Today I knocked out the final tasks on the fuel tank grounding wires.  I started by grabbing a couple of ring terminals and modifying them by snipping off the actual ring portion.

I then slid just the leftover clamp part of the ring terminal onto the pair of ground wire leads in the left fuel tank….

Here’s a closer shot.

I then crimped the 2 ground wire leads together, removed the blue plastic coating on the modified terminal, and snipped the shortest of the 2 leads.

I then coiled up the fuel tank ground wire and set it in position so that when I mount the top skin and eventually cut the hole for the fuel tank filler cap, the ground wire will be right there ready to be connected to.

I then repeated the process for the right fuel tank.

I then spent a bit more time dialing in the aft plate for the right strake root pilot air vent. After getting the shape and position determined, I cut the plate out of 1/16″ thick G10.

From my test fit below I think this air vent configuration looks really promising and I’m excited to see it all come together.

My next task was to finally layup the inside glass BID on the very front of the right strake opening.  I didn’t overlap the glass onto the inside sidewall face on the very front sharp curve, and opted for a flox corner/edge on the inboard edge instead.

In addition, I laid up a ply of BID to the remaining top edge that had about 7″ left to do after my previous layup.

After my two layups on the front right interior strake opening, I peel plied certain areas of these layups.

A few hours later, after pulling the peel ply and a quick cleanup, this is what it looked like.

I also spent quite a bit of time today on the right wing aileron trough.  About 2 hours all told.  This shot is after I put the wings back in the shop from outside.

I was able to get the initial foam dug out from the inboard edge . . .

And all the peel ply removed from the top edge.

I got a good bit of foam removed and edges cleaned up on the outboard edge as well.

But still have to remove the very stubborn peel ply from the bottom edge.  I suspect I’ll be spending at least another hour to get this task completed, at which point I’ll do a final prep and then layup the 3-ply + aileron trough sheer web on the right wing.

Then I’ll get to work on the left wing as I also knock out the right strake pilot vent and the final installation of the aft nose/avionics cover.

Today I started out on the second round of securing the fuel tanks’ ground wires to create an up and down roller-coaster style pattern so that the ground wire breaks the surface of the fuel to better remove pesky electrons loitering thereabouts.

I started on the left side and tacked the ground wire to the underside of the strake leading edge with a dab of flox and small patch of BID.

In addition, I decided to run another ground wire lead to the aft inboard corner.  I figured fuel in these birds obviously follows the slope of the CS spar to drain back in this aft corner, so if I have only very little fuel in the tanks before refueling I still want it grounded.
[I understand that these birds almost always get refueled in some variant of the grazing position…. but in the off chance I go from very little fuel to refueling to full tanks for say, a long cross country trip, I want every scenario covered. It’s just too easy to do at this point not to fairly quickly add in another ground lead].

I then did the same on the right side, tacking the ground lead to the underside of the strake leading edge.

And then running ground lead #2 to the aft corner.  As with the left side, this lead runs along the bottom of the tank and then turns vertical in the very aft corner up to the bottom of the top tank lip.

I had a somewhat surprising issue during the strake build when it came time to remove the wings –after my wing bolt mod where I had captured all the wing bolts inside the CS spar and had the bolts sticking out… all facing aft. Let’s just say that the ensuing effort to get the wings off with this mod in place, was, well, challenging to say the least.

With all 3 bolts sticking straight aft, the amount of wiggling and rocking to get those wings off was not overly comforting.  There was a bit of manipulation to get the wings ON, but nothing compared to removing them.  Especially with the thought of the strakes being completed and here the wings have to be fought with to be removed: fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me . . .  Right?

I had made a decision immediately following the first not-stellar experience of version 1 of the wing bolt mod to reverse the inboard bolts so that only the outboard 2 bolts were protruding aft.  This eliminated the 2′ or so arm that clearly impacted the alignment of these bolts if they were not all exactly parallel with each other.  With just the slightest angular offset, at that big of an arm —in my thinking at least— it was creating the friction that jammed up getting the wings off without hassle and malcontent.

My first task was removing the inboard wing bolts and then remounting the securing bracket on the inside of the CS spar.  Here’s the left side.

And the right side.  I then marked the center point of inboard wing bolt hole on the bracket using a 1/2″ drill bit… very carefully.

One issue was how to secure the nut to the bracket. Securing a bolt is easy since it goes through the hole and that captures it in the up/down position.  The bracket then secures it in the left/right and forward/aft positions.

Well, in a somewhat odd and rare experience on this build, I discovered that capturing the nut was actually going to be very simple. Since it has a hex portion and then a significantly smaller round portion on the part furthest from the bolt head. So I drilled out top of each bracket to allow for this round part to be press-fitted into the bracket.

And voila!  Once the bracket was secured in place the nut would be captured so as not to slide out of position.

Here’s a few shots of the press-fitted inboard wing nut into the bracket.

Again, the hex portion is captured by the edges of the bracket, in the “U” channel.

My method for dialing in the position for the actual bolt getting mounted in repeated fashion into the nut was to mount the nut in the CS spar contained by the bracket, but not tighten it fully.  I then threaded the bolt in place and as I progressively tightened the bolt, I progressively secured the bracket screws until fully tightened.  By the end of this process I could remove the inboard wing bolt and replace it, tighten and remove again with the nut positioned in the exact spot it needed to be to engage trouble-free with the bolt.

This mod of a mod allows me to reclaim the more traditional method of mounting and removing the wings by sliding the wings onto the outboard bolts, and then aligning and securing the inboard bolt.  All still without having to climb under the wing or get inside the plane —rather person #2 inside the plane— with arm up inside the CS spar.

Here’s a final shot of the nut captured inside the CS spar, aligned and ready to receive the inboard wing bolt.

Before it got dark I decided to kick off the first real effort of removing the excess foam inside the wings’ aileron channels.  I pulled the wing dolly outside and started cutting and hacking away at the wing aileron channels.  This is to remove the foam that is there when the wing cores are hot wired, and provides support during wing glassing, but then needs to be removed prior to glassing in the aileron channel sheer web.

I then brought the wings back into the shop, vacuumed out the blue foam bits and dust and then did another couple of rounds of cleaning up the channel.  I’ll refine it more over the next couple of days and get it prepped for the 3 plies of sheer web BID that goes in.

One specific task that won’t be fun and will most likely take a bit of time is removing the peel ply that I ran under the foam that was just removed, along the top and bottom edges of the wing aileron trough.

It was getting a little later in the evening, so I decided to play around a bit with the right strake root pilot air vent that I’ll create/glass/install. It took a number of machinations to figure out the angle, size, fit, configuration, etc. for the vent.

I’ve been mulling this vent around in my mind for over a month now, even before Marco and Chris came down here a few weeks ago. I say this because what I’m doing with these separate (not connected to the RAM pressurized heating/air duct system) strake vents for both pilot and GIB are heavily influenced by what Mike Toomey did on the Long-EZ that he built and Chris eventually bought.

Within the past week I decided to go with the same type of eyeball vent that I’m using on my panel, the Aveo.  In fact, I’m not just using the same type, I’m actually using the exact one since I’m stealing the black one off the panel and will replace it with a silver/aluminum colored one for contrast with the black panel.

This type clearly does not have the flange and 4 corner screws as some other common types do… this is where my design is slightly different than Mike’s.  However, for maintenance, and to allow for some type of filter screen replacement and cleaning, I will be mounting this onto a plate that will subsequently be secured to the vent structure via 3 screws.

Notice that due to the angle of the strake and required position of the vent that it will protrude out slightly from the sidewall, with a noticeable but non-intrusive bump.

It was fairly late in the evening at this point, so I stopped with my initial rounds on the wings and pilot air vent and got one last round of fuel tank ground wire securing under my belt.  Actually this is the last round since all that needs to be done once this flox and glass cures is to terminate the 2 ground leads together and lop off the shortest of the 2 leads.

I started again on the left side.  I ran the forward and aft ground wire leads together and floxed/glassed secured them to the tank floor, just off to the inboard side of where the tank fuel cap will be located.

In the left aft tank corner I secured the end and top of the ground wire to the top corner edge of the tank, again using a dollop of flox and small patch of BID.  I also secured the middle of the wire on the tank floor to eliminate any type of vibration action going on.

I then did the same thing in the right tank.  First with combining and securing the 2 ground leads together.

And then securing the aft corner ground wire lead.

With my myriad of disparate tasks done for the day, I called it a night.

The 5 layups I refer to in this blog title are the ones I did yesterday: Left and right fuel site gages, left and right fuselage side edge of the GIB front strake opening, and the right tank sump vent securement.

Today I didn’t get a lot done but I did finalize those 5 layups by pulling peel ply, trimming glass and cleaning them up.

I started with the fuel site gages.  Thankfully the glass was still in the “green” stage and was still fairly soft and pliable.  I don’t like putting protective tape on something, then laying up glass without then immediately removing the tape before final cure to ensure everything is ok.  This was a notable mistake I made a time or two regarding the canopy.

On the fuel site gage I spent a good half hour on each one with a razor blade very carefully trimming glass away from the site glass and removing slivers of tape that got underneath the glass edge.  The end result of my fuel site glass installation, including this effort, I would say is a solid “good.”  Not stellar, but definitely acceptable.  Of course once this area is painted and the site gages are marked, functional and fuel levels able to be ascertained, all this will fall into the forgettable past.

Albeit slightly out of focus, here’s a shot of both fuel site gages installed.

Here we have the right thigh support sump tank vent secured to the main tank sidewall.

And a shot of the GIB strake openings front curved sidewall edges glassed, peel ply pulled, trimmed and sanded.  These turned out just fine as well.

I did some planning and assessing on my fuel tank vents.  Since those will get routed outside of the cockpit and up through the top engine cowling “shoulders” that extend forward and slope down on each side of the turtledeck, I’m going to wait until I’m ready to close out the tank with the top skins before I install those…. to ensure no damage occurs during the fuselage flip.

After determining the routing and configuration of the fuel tank vent tubing, I then proceeded with routing the fuel tank ground wire and securing it in place by tacking it to the fuel tank floor.

My understanding is that the critical point of fuel tank grounding is ridding the fuel of the excess electrons that are hanging around on the surface of the fuel. Thus, the ground wire must protrude up through the fuel surface at some point. Well, if one fuel surface break through point is good, than multiple ones are even better eh?  So in securing my fuel tank grounding wire I’m simply zig-zagging it up and down a few times to ensure I have fuel surface contact throughout the fuel tank.  Easy enough to do and if it avoids any refueling issue in the future than worth an extra couple of hours to do all this.

Here’s the left fuel tank.  Note that the ground wire comes off the tank drain block and immediately goes up to aft upper edge of the strake leading edge.  I haven’t tacked the wire at this position yet.  It then roller coasters down to the tank floor, where I put a small piece of peel ply for this very reason while I was glassing the bottom skin core.

The wire then heads up again at an angle to the top of the DB baffle . . .

Where I drilled a small hole and ran the wire through the top edge of the baffle, right under the T-hat.

I did the same thing in the right tank as well.  Here’s the front compartment ground wire vertical zig-zag . . .

And the wire traversing the DB baffle at the very top through a small drilled hole.

My plan is to do this ground wire in stages, a bit per day for a few days. My first task for routing this ground wire was to tack it with flox and a small patch of BID to the tank floor.

Tomorrow I’ll tack it to the bottom of the strake leading edge and at the DB baffle hole.  I’ll then assess the next day to decide if I’m going to add another leg going to the back corner of the tank.  In addition to that, I’ll be doing final strake tasks, finish the aft nose/avionics cover install, and start working on the ailerons as I prep to flip the bird upside down for bottom strake skinning and a myriad of other build tasks.

Today was all about getting the fuel site gages installed.  I started off by drilling the 2 small holes in the tank sidewall that allow fuel to enter high and low into the gage.

I started on the left side, drilled my 1/8″ holes and then test fitted the fuel site gage. I then did the same on the right side.

The small inlets on the gage, which I failed to get any pics of, are protected by sliding a toothpick into the small inlet hole.  That’s really not necessary at this stage, but rather to protect the inlet holes from getting contaminated with flox or micro, either being acceptable to use when installing these gages.

I’m glad I compared the paper template —that I got many years ago when I bought these gages from Vance Atkinson— to the actual gage before I cut any glass because the size was all wrong.  To remedy this I measured out the gages and modified the template.

Here we have the modified template on the right and the first of two cut prepregged 2-ply BID layup on the left.

Here is the left fuel site gage first slathered with micro, then glassed in place with the 2-ply BID layup above. I then peel plied the layup. I then repeated the process on the right side.

Ok, not to be a nagging negative nelly, but I’m just really not a fan of EZ-Poxy. I couldn’t imagine building an entire plane out of this stuff.  Why?  Well, if you’ve used MGS you’ll note beneficial characteristics that you don’t realize you’re not getting with, say, EZ=Poxy until you use both a fair amount.  When you mix up flox or micro with MGS, it seems to really hold its shape and consistency quite a fair bit better than EZ-Poxy.

Subjective? Yes. But on a regular basis now I just don’t seem to encounter the problems with MGS layups that I do with EZ-Poxy ones.

Case in point is that I felt I had to go as dry as I dared, on a fuel related layup, with this EZ-Poxy micro since it would all just end up at the bottom of the site gage as internally, under the glass after it had been laid up, would “slide” down the edge and collect on the bottom.  About every 15 minutes or so I would check the site gages and would be greeted by a bunch of micro towards the bottom and resulting air gaps along the top third of the gage side. Peel ply makes it worse because as you really work the peel ply to drive out air bubbles, etc. it just accelerates the “big slide” . . . and again, this was not wet micro. It was the consistency of thick peanut butter.  I just don’t have these issues nearly as much nor to this degree with MGS… and have to really say I appreciate working with it that much more now.

Fast forward hours later and I was still carefully lifting up the glass and resetting all the micro back up to the top so that there wouldn’t be ZERO fillet (read: air gap) on the top third edge of the gage, a normal sized fillet in the middle third, and way too much micro on the bottom third.  Again, this was NOT wet micro. It was significantly on the dryer side… much more than I prefer for fuel tank work.

Luckily my required strake/fuel tank to-do list gets significantly shorter by the day so I won’t be dealing with EZ-Poxy much longer.

Speaking of EZ-Poxy… along with the fuel site gages, I made up a bit more epoxy to use for some flox and my 4 ply (3 BID + 1 UNI) layup to secure the right strake thigh support sump fuel vent to the sidewall. Since I prepregged it, this layup was straightforward and went fairly quickly.

As my EZ-Poxy layups cured, I then started on the last 2 layups of the evening: the exposed foam edges on the forward curved portions of the aft strake baggage area cutouts in the fuselage sidewall.

I didn’t want to create a foam dust storm by using my Dremel, so I simply used a razor knife to cut the edges of the foam to allow for a flox corner.  Here’s the left side, but I of course did this on the right as well.

I then prepregged a 1″ x 12″ ply of BID for each side and laid them up.  I then peel plied each layup.

With that, I then left my 5 layups to cure overnight and called it a night.

I started out today with one of my occasional selfies to let the FAA know that I’m actually building this bird.  Plus a decent shot of the progress on the strakes, albeit today was a slow build day.

I then finalized the BID prepreg for the final small layup on the front right strake opening that connects the bottom inside skin to the fuselage sidewall.

First pic is the peel plied layup.  Second shot is quite a bit later when I pulled the peel ply.

I also did the edge along the GIB strake opening from the inboard top surface of the right strake bottom skin, with 1 ply of BID overlapping into the fuselage about 1″ onto the sidewall.

Again, the first pic is the peel plied layup and the second pic is with the peel ply pulled. I will say going around that 90º corner caused the glass to lift ever so slightly in some areas which will require me shooting it up with some wet epoxy after I finish laying up the final ply of glass on the curved, half-moon portion of the fuselage sidewall strake opening just above and overlapping slightly on this layup.

Lastly, I spent a bit of time dismantling the support clamps, wood strips, shims, hot-glued tabs, etc. to show the attached/floxed/glassed right strake bottom skin core.  These bottom strake skins attached not only officially give me fuel tanks, but are clearly significant milestones for this build.

Tomorrow I’ll continue with strake / fuel tank tasks and will then transition into the final nose build tasks and wing aileron glass/install before I flip this bird to sand, shape and glass the bottom external strake skins…. and much more.

I started out today by removing the clamp that secured the left sump tank vent tight up against the fuel tank (fuselage sidewall) interior wall.  The layup was successful so I’m calling this task complete.

I grabbed this shot to show how I trimmed down the flox that squeezed out just a bit along the aft T-Hat structure edge along the CS spar.  As on the left side, this flox actually covers about an 1/8″ of the protective tape so it needs to be trimmed a bit to both even up the line and to allow for the protective tape to be removed completely.

This obviously didn’t have anything do with attaching the lower skin on the right side, but it needed to be done to technically call the right side T-hat structure complete.

To avoid the problems I had on the left strake lower skin attach where I had to very gingerly balance the pressures out of all the spreader clamps —that were applying bottom-up force— that was just a complete time suck, I figured I just needed to assist gravity a bit in my quest.  So I first chucked over 130 pounds of weight into the back seat.

And hung another 25-pound weight off the end of the CS spar.  I figured I could go heavier on this weight, but I didn’t want to go round up a 45-pound weight and mess with hanging such a big weight out here.  Also didn’t want to stress the spar any more than I had to.

The trick, I felt, heading into the right strake bottom skin attach was to know that I needed to apply pressure quite judiciously to the bottom skin core to keep it tight against the strake structure.  With that knowledge in hand, assisted by a heavier fuselage and CS spar, I pretty much confirmed that this was the deal when I attached the right strake bottom skin.

I then got busy actually attaching the right strake bottom skin core.  Again, it is amazing how much flox is used to secure this skin core to the bottom of the strake structure.  Also, since I’m fighting gravity again, I put the flox inside my marked “floorpan” lines on the actual top surface of the lower skin and then simply “lifted” it up in place.

I employed the same method on the left side, although I don’t think I got a shot of it. Moreover, mixing and applying this much flox took nearly an entire hour just in itself.

After a mad dash of getting the right bottom skin core in place, clamping and wedging it so that as-equal of firm pressure was being applied all the way around, I then got busy wetting out and laying up the nearly 40 BID tapes and glass panels that secure the bottom skin to the strake structure.

Also, as I did on the left side but may not have specifically pointed out: I added a ply of BID across the aft face of the CS spar that makes up the aft wall of the fuel tank, right up to the bottom of the added aft “shelf” that is part of the T-hat structure.

If you look at the outboard face of the CS spar (far left) you’ll note how light in color it is compared to the middle and inboard compartments of the fuel tank…. again, both having a fresh ply of BID wetted out (wet) and laid up on the aft wall with EZ-Poxy.  In addition, this large ply of BID also serves as the first of 2 perimeter BID tapes as it overlaps a good inch onto the strake bottom skin.

Speaking of EZ-Poxy… with such wet layups all the way through the strake build I wasn’t sure if I would have enough for the entire right strake bottom skin attach, so I held back on laying up the baggage area layups until I was sure all was good with the fuel tank specific layups… which it was.

Another shot of the right strake baggage area floor created by attaching the bottom skin core.

This side ended up being about 6 hours long start to finish, compared to the 7 hours it took me on the left side… clearly I refined my processes a bit and shaved an hour off the time.

Interestingly, by the time final BID tapes are laid up, the initial ones are pretty much dry to the touch.  I then set some heat lamps up to keep everything nice and toasty during the final curing and called it a night.

I started off today wanting to get some glass / epoxy curing, so I finished a couple of minor tasks in the left strake.

In the shot below I have 2 layup preps going on.  First, on the left is a seam from extending the BAB baffle for the GIB elbow room mod.  I peel plied this seam for future glassing, but then realized I didn’t need any more glass for any specific reason.  Wanting that joint with as wet glass as possible, I’ll add a 3″ x 4″ wet ply of BID.

The clamp is pinning the vent from the thigh support sump tank up against the fuel tank / fuselage sidewall.  I don’t want this vent line not secured, so I’m tacking it to the wall with some flox and 4 plies of glass (3 BID + 1 UNI).

Here we have a ply of BID on the BAB baffle joint –which is also where the fuel site gage just happens to be positioned– and the thigh support vent line floxed and glassed in place up against the sidewall.

I then spent a bit of time taking down all the supports from the bottom left strake skin. Here’s a couple shots from slightly different angles showing the left strake bottom skin in its current state.

I then did one final right skin mockup and validated the interface between the fuel tank bottom skin and the sidewall drain to the thigh support sump.  Once confirmed, I mixed up some wet micro and finished filling in the minor gaps around the edges of the flared drain tube.

Back over with MGS epoxy, I had earlier drilled out and installed 2 RivNut hard points to keep the fire extinguisher bracket nice and secure during flight.  Here’s the final install on the fire extinguisher bracket with 2 clickbonds and 2 RivNut hard points securing it in place.

And a shot with the fire extinguisher in its bracket.

There were a myriad of small tasks that I knocked out in prepping for the right strake bottom skin install, such as drilling the 4 small holes in the fuselage sidewall just below the GIB strake opening to ensure the proper height and interface at the skin/fuselage opening junction.

Here I spent a bit lining up the bottom edge of the right strake skin and then hot glued some wood tabs in place to ensure the edge stays properly aligned to the sidewall as it gets floxed and glassed in place.

Another shot of the sidewall bottom right strake skin installation tabs.

I then prepregged all my BID for the upcoming layup.  Nearly 40 individual pieces of BID go into securing the bottom strake skin to the strake structure.

I did a final prep on the right strake bottom skin core… another couple sets of BID prepregs.

I also spent at least an hour sanding the right strake ribs, baffles, leading edge, fuselage sidewall and CS spar in prep for the glass layups that will secure this strake skin to the bottom of the strake.

Tomorrow will be yet another long layup, but as each of these big layups fall to the sword the reality of this build becoming a plane is much more feasible!

I started out today by marking up the right strake T-hats for trimming.

And then trimmed them up… all except the back edge along the CS spar.

I then did some MGS glass work.  First off, I completed the 1-ply BID layup that connects the very aft baggage area floor to the interior fuselage sidewall.  I then peel plied the layup.

When I flip the fuselage upside down to layup the bottom strake skins, I want as much securing the strakes to the fuselage and CS spar as possible, so I laid up the top aft 7″ of the right strake leading edge inside the pilot strake opening.

Although I sanded it to match the profile, there is a bit of an edge there so I slathered in some micro to provide a smooth transition.  With such small layup, and with it wrapping around the small lip of the fuselage sidewall, I chose not to peel ply this layup.

I then kind of went off on a tangent.  Realizing that it was going to take nearly a full day’s worth of work to prep for the right strake bottom skin core attachment, I decided to get the cabin fire extinguisher installed.

I started by test fitting the fire extinguisher with the left front armrest in place.  Knowing that the extinguisher sat a little higher than I wanted it to, I slowly started notching the very aft edge of the armrest.

Here’s a closer shot.  It’s a little rough now, but I’ll clean it up with a judicious application of micro and a bit of BID.

The main thing I was shooting for was the height of the extinguisher so that it wouldn’t get it in the way of the canopy latch securing rod.  After a few iterations of removing more glass and foam out of the initial notch I made on the aft armrest, I got the fire extinguisher dialed in to within about 1/16″ of my desired spot.

Before finalizing my fire extinguisher mounting position, I tested its fit with the front seat cores.  It was tight but looked good.  Shouldn’t be any chaffing or rubbing.

Here are a couple of shots of the fitting….

As you can see in this pic, the fire extinguisher nozzle protrudes out further than the rest of the extinguisher body, so I angled it so the top was just a bit more outboard than the bottom.  I want to ensure there is no contact between the fire extinguisher nozzle and the side of the front seat top core.

I then taped up the fire extinguisher bracket and prepped 2 click bonds to mount to the pilot seat back.

Which I did here.  I’m calling this round 1 since I will also flox in a couple of RivNut hard points –for the fire extinguisher– on the pilot seat back as well.

With all that, I left my layups cure for the evening and called it a night.

This blog post actually covers both today and yesterday.

I pulled off the right strake top skin from the cured T-hat layups and proceeded to clean up the underside of the top right strake skin, including pulling all the protective tape.

I then pulled the peel ply from the right strake T-hats.

And grabbed a quick shot of both strake T-hats installed. Clearly the right side needs to be trimmed.

I then finished up cutting the glass for the attaching the left strake bottom skin to the strake structure.  There is an amazing amount of glass that goes on to mount the bottom skin to the ribs, baffles, CS spar, side wall, and leading edge.

I then prepregged all the BID tapes and glass.  The bigger pieces in the bottom pic are for the inboard and middle fuel tank back wall, AKA the CS spar.  Also the front half of the R23 rib and the back section of the R45 rib.  Essentially any major perimeter area that could use help in leak mitigation.

The entire process for securing the bottom left strake skin to the strake structure took almost 7 hours.  Yeah, it was a grueling effort.  One reason is that it took nearly 2 hours just to mix up and apply all the massive amount of flox needed for the aft intersection with the CS spar, the inboard edge, the leading edge, and then all the ribs and baffles.

Moreover, working UP and trying to defy gravity and keep the skin pressed tightly against all the structures didn’t prove to be that bad when I did a dry run.  Then an unforeseen issue cropped up… the darn plane is so light that when I put pressure on one clamp, it ever so slightly push the entire structure up… I fought gaps for a good 45 minutes and really had to balance out and equalize all the pressures to keep everything tight.  On the right side I’m literally going to hang a heavier weight off the end of the CS spar to help avoid this issue.  Conversely, it is a good thing that the plane is so darn light that this was actually an issue… it just made it difficult for this task.

Here’s another shot of both clamps and spreaders to keep the left strake bottom skin pressed up firmly in place.

And one more shot…

This collective of layups was just seemingly non-stop.  Thus I didn’t take any time to grab shots during the process.  But here’s the end result.  Overall it turned out pretty darn good.

The one thing I don’t like about EZ-Poxy vs MGS is that with MGS if you find a bubble or air pocket and get rid of it, it is almost always gone.  Something must be up with EZ-Poxy in how it cures that it is more prone to air bubbles.  Because I spend a lot of time, with different directional lighting, looking for those darn things and they still always seem to pop up.  No matter how much you squeegee and/or stipple the glass.

Another shot of the seam between the bottom skin core and the strake leading edge. Because I couldn’t get as much upward pressure as I wanted, I’m thinking the flox is about 0.010-0.030″ thicker than had I been able to compress it better.  I’m not overly concerned about leaks, but clearly less flox equals less weight and a tighter, better seam.

This is the main center fuel tank area.

Looking into the pilot seat strake opening, with seams glassed.

And the baggage compartment area.  The one piece of glass I didn’t layup yet was the ply of BID that overlaps from the aft inboard edge of the baggage area floor over onto the bottom sidewall of GIB strake opening.  The only reason is that I had 4 nails going through the fuselage sidewall into the inboard edge of the bottom strake skin… and I want to wait until the flox cures to pull those nails.

Here’s the last pic I grabbed tonight of the left strake bottom skin attach.  Now that it’s done it all seems pretty cool, but I have to admit while I’m looking forward to getting these strakes completed, I am not looking forward to that right strake bottom skin attach layup!

With that, I threw some heat lamps on the left strake to keep the general area all warm and toasty while the glass cured.

It’s been a slow last couple of days on the build.  I was pretty wiped out Saturday from the very late night right strake T-hat layups and I needed to get some personal stuff done. And today I went to the aquarium and hung out with my little buddy for a good portion of the day, so not as much checked off the ‘ol list as I had planned to get done.

I started out by spending about 45 minutes working on the milling machine.  I picked up the bolts I needed yesterday to finally mount the X-axis motor mount and far end bearing assembly.  I then test mounted the X-axis stepper motor to see how it fit.  And just like the Z-axis motor it looks like I need to trim a bit off of the motor shaft… about 1/8″ for it seat all the way onto the mount.

I then got busy on assembling the 2 plies of UNI and a ply (and a half) of carbon fiber UNI, all about 1″ x 30″.  I also cut 3 pieces of scrap BID about 2″ wide to cover all the UNI.

I then prepregged the UNI and BID and wet it out with EZ-Poxy . . .

And laid up this leading edge reinforcement glass into the right strake.

Quite a few hours later, after my outings and play time, I got back into the shop to make some noise.  I first marked up the left strake T-hat trim lines.

… including the outboard T-hats as well.

And then trimmed the T-hats down with the Fein saw.

I then sanded all the edges.

Again, this should minimize all the blood sacrifices that I seem to give every time I reach my hands in or around these strakes in their current, raw condition… especially when I measure out the ribs and baffles for attaching the left strake lower skin.  Speaking of which, I did start cutting some BID tapes for the attachment of the left strake lower skin, but didn’t get a shot of it.