Today I finally got around to marking something off my long-standing “To-do” list that includes all the nit-noy ancillary tasks that I need to accomplish. So what was this mysterious task?
Well, in my haste to glass the top side of the Left wing, I forgot to pull the big piece of triangular peel ply off the bottom of the wing. This peel ply covers the large triangular 1-ply BID layup that is glassed at the end of the wing as a foundation for multiple plies of glass that will attach to it to structurally hold on the winglet.
On the Right wing I had simply pulled the peel ply back off the leading edge a few inches. Since I forgot on the Left wing, the top skin glass overlapping onto the bottom skin is now actually overlapping onto the bottom skin peel ply. Not exactly structural. Luckily, since the peel ply is a triangular piece, only about 6-8 inches of the very end of the wing’s leading edge is affected. Nothing that can’t be fixed. I just had to mark it and then carefully Dremel away the ineffective overlapping top skin glass & underlying peel ply.
Once I removed the offending glass & peel ply, I continued on in my quest to give the wings a good once over with the sander. The leading edge overlaps with the snarly, prickly glass especially needed sanding down so when we handled the wings nobody would get inadvertently punctured with wayward glass barbs.
Of course sanding fiberglass is never a joy. It’s itchy, messy & not particularly good for the lungs. Of course I was covered head to toe on what proved to be a fairly warm day in Germany. So below is just a couple of pics of the ensuing personal carnage that sanding glass does to one’s own person! Build on!
After I finished sanding the wings & winglets, I vacuumed up the insidiously ubiquitous glass dust that completely covered everything in the garage and got into absolutely everything. Not surprisingly, sanding and vacuuming was my last official build effort for the next upcoming year!
But fear not, I will continue to post my progress on the build!