Chapter 10 - Step 6

This step involves cutting the fishtail off and sanding the top to contour. Hard points are added for the elevator hinges. The top spar cap is added and finally the top layup is performed.

Canard Jigs October 31, 2001. Here are the new set of jigs mounted on the bottom of the canard prior to flipping it over. You can also see the 1 1/4" ID PVC pipe bondoed to the trailing edge. All the jigs read 0.0 on the electronic level. It was interesting flipping this over by myself. It wasn't a simple matter of flipping it leading over trailing edge. It also had to be yawed 180°. And all the while I had to set it down flat so I wouldn't knock off any of the new jigs.

Note: One mistake I made was not trimming the trailing edge glass straight before doing this. It is making contouring the top properly more difficult.

Cutting Fishtail October 31, 2001. After flipping the canard I grabbed the hacksaw blade and cut off the fish tail. The staples holding the peel ply on got in the way but weren't too bad. After cutting off the fish tail I grabbed the needle nose pliers and pulled all the staples out through the foam so I could sand the shape.

Removing Peelply October 31, 2001. After doing some contour sanding I decided to remove the peel ply. At first I started just pulling up the peel ply but it was making a mess of the foam. I then used an X-acto knife and scored the foam along the edge of the peel ply. Now I got a cleaner foam edge as I removed the peel ply.

Rough Trailing Edge October 31, 2001. Once all the peel ply and staples were gone I finished sanding the canard top to contour using jig F as a guide. All seems well except for the "step" in the foam at the trailing edge from where the peel ply was removed. I think I will simply do the trailing edge like you do on the elevator. The plans don't say to do this but I don't know how else this could work.

Hardpoint Prep November 1, 2001. This picture shows a couple of simple tricks I came up with that made doing the hinge hardpoints very simple. First I cut the six hardpoints from the 1" foam. Each was 1.5" x 2.25". My holes worked out to be about 0.25" aft of the spar cap trough. Using this info I used the canard template "E" to figure out where the hardpoint would end up. With this I was able to trace the curve on the bottom of the hardpoint. This made it fit perfectly into the hole.

To make the hole I simply used a hacksaw blade to cut out a nice, rectangular hole. I then used a chisel to remove the foam and scrape the glass a bit along the bottom.

Hardpoint Hole November 1, 2001. Here is a completed hole and one of the hardpoints.

Hardpoint Installed November 1, 2001. Here is a hardpoint microed in place and sanded down to the contour of the canard. The first hardpoint I smeared micro all over the hardpoint then stuck it in the hole. This was too messy and it prevented much of the micro from getting to the bottom of the hole. For the rest I smeared the micro all over the walls of the hole and on the bottom of the hardpoint. This gave a much better seal. I also sanded the harpoint down to the contour right after microing them in place instead of waiting for it to cure first.

November 3, 2001. Here is the completed upper spar cap with the peel ply in place. The upper spar cap took 12 layers of UNI tape. I didn't overfill the trough this time like the other so it was much easier to sand.

Preparing Glide Slope Antenna November 5, 2001. I decided to add separate nav and glide slope antennas to the upper surface of the canard. Here is the prep work on the glide slope. I began by cutting the copper foil to length. The GS was 7.5" and the Nav was 22.8". I then cut a length of coax to reach from the antenna, down the canard toward the center with about a foot extra to add a connector some day. I then traced the cable route and used the Dremel tool to route a channel for the cable. The channel was just deep enough so the cable didn't stick up. The channel was also a touch narrow so I could press the cable into place and it would stay put.

Next I exposed the copper strand and the shielding so they could be soldered to the tape. This picture shows the setup just prior to adding the solder. I used a board underneath so the heat of the soldering iron didn't hurt the canard. I added a little flux (not flox) then soldered the wire to the tape. I then added the three baluns to the cable and pressed it all into place. Lastly I peeled the paper off the copper tape and stuck the tape to the canard.

Both cables were routed toward the center of the canard but offset a bit toward the starboard side. The cable then goes straight down and exits on the bottom of the canard about 1.5" from the trailing edge. I will later add an appropriate connector to make removal of the canard easy.

November 5, 2001. Here is the overall layout of the nav antenna on the starboard end of the canard.

November 5, 2001. Here is the overall layout of the glide slope antenna on the port end of the canard.

November 5, 2001. Here are both antennas on the top of the canard.

Top Glassed November 7, 2001. The last step of the canard is complete (except for trimming the trailing edge). This layup took a while - an hour to micro, an hour per layer of glass, and an hour to peel ply and add the trailing edge treatment - six hours total!