Here’s a shot of my starting point today with all the avionics bay foam reinforcement pieces in place.

Clearly I was missing the right side glare shield 1/4″ foam substructure.  When I claimed yesterday that I had no backside clearance for nails, it dawned on me this morning to not let the nail holes go to waist and use toothpick tips as wooden spikes in the same manner as we did when we build the canard!

I then floxed/micro’d the right side glare shield 1/4″ foam substructure in place.  I have to say my wood “spikes” worked a treat!

So, here’s a shot of all the aft nose foam in place.  From here on out any foam that is added will be a permanent part of the external nose structure (as versus the cover).

Here are a another few shots of the avionics bay reinforcement foam structure and the foam glare shield substructure.

I took a wider angle shot to show how the progression of the nose is coming along.

I then spent nearly an hour cutting glass. I then prepregged and wet out 2-ply BID tapes for the underside layups of the avionics bay reinforcement foam structure.

Here you can see the over (or under!) hanging glass of the avionics bay reinforcement foam structure layups.  I was on the fence about peel plying the layups, but it is so hot and humid that the glass seriously wasn’t overly interested in sticking to the wet micro’d foam! Using peel ply was magic and kept the glass wrangled and right in place!

Here’s a smattering of pics showing the BID layups on the underside avionics bay reinforcement foam structure.

After the underside avionics bay foam reinforcement structure was glassed and peel plied, I then set my sights on the 2-ply BID layup for the underside of the foam glare shield sub structure.  Again, I most definitely peel plied it as well!

Here’s another lower angle shot of the 2-ply BID layup on the underside of the foam glare shield sub structure.

My last official act of the evening was to razor trim the avionics bay reinforcement foam underside layup glass edges.

Tomorrow, my goal is to get the top side of the avionics bay foam reinforcement structure and the glare shield sub structure glassed.  After that, I can move on with the “standard” (LOL… right!) nose and canopy build.

I started off today by clearing off the big, convoluted pile ‘o stuff off the floxed/micro’d in forward avionics bay cover reinforcement piece.  I was quite pleased with how it came out.

A couple of reminders on this thing.  First, this piece is the first of 4 pieces to get installed. Just think cardinal headings and you get the gist.  Next up will be the aft piece that attaches to the top front edge of the instrument panel.

Next, when all 4 pieces are in place, interconnected, and glassed, this area will provide reinforcement from one fuselage side to the other and replaces the top foam avionics deck/aft nose cover that the plans says to glass in place just forward of the instrument panel.

Lastly, this forward piece specifically also serves to increase the height of F28 about 0.4″ to allow for a better flow of the top nose profile and removes a flat spot that was apparent in the nose contour.

Here’s a view from the aft side of the first of 4 pieces to go in around the perimeter of the avionics bay.

Before I went any further, I took a good half hour to ensure that the right side top forward longeron & F28 were trimmed, sanded and shaped to match the left side.  As per my usual response, they’re not perfectly matched, but pretty darn close.

Here I used a Sharpie as a sanding guide coat to “flatten” the top side on the right to better match the left side.

Pardon the bright sun in the background, but here’s a decent depiction of the top nose section “corner” curves now.  Much, much better than they were before and I’m very pleased with how they turned out.

I then cut, shaped and floxed in place the 3/8″ thick x 2.2″ wide PVC foam piece to the front top edge of the instrument panel.  Since this too has the apparent requisite pile ‘o crap on top of it to hold it all down in place, I grabbed a shot from underneath.  It’s the first foam structure visible just above the gray tape line… and a bit more visible on the right side of the pic.

To get the foam to behave, especially on the outboard edge curves, I drilled a series of small holes along the top edge of the instrument panel and used nails to keep the foam aligned properly.

Here’s a view of the right side reinforcement foam piece.  As you can see I cut relief lines in the foam, although this piece actually snapped off entirely at the top relief line as I was setting it in place.  No worries of course since I just micro’d it in place.

And here’s the aft foam reinforcement piece, or rather the pile ‘o crap securing the aft foam reinforcement piece.  This is #2 of 4 pieces with the side pieces coming up next.

<Fingers snapping> Voila!  And here are the side pieces almost completely in place. If you look closely you may be able to see that the front inboard corners are sticking up about a foam’s width high, due to the shape and curvature of the nose.  I floxed/micro’d both side pieces in at the aft side and about 2/3rds of the way down the aft outboard edge (to the longeron) and will let them completely cure before making the minor twist at the front edge to secure the side piece to the front cross foam piece’s aft edge.

This is a very good shot showing the access I’ll have to the avionics through this hole created by the 4 foam edge pieces.  Yes, this access hole is significantly larger than what many builders have done by creating an access hatch in this area of the nose.  I honestly feel (IMO of course) that once the glass is in place that there will no loss of structural integrity in this area, especially when the cover is secured in place.

Here you can see –about 5 hours later– I’ve micro’d (foam) and floxed (foam to longeron) the front of the side foam piece to the front cross foam piece’s aft edge using a nail to align and secure the 2 pieces.  The clamped on vise grip is to induce a slight twist to get the outboard edge to pivot up a hair (about 0.050″) –using the nail as the fulcrum– to better align the side foam’s outboard edge with the longeron, elevation-wise.

The slot in the side foam piece (on both sides) is for a length of structural hinge that will be attached to the underside of the aft nose/avionics bay cover on a vertical tab and will align and attach to an interlocking length of structural hinge that will be floxed/glassed onto the underside of the longeron.  The hinge pin will be modified with basically a set screw on the aft end that will be secured into a threaded point on the instrument panel, one in each upper corner of the panel.  When the cover is to be opened, unscrewing the hinge pins and sliding them aft will complete the hinge pin removal step.

[There will be a circlip on the hinge pin assembly that will A) not let the hinge pin be removed (or lost) from the panel without specific effort, and B) not let the hinge pin exit the aft-most tab on the longeron mounted hinge assembly, thus ensuring the hinge pin assembly is always ‘locked & loaded’ alignment-wise and ready for pain free insertion into the aft nose/avionics bay cover’s hinge assembly once the cover is closed and the upper hinge bracket drops into alignment with the lower hinge bracket].

After a LOT of assessing, measuring, research, assessing, cardboard mockups, more research, more measuring, pondering, etc. I finally came very close to the final configuration on the plan for the interface of the nose/avionics bay substructure, the aft nose/avionics bay cover, and the front canopy skirt.

With my researched and tested plan in hand, I got to cutting some foam.  First up was the 1/4″ thick PVC foam that will make up the BOTTOM, permanent glare shield substructure. I was originally going to just use a number of plies of glass for the glare shield sub structure, but I needed a bit of depth from the top of the instrument panel to create a drop down edge going aft for the front canopy skirt to seat onto/into.

The 1/4″ thick foam is a compromise for getting some depth/thickness for the glare shield and also the max thickness of any intrusion of the instrument panel’s perimeter in regards to both the physical clearance of panel components and visibility of the panel.

You’ll see later on that the front edge of this 1/4″ glare shield sub structure will get beveled at an angle going forward, and will support the aft nose/avionics bay cover that will follow that beveled edge and create a lip going aft of this foam (and glassed) glare shield sub structure to sit under and “interlock” with the bottom edge of front canopy skirt.

Also, as a point of note, the permanent glare shield substructure will be where the strip of blue LED cockpit lights are permanently attached to… so that the lights are tucked up and out of the way..

The front-to-aft depth along the majority of the foam glare shield substructure is 1.3″, while the flare at each end is 2.4″ thick.  My estimation of total foam width (accounting for the down curve and angle at each end) during foam cutting was about a half inch too long, and since each outboard end was specific in design and the middle area was static in its 1.3″ width, I had to cut about a 1/2″ out of the middle and install the glare shield foam as 2 separate pieces.  Since I have no “backside” real estate for nails on this go around, I tried to hand jam it with flox and some 5 min glue dabs along the length.  Well, the 5-min glue sorely disappointed and I ended up scrambling to clamp it and weigh the left half 1/4″ foam glare shied substructure piece in place.

It was late so I’ll let the left half cure before tackling the right half tomorrow.

Again, I’ll continue to work the nose substructure for the aft nose/avionics bay cover and the interface with the forward nose structure and aft canopy structure as well.  I have to say that in my research on the interface between the substructure, cover and canopy I stumbled across some gems of knowledge that will greatly help in constructing the canopy frame (regarding canopy frame rail width).

Creating a modification such as the aft nose/avionics bay cover is always slow and time consuming, not to mention quite maddening at times, but I really feel that having to take about 5 minutes to deal with hardware removal and then being able to rotate a cover forward to expose and provide access to the avionics bay and F28 forward/canard mounted items such as GPS antennas, airspeed switches’ adjustment screws, etc. . . . all pretty much on the fly and on demand will be quite worth this mod.

Moreover, it will clean up the external flow and look of the nose since I will have only one large hatch and then only one other break in the nose at the forward edge of the cover, just forward of the canard.  In addition, it allowed me to do the top canard tab long bolt attachment mod which although clearly not a mandatory mod, is definitely my preference.  Finally . . . yes, to be fair, I will add a couple of break lines on each forward fuselage side between the aft edge of the elevator/canard to the instrument panel edges.  These breaks (and the increased build time!) are honestly the only downside to incorporating a cover on the nose.

I started off today taking a gazillion more measurements, and checking out other builders’ sites on their canopy positioning and inboard elevator root fairings.  After getting my comfort level significantly higher on the whole of the plan working (at least on paper!) I got to work cutting out some 3/8″ PVC foam.

The first piece was for an intermediate bulkhead that I’m going to install just forward of the canard, which will look bow-shaped and will essentially serve more as both as a bit higher strength cap to the blue foam going in forward of it, and as a demarcation point for the avionics bay/nose cover going aft.

And yes, you read that correctly.

I will be incorporating a flip-up/removable cover for the canard and avionics area forward of the instrument panel and aft of F28.  It will also overlap the panel going aft so that the canopy will physically lock it into place when closed (that of course is not the only securing method on the aft side).

More on the avionics bay/nose cover below, for now here’s another view of the intermediate bulkhead that I’ll be securing into place before the nose foam is put in place.

I also cut out a 1.8″ wide strip of the 3/8″ PVC foam that will be the front piece of what is roughly a picture frame looking foam rectangle that will be floxed and glassed in place for torsional strength of the upper forward fuselage between the panel and F28, and the upper longerons on each side.  It will essentially be an interconnected “C” channel (just sandwiching foam in this configuration) around the entire edge of the avionics area, with all the glass locking the 4 sides (and corners) together.

Another shot of the nose/avionics bay reinforcement piece, which is the first of 4 separate side pieces to be installed.  This design will allow for a significant opening in the top for access to the avionics forward of the panel, which will all be enclosed by the removable cover that extends from the front edge of the canard to just aft of the instrument panel.

I’m aware that this design is deemed a bit controversially by some builders and Canardians, but I’ve studied a number of designs and am mitigating any induced weaknesses to the airframe structure by implementing it.  In fact, I honestly think that my design will be significantly stronger that either the plans version or by simply having an avionics access hatch cut in the top of nose just forward of the canopy/instrument panel.

Part of my decision process today was to come to a final conclusion on exactly the design and configuration of the sides of the aft nose and avionics bay cover.  My design uses some what of a split elevator fairing where the fairing itself is integral to the cover and then secures to a very robust bottom segment of the fairing via a screw up through the bottom securement tab into an embedded nutplate on the underside notched portion of the fairing.

Where the trailing edge of the elevator fairing intersects the fuselage sidewall and the inherent transition fillet on the underside of the fairing where the determinant dimensions for both the aft and bottom edges of the aft nose/avionics bay cover sides.  After RE-reviewing a number of Berkut, Long-EZs and Dave Ronneberg designs with nose hatches, I settled on a simple angled transition from cover to fuselage at the instrument panel external fuselage area.

I double and triple checked all the possible associated variables and potential issues I could think of, and then I made the plunge.  I made the final design version on the left side of the fuselage, then traced it to transfer it to the right side.

Which you see is completed here . . .

I then took my wide roll of packing plastic and wrapped up the nose from tip to instrument panel to protect the innards from errant fiberglass, foam and other nasties.

I then loaded a fresh blade on my Fein saw and got to work on my respective fuselage sidewall surgeries.  My goal was to cut just enough in depth to cut through the glass and not get into the foam underneath.

If I had any doubts as to how secure my glassing was on the fuselage, this endeavor laid that to rest.  It took a good 20 minutes minimum on each side to get the glass pried off while being careful not to damage the foam underneath.

The action here was actually a 2-part task in that not only did it expose the areas on the upper/forward fuselage sides that will allow me to create depressions for the aft nose/avionics bay cover, but also to correct my previous non-shaping of the front “corners” of the fuselage that should have been significantly rounded over before the fuselage exterior was skinned.

In the summer of 2012 I glassed the exterior of the fuselage without having caught the requirement to round the very front of the longeron and nose sidewall foam, as you see that I’ve just done on the right side (left pic below) vs the way I had it (right pic below). Yes, I was living in blissful ignorance until Marco went to glass his fuselage, at which point he queried me about it.  I gave him my incredibly well thought out reply of, “Huh?! What are you talking about?!”  Followed a bit later by, “Ah, <enter appropriate expletive here!>”  To see a great explanation of this, check out Marco’s blog.

As for the aft nose/avionics bay cover, I will be laying up glass back onto this exposed foam area with overlap back onto both the existing fuselage sidewall glass and onto the new aft nose/avionics bay front reinforcement structure (“picture frame”) that will be in place between the panel and F28, and the longerons on each side.  This will serve not only to replace the structural element of the previously removed sidewall glass, but tie the fuselage sides to each other via the reinforcement structure.

So here’s my shaping the forward top longeron intersections with F28, with the right side (left side of pic) nearly finished and the left side still untouched.

I then finished the forward top longeron shaping to about 90%.  I still have to do a tad bit more dialing-in so that both sides match in shape, but it was late, I was tired of sanding and sanding with a hard board is amazingly loud, so I wanted to take it easy on my neighbors and finish the final 10 minutes worth of sanding tomorrow.  I also need to finalize the depth of my sidewall depressions in the exposed foam.

Here’s another shot of my shaping the forward top longeron intersections with F28, with both sides shaped this time around.

Yes, I should have taken a picture of my shaping and prepping of the aft nose/avionics bay front reinforcement piece before I floxed/micro’d/5-min glued it in place. This pile ‘O stuff is simply to keep the various parts of it weighted down <correctly> since the aft end of this piece is ever so slightly raised to match the downward angle from the panel to the F28 bulkhead.

This contraption (aka “convoluted pile of crap”) right here is exactly why I decided to set the 4 sides of this internal reinforcement frame in individually, since the installation of each side/edge has it’s own unique requirements and challenges.  Once all the pieces are floxed/micro’d in place, I’ll do a final sanding & shaping of the new “one-piece” structure and glass it in place as one unit.

Here’s a straight on view of the aft nose/avionics bay front reinforcement piece.  As you can see, the center section is situated and mounted on the top edge of F28, where the outer 30% on each side is then even with the top edge of F28.  This gives me just a tad bit more height in the center area of F28 for a good nose angle flow from the panel to nose tip as it traverses F28.

And a couple more shots of the aft nose/avionics bay front reinforcement piece on the left side.  The transition from the piece being on top of F28 to simply adjacent F28 is underneath the taped popsicle stick securing the bonded mating surfaces, but you can make out the foam piece floxed in place at the F28-longeron corner junction.

Tomorrow I will continue my work on the nose structures to get them installed and glassed in prep for starting on the actual nose structure and nose cover build. I would estimate in the next couple of days I will also start on some preliminary canopy installation tasks.

I kicked off the day spending a little over an hour on the yellow Oil “Tower” Box in its continuing evolution.  I started by wet sanding the yellow paint to make the surface even more uniform than it had been before.  Although I’m not naturally a patient dude, that’s exactly what is called for when finishing parts that don’t start out nice and uniform in shape to begin with.

After a good wet sanding I then marked the cut line that will separate the box into the lower quart oil bottle (and shop rag) storage part and the lid top, which will have a hinge mounted on one narrow side with a twist-lockable clasp on the opposite narrow side.

I then used my Fein saw to carefully cut the lid top off.

Here’s the lid off the top with just the tip top of the oil bottle peeking out and another shot showing the foam plug that I used to create the rounded edges & corners of the lid top.

I then removed the lid top’s foam plug and tape and quickly rough-sanded the inside to knock down some “gotchas” ready to devour unprotected flesh.

I then spent a good 20+ minutes extracting the empty quart oil bottle and associated cardboard and tape that served to make up the plug for the oil “tower” box.

Here’s the inside view of the oil “tower” box.

I had to cut 3 sides of the top part of the oil bottle to get it and the tape removed from the inside of the box, so I taped the bottle back together for a quick test fit… which I was very pleased with since the oil bottle fit is like a hand in a glove.  Ever so slightly snug just to keep the oil bottle from any inadvertent movement.

Then, just a quick double check on upper clearance –and for my own satisfaction– I placed the lid back in place on top.

I then prepped some BID, whipped up some epoxy and laid up some internal corner plies of glass in the long side corners of the Oil “Tower” Box.  I then peel plied the layups.

I also had prepregged 1 ply of BID and 1 ply of UNI to layup on the forward side of the elevator up travel control stop.  I decided that this would be strong enough with just the foam tab piece sticking out 90° from the sidewall and scrapped glassing in the perpendicular triangular piece that I had cut for this setup.  I then of course peel plied the lay up.

To keep the blog on track topic wise I’ll fast forward a few hours and show you the forward layup on the elevator up travel control stop, where I’ve pulled the peel ply and trimmed up the edges.  Nice and simple, and strong, and it works a treat!

I then gathered up my two long (and quite expensive) AN3-62A canard upper mounting tab bolts along with their associated thin-walled 4130 tube sleeves.

I ran a long 1/4″ drill bit through the holes to ensure they were nice and clean with a good diameter to fit the sleeves, at which I point I used straight epoxy and very wet flox to install the bolt sleeves into the holes through the F28 longeron doubler and the squared-off extensions I added.

Here’s the final install of the right bolt sleeve into the right F28 longeron doubler and the squared-off extension.  The left was the same as this.

While the canard upper mounting tab bolt sleeves cured in their new longeron doubler locations, I then whipped up some K1000-3 90° nutplate assemblies using spare G10 Garolite pieces I had on hand –which I didn’t even have to cut! (How’s that for being laz… er, efficient?!)

BTW, I didn’t make them match in size because I prefer the larger sized one with bigger surface area to grip the flox, but the smaller one would of course work as well.

When I did a final fit with the canard in place, I must have been off a hair in my initial measurements with the bolts, since after install their would be no thread showing on either side.  Hmmm…. clearly the longeron doubler would need to be trimmed because I wasn’t forking out even more cash for longer bolts.  I just wish that I had figured this out prior to installing the 4130 sleeves!

Once I set myself to the task it really wasn’t that big of a deal.  I started by drilled a small series of holes just a few millimeters apart.  Then used the Fien saw with a straight blade and narrow wood chisel to remove the wood and glass from around the protruding 4130 tube, respectively for each side of course.

I then used a cutoff wheel on my Dremel to make quick work of trimming down the protruding thin-walled 4130 steel tube sleeve on each side.

I then test fit both sides and it looked as if my trim job had done the trick to provide me with enough thread exposure to ensure a good bolt fit.

I then technically mounted the canard for the first time ever! (In regards to its final configuration… <grin>)

It was hard to get both top and bottom canard mounting bolts showing with the lighting, but here’s my attempt.

And here are the canard upper mounting tab bolts’ nutplate assemblies floxed into place on the aft end of the (trimmed) F28 longeron doubler extensions.  Admittedly, I got a bit more thread on the left side than I was looking for, but as long as the bolt isn’t bottoming out on the thread shoulder before it’s secure (and at first appearances it is not) than all is good!

I’ll add just a bit more flox around the top and outboard edges of the nutplate assemblies to ensure that they are secure since the process of getting the long thin bolts installed along with the lower bolts requires a slight bit of coercion and I wouldn’t want the nutplate to pop off into the bowels of the closed up avionics area as I’m trying to mount the canard.

Tomorrow I’ll actually start with DIRECT PREP for the nose and canopy build, while these associated prerequisite tasks will be relegated to secondary sideline tasks.

Ok, so I admittedly spent a few hours today on the Oil “Tower” Box, so prepare yourself for a number of pics of it.

I started out by giving the primed Oil “Tower” Box a very thorough sanding down.

I then hit it with another few coats of primer before heading out to run some errands.

When I returned I again sanded the primer, only this time I wet sanded it.

With a solid base of primer in place I then set about to rid myself of the numerous divots I had in the surface of the Oil “Tower” box.  I would be using EverCoat’s Metal Glaze for the aforementioned ridding of divots.

I then slathered up the oil “tower” box with Metal Glaze and let it cure.

I then took the box outside and knocked down all the high points of the cured Metal Glaze with a hard sanding block.  I then brought it back inside and wet sanded it to get the final feathered finish between filler and pre-existing box surface.

I then shot it with a couple coats of primer one last time.

I then very lightly wet sanded the Oil “Tower” box before taking it outside and hitting it with 3 coats of yellow paint.  Tomorrow, this paint will get sanded and then I’ll cut the top of the box off, at which point the separate pieces will then get another 1-2 coats of yellow paint.

While the yellow paint cured on the Oil “Tower” box I reorganized the fuselage in the shop to allow me to mount the canard.  I then got the canard down off its perch and mounted it to the fuselage.  The mounted canard will provide some data on the final nose build and also facilitate finishing some prerequisite nose tasks before starting in on the nose and canopy builds proper.

Although still a bit tight with just a tad bit of finagling required, I was quite happy with the fit of the canard and the “ease” of getting the canard mounting bolts installed.

I also tested out my new 5/8″ elevator control rod that appropriately enough only has ONE hole for the pitch trim servo arm attach (Just say NO to extra holes!).

I then rounded up some scrap 3/8″ PVC foam that had a ply of BID glassed to each side and used it as the elevator up-travel control stop.  I whipped up a small amount of flox with fast hardener and also used a small dab of 5-minute glue to secure the control stop to the right fuselage side wall.  As you can see, I used the actual elevator control arm as a sort of jig.

The way I knew the elevator control arm was in the right position was by using the elevator angle template to ensure I was at the max 15° elevator up travel.  I’m actually just a hair lower than I can get the elevator to travel, but any higher up and it starts to contact the canard TE, so this is a good position for the elevator control stop.

Since I had access to the aft side of elevator control up-travel stop, I laid up a ply of BID with the requisite flox fillet.  Tomorrow I’ll layup a ply of BID on the front side and also glass in a small triangular piece perpendicular to the current glassed in tab.

I’m drawing near to being finished with the internal prerequisite tasks for prepping the nose and avionics area for the nose and canopy builds.  I estimate that tomorrow should be the last full day I spend on any prerequisite tasks for the nose and canopy build.

The title is for my buddy Dave B!

Well, after messing around upstairs a bit when I finally got down to the shop in the early afternoon I was met by an oil crisis . . . as in engine oil was all over the floor and I was in a crisis!  Apparently, with the engine inverted the plug in my crankcase vent gave way and the engine oil exited out onto the large protective drip pan that I have under the engine. But then the oil pooled up on one side, dipping the pan on that side and overflowed the pan edge onto the shop floor in an area about 3′ x 6′.  It just so happens that corner of the shop is where I have a decent amount of wood stored up against the wall.

After nearly an hour of cleaning up the oil, I then started in on the wood by trimming all the oil contaminated parts off.

I then rotated the engine upright and reconfigured the spark plugs and cylinder dehydrator plugs by replacing the top spark plugs with the cylinder dehydrator plugs and firing up the engine dehumidifier.

I had been cleaning and organizing the garage a bit when I discovered where the oil tanker ran aground in my shop, so I went back to that for a bit after I cleaned up all the oil to get the shop a bit more clean and organized.

After some much needed shop cleaning and organizing, I finally used the deck chair pad that I purchased along with my pad of blue memory foam to experiment with different sitting heights.  I think I’ve found what I like which would equate to about a 3″ bottom seat cushion that transitions into a 1-1/2″ to 2″ seat back cushion.  This configuration really gives me a decent seat height for visibility and not feeling like I’m crammed into a low sitting 1950’s mini sports coupe.

I then spent a good 30 minutes dialing in my “final” rudder/brake pedal locations, which I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up moving by 1-2 mounting holes either fore or aft after the rudder cables and brakes are connected and operational.

I then removed the rudder/brake pedals and got to work on the laborious task of prepping the front nose area for paint.  It was quite the pain, but I knew if I didn’t do it now that I wouldn’t have an opportunity to do it later so I knocked it out.  Moreover, I wanted to get this nose paint shot and curing overnight.

After about 2 hours I had the nose area taped up and was ready to lay down some paint.

I started with a couple of light coats of gray self-etching primer.

And hit all the exposed spots in the nose area.

After letting the primer cure for about 45 minutes, I then hit it with a couple coats of the speckled top coat, which is the same trunk paint I used on the nose wheel cover (NB) and avionics bay area.

I let the top coat alone to cure for 30+ minutes and then removed the protective tape and paper.

If you were wondering what my white paint job was all about, here it is. As you can see it’s simply a designed accent feature to “cap” the forward end of what is essentially a big white stripe down the middle of the nose compartment.  I figured the white NG30 covers and front mini-bulkhead would lighten up the nose compartment to offset the use of some dark speckled paint.  Plus, I think the dark vs. light contrast just looks snazzy!

I left a good majority of the floor unpainted for a few reasons.  First, I didn’t want to paint an area that I felt was a higher traffic area.  Next, I did’t want too much dark paint in the nose compartment both from an aspect of visibility (being too dark) and minimizing paint weight where possible.  Lastly, I like to keep a bit of what I consider the cool build features exposed, so analogous to the lower longerons that I left exposed, I could see the dished floor pan and embedded phenolic pedal hardpoint as some good/fun discussion points at fly-ins, etc.

I should also note that I will be adding in a small length of Nylaflow as a cable guide between the bottom of the pedal “S” curve on the front of the pedal assembly to a bolted in AN111-3 hardpoint that is located in the lower sidewall forward of the pedal assembly… on each side of course.  The resulting layups to mount these small cable guides requires that the lower side wall remain clear, for now.  I’ll most likely finish the sidewall paint down to the corner once these cable guides are in place.  I should also note that I left the floor clear on the forward side for the foam/glass work that will be required to mount the oil “tower” storage box as well.

I then finally brought my vision for the nose compartment to life by setting the forward and aft NG30 covers in place.  Granted, the forward NG30 cover is not finished to the mirror shine that the aft cover and forward mini NG30 bulkhead are, but once the wiring, parking brake, brake lines and oil “tower” box are all in place the visibility of this piece will be greatly reduced anyways, so I’m leaving it as the duller looking member of this triad.

Here’s more of a view from the top that you would most likely see peering down into this compartment with the front nose hatch open.  Note that I will have to obscure (read: destroy) the look of that beautiful top plate of the aft NG30 cover (left in pic below) when I mount the Radenna SkyRadar-DX ADS-B antenna to the NG30 cover.  Alas, I think it will still look clean enough . . .

I’ll end this evening’s post with a couple of angled side shots showing the contrast of the white NG30 cover and the dark painted NG30 sides.  This really was the affect I was going for with the white NG30 covers and forward NG30 mini-bulkhead as accent features.  I had originally planned on using no paint at all so the dark paint would not have been visible obviously, but a relatively small amount of paint really does do such a great job evening out all the splotchy build textures and multiple colors assaulting one’s eyes as they peer into these compartments.  I think for a minimal weight penalty it really does the trick nicely (as a point of note, I have not yet pulled up the rather large taped off floor segments in the avionics bay yet, which will expose even more non-painted floor area).

Tomorrow I will press forward with finalizing the nose internals to get ready for the nose and canopy build.  I will most likely finally get around to mounting the canard to facilitate glassing in an elevator control hard stop and finalize the canard top tab mounting hardware configuration & install.