Chapter 16 – CS109 & CS118 final install

Today I started out by laying up the 1-ply of BID on the forward side of CS109 that I had intended to yesterday, but needed to go with smaller corner layups in order to have CS109 taped in place to the right arm rest so that it would be positioned correctly.

Normally I would glass the aft side of CS109, but after reviewing the plans, and since I do have a small corner piece of BID on the aft side, I’m going to leave it until I glass the arm rest in place (yes, I am in the current minority of builders that still plans on glassing my armrests into place & not make them removable).

[Note: I cleaned up this layup a bit more after this pic . . . in case you’re wondering (smile)]

Glassing forward side CS109

I then sanded the cured BID on the aft control mounting bulkhead, CS118, and then redrilled the #12 holes.  CS118 is complete.

CS118 sanded & holes re-drilled

I then spent almost 2 hours cutting all the BID required to install the top & bottom engine mount extrusions (4 total) to the CS spar & longerons.  Probably not a very exciting pic… but cutting glass for nearly 2 hours isn’t exciting either!  ha!

BID for engine mount extrusions

Although towards the bottom of my task list today, I finally got sick of looking at all the peel ply boogers on the CS spar-to-fuselage layups, so I gave it a higher priority!  You may have noticed in my blog post yesterday the significant amount of dust & debri in the nose from mounting the canard (which is now gone…the debri, not the canard!)… with all that was going on I simply didn’t have enough time before heading out to Rough River for a good after action cleanup, and am just now getting around to it.  I spent well over an hour cleaning up all the layups from mounting the CS spar to the fuselage, and also the inboard holes in the CS spar forward face I filled with foam & glassed. If you remember, I made those holes for drilling the wing bolt holes.  I still need another good hour in ridding the spar (and then later the wings) of all the offending bondo.

CS spar to fuselage layups cleaned up

After cleaning up the aft side of the fuselage, I then pulled the peel ply and knife trimmed the CS109 front side layup.

CS109 peel ply pulled & knife trimmed

Again, I’m going to wait to glass the aft side CS109 until I install the right arm rest. Tomorrow I’ll sand this mount down and redrill the #12 holes.

Will glass aft CS109 when arm rest installed

Well, tonight was finally the night!  I spent about 3 hours reorganizing, cleaning and straightening up the shop.  This is just phase I and I plan on knocking out phase II tomorrow.

Shop cleanup & reorg

The main thing I’m happy about is that I can walk to the front of the shop to back of the shop without having to low crawl under my CS spar.  Just 2′ to one side of the spar to pass, and I am one happy camper!

Shop cleanup & reorg

I don’t have a shot of it, but the final act of the evening was that I spent a good 30-45 minutes filing down & cleaning up the edges of the upper left 4130 engine mount extrusion. After another 15-20 minutes tomorrow, it will be ready to be cut to its final 8″ & 1.6″ lengths.

 

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