No pictures tonight.  Just a quick update on the NG-1 Nose Gear Strut.

I knocked the nose gear strut off its work table mount, sanded it & cleaned all the bondo off of it.  Chapter 13 Step 1 for the NG-1 nose gear is complete.

I then spent some time researching & ordering my AN fuel & brake line fittings.

I started today on Chapter 13 – Front Gear by pulling the peel ply & knife cutting the nose gear strut.  I then sanded the edges of the new glass layup.

I remounted the NG-1 nose gear strut to the support mount using bondo and with the forward side facing up.

I then glassed the second and last 1-ply BID layup to the Fwd, Right & Left sides of the Nose Gear Strut NG-1, again using fast hardener for the epoxy.

Then I peel plied the layup.  This side was much more difficult to get the peel ply to grab then the first side, but I eventually got it all in place.

Chapter 10 – I had left the canard alone after its final topside skin layup to cure a few days to ensure its configuration was locked into place.  I figured it had cured to a good degree, so I popped it off its glassing jig.  This of course involved removing the heavy water pipe attached securely to the TE.

I then flipped it over to see how the underside looked.  Not bad.  I was very happy with the overlay of the top skin over the bottom.

There was a lot of rough, prickly glass along this front overlay so I wore my heavy-duty construction gloves to take the canard into the house for an initial Chapter 12 – Canard Installation mock-up.

I got the canard in the house and test fitted it to the fuselage.  I was stoked at how it’s all coming together.  My antenna cables’ exit location from the canard was spot on.

I have to say I was extremely pleased with the initial canard fitting!

I started today but doing some quick checks on the elevators to make sure I hadn’t screwed something up along the way . . . not that I’ve made a mistake yet, but there’s always a first time for everything! (He said facetiously).

I checked both elevators with the NC-7 jigs & they lined up exactly like they were supposed to.  It’s definitely an internal clearance issue between the NC-3 hinge edges and the bottom surface of the hinge insert (NC-2) slot.

I used the Dremel tool to carefully make the hinge slots wider (this is per plans, not an attempted remedy for the clearance issue above) by removing some of the tube siding at the end of each side of the NC-2 hinge slots.  I measured the hinge pin-to-LE on all the hinge assemblies and all were right at 0.49″-0.5″.

Finally, I double-checked the top contour on the elevators using Template H, not surprisingly call the Elevator Top Contour Checking Template.  (Note: You can see the result of the foam overlap onto the elevator tube having crumbled and broken off when I mounted the tube into the elevator foam with micro.  The channel for the aluminum elevator tube just wasn’t large enough, and the result was that most of the thin foam came off in the process.  This left a small depression where the foam should have gradually overlapped onto the tube.  This depression will of course be filled in with micro during the finishing stage).

Now, onto the real subject of this post: the Front Gear Strut.  Chapter 13 of the Long-EZ construction plans covers the Nose & Nose Gear.  I will of course be deviating from the plans in large measure since I will be installing Jack Wilhelmson’s EZ-Noselift electric nose gear actuator in lieu of the old mechanical system.  In addition, I will be constructing a longer nose using the Davenport design, which will change NG-30 gear housing/nose assembly and the forward bulkheads.  In doing so, much like the elevators & canard where I was using 3 sets of plans: Long-EZ, Roncz Canard, & Cozy Girrrls; for the nose I will also be using three sets of plans: Long-EZ, Wilhelmson’s nose lift, & Davenport nose design.

Step 1 of Chapter 13 is to add 2 plies of BID to the nose gear strut for reinforcement, in the same fashion as is done for the main gear with all its extra glass plies.  The BID plies on the nose gear strut are simply 3-sided layups in opposing directions (shaped like this: Π ) with the second ply overlapping the sides of the first ply.

To start, I screwed down a scrap piece of wood to the workbench as a mounting board.

I sanded & then 5-min glued the NG-1 nose gear strut (made of solid S-glass, just like the main gear) to the mounting board, with the aft side of the strut facing up.

I then glassed the first 1-ply BID layup onto the NG-1 nose gear on the Aft, Left & Right sides using fast hardener, since it was a fairly small layup.

Of course I then peel plied the entire layup.

I started today by installing the elevator tube end inserts (NC-6) into the Outboard end of the elevators.

I lined up the stainless steel hinge pin, then marked & drilled a #10 hole for the setscrew. After the setscrew was in, I insured the NC-6 was even with the Outboard edge of the elevator tube & then drilled a #30 hole to set a PPC-42 Cherry Pop Rivet.

  In the picture below the stainless steel hinge pins are shown to Left of the elevators.

  I gathered up all my NC-3 elevator hinges, 3 for each elevator.

I then installed the SS hinge pin starting on the Outboard side of each elevator at the NC-6 tube end insert . . . then through the two hinge inserts (NC-2) and ending up at the Inboard side of the elevator.  [Note:  Again, I’m installing the Cozy Girrrl’s elevator torque offsets (shown below), thus there are different amounts of elevator hardware required than spelled out in the Roncz Canard plans.]

These pics show the Cozy Girrrl’s Elevator Torque Offsets.  These have the smaller offset tube towards the middle of the assembly which provides a more concentric movement, and thus less removal of fuselage sidewall material is required for elevator travel (as compared to the stock plans configuration) as this assembly pivots when the elevator controls are moved.  Obviously significantly less material removed and not having to have a decent-sized slot on each side of the fuselage greatly mitigates the amount of air (usually reported as “cold”) that sneaks into the cockpit.

Now back to inserting the hinge pin . . . note the hinge pin hole in the torque offset that I’m holding in my hand in the pic above.  

So, the hinge pin insertion exercise went fine on the Right elevator . . . However, the Left elevator decided to be a PITA & not be so cooperative.  It was as if some invisible force was blocking the hinge pin from going through the first hinge insert (NC-2).  I tried everything I could think of . . . then I realized something was blocking it, the bottom of the hinge insert trough that the hinge (NC-3) was supposed to slide into.  It wasn’t a clearance issue laterally left-to-right with the hinge pin, it was an up-n-down issue with the hinge not having clearance at the bottom of the hinge insert to be inserted far enough.

After messing around with it for another 1/2-hour or so, I grabbed my square file and filed the bottom of the NC-2 hinge insert trough.  Slowly but surely, that did the trick.  I’m not sure how or why this happened, but I needed to file down about 0.05″ to get the hinge “top” to freely pivot in the hinge slot.

Once I got that issue out of the way, I mocked up the hinges to their dense foam mounts on the canard.

In the pic below the Inboard hinge/torque offset looks drastically off from its associated dense foam mounting point on the canard.  The reason why is that the torque offset actually gets mounted much farther Outboard (in relation to the elevator itself, not the canard) than what I have mocked up in the pic. There’s quite a few inches of the Inboard elevator tube–along with some glass & foam as well–that gets removed to make this happen.

I started today by “razor” trimming the elevator edges using the Fein saw.  In doing so, I ensured that the Outboard edges & ends were square.

I removed the glass that had been laid up over the NC2 hinge slots.

I then cut some peel-n-stick sandpaper into approx 5/8″ strips and stuck them to the edge of one of the aluminum straight “boards”.

I sanded the elevators’ TE with the new sanding board, and then sanded the LE glass overlap.

I cut the foam at the Outboard ends around the edge of the glass to prep for flox corners. I made up some flox, for the edge channel, then I micro’d what small area was left on the ends of the elevators.

I glassed a 1-ply layup on the Outboard end of each elevator.  Then I took a break and went to see a movie.

When I returned from the movie, I knife trimmed around the edges of the elevator end layups.

I snapped a few pictures of the canard as well.

Below are a couple shots of the canard antenna leads:

And finally, a shot of the fuselage, CS spar and wings in my climate controlled storage facility (yes, my dining room).

I started off today by hot gluing the outside corners of the canard jig that I had been messing around with yesterday while leveling the canard & ensuring it was straight.

I then cleaned up the spar: sanded, Dremeled, & prepped the LE & TE.

I then cut the antenna cable runs & installed the canard VOR & ILS antennas.

I vacuumed the entire top surface of the canard & made a final check of my preparations before starting the final main skin layup.

I used a mixture of fast hardener for the dry micro paste for all the heavy dings & divots, and around the installation of the antennas.  I used a ~50/50 mixture of micro & flox for the LE prep. Something I may not have mentioned before, but something I’ve noted to building buddies of mine is that my unofficial ratio is that for about every hour worth of glassing I do, it seems like I have about 8 hours of actual prep (NOT researching & studying the plans, etc.).  On this layup it took about an 1-1/2 hours just to finish prepping all the foam with micro.

I used fresh epoxy to wet out the LE, spar cap, TE glass.  [Note:  I think it’s worth reiterating that glass surfaces always get a coating of epoxy (normally) or flox (occasionally), which are structural, but never micro–which is not structural–in between the layers of glass].

I glassed 1 long single ply of UNI, a 4-piece layer of BID, and then 2 more long single plies of UNI… with 2 small holes in the middle for the antenna leads ~ 5.5″ & 4.0″ Left of CL.

I used toothpicks to the hold antenna leads straight while glassing the individual skin plies, and then used a makeshift taped Popsicle stick contraption to hold it at the right angle after all the top skin was glassed and the antenna lead area was peel plied.

I also specifically peel plied the Left Outboard LE area that was damaged by the foam being removed.  It’s a slight flat spot that’s about 5 inches long, which I will just add a 2-3 ply glass patch and then shape it afterwards after this main glassing is completed.

I checked the layup about an 1-1/2 hours after I finished and found a bubble a little over 1 inch long & about 1/2″ wide right over the edge of the spar cap, on the Left side about 6″ Inboard from the seam with the 11″ tip extension.  It looked like it might be internal air off-gassing through the seam of both the spar cap and maybe even up through the top of the internal shear web.  I “popped” the bubble with my scribe, added just a dab of wet epoxy and re-squeegeed out the bubble.

Another area that I wasn’t overly happy with was the contour of the TE, after using the contour checking template.  Although I had built to plans, there was a trough/depression running down the entire length of the TE, not unlike the TEs of the main wings or winglets. So, while not called for in the plans, I filled in the TE trough with dry micro while the glass was still tacky and not yet cured.

Today I spent a lot of time ensuring the canard was straight and level.  I used strings, I used the aluminum straight ‘board’, I used the contour checker, I used the 6 ft carpenter’s level and I used a laser level kit.  I checked, leveled, shimmed, re-checked, re-leveled and re-shimmed countless times.  Obviously this is my final time for ensuring the canard is straight, twist-free & level before the spar cap and especially the top skin is glassed (this warning is explicitly spelled out in the plans as well).

There was a very slight twist to the canard which I remedied through shimming.  One thing that kept perplexing me, until I finally cracked the code was that the top middle of the canard dipped down a bit, but then the bottom of the canard was slightly crowned.  I realized after finally working the problem with both sides together, that my canard was slightly hourglass shaped.  Well, at least it was symmetrical!  I took a long look at it, and concluded that a good amount of the narrowest part of the hourglass shape will be stuffed away in the middle of the fuselage.  Apparently this was the shape as it came out of the hotwire cutting process.  There would be some narrowing (thickness, not width) towards the Inboard canard area to contend with, but it wasn’t extreme enough to start over or panic.  It looked like there will just be less micro filler towards the Outboard canard ends and just a tad thicker micro fill towards the Inboard areas.

I moved on to getting the spar cap layup knocked out.  I sanded the shear web/spar cap trough.  I did also sanded down and shaved a little off the Outboard 11″ canard tips to match the rest of the canard shape.   I taped the edge & added plastic around the entire perimeter of the spar cap trough.

I micro’d the edges of the spar cap trough.  I cut & laid up the 3″ UNI tape, and ended up using 9 pieces in the following order:  108″, 92″, 103″, 70″, 81″, 50″, 60″, 30″, 18″.  I then peel plied the entire spar cap layup.

About an hour after I finished, I removed the tape & plastic from around the newly glassed spar cap.

Today I made the 2 canard antennas that will be mounted under the top skin.  I’m using the antenna kit from RST Engineering and following the guidance & instructions of Jim Weir.

I made the VOR antenna first, with each leg (or “ear”) of the dipole measuring 22.8 inches in length.  I’m also using 50 Ohm RG-58 stranded antenna cable.

The following pictures show the general steps I take to make an antenna using Jim Weir’s design.  I will say that going back and reviewing the instructions on how to make these antennas, I should have probably cut the leads a little shorter that attach to the copper foil. Of course I think the antennas will still work fine, they’re probably just not as optimized as they should be for Tx & Rx.

I made the ILS antenna next, with dipole legs measuring 7.5 inches.

I then mocked it up on the canard as well to figure out the best placement for both the VOR & ILS antennas.

The picture below shows the 3 Ferrite Toroids that are placed on the RG-58 Antenna cable close to the dipoles on about a 1/4″ spacing.  The ferrite toroids strip off any reflected power from the antenna (technically the outside of the coax braid) before it can get into the electrical system.  Using 3 ferrites eliminates about 99.9% of the reflected signal.

These 2 antennas make up the last of the copper foil antennas that will get embedded into the skin of the flying surfaces.  Here is a summary of all my copper foil antennas:

COM1 – Left Upper Winglet
COM2 – Right Upper Winglet
VOR1 – Left Wing
VOR2 – Canard
ILS – Canard
FM Radio – Right Wing

Today I slowly pulled the elevators off the workbench & checked for straightness, etc. They both looked good . . . besides the fact they look like they have chicken-pox from the bondo blobs.

Early this morning I razor cut the edges of both the Left & Right elevators.  I used my long carpenter’s level and it work well.

I left the Right elevator bondo’d to the table to ensure it cures thoroughly & straight.

I then removed the Left elevator from the workbench.  Unfortunately, some micro had seeped under the Inboard edge and tore out a chunk of the elevator foam, which remained securely fastened to the workbench.  I carefully removed the chunk of foam from the table, then set it aside with the elevator.  I then removed all the remaining blobs of 5-min glue & small bits of foam (that typically come off of a foam surface when it’s 5-min glued down) to finish prepping for the Left-side elevator’s final layup.

I sanded the Left elevator LE & used the Dremel tool to remove ~0.4″ of foam & dead micro from the TE.

I then bondo’d the Left elevator down to the workbench right-side up.

I then cleaned up & micro’d the extracted piece back into place.

I then glassed the top side of the Left elevator, peel plied the LE, and then dry micro’d & peel plied the TE.

I trimmed the overhanging glass back within 1/4 inch.

After the Left elevator’s last layup was in the books, I went to my downstairs shop & cut 4 pieces of BID 13.5″ wide at 45° for the Canard top skin.