Well, today I definitely paid off my missed build time during my Long-EZ flying shenanigans yesterday with Guy.

I started off by fine-tuning the sanding of the added micro just forward of and at the junction with the top cowl front lip.  Again, at the 10 O ‘clock position on the left side (pic 1) and at the 2 O ‘clock position on the right side (pic 2).

I also final sanded the area around the top cowl top center CAMLOC where it meets up with the aft edge of the turtledeck.

With all this latest work on the turtledeck, I’m happy to report that the perimeter areas around the canopy edges (minus the aft nose/avionics cover) are complete!

Although way down on my list of to-do tasks, I wanted to get a layup or two knocked out today to trim down that list.  As I did on the left wheel pant, the aft side of the right wheel pant has 3 spots that are significantly lower than the front pant edge: those being one on the top (same as left side) and then inboard top and inboard bottom corner… this last one being the most significant of all of them.

I had already marked these low spots months ago to ID where the stepped plies of BID needed to be added.  I made templates of each set of layups and then cut the BID and peel ply before getting to work laying them all up.

I had a bit of epoxy remaining in my cup when I finished with the layups above, so I pulled out my Hertzler Silver Bullet prop.  It has some slight edge delams going on, mainly near the prop hub, so I filled those with epoxy, peel plied the corner edge and then taped them tightly closed to cure.  Yet another task off my list.

After aggressively sanding the bottom leading edge of both strakes, I then slathered them up with a good bit of micro.  I had applied micro before to fill this leading edge area, but the overall transition contour from bottom strake to leading edge was not uniformly smooth, thus the new round of micro on the left strake bottom LE (pic 1) and the right as well (pic 2).

My last task of the evening was the big one.  I taped up the front edge of the aft nose/ avionics cover before securing it into place.  I then sanded the raw glass and transition edges of the pre-existing micro fill on the nose.

For the nose hatch door I spent about 45 minutes taping up the edge flange of the door with green painters tape, ensuring I got both the inside edge and perimeter edge exact as possible.

I then made an angle cut in each of the 4 corners of the green tape edge strips to be able to pull off the 4 tape templates (left, right, front, aft) to then use them to cut the 1/8″ foam rubber seal.

I then taped the seal segments in place on the inside flange of the nose hatch door (I don’t want to apply them yet until after I paint the nose hatch door exterior), finishing off with a strip of duct tape as a gap for the perimeter edge of the nose hatch door.

Now, the issue with using the multiple plies of tape to both secure the seal to the door and protect the seal from the micro, is that it made it all a little too thick to actual get the door to latch close.  So I simply used tape around aft edge of the door to secure the door closed.

I then slathered up the nose with thick micro.

Here’s some side shots of nose slathered up with micro.  I then left it to cure overnight.

Tomorrow I’ll remove the nose hatch door securing tape and micro those areas, as well as press forward with other finishing tasks.

Moving ahead!