My first task of the day was to knock out the final major sanding of the bottom cowling…

And yes, as always there are few minor things to clean up before I lay down some primer on this beast.

I then got to work on the RAM air scoop/hell hole hatch cover and sanded it in prep for epoxy wiping . . .

Which I rolled right into.  I only did 3 total wipes spaced out about 2.5 hours apart, using West 206 (slow) hardener.

I then did the major sanding on the epoxy wiped nose top hatch door and the belly video camera mount.  I sanded these outside in the dark [with lights on, still not great lighting] and realized I got them both to about 90% done.  I’ll work them both again just a bit tomorrow to finish them up in prep for primer.

And with that, I called it a night.

Today I started off by sanding the RAM air scoop/hell hole hatch cover to pretty much final configuration… and ready for epoxy wiping.

I then went off script for a bit to knock out an ancillary task: the aft NACA scoop ground cover attachment.  I’ve been pondering this for a while, and after learning that my local airport’s schedule to have the new replacement hangars built has slipped again to the summer of 2022 (for the hangars, including mine, that were damaged in a spin-off tornado from hurricane Dorian). Thus, if I finish my Long-EZ prior to next summer –which I fully intend to!– I very well may need to keep my bird parked out on the ramp for a period of time.

In light of this hangar situation, I want to ensure all open holes in the plane are plugged or capped to ensure no bugs or critters take up residence in any aircraft orifices.

I will say that in addition to sealing up the plane during ground parking on the ramp, there is an element of cleaning up the lines when viewed from the side by eliminating the slight “notch” of the NACA scoop on the rounded aft RAM air scoop structure.  See the top vs bottom pics here.

Again, I’ve been pondering just how to attach this NACA scoop cover for a while now.  I finally decided that I would have a rubber/foam type plug that goes into the hole on the aft side, and then a small embedded magnet to keep the front narrow part of the cover attached to the NACA.

Here we have the mounting hole drilled and prepped for a small round embedded magnet.

Since I had these magnets on hand to use for my lathe RPM/tach display, I simply grabbed one for use to secure the aft NACA scoop cover.

After I test-fitted the magnet in its mounting divot, I then sanded the surfaces of the magnet to texture it so that the micro could grip it a bit better.

I then micro’d the small magnet into place in the front channel of the NACA scoop.  You can also see that I added some micro to the aft corners and spots inside the NACA scoop.

I then added a pure flox lip to the front edge opening of the RAM air scoop.  I wanted something that would add strength and durability to anything getting thrown at the RAM air scoop in flight, in addition to being able to be shaped to allow me to create a rounded/radiused edge on the front lip of the RAM air scoop.

I then left the the RAM air scoop and NACA to cure while I spent a good hour sanding the bottom cowling (sorry, no pics).  Tomorrow I’ll press forward with getting these ancillary components prepped first for primer, then paint.

I started out today sanding and contouring the last round of West 410 application on the RAM air scoop/hell hole hatch cover.

I’ll admit that my RAM scoop isn’t a perfect concentric circle, but it’s pretty darn close and will work fine for what I need it to do.

Again, here’s another shot of the RAM air scoop/hell hole hatch cover near-final sanding.

That being said, I did need to do a few final/minor touchups with another round of West 410.

I then did another round of sanding on the epoxy-wiped bottom cowling, this time focusing primarily on and around the right armpit scoop.

The biggest challenge on sanding down the cured epoxy wipes on the bottom cowling is the channels on the inner and upper sides of the armpit scoops (in the pic here that would be the left and bottom side).  This effort includes sanding both sides of the channel, which would be the surface of the cowling along with the inside face of the armpit scoop.

In hindsight I should have A) only did 2-3 rounds of epoxy wipes max, and B) sanded the cured epoxy wipes sooner, as I have previously mentioned.

Finally, there is the aft “floor/wall” of these channels, which is the original flange that is floxed & glassed to attach the armpit scoops to the cowling surface.  These are obviously a challenge to sand since the only way in there is to wrap sandpaper around some type of stick or pad… patience and persistency being the rule in sanding all of these internal armpit scoop areas.

Since I’m wet sanding, I do most of my sanding outside.  Well, with the days getting shorter and colder it was darker (even with outdoor lights on) for a good bit of my sanding session.  I did a good 1.5 hours before calling it a night, and as you can see in the pic below I was not able to finish the left side.  This shot gives you a good idea of what the cured epoxy wipes look like pre-sanding.

I did do a fair bit more organizing and cleaning in the shop –well over an hour’s worth– so I’m slowly getting there.  Pressing forward!

If you’ve been following my build blog you probably have noted a lack of build progress over the past couple of weeks.  I didn’t really report the last few days of my massive shop cleanup, which I’m still on the tail end of, when I then took a few days off to go see the fall foliage rolling in over on the west side of North Carolina in the mountains.

A few days after that I headed out to Kentucky, just a few hours from Rough River actually, to visit my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids for nearly a week.

With a nice respite and a good family visit under my belt, I’m now ready to hop back into the build full bore.

I started off by sanding down the first round of thick “micro” I had applied to the front half of the RAM air scoop to thicken up the front edge to create a nice rounded opening for smoother air flow… think airline engine intake.  I had originally planned on attempting some type of Bell Mouth intake, but realized it would just be too complicated.  Thus, I’m following in the footsteps of fellow builders James Redmon, Dave Berenholtz and Dave Anderson in how they all pretty much constructed their respective RAM air intakes.

After sanding down the first round of filler, I then fine tuned the current filler with yet another round of straight West 410 filler, as you can see below.  I then used some of the leftover West 410 to fill in some of the edges of the glass divot I created on the aft top end of the left pilot armrest that will allow clearance for the fire extinguisher to be mounted on the front side of the pilot seat back just above it.

Another shot of the belly RAM air scoop West 410 refill on the front side of the scoop to thicken it up to allow me to create a thicker, rounder scoop inlet.

I then spent about 3 hours wet sanding the epoxy wiped bottom cowling.  Grant it, I should have done this a few weeks ago since I’m now dealing with a very hard cured West epoxy shell… albeit it’s nice to know how durable this shell actually becomes after a nice bit of cure time.

Note the un-epoxy wiped aft edge of the bottom cowling where I will work the interface with the upper cowling.  After which, I’ll then blend in the finishing and finalize it for the bottom cowling.

The real challenge with the armpit air intake scoops is getting down in between the scoops and the cowling to knock down the cured epoxy.  As you can see, I did a good bit of “damage” to the West epoxy wipe, but didn’t get the entire cowling sanded.  I figure I still have another 2-3 hours left to get this thing sanded in prep for primer… I’ll make another good attempt at it tomorrow.

I will also note that I would sand for a good bit, then take a break to clean up some of the shop before resuming sanding again.  All in all I probably put in a good hour and a half of shop clean-up during these sanding efforts.  Tomorrow looks to be a good deal of rinse and repeat.