wet' type pump generally used for servicing air conditioning) is not going to work. It gets very hot after 6 hours and emits a fine fog of oil mist while running. We are switching to a Gast DOA-P101-AA pump from eBay.

Time Spent Today: 2.0 hr