Chapter 5

Dates worked on:

In chapter 5 we built the sides of the main body. We built the forms out of 1" x 6" boards and 1/8" masonite. We used carpet tape to hold the foam to the masonite. In this picture you can see the foam stuck to the masonite form. We added additional foam to the long corners. This build-up will allow us to round the outside corners without sanding through the foam.

Here you can see my faithful helpers. We work in the garage two or three nights a week for about one and a half hours. We try to work six to ten hours on the weekend. We have averaged about fifteen hours per week so far.

We used small nails to hold the foam pieces together while the epoxy/micro balloons cured. We then sanded the foam for a smooth surface to lay-up the fiberglass on. If you look closely, you can see the round recessed areas we sanded into the foam. This area is to allow more hand room around the control stick.

You can see the fiberglass lay-up on the foam in this picture.

I used small wood blocks under the clamps to hold the triangular longeron down. This was not my first plan. Plan #1 was to put notches in the plastic cover on the clamps. After I floxed the longeron down, I attempted to clamp them in place. Plan #1 failed miserably. I then quickly made the blocks. This worked well.

I use anything I can find in the garauge to wiegh things down as the epoxy cures. Someday I may get some dedicated weights. For now this seems to work well.

Here you can see the electrical channel running through the landing gear reinforcing build-up. There is very little metal or wood used in the construction of this plane. Most of the wood was installed in this chapter.

Is it obvious my son loves to have his picture taken. I think this is so he can take credit for building the plane when he gets older. After the epoxy holding the longerons in place cured, we did the reinforcing fiberglass lay-ups over the longerons. Here you can see the finished side removed from the masonite jigs.