After some researching, assessing, measuring and investigating I determined that just like the threaded phenolic CAMLOC receptacles (upper area in pic below) that I had to go down through the original bottom skin glass, I would have to do the same for this latest pair of threaded hardpoints for the RAM air scoop.

The difference here was that A) I had to drill through a ply of Kevlar (turned out not to be a big deal) and B) the area immediately “above” (below here since inverted) these EZ Point locking nuts were the respective thigh support sump tanks… so diligence and care in going down through the original skin was of upmost importance, lest I put a nice hole in one or both bottom(s) of the thigh support sump tank(s).

After ensuring my center hole was good, and no damage to the bottom surface of the thigh support sump tanks had occurred, I then marked the respective outline of each EZ Point locking nut before drilling a series of closely spaced small holes all around the marked radius.

I then used my Fein saw to cut out the exterior fuselage skin circles to inset the EZ Point locking nuts….

As you see them test fitted here.

I then taped up the bottom surface of the RAM air scoop mounting lips (each side) and bolted the EZ Points to the underside of these mounting flanges.  I then floxed the EZ Points into their respective fuselage-bottom divots and secured the RAM air scoop/hell hole hatch cover in place.

Moreover, to keep the RAM air scoop flanges —and thus the EZ Points themselves— pressed as firmly down in place as possible, I added a fair amount of weight on top of the RAM air scoop side mounting flanges.

Another shot of the weights to press the EZ Points firmly into place while curing.

With that, I left the newly installed EZ Point locking nut hard points to cure.

Today was another light build day, but I was able to get some stuff done.

First off, I’ve been doing some pondering and some thinking of just how I’m going to install the EZ Point hard points (10-32 versions that arrived) on the bottom of the fuselage for the last securing hard points that need to be installed for the RAM air scoop.

My pilot holes reveal that I don’t have enough depth so I may have to follow suite with the threaded phenolic CAMLOC receptacle hard points that I installed just aft of these. Meaning I’ll have to go a layer deeper into the original bottom skin of the fuselage.  I’ll assess this a bit more before I decide on any specific course of action.

Back on the bottom cowling . . . after the initial sanding and shaping (separate action from the cheese-grating btw) I determined that I was in need of another round of “micro” fill before I remounted the bottom cowling onto the airplane —to “build” the other, fuselage side up to mitigate the significant side depressions at the bottom cowling sides to aft fuselage interface.

For round #2 fill I went with straight West 410 and filled in the surface imperfections and added a bit around the edges where it transitioned into the bottom cowling carbon fiber skin.

I then did the same on the other side.

I then left the “micro” finish refill to cure overnight.

I’ve been having an internal debate for the last couple of days whether to use pour foam covered with a ply of BID or simply apply “micro” to the side of the cowling to fill in the quite notable trough at the bottom cowl side interface with the aft fuselage side (on both sides fo the airplane).

I decided since I would have to do subsequent fills of micro that I would simply slather it on and go for it on the sides of the bottom cowling.  I had already marked off the approximate fill area, so I mixed up a bit of West 410 + micro and applied it.

I will note that I regret not getting some pics of the depression along the vertical seam of the bottom cowling and aft fuselage.  I will also note that I’m doing a minimal fill just to knock out the really obvious depression…. both for aesthetics and also for smoother airflow along this area of the fuselage/cowling.

Yes, these applications of “micro” or not the prettiest, but I’ll highlight again that this will be an iterative process.  First, getting the bottom cowling edges squared away a good bit, then I’ll start “the match” and work the aft fuselage side to get these areas as smooth, even and depression-free as possible.

With that, I left the “micro” to cure overnight (I did do a good bit of cheese grating about 6 hours later, but I didn’t get a shot of that…. yes, I’ve been a bit remiss on my pic taking duties).

Today was yet another light build day, although I did get some stuff knocked out.

I taped up and clamped popsicle sticks pressed up against the cured flocro edge that I just filled in at the edge/seam gap between the bottom cowl and strake.  I wasn’t able to easily get up under the armpit scoop to fill in the remainder of the gap, so today I’m simply filling in the last few inches… using the taped stir sticks as a straight-line extension to the previous flocro.

Here is the right side strake aft edge flocro fill.

And the left.

I had previously sanded and prepped the area around the CAMLOC points on the vertical sides of the bottom cowl to allow me to also add a flocro “ring” around the CAMLOC mounting holes.

I’ve seen a fair number of Long-EZs where the holes have worn through at CAMLOC and screw points, and I didn’t want this to be the case on my bird.  Remember the ‘ol “egg on a can” example I used to describe my aft fuselage to bottom cowling interface?  The depression at the vertical side seams is actually more pronounced than what is depicted below.

Well, I’m filling that depression –on both sides (red arrows)– and this is the start of that effort.

Tomorrow I’ll continue on with my bottom cowling front edge tweaks.

I didn’t get a lot done on the plane build today, but after doing a good bit of assessing on the interfaces and intersections of the bottom cowling with the wings, strakes and lower aft fuselage, I got one significant task knocked out… or at least started: the fill of the gap between the front horizontal edge of the bottom cowl lip with the aft edge of the strake bottom skin. There was a gap that ranged from about 0.020″ on one end to about 0.1″ of on the other end that needed filled.

So I taped up the front edge of the bottom cowl and then remounted the cowl.  Here’s the cowl left side (right side as inverted).  I stopped the flocro fill of the gap about half way to allow for a good visual on what I was up to.

I then finished the gap flocro fill on the outboard side.  Note that I didn’t get the gap filled all the way up “under” the armpit intake scoop as I’ll do it tomorrow after this round of flocro cures.

I then repeated the same thing on the right side.  The gap on the right side wasn’t as big as on the left, but it was certainly significant enough to require added flocro to close it up.

I should point out that I spent a good 45 minutes sanding down the strake side of these interfaces BEFORE I applied the flocro to better align the surface levels of the bottom cowl and the aft strake edge.  I’ll tweak that level more after I get the flocro gap edge in.

My cell phone screen was cracked so I was unable to take & post pics for a few days until I got a new one.  In the meantime I finished the sanding and contouring of the right wing’s bottom surface. Again, as much as will be done before the fuselage is flipped upright and the winglets attached.

And here is another shot of the finished left wing bottom surface.

Note that in these pics I’ve remounted the bottom cowling and am starting the multi-day assessment and micro-fill process of tweaking all the interfacing edges of the bottom cowling.

I also removed all the protective tape from the edges of the nose gear fairing and nose gear doors.  I then cleaned up the micro edges of these respective depressions to allow the gear to cycle freely, with the nose gear fairing and doors seating cleanly and with a bit of clearance all around.

Part of my tasks in the next couple of days is to do the final sanding of the micro on the bottom of the fuselage and nose to very closely match the elevation of the nose gear fairing and doors… just some minor tweaking.

Again, I’ll also continue working the edge interfaces on the bottom cowling and get that tweaked pre-fuselage-flip back upright.

I started off today by cutting and applying Gorilla duct tape into the seam between the bottom right strake and the bottom right wing.  I secured it upright in places with some masking tape on the strake side.

Once the duct tape seam separator was installed, I then mixed up some flocro to create a flocro edge on the wing side to help minimize chipping or dings when installing or removing the wing.

Normally I would use the fast West 205 hardener here, but since I was heading out for a few hours to run some errands I went ahead and used the slow West 206 hardener for the flocro.

I returned a few hours later and began the nearly 5-hour task of applying West 410 filler/micro to the bottom of the right wing.  I have to say this completed task felt especially good to clean up and make amends (ha!) for the grotesqueness of this bottom right wing! All is right (for the next 12 hours . . . ) with the build once again!

After I “micro’d” up the bottom right wing, I then spent about half an hour sanding the straight West 410 refill spots on the bottom left wing (looks the same as the original refill pic).  The refill looked good so the bottom left wing is ready for raw epoxy wipes.

Tomorrow I’ll work on some ancillary stuff until about the 24-hour mark, at which point I’ll start sanding the “micro” fill on the bottom of the right wing.

I started out today with some final sanding tweaks on the bottom left wing before I then whipped up a small batch of straight West 410 “micro” filler and applied it to the divots, low spots and deep scratches in the “micro” fill of the wing.

I also filled just a few final imperfections along the bottom forward fuselage and nose with this West 410 batch.

I then got to work on the bottom of the right wing… this unsightly sin of the past which showed my inexperience and over-eagerness to “be efficient” in my build process by listening to one of the old guard Long-EZ bubbas.  This was an effort to “micro the surface shortly after skinning the wing as it’s still in the not-quite-yet-cured stage” in order to save sanding the wing down.  I clearly didn’t know enough about finishing or how much micro to lay down, so this experiment proved to me that I would never recommend it to any builder unless they fully understand the parameters within which they need to work.  Even then, I would recommend that they “just say no!”

If you look closely you can see quite a raised ridge at the front edge of this micro application, about a 1/4″ off the surface of the glass.

Wanting a fresh, clean canvas to start with, I employed the services of “the Beast” and in less than a half hour had knocked down all this old micro to an acceptable level.

I then spent another half hour fine tuning the micro’d area to remove any remnants of shiny old cured micro in prep for new micro.

I then got to work spending another couple of hours sanding and prepping the exposed glass —mainly along the leading edge— in prep for “micro” finish application.

Finally I removed the tape tabs, then used a hacksaw blade and razor knife to clean up the joint between the strake and bottom right wing.

Tomorrow I’ll apply a small Gorilla duct tape strip along the strake-wing joint to keep the flocro out of the joint and from adhering to the strake-side of the seam.  I’ll then re-“micro” fill the bottom right wing.

I started off today by cutting out 2 plexiglass 1/8″ GIB strake window panels to replace the 3/16″ airline window panels I had cut out earlier.  At 3/4-pound a piece the aircraft windows were heavy, and reading a CSA write-up discussing Lexan vs Acrylic (aka “plexiglass”) I realized I should be using plexiglass, which is significantly lighter and interestingly less prone to scratching.  I say interestingly because while it may be less prone to getting scratched (and repairable when it is), it is a royal PITA to cut… I cracked #1 and #3 attempts at cutting these out!  And the last 3 were all clamped to backer boards!

BTW, total weight on the plexiglass is a little over 10 oz. while the combined weight of the 3/16″ panels (again) is 24 oz.  That’s a big weight savings in my book.

I then got busy on the bottom left wing “micro” finish.  I first sanded down a good bit of the flocro edge seam that the wing shares with the strake.  It took a good bit to whittle it down, and I then left a bit of an edge that would get knocked down with the rest of the micro as it was sanded.

I then cheese-grated the cured “micro” (West 410 + micro) on the wing surface to get a fairly level surface before I started my sanding endeavors.

I then got busy sanding down the surface of the “micro” finish…. and when I say “sanding” I mean some SANDING in that I start out knocking down a good bit of the micro with the air file. I’ll make a point of note here in that I still run it at 45° each direction, in relation to the leading edge.

And boy does this thing make some dust!  It really does save an hour or more in my estimation off the initial few rounds of sanding.  I’ll make another point of note that this thing is not for the faint of heart…. this is a beast and the operator needs to know what they’re doing for maximized results! <wink>

After a few rounds of sanding with the boards it was time to revisit that flocro edge at the wing’s junction with the strake.  The flocro was naturally thinned out a bit, but not nearly enough to really dial in the rest of wing’s surface contour.  It was time to get serious!

I then spent the next almost hour working on nothing but this flocro edge seam, but when I got it I was pretty much spot on!

Another couple of hours of sanding and I was done with sanding the “micro” finish on the bottom left wing.

Here’s a long shot of the finished wing.

And one from the aft inboard corner.

And a shot from the aft wing side of the strake-wing junction.

And a shot of the same from the strake side.

Finally we have a shot of both the bottom left wing leading edge and some of the strake-wing junction.

Now, I had sanded down the micro on the exterior landing brake earlier in the day. After I cleaned it up I immediately started the epoxy wipes on the surface.  This is the end of the evening, my last task of the day, where I finished applying the 5th and final epoxy wipe.

Tomorrow I plan on prepping the bottom right wing for “micro” finish.  I might also start sanding and priming some of these epoxy wiped components from the fuselage bottom side.

I started off today by removing the landing brake, sanding the edges and prepping it for micro finish.  I didn’t use any West 410 on the landing brake since I wanted it to have a bit tougher shell (at least in theory) since it deploys down into the airstream.  I then set it aside to cure.

I then taped up the intersection between the bottom left strake and the bottom left wing with the thicker Gorilla duct tape.  After the tape was in place I then applied flocro with West 205 (fast) hardener at the edge of the wing-to-strake junction… about an inch wide.

As I did on the strakes, I then started my West 410/micro fill on the bottom left wing from the outboard end… leaving the outboard area open for the upcoming winglet-securing glass. Again, this gave the inboard flocro edge time to cure and firm up before getting bombarded with micro, as a sort of flocro dam if you will.

As I progressed through the bottom left wing “micro” fill I would occasionally take a moment to pull off the perimeter blue painters tape to ensure it didn’t get ensnared in the curing/hardening micro. I also did the same with pulling off the Gorilla duct tape from the seam between the wing and strake.

Here we have the micro leading edge on the bottom left wing.

It took 9 batches overall at 5 pumps of West epoxy/206 hardener, except for the very last batch where I used 6 pumps.

I have to say I’m very pleased with the “micro” finish on the bottom left wing… not sure how much I’ll be saying that tomorrow though when I start sanding it!

I’ll add that I also did one last touch-up West 410 application on the bottom/forward fuselage and nose to allow that to cure overnight as well.