Apparently these huge grasshoppers showed up on my kitchen window to help me celebrate yet another significant milestone on the plane build: I’m declaring the top cowling is officially installed!

I decided to plow forward with getting all the CAMLOCs and screws knocked out in one fell swoop today and get it over with.

I started on the front edge and got the last 2 CAMLOCs and the screw platenut on each side installed.

Again, these screws here are just easy to get in and out screw/bolts that will be replaced with SS CS screws.  However, since this is a regularly accessed area I will NOT be using the “Melvill” SS hex head screws here.  Those are reserved for components that are rarely removed like ailerons and rudders, and in areas that I want to look particularly sexy! <grin>

A couple more shots of the top cowling in place with ALL the CAMLOCs and screws installed.

I know I promised a pic of the inside of the flanges to get a look at the top cowling CAMLOC receptacles, but that will have to come in the next day or two.

Here’s a good look at the right side of the top cowling replete with installed CAMLOCs.

And now that I’ve convinced you that the top cowl is in fact secured to the aircraft, a couple of CnC (Cowl and Canopy) shots!

Let’s check the canopy/D-deck/top cowl angle knowing that it’s secured in place… not bad!

I then dimmed the lights and broke out the laser level to start down the machinations road of getting the aft edge of the top cowling trimmed.  This is one of those take-a-deep-breath-and-dive-right-in events that seem to happen at too many intervals on this build!

Note that I dropped a plumb line on the aft opening of the lower cowling (oh, I installed the bottom cowl btw) as both a reference to the lower cowl opening edge and also to verify that my laser was shooting level vertically.

I transcribed the bottom cowl outer edge line to the bottom outboard edge of the top cowling, and used that and the inboard plumb line to mark my cut line.

I then did the same thing on the right side, dropping yet another plumb line.  It was then that I realized I had a slight offset issue with my laser shots since my lines met at the top cowl centerline about 1/4″ off from each other.

I realized one reference wasn’t good enough to really get 90° so I lined up my laser shot to hit both plumb lines and the outboard reference mark, on both right and left sides.

Bingo!  That did the trick.

Since my marking tape was all marked up, and it was a bit dark and I was wearing the red protective “Bono” glasses, I just went ahead and marked the laser line with the forward EDGE of the tape.

Again, I grabbed my TRUSTY Fein saw, took a deep breath, and trimmed the aft edge of the top cowling.

The only minor issue I encountered was cutting the top cowling joggle near top centerline resulted in a bit of a slight line movement forward… of course this can be remedied at finishing but may take a ply or two to reestablish that very faint indent forward.

To show you the tightness of the outboard gap between top and bottom cowling, I grabbed these shots with a ruler.  Now grant it I could have alleviated some of this narrowness by cheating on the top cowl angle a bit, but I wanted to maintain that angle as near-perfect as I could make it out to be.

The current vertical gap is about 1.3″ on the outboard sides.  I’m actually not going to increase it a whole lot… probably just a hair under an inch more (bottom cowl lip lower) since I’ll be shifting the exhaust pipes a bit more inboard; again as per Mike Melvill’s write-up in CP83.

From the outboard part of the aft cowling opening moving inboard —right where it starts to really expand/open up around the spinner— is currently about 3″ high.  I only plan to open that up to less than 4″, just enough to ensure good vertical clearance on each side of the exhaust pipes.

Here’s some afterthought “Oh yeah, I installed the bottom cowling btw” pics…

Moreover, after a few more minor shenanigans with the top cowling over the next couple of days, I then plan on throwing myself headlong back onto the bottom cowling for major rework & reconfiguration that needs to happen for both exhaust pipe clearance and to tie in the top/bottom cowling interfaces.

Yup… more good stuff.  Pressing forward!

My goal by the end of this evening was to have all the flanges glassed for the top cowling and to have a minimum of 7 CAMLOCs installed to secure the top cowling.

Well, I’m happy to report that I met my goal.  Not in the timeline I was looking for (I busted that by about 1.5 hours), but I got ‘er done!

I started off by pulling the peel ply on the left wing flange that secures the top cowling on the left side.  Again, I used 5 complete plies (as per plans) since I wanted it as robust as possible since I’ll be using this flange —in part— to secure the oil cooler to.  The main mounting of the oil cooler will be on the bottom left wing flange that secures the bottom cowling.  Both flanges will be beefed up in those localized areas for use in oil cooler mounting.

On the exterior side I drilled the holes for and installed Clecos to secure the top cowling to the newly glassed flanges.

I then removed the weights and the tape as the initial cleanup phase.

And then spent a bit of time knocking off all the hot-glued on popsicle sticks.

Here we have the entire top cowling secured to its mounting flanges via Clecos.

Although having all the flanges glassed in and the top cowling completely secured with Clecos to those flanges is cause for celebration, I do have a very minor casualty in my top cowing install: my centering tick marks show that I’m off to the right about 1/16″.  I again included 2 pics so that my camera alignment would have only one set of tick marks centered.

I’m fairly certain this happened when I had to wrangle in the right trailing edge of the cowling to get it to even up with the wing.  You can see the 2 O’ Clock position of the cowling aft center is slightly lower and the 10 O’ Clock position, which is hair higher.  Interestingly if you push down on the aft flat portion on the left side of the cowling about 0.1″ it straightens it right up.

There’s a lot more steps between now and final top (and bottom) cowl configuration, so I’m sure I’ll be able to tweak this back to symmetrical… just an interesting tidbit I thought I’d share.

I then removed the cowling and pulled the tape from the inside front right edge BUT kept the inside edge tape along the left side cowl in place for the next and final cowl flange layup.

First I pulled the peel ply, marked and trimmed the left wing top cowl flange.  I am loath to point this out, but yes I have another few air blemishes that popped up (again: annoying!).

On the right front I pulled the topside peel ply and then marked the flange for trimming.

Here’s a pic of all the top cowling perimeter mounting flanges in a Π shape around the engine.

But wait! There’s more!

I added another strip of tape down the inside right edge of the cowling in prep for the final top cowling flange layup: the top 1-ply BID strip that overlaps the top of the wing onto the top of the top cowling wing flange.

Actually, before I laid up any glass I drilled tiny holes and injected nearly a dozen total little air pockets, blemishes, etc.  I would say I was successful on a little over 2/3rds of those.  BTW, with the G10 inserts being flat, I get their tendency to have hard time with not having a bit of air on the face of them.  I should have added a bit of wet flox on the top side to allow them to conform better on the curves.  I did hit the tops of those as well.  All in all I would say this sideline task was a success, and got rid of quite a few of these uncommon air gaps.

In the first pic the strip of BID is in place and wetted out, while in pic #2 I’ve added the peel ply that you see beside the layup in pic #1.

I laid up and peel plied the right wing edge flange the same as I did the left above.

I also added a 1+ ply (some small filler BID pieces as well) layup in the corner on each side where the shoulder flange meets the D-deck flange.  This should clean up that transition nicely.

I then set the cowling back in place and installed all the Clecos along the front edge.

Clearly I couldn’t install the Clecos along the cowling wing interfaces since I had just laid up a ply of BID on each side, so I resorted to weights once again to ensure the top cowling was in position on the wing flanges.

Here’s a pic of that on the right side.  Again, that pesky trailing edge piped up and was just a hair proud.

The center weight was already in place, so I grabbed 2x 2.5# weights and slung them onto a tie-down strap and hung the weights over the right side trailing edge.  It worked a treat in keeping that aft edge in place.  In fact, when I went to hang the weights down below, they just barely rested on the step stool I had below… literally the perfect amount of pressure and completely unintended with the step stool!

A few hours later I pulled the weights and removed the Clecos.  I knew the MGS with fast hardener was about 90% cure… to the point you could remove the peel ply without it giving any hassle or being stubborn.

I then spent well over the next 2 hours installing 7 CAMLOCs along the front edge of the top cowling.

I didn’t mess with the corner just above the shoulder on each side since this had just been glassed and I wanted to let it get a full cure overnight before installing those CAMLOCs.

The final unfinished outboard position on each side (#2 in from corner) actually gets a K1000-3 platenut since I’ll be using a stainless steel CS screw in these spots.

As for the CAMLOC (technically SkyBolt) receptacles, I’m using the non-floating lightweight stainless steel receptacles all across the front edge of the cowling (except the 2 screw points, obviously).  However, along the wing flanges I’ll be using the aluminum floating self-adjusting CAMLOC/SkyBolt receptacles… which is good because I have a good number of -2 CAMLOC studs that are too short to use elsewhere and need a good home!

I’ll get some pics of the receptacles tomorrow.  It’s well past midnight and I’m beat, so time to call it a night!

I started off today by drilling the fastener center holes for Clecos in the top cowling right wing lip that I laid up last night.  I then pulled the Gorilla duct tape that was helping secure the cowling in place.

I then did the same thing on the left side for the front edge of the cowling, with holes drilled and Clecos in the new cured lip along the strake and shoulder.  I also removed the duct tape here as well.

I then removed all the hot glued popsicle sticks along the left front edge of the top cowling, although I left the wood tabs along the left wing edge.

I then removed the top cowling and pulled all the tape off the inside edges of the cowling.  I then pulled the peel ply off the new lips, both along the right wing top . . .

And off the top of the newly glassed left side strake and shoulder lip.  I also pulled the peel ply from the underside of the new left-side lip and the face of the CS spar and shoulder aft foam wall.

Again, despite my best efforts of fighting them as best possible, I found a few more void spots that I am not happy with… I’ll correct these in the near future.  I’m thinking MGS has a new number for their hardener and it may not age as well as the good ‘ol stuff because I’ve obviously been doing this for a good bit and haven’t seen this type of issue in all my years of building.

Regardless, I’m just about to the end of both jugs of MGS (285 and 335) and just ordered a gallon of Pro-Set to use in finishing out out all the upcoming layups. [Regarding MGS: 1) It’s nearly $300 a gallon for the 285, and 2) I’m not liking the new hardener as I just mentioned].

I failed to get pics of my trimming both new sets of top cowling mounting lips/flanges, as well as my marking and cutting the cowling front right and left side wing-interface for the ensuing top cowl mounting flange layups.

Thankfully my pattern for the left side strake and shoulder BID plies was about 95% good for the right side, with only some very minor tweaking required.  With that, I cut out the initial 2 plies (that covers the entire shoulder foam aft wall —overlapping onto the CS spar below) and then the remaining 3 BID plies that is mainly for the flange portion of the layup, which I used my traditional plastic prepreg.

After taping up the cowling edge and adding peel ply to that edge, I then installed the cowling with the Clecos and secured the right front edge position with hot-glued popsicle sticks, Gorilla duct tape and a weight on the corner.

Here’s the 5-ply BID layup.  I took 2 pics to show the entire layup since the light beam only hit one side or the other.  Also note that I only peel plied the lower side of this layup since admittedly it was late and I didn’t see a ton of value added in all the effort of peel plying the upper side of it.

As you can see in the pics above I used the toothpick trick again for the added G10 phenolic hardpoints, and below you can see them peeking out from the upper left of the pic down to the lower right.

For the left side wing flange I used 5 plies of BID (vs primarily 4 on the right) since I’ll be adding another fastener mounting hardpoint (1/16″ G10 phenolic) for a screw to secure the oil cooler mounting arm (I’ll actually be mounting the oil cooler to the left wing root, including an additional 4 screws to secure it to the lower cowling, or rather the lower cowling to the oil cooler… clearly these 4 screws will need to be removed from the underside of the bottom cowling to remove it from the plane, while the oil cooler will stay attached to the left wing top and bottom flanges).

After cutting the BID for the left side top cowling-securing flange, I prepregged 2 plies in one setup while the other 3 plies went in a second prepreg setup.

And as I did on the right side, I secured the top cowl left side even with the wing with popsicle sticks, Gorilla duct tape and weights (no trailing edge clamp required here).

I laid up the first 2 plies in standard fashion, then embedded the 2x G10 hardpoints into the 3-ply BID prepreg setup to then lay that up… again using my toothpick trick.

Here we have the 2 toothpicks peaking through the surface of the upper cowling, again one in the very upper left corner and the other in the very lower right.

And with the layups looking good (and hopefully air free… so annoying!) I called it a night.

I started off today by drilling holes in the CAMLOC positions for Clecos before pulling the top cowling off.  I then pulled off all the tape and cleaned up the inside of the top cowling.

My next task was to investigate how my aft vertical “shoulder” pour foam dams held up on each side.  I’d say there’s room for improvement, but since I doubt I’ll ever being dong this again I’ll just have to deal with all the pour foam that leaked down the inboard side of the strakes . . . of course this was one of the few times I was not cautious of protecting stuff below with painters tape!

Here we have a bit of a mess… you can see some of the temp quick disconnect hardware was engulfed in pour foam!

All in all it wasn’t horrible, and it took me a good 10 minutes per side to clean up the mess and then I got to shaping the shoulder pour foam on each side.

Also note the bottom edge of the D-deck flange where I’ve marked it for trimming, so I can connect the strake and shoulder flange to the D-deck flange with overlapping glass.

Although I hadn’t yet completely cleaned up the right side shoulder foam, here you can again see the lower edge of the D-deck flange marked for trimming.

After both shoulder foam cores were shaped for glassing and the lower edge on each side of the D-deck flange trimmed, I grabbed this pic:

I then remounted the top cowling and spent some time assessing and marking up the cut lines to trim the front left edge of the top cowling, as well as the right side that mates with the right wing.

I was originally considering glassing the flange along both front cowling edges, but then decided against it in order to limit my variables and better control the mating surface elevations.

I spent a good couple of hours getting everything planned out and prepped for glassing the left side strake and shoulder flange, which I did with one layup.  I laid up 5 plies of BID total, with the first 2 plies completely covering the aft foam core of the shoulder.

This initial 2-ply layup overlapped onto the CS spar adjacent to the firewall (below the foam).  Since I didn’t overlap the layup onto the actual firewall, I made a “flox” corner (although I used dry micro to save weight) at the junction of the foam and the firewall.  Also note I tried out using aluminum foil for “prepreg” vs the plastic I almost always use.

After my not-so-stellar emplacement of the embedded G10 hardpoints on the D-deck flange, I decided to employ a little bit different technique.  I still made up the 1/32″ G10 phenolic tabs as I did before, but this time I predetermined where my fastener positions were going to be in the top cowling and drilled a small hole at each one.

Before embedding the G10 hardpoints I drilled a small hole in the center of those as well.

I then ran half a toothpick through each hole in the G10, and obviously through the BID as well, before laying up the 3 ply prepregged BID layup.

Then I used the pre-drilled holes in the top cowling as a position guide and simply pushed the toothpicks that were in the G10 tabs into the holes of the cowling.  It worked a treat and quite EZ-PZ!

Here I’m pointing at the toothpick peeking through the top cowling on the shoulder.  If you look closely over on the left of the pic —next to the glued-on popsicle stick— you can see the center toothpick also peeking out.

Here we have tape, popsicle sticks and weights holding the left “free floating” cowling (since there is no more front cowling flange) in the correct position as the underside layup cured.

In my attempt to be as efficient as possible and to get the top cowling installed in the least amount of time, I also laid up the top cowl right wing flange as well.  Since I have the G10 hardpoints in 2 of the 4 positions —with still one more upcoming ply of BID on the top side that overlaps onto the wing— I decided to go with 4 plies overall, with a reinforcement ply at the bare (no G10) positions.

As on the left side, I used tape, hot-glued popsicle sticks and weights to keep the top cowl in position as the underside layup cured.  However, to keep the cowl trailing edge wrangled in position I needed to add a clamp into the mix.

Tomorrow I plan on doing the opposite of what I just finished tonight, by glassing in the front right of the top cowling flange and the left wing flange as well.

And with that, I called it a night!

Today was all about ‘shoulder addition surgery’ . . . yeah, yeah, so it sounds like something “Doctor” Mengele would be involved with.  Well, I can assure it is not! This is all about the glorious Long-EZ, not some debased science experiment! <wink>

I digress . . .

First off, after glassing the strake “stock” flange I naturally had a decision (or 5) to make: Do I add the follow-on Melvill CAMLOC lip as I did with the D-deck? Or do I do something else?

I chose something else.

I decided I would layup the “Melvill CAMLOC lip” all in one go from the strake flange that I had just laid up, around the “shoulder” and tie it into the D-deck flange.

To do that I would need to venture off without having “gear adrift” (Navy term), as in I wanted to secure the outboard front edge of the top cowl.  To do this I simply drilled a couple of holes in the now cured “stock” flange for a pair of temporary Clecos (these holes will be filled in during finishing).

I then marked each side top cowl “shoulder” flange for trimming.

I removed the top cowling, cleaned off the tape, and pulled the peel ply from the strake flange underside before trimming the flange at the cowl “shoulder” flanges (marked above).

I then grabbed some cardboard and duct tape to make up some aft pour foam dam walls for the top cowl “shoulders”.

Here’s a test fit of the aft pour foam dam walls with top cowling in place.

I then finished constructing the remaining part of the pour foam dams for both left and right top cowling “shoulders.”

I then whipped up some pour foam and dumped it into the right “shoulder” dam… I was probably 1/8″ too shy in my inside cup marking to make a complete fill.  As you can see by that top dollop I needed just a hair more pour foam juice to complete my mission on the right side . . .

The way to solve this problem is to of course completely over-compensate!  The dollop to finish off the right side was from the left side pour foam application, which itself turned into a seemingly living creature… as it oozed out of the dam on the left side it decided to do a nose dive into my strake, which I thwarted.  Thus why it looks so ugly because I ‘uprighted’ the foam overflow and stretched the curing glue component.

On the right side I judiciously lopped off the exposed foam and then ripped off the pour foam dam (feel free to picture Conan the Barbarian in this scenario… ).

After a number of rounds of sanding, shaping and vacuuming [it’s an iterative process!] I got the right “shoulder” ready for glass/CF.

I followed pretty much the same process on the left side… slowly sanding and shaping the top cowling “shoulder.”

And finally getting it prepped for glass/CF.

My layup schedule for the “shoulders” was 2 plies of BID followed by 2 plies of carbon fiber.  One reason I’m using CF is that it is amazingly resistant to heat, and I plan on having a black accent line/swoosh —as I do on the bottom of the plane— that goes just a skooch onto the inside corner of the strake.  Notice I stretched the top CF ply out to cover this corner just a bit to allow for that black paint.

I of course did the same thing on the right side.

And here they are many hours later after I pulled the peel ply.

I guess with these shoulder fairings in place and their being black carbon fiber, and thus a bit harder to make out, it’s not so much what you do see but what you don’t: unfinished corners with bare fuel vent lines showing.

Here’s a couple longer view shots of the “shoulders.”

And I guess we can call these medium view shots.  I have to say I’m really happy with how these top cowling shoulders came out.

Tomorrow I’ll continue on with the top cowling install.

I started off this morning by drilling the holes through the front edge of the top cowling to allow me to install Clecos. I went with 5 fasteners, which will of course be CAMLOCs, since that’s what Mike Melvill used on his version of these cowlings.

I wasn’t as concerned with the hole in the middle on each side, but then I figured the best way to evaluate the D-deck flange was to drill all the holes and get moving on all this.  To get to the middle hole on each side I had to clear away tape and some of the popsicle stick and cured hot glue.

I didn’t grab a pic of this before the flange layup last night, but here’s my setup for creating the flanges/lips onto the cowlings.  This Tyvek house wrap tape is expensive, but it STICKS better than just about any tape I know… and it’s actually not too bad in coming off when its job is done.

Not surprisingly I reviewed my buddy Dave Berenholtz’s awesome blog on his cowling install before I dove back into my own top cowling installation.  Great stuff!

When I pulled the top cowling off this last layup and saw this below, a line Dave said as he was installing his cowlings popped into my head:
‘This is ugly building beyond description. A real, “do whatever it takes” to get a result approach.’

Hear, hear Brother… kindred spirits!

Clearly the good news is that the 5-ply flange layup glass stuck to the underside of the taped (and peel plied) top cowling.

I then pulled the peel ply off this monstrosity of a layup… and I have to say that the flange width is not that bad at all!  Way more than I actually thought and besides a few possible touchup layups, will most likely work right out of the gate.

I had significantly more of an overlap onto the firewall than I needed, which is good because you can see some dead glass edges that will get trimmed away.  A few air pockets too that will either get filled with epoxy or simply cut out and a BID patch applied.  More importantly, the inside corners looked good with tight glass-to-glass bonding and no air pockets.

I then spent about 45 minutes (yes! … crazy) removing the hot glued-on popsicle sticks. I thought I’d get creative, innovative and smart by using a heat gun to remove them. Maybe that works if you hit the sweet spot of just getting the glue just warm enough to soften up to get off, but I found on the 2 tabs I removed it melted the glue into the weave of the CF.  And I still ended up spending time scraping off glue.

In the end it was just easier to resort to my old Neanderthal method of razor blade around the edges to remove the exposed glue, and then wood chisel to get underneath and physical tear the darn popsicle stick off.

Anyway, with that done I put the cleaned up top cowling back in place.  Looking pretty good if I do say so myself!

And a side shot to check how our angle is doing…. the angle looks fine, but I don’t know if it’s the color differences or what, but the whole area from aft canopy to the end of the top cowling just looks really LONG to me.  Hmmm…  Maybe that’s why it’s called a Long-EZ?  (ha…. I know, just getting punch drunk from so much building!)

I then taped up the underside top cowl edges along the wings and the short length coming in from each corner to mark trim lines.  When the cowling came off and outside in prep for trim, I first took about 30+ minutes to mark up and trim the D-deck flange… in scalloped fashion as Mike Melvill did, mainly to allow more access to get into the engine compartment area and specifically the oil filter.

Using my trusty Fein saw and then Perma-Grit sanding tools I created this masterpiece (ha! … I TOLD you: punch drunk!).  Seriously, the 5-ply layup cleaned up acceptably nicely and I’m just happy that my calculated risk paid off and I didn’t have to remove the engine (as Jess noted: “High risk, high reward”… Yep!).

As you can see, my side G10 tabs dropped a bit.  I can still utilize them for the majority of the receptacle hole and one rivet into the G10, so not a total loss.  I’ll evaluate and ponder on this further to possibly reinforce them before installing the CAMLOC/SkyBolt receptacles.

A sin of the immediate past was my CS spar fill with pour foam followed by 2 plies of glass, at least in the area just forward of the cowling.  I spent a good 1/2 hour with the top cowling in place looking at this and finally had to accept that I had called the elevation wrong and that it just wasn’t going to work: the foam and glass made the elevation way too high for plopping down 5 plies of BID and overlapping onto the lip of the cowling to match the (future) edge of the trimmed cowling.

After scheming and pondering various machinations, I finally just bit the bullet, pulled out the trusty Fein saw (it had better be at this point!) and went to work.

The primary concern here was of course “do no harm” to the spar cap of the CS spar.  That was one reason I left some foam on the aft edge of the CS spar before proceeding with my glassing.  The #2 reason was I still needed some fill to match the heights.

All told, it took me less than 10 minutes per side to get back close to previous state.

As you may be able to see above, there was a very small lip on the front side from the previous foam and glass. I knocked it down pretty good, but there was still just a bit left.  So I added an extra ply to the layup schedule for 6 plies total.  The first 4 plies of BID went up to the edge of that lip, while the last 2 plies not only went forward of that lip by about 0.3″ and 0.6″ respectively, but also a bit more inboard to help fill in and link the area where the top cowl shoulders will get filled in.

Honestly, besides adding a few extra grams in glass, both sides came out great and the level between CS spar/strake and cowling was spot on.  I also used wet flox on the remaining foam vs micro since I consider this a structural layup with it securing the top cowling that is constantly trying to be forcibly removed from the aircraft by on/incoming air.

Finally, there is about a 0.07″ height difference between this layup and the adjoining foam/glassed filled CS spar trough that I’ll have to contend with during finishing.

One last thought.  With my stepped approach to installing this top cowling I will probably need to get a lot more aggressive in dealing with the curve on the front edge of the trimmed cowling.  I didn’t factor that in when I made my plan to step through this install and I see now that it is a minor, albeit significant, fly in the ointment here.  Not that it can’t be worked through… I just have to account for it as a factor.

Pressing forward!

The good news is that I met my strategic objective, but with some possible cleanup work (par usual eh?!).  I cover my calculated risk a bit below.

First, here are some shots of the initial situation of today with the stock plans lip coming off the D-deck and the top cowling set back in place.

My first actual build task this morning was adding a 1-ply BID layup to the inside of the 4-ply D-deck lip layup I did yesterday.  The reason for this layup is that I measured the cowl thickness at 0.065″ while the D-Deck lip (in 3 spots) measured about 0.054″ thick.

I prepregged a single ply of BID that covered the entire inside lip and overlapped onto the firewall around 1.5″.  I also added a small flox fillet in the corner for transition between the two sides of this essentially 90° corner layup.

I also used fast hardener here to get this thing cured as quickly as possible so I could get the next big layup in (below).  And I of course peel plied the layup.

I then trimmed the top cowling front —at the D-deck lip intersecting edge— to remove the current flange.

After cutting off the front flange I sanded the edge of the cowl straight and I thought all was good… luckily I picked up the cowling to take it back into the shop by this front edge.  It was then that I noticed there was a distinct inward curve leftover from the front flange joggle.

I didn’t want to remove any more than necessary, but this curved edge was not going to be removed by simply sanding it off.  So I took the cowling back into the shop, assessed it, and decided that 0.18″ was a good amount to remove 80% of this curve.  Then the other 20% could be easily knocked down with a sanding block.

So here is the final front cowling D-deck interfacing section trimmed to its final configuration.

Now it was time to trim the D-deck side lip.  The plans say go with a 1.6″ lip, but that was the only lip on the aircraft side that one had to contend with.  With the Melvill cowling you then need to essentially double that for the cowling to be “externally” mounted with CAMLOCs along its front edge.

That would result in about a 3″ flange, where you need to be able to get in and replace the oil filter —including safety wire!— in a somewhat already difficult area to access.  Compound this PITA with a 3″ lip??  Uh, no thanks.

As with everything on this bird, we typically “bargain” our compromises in 0.1″ increments, and here is no exception.  Every little bit counts.  So my proposed “stock” D-deck lip width here is around 1.4″ wide.  For the flange to secure the top cowling I’m looking at 1.2″ wide around the D-deck area.  This gets us from 3.2″ down to 2.6″… and while 5/8″ isn’t much, it can mean the world when trying to get a wrench or any tool into such a cramped space.

I used the just-trimmed top cowling as a template to draw the cut line on the D-deck lip. Makes sense right?  Since these will be the 2 interfacing edges.

I then used my trusty Fein saw and cut on the aft edge of the marked line.

And then used my straight sanding block to finalize getting the trimmed lip edge straight and clean.

Here’s where things got interesting and I had a big decision to make.  To really get a spot on layup of the 5 plies of BID that starts on the firewall at least an inch, then turns 90° and covers/attaches to the inside D-deck lip, and then extends onto the (taped at this point) underside top cowling a minimum of 1.2″ —to create the mounting flange to secure the top cowling with CAMLOCs— I would need unhindered access to the forward inside of the top cowling.

Meaning the engine would need to come off.

But that would mean I would lose both the dialed-in top cowl angle I have with it sitting on the 1″ foam block spacer secured to the flywheel AND my centering hash marks that I established with alignment ticks on both aft cowl edge and spinner flow guide (shown a bit below).  Hmmm?

–OR– I lay up as much of the 5 ply BID layup as far as I can, replete with peel ply, and then plop the cowling in place and reach up inside however able (and somewhat blind) to get the glass laid in as best possible.

I chose the calculated risk.

But what about this “Bridge too far” thing, you ask?

Well, I wanted to embed 1/32″ G10 into 3 of the 5 CAMLOC hardpoint positions on the top cowling lip that goes around the D-deck interfacing flange: the top center and lower CAMLOC on each side, essentially skipping the middle ones (#’s 2 & 4 out of 5).

My plan would have worked during a normal layup, but I missed one key characteristic of using prepreg on an inside corner layup around a tight curve… you have to cut the prepreg plastic to allow for all those compound curves, or it will just bunch up on you and you have to seriously fight the plastic to get the glass to lay down.  Which it will not do willingly [enter arguments for using foil here].

After I cut the prepreg plastic just prior to laying in the glass and pressed the glass into place, the cut plastic (not typical) couldn’t/didn’t maintain the original measurements.  Any fiberglass builder knows that trying to manipulate wet glass is like trying to push a wet noodle in a straight line…. it ain’t gonna happen.  And once it starts getting away from you, well, you have 2 options: go with the flow as best as you can, or pull the entire layup off and try to salvage it (and that too often ends up with all your glass and epoxy in the garbage can).

The resulting layup is one where it stretched on each end, diminishing my marked 1.3″ (remember 1.2″ was my goal, so a little wiggle room for trimming) flange width down to about an inch overlap onto the taped/peel plied underside of the top cowl.  From what I could see and feel I did get a solid grab on the underside of the top cowling, with no drooping.  I do know my flange is narrower than I planned and that my side G10 hardpoints are about an inch lower than where I had planned them to go… all’s fair in love, war and fiberglass layups!

Even better news is that my pre-hot glued popsicle stir sticks did their job and held the top cowling in place.  I had dry run this a couple of times and had hash marks here too to line up the top cowl to the D-deck lip.  The weights are keeping the very bottom of the sides pressed inward just about 0.06″ for alignment between the 2 surfaces.

This shot is specifically to show the canopy to D-deck to top cowling angle… personally I think this dawg will hunt and it’s looking pretty darn spiffy at this point!

Moreover, I was able to maintain the left right alignment both at the D-deck lip to cowl front edge up front and the alignment tick marks on the aft side of the top cowl as well.

Another shot of the aft top cowling alignment tick marks sitting pretty . . .

The top cowling aft curve around the flow guide isn’t perfectly symmetrically, but is definitely good enough for our birds.  Here you can see why I made and use those alignment tick marks to maintain the curved portion of the top cowling centered around the prop spinner/flow guide.

I’ll of course perform a Battle Damage Assessment on the glassed flange tomorrow after I pull the top cowling off.  I then intend to press on with the install of the upper cowling.

I started out today by setting the canopy in place on top of the fuselage.  I had thought about actually remounting it with the hinges in place, etc. but the amount of time and effort to actually re-install it wasn’t worth it… I know it sits a good 1/8″ to 3/16″ high without having the seals compressed and it being locked shut.

It still worked well enough for my purpose here, and that’s to check the angle between the canopy aft structure, the D-deck/Turtledeck and the upper cowling.

It may be hard to tell from these sides shots, which I guess is a good thing, but I have a 48″ aluminum measuring stick taped down to the aft canopy structure to assess the top cowling install angle.

Overall I think the top cowl angle is in line with the canopy aft structure and D-deck, but I do think my top cowl angle definitely drops down more sharply going aft than the standard that I see on other Long-EZs.

The plans say to have a minimum of 0.4″ clearance between the top cowling and the flywheel.  I have an inch.  I asked Marco to measure his gap and it’s 2″.  I may increase mine just a hair more, since even after I glass this D-deck flange I have some slight wiggle room in setting the top cowling angle.

Keep in mind in the pic below that the canopy aft structure is a hair higher than it would normally be closed, and that the Melvill cowling dips/slopes down slightly for a few inches going forward right as it nears this intersection (not sure why).

I then marked up the front edge of the cowling and did a few rounds of trimming to get it pressed up against the firewall evenly all the way around while still keeping my centering tick marks between top cowl aft edge and spinner flow guide aligned.

I hot glued 5 PVC foam tabs onto the firewall since I could then sand them at both proper angles to match the inside cowl surface and just a hair beneath the surface to allow for the thickness of the cowling… so that the D-Deck and cowling surfaces are even.

I also taped up the front lip of the cowling in prep for glassing this flange.

After a few quick dry runs and minor tweaks to the foam tabs, I then hot glued the top cowling to the tabs.  I actually added support underneath the outboard cowling edges before weighing them down as to not distort the middle portion of the cowling.

I’ll note that like I did on the bottom cowling, I’m installing the top cowling by glassing sections at a time.  Some builders, like my buddy Dave B., glass all these tabs in one go.

I’ll also remind ya’ll the deal with the Melvill cowlings: since he modified his flying airplane’s cowlings from standard plans —where the cowling front edge joggle fit underneath the fuselage-side lip to be secured with screws— to having the front of the cowling simply lay on top of the fuselage-side flange (no joggle) to be secured with CAMLOCs… to install his cowlings you have to follow in his footsteps by first installing the stock lip to then add the flange to allow the use of CAMLOCs.

The plans call for 5 plies of BID, but I’m only using 4 here.  The actual flange that secures the cowling front lip will get 5 plies.  In addition, I stepped the plies by 0.2″ to 0.3″ each ply to allow for a more gradual contour on the D-deck vs a 4-ply abrupt edge that would require more micro to fill.

I then prepregged the 4-ply BID layup.

I started the layup by adding peel ply to just the taped (white) flange area and wetting it out along with the D-deck surface receiving glass.

I then wetted out the 4-ply BID prepregged layup and set it in place around the D-deck/top cowl flange seam.

I’ll reiterate that, yes, both my fuselage and subsequently the canopy that sits on top of it are slightly “D” shaped (right side straighter than the left which has a hair more curve to it)… so the left side of the canopy/D-deck comes into this seam at a more distinct angle than on the right side, which is a few degrees shallower (aka flatter).
[#sins of the past]

I then pulled the prepreg plastic and worked the glass into place.

I then peel plied the layup . . . I’ll specifically note here that I both stippled the heck (as I normally do) out of this layup —especially when the peel ply goes on— as well as squeegeed it as well.

I say the above because I went out to dinner with Jess immediately following this layup, and when I returned I had a few small air pockets that were not there when I departed.  Jess’s work schedule can be a bit crazy, so I wasn’t sure if I would see her after dinner so I used fast hardener to possibly set up for another, subsequent layup tonight.  I note this because these few small air pockets may be the result of the quicker curing epoxy? (not sure….)

Anyhoo… with the layup cured enough to allow for easier removal of the peel ply I then decided it was probably better to remove the cowling at this point than with a full cure overnight.  I rapped the cowling on each lower side of the layup just aft of the D-deck and was able to wiggle it free in short order.

Here is the resulting flange.

I’ll assess both the interface and a bit more on the cowling angle tomorrow before I go final with trimming the flange off the top cowling and glassing the D-deck mounting lip for the top cowling.

Baby steps.

Starting off this morning I pulled the peel ply from the external side of the right side layup on the bottom cowling indention (inside… bump external) that provides clearance for the aft right cold air intake pipe.  I then cleaned up and sanded the edges of the interior side of the layup.

I then laid up strips of CF around the perimeter and peel plied the layups.  Only the edges need to hold since the entire layup will be covered in foam to shape the external side of the right cowling.

A few hours later I pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the perimeter layups.

I then remounted the cowling.

Here we have the best pics I could get showing the clearance provided by this protrusion.  The first pic is from the aft side, while the second is from the front side.

I then removed the cowling to outside the shop for some cutting and sanding, and on my way out of the shop to knock out my tasks I had this hitchhiker plop down on my shoulder.  I grabbed a pic of the friendly creature for my little buddy since she loves just about any animal and insect alive.

I also marked off the initial area to be cut out for the oil cooler.  I’ll fine tune it as I start the oil cooler install onto/above the lower cowling.

Here’s that area cut out.  I had to go back and look at pics to see how Mike Melvill had his oil cooler installed, thus the redraw on the cut line.  Again, I’ll dial it in during install depending on clearance, mounting fit, etc.

I then did a round of sanding on the lower cowling.  I bought a couple of sanders on sale (my DA sander is inop at the moment) at Harbor Freight, and am using up the included sandpaper before I go buy more.

After the first 45 minute round of sanding, I washed off the bottom cowling and set it in the sun to dry.  When I returned an hour later with the sun much lower in the sky, I noted how you could see right through the single plies of carbon fiber.  This supports my theory of a single ply acting as a “soft spot” (softer at least) for the CF air induction tube just in case there is contact.

A bit later I did another good round of sanding before again washing off all the sanding dust.  Clearly a good bit of the blue is coming off and I’m a day or two out from slathering up pour foam on the aft half of this thing and reworking the contour.

To be honest I really like the crazy look of this, but I guess “grunge” isn’t in style for Long-EZs… and since I’m the compliant type (ha!) I guess I’ll bend to peer pressure and paint this thing proper!

It was yet again a very hot day, and I was drenched with sweat from head to toe… but with the weather not getting any cooler at the moment I went ahead and soldiered on. I plan to start the upper cowling install too and work the final cowling installs in tandem to ensure I get the upper and lower clearances and spacing as symmetrical as possible.

With that, I headed into the house to take a well deserved shower and then did some much needed grocery shopping!

Pressing forward.

I started off this very long build day by ripping the peel ply off the bottom of the lower cowling where I had laid up 1 ply of CF to create more clearance and a “soft spot” for the CF air induction tube.

I then cleaned up just a bit around the edges.

I had used Gorilla duct tape inside the bottom cowling as a dam for the pour foam that allowed me to glass the CF layup above.

After removing the tape dam, I then removed all the foam to reveal the clear packing tape I had put over the foam… I then removed the packing tape which revealed the peel ply.

Finally, I removed the peel ply and cleaned up the edges of this relief layup.

I then took the bottom cowling outside to do some work on it.  First up was using a round sanding wheel to make a round shaped divot into the left corner of the cowling to add a bit more clearance for the aft left cold air intake tube.

Here it is after I used the sanding wheel… more of a round shape to match the cold air intake tube. It’s even angled close to how the tube flows.

Here’s the same thing on the outside of the cowling.  I also trimmed just a hair more out of the hole on the right side for the aft cold air intake tube on that side as well.

I then did about 10 minutes of sanding on the bottom cowling to start removing a bunch of the paint for some major upcoming cowling contour rework.

Back inside, I made a small cardboard disk “saddle” mold (or plug) for the small left side cold air intake tube clearance divot.  Before I taped it in place I added a layer of peel ply.

As you can see, I did yet another round of aggressive sanding on the lower cowling, specifically in the areas that would be getting layups.

I then wet out the peel ply over the “saddle” plug and the surrounding lower cowling, and then laid up 1 ply of carbon fiber.

I then peel plied the CF layup.

At the same time I did the layup above, I also laid up some narrow tapes of perimeter CF and a decent-sized patch on the forward end to secure the CF air induction tube relief layup in place.  I also peel plied that (the tape is due to one corner of the peel ply being stubborn and not laying down).

I grabbed a wide-angle shot not only to show the 2 lower cowling clearance layups, but also to show the very different left and right sides of the bottom cowling.  I understand this is forced in many respects due to needing clearance for the alternator, but the cowling is very unsymmetrical with the left side (right side of pic) much lower than the other side.

Jumping ahead a number of hours, here’s that same layup after it cured and I pulled both the peel ply and the cardboard mold off the cowling.

I of course pulled the tape and peel ply off the CF air induction tube layup and cleaned it up as well.

Last night I added and swapped washers on the left wing, obviously requiring removing the left wing to get those on.  Subsequently, today, I removed the left wing again to add/ reconfigure the washers while also removing the right wing TWICE as well to finalize the washer configuration between left and right wings!

Besides refining my wing removal and mounting processes, I can now say definitively that I’m very pleased that I decided to go through this exercise.  A friend of mine recently started flying a new canard and had to really tweak one wing into place vs its previous “final” position —something we all pray doesn’t happen to our birds!  The resulting pivot to get the plane to fly straight left about a 1/4″ gap between the strake and wing on the leading edge.  Clearly, in part my effort here is to be diligent, with the goal to have a straight flying Long-EZ (ok…. and NO large gaps, if I’m being honest!).

I actually had a brain fart last night on the left wing washers when I simply added in a thin washer (~0.032″) at the inboard bolt and swapped out thin washers outboard for thicker washers (~0.065″).  It definitely made an in improvement and helped close the ~1″ difference between left and right wing position identifiers (outboard forward aileron corner and point on winglet-to-LE corner) by over 5/16″, but it didn’t result in any pivot or rotation of the wing, which I was actually after.

Today, after I left the thin washers in position on the outboard side of the right wing, and put a thick washer in the inboard spot, I noted that the numbers didn’t change much (other than right at the wing root and a small bit between measurements to the nose). Why did the left wing washer reconfiguration seem to have more impact than the right?  Ahh, (face palm) because I simply moved the entire wing aft 1/32″ (no pivot).

My errant fix action on the left wing last night was actually serendipitous in that it made me realize that simply moving the wing aft (or forward) appeared to have significantly more impact on my numbers than pivoting the wing (with the washers at least).

After some more hard thinking (for me), I put the right wing bolts back to all single thin washers.  On the left I swapped the thin washer inboard for a thick washer, and then doubled the thick washers on each bolt (total 2 ea) on the outboard bolts.  This negatively affected my nose to winglet/wingtip measurements a bit (~1/8″) between the 2 sides, but it just about hit the bullseye on making my wing alignment fore & aft (and sweep) spot on.

In addition, here’s some fuselage-strake-prop measurements for FYI . . . From the front of F28 to front edge of the “prop” measured 136.75″ on both left and right sides [Note: I measured 23″ out from A/C-engine CL both directions and marked these points on my “prop”… all prop-face measurements were to these respective points].

However, from the front of F28 each side to the aft edge of the CS spar measured 38.75″ left and 38.56″ right.  Interestingly, from the nose to aft CS spar edge they swap longest lengths with the left 98.5″ and the right 98.63″.  This actually makes sense since I had to do some significant machinations to get my nose dead center on the front of a wonky fuselage!

I of course wanted to ensure to get the wing sweep/fore-aft alignments completed before micro-finishing the topside strakes and wings ⇒ especially the intersections.  As you can imagine, the thick washers on the left wing kicked it out a decent bit.  No worries of course since none of it has been micro-finished and can be tweaked to get the line back narrower.

On the right side my total change was adding a thin washer to the inboard bolt, which I believe I had when the plane was upside down (not sure why I didn’t have them this time around?).  The impact to the right wing-to-strake seam was of course pretty much nill.

Now, since I’ve been using props with quotations for the last couple of blog posts, let me segue that into letting ya’ll know how excited I am to report that I snagged a backup Hertzler Silver Bullet prop —same dimensions as my primary SB prop (66 x 75)— from Nick Ugolini.  This is the pic he just sent me showing me that the balancing and painting is complete!

Moreover, I plan on visiting Nick in the next few weeks to not only pick up the prop, but to also do a little transition training in his Cozy IV.  Woo-hoo!

Next came a big test: did my wing bolt washer shenanigans totally throw off the fit of the lower cowling??  Thankfully NO!  Apparently there’s enough flex in the cowling that although a couple of the forward Cam-locs felt tighter, they still went right in.

With the lower cowling in place, I took a minute to grab a shot of the left side divot I made to allow a bit more clearance for the left aft cold air intake tube.

I then wrapped up the right side aft cold air intake tube with a couple plies of cardboard, then some clear packing tape.

And taped a piece of peel ply to this cardboard form in place underneath the opening in the cowling.

It was very late and I didn’t want to haul down and unwrap the CF roll at this point for such a small, singly-ply layup… so I just used a scrap of BID (pretty much all of this layup will be covered by pour foam).  I wet out the peel ply and the surrounding surface of the lower cowling first, then I laid up the ply of BID.

And then I peel plied the BID layup.

And with that, I very much had a glass of red and called it a night!