Steady work going on over the last couple of days on a myriad of smallish tasks in prep of getting this bird ready for post cure and then paint.

I got the right winglet leading edge added micro/West 410 fill sanded down and then epoxy wiped with 4 coats of West epoxy.  The right winglet LE isn’t as razor straight as the left side, but it’s pretty darn close and I’m not going to spend a ton more of time on it… to get it perfectly straight would require another round of fill and I just don’t think it’s worth it.  I want this plane flying, not passing straight edge inspections on leading edges down to thousands of an inch!

Now, that being said there is a level of straightness that I do want, and the leading edge of the right wing is currently not cutting the mustard.  So I sanded it down and slathered on West 410/micro to get it significantly straighter than it is now.  I’ll sand it down tomorrow and epoxy wipe it as I did the right winglet (and left wing too).

I initially sanded the epoxy wiped outboard left wing and outboard left winglet, knocking down the epoxy with 80 grit on the orbital sander.  I then spent a good bit of time working the lower front corner interface and surface level betwixt winglet and rudder.

I think with some minor sanding of some added West 410/micro fill (scraps from right wing LE) on the very front lower corner of the rudder it should have a nice transition from the winglet corner level.  Once I get the lower corner dialed in, I’ll then wet sand across the rudder-winglet interface seams —both inboard & outboard sides— to ensure those are nice and level with each other.

I did a bunch of other odd tasks as well, along with a good bit of assessing on the inboard hinge on the left aileron… that looks to need some tweaking and I’ll report on that as soon as I get a final assessment of what is required.

Regardless, my goal is to wrap up all the wing/aileron, winglet/rudder, and strake micro-finishing prep for primer and paint and move on to top cowl, turtledeck, longerons, and nose micro-finishing.

Pressing forward!

Today, before I changed into my shop clothes I headed downtown to Harbor Freight to pick up a couple of bottle jacks to use in some wooden wing lift/jack stands to allow lifting one wing or both wings up at the same time.  Sometimes on these birds you want to be able to work on the main gear, brakes, wheels, etc. without using a main gear leg as the jacking point.

I had to buy these bottle jacks today since they were on sale, making them cheaper than the significantly smaller (but still would have worked) 4 ton bottle jacks.

Again, my timeline in regards to working these stands now is simply because my buddy Guy Williams needs them to repair his heat warped gear leg on his Long-EZ.  And of course I wouldn’t be surprised if I need them at some in the near future as well (hopefully not for the same reason!).

I also rounded up the original pic that Steve Rothert posted of his stand, and this was the best (and cheapest) of all the ones I saw on the COBA forum… and there were plenty examples to be sure.

Back in the shop I removed and installed the left aileron a couple times as I dialed in the wing’s inboard aileron pocket hinge notch trailing edge.  After some minor finagling and sanding I got it where it allowed me to install the aileron in place, just without the unsightly wide, off-angle gap.

I live fairly near the high school and my friend’s daughter, my now not-so-little buddy, has been experiencing some bullying issues on her school bus.  The past couple weeks she’s been walking to my house and hanging out for 2-3 hours until her mom can pick her up after work.  Well, she helped me do the final wet sanding of wing and aileron at the seams between the two, to ensure the surfaces are level with each other.

After sanding down the West 410/micro added fill on the outboard end and leading edge of the left wing, I then whipped up some West epoxy with 205 fast hardener to do the first round of epoxy wipes on the sanded added wing filler (pic 1).

I installed the left rudder and assessed some issues that needed worked, the main area being the thick micro fill on the outboard winglet at the bottom front corner intersection with the rudder.  There was at least a good 0.1″ jut out of the winglet edge at this corner vs the rudder, so I removed the rudder and aggressively sanded this corner but also kept watchful eye on ensuring it flowed with the remaining winglet surface (pic 2).  There are some tricky contours in play on these outboard winglets.  My sanding left a patch of bare micro, which in itself isn’t an issue, it’s the hard edge between it and the surrounding epoxy wiped surface that I wanted to reestablish a smooth transition.  Thus I also epoxy wiped the area I sanded at the bottom rudder corner, along with the wing.

These pics are at the end of the evening, with 3 total coats of epoxy wipes.  Also note the gap between the winglet and rudder front edge was a little too wide just below the bottom hinge, so I added a flocro edge both on the winglet side and the rudder side.

Over on the right side I sanded down the leading edge of the right winglet to allow me to add West 410/micro to it.  Again, eyeballing it the winglet LE looked straight, but with a straight edge against it you could see some peaks and valleys, around 0.1″ in variance.  Tomorrow I’ll sand it straight and re-epoxy wipe the LE.  I also plan on doing the same process for the right wing LE, which is pretty much the same story.

I closed out the major task portion of the evening by wet sanding the left strake top and leading edge, as well as the RAM air inlet on the leading edge, with 150 grit.  Inside the air inlet was some rough spots so I whipped up some West 410 and applied it on the inner inlet tube [note red Kerosene heater #2 in lower left corner: specifically purchased for the upcoming post cure].

I also wet sanded all the smaller areas I epoxy wiped yesterday, like the right wing video camera threaded inserts, right wing TE spot, etc.

I had padded the mold for my top left winglet video camera mount for the layup, but I may have overdone it for the 1/8″ thick internal protective foam rubber padding I had planned on using… so as not to scratch up the paint on the winglet top.

Again, the weather has been quite chilly, so I fired up the Kerosene heater to run for about 10 minutes to get the shop nice and toasty before I locked up for the evening. While the heater was running I grabbed some 1/8″ thick cardboard and taped it to the top of the left winglet.  I then put the glassed video camera mounting base cap onto the winglet.  It fit ok, but not overly snug as I would prefer… so more finagling will be in the works for this guy.  I may punt and simply go with 1/4″ (vs 1/8″) foam padding.  We’ll see.

It was again a late evening, so with the shop given it’s last blast of hot air for the night, I locked ‘er up and headed inside.

Moving forward…

I started in on adding tape and even some cardboard to the top of the left winglet for what will be yet another video camera mount.  I added the cardboard since I will be using a rubber pad on the inside of the mount to ensure I don’t damage the paint on the winglet.  I’ll use that same rubber on the wing and right strake video camera mounts as well.

I then cut out 3 plies of BID (off the roll… haven’t done that in a while) and 2 plies of UNI (from leftover scraps) to use the same layup schedule I have on the other video camera mounts: BID-UNI-BID-UNI-BID.

I wetted out some peel ply first before laying up the 5 plies of glass, and then topped that off with some peel ply (pic 1).  Many hours later after the layup was about 90% cured, I pulled the top peel ply layer off (pic 2).

A little while later I pulled the entire layup off the left winglet top (pic 1) and then pulled the interior peel ply and simply cut the un-epoxied glass off around the edges (pic 2).

I then set the video camera mount back onto the left winglet to do its final cure overnight.

I had to run downtown for some Kerosene at a gas station that I found where I could simply pump it into a container.  I ended up going out for a quick bite with Jess, and while waiting for our food to arrive I got a call from my local canardian buddy Guy Williams.  He has heat damage to one of his Long-EZ gear legs and needs to jack up his bird to get the gear free hanging.

I had done some research on the COBA forum a week or two ago noting Steve Rothert’s roll-your-own jack stand design, before making a quick CAD model of what I remembered his design to be tonight.  I then sent these renderings to Guy to show him what we could do to help get his bird fixed and back in the air.

Back in the shop I did a A LOT of sanding on the front outboard corner of the left wing to knock down a couple of high spots, and deal with some low spot areas as well (partly my doing from my sanding down this area to knock the wingtip micro fill down a good bit).  The end result was that I had a slight low area that I decided to fill with West 410.  This is the area that I showed you had black guide coat sprayed on it in the past post.

Another problem area that I sprayed black guide coat on was over on the right wing, in a swath from the TE forward to just outboard of the wing bolt access hole.  As on the left wing above, I sanded this down for a good 20-30 minutes.  You’ll note some guide coat still showing in spots that are VERY shallow, but not high enough to get sanded off. At this point I’m going to leave some low spots that should get filled in with the first few rounds of epoxy primer that I will shoot, and then another round or two of high build 2K primer after that.  If need be, on TOP of the epoxy primer I’ll fill whatever divots or imperfections need filled.

I’ll note that just above and outboard of the wing bolt access hole I broke through back into original raw micro.  I hit this with a round of epoxy wipes as I was doing those below.

Yep, as I mixed up some West epoxy with fast hardener for the 410 fill I did on the left wing above, I used a bit of that raw epoxy to some epoxy wipes on the right wing video camera threaded inserts, a spot on the right wing outboard TE, a bit on the inboard corner of the right aileron, outboard right rudder, outboard left winglet, etc.

I then did another round of epoxy wipes about an hour later for another coat.

I wet sanded the entire top of the left wing and leading edge, as well as the left aileron top and both sides of the left rudder with 150 grit.  I then temp installed the left aileron.

I’ll note that cleaning up the hinges on the left aileron to put the other side hinge halves in place took WAY longer than I expected, and I spent nearly an hour getting those fine tuned and installed.

Now, pre-epoxy wipes I didn’t like the gap of the inboard left aileron hinge notch, so I filled it in with a small edge of flox, and then some micro/West 410 over that to finalize the fill on the very edge of the hinge notch, just underneath the screws in the pic below.

However, on the outboard/left side it’s a tad too thick/wide still and is not allowing the hinge to seat all the way forward.  This will be a simple fix of sanding it down a little.  Just wanted to show yet another task that I didn’t really report on earlier (I did the same thing on the bottom hinge of the left rudder).

I then ended the evening by wet sanding the right strake top and leading edge with 150 grit.  It turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself.

Tomorrow I will continue pressing forward with my primer & paint prepping tasks!

Yes, I’m guessing pretty much across the U.S. the cold weather rolled in with a vengeance just after Thanksgiving.  Thank God for Black Friday, since I was able to nab a myriad of tools and supplies for my main upcoming tasks: a post cure of all the major airplane components, and then painting.

One Black Friday sale I availed myself to was this torpedo heater from Tractor Supply.  I’ve had it for a couple of days now, and finally got around to filling ‘er with Kerosene and firing it up.  It definitely does its job… I can say that!  Moreover, this is a critical piece of equipment for my upcoming post cure.

I’ve also spent the last couple of days doing a deep dive on exactly what I need for the post cure, and then the paint following that.  Again, I’ve hit a number of Black Friday sales to pick up a couple extra paint guns and a slew of painting supplies while it was all on sale.

Today I got back to building on the bird for a good bit.  My main task was mounting the right rudder and aileron that I wet sanded with 150 grit sandpaper (last night).  I then spent a good bit of time sanding both the aileron and wing across the intersection seams, as well as the rudder with the winglet (on both sides).  I’m very pleased with both the gaps between aileron and wing, and rudder and winglet… as well as the surface level where they meet.

You may note the black paint I’ve sprayed as a guide coat in some problem areas, which again I did last night.  I’ll sand these down most likely tomorrow to have all the surfaces ready for primer.

I also finished prepping the right wing video camera mounting threaded insert hard points (yes, that I worked on last night!) for a few rounds of epoxy wipes to ensure they are nice and sealed for primer and paint.  Again, note the applied guide coat for another problem area that needs worked.

I then spent a good little bit wet sanding both sides of the left rudder with 150 grit sandpaper.  I focused on the left winglet (only) to have it close to very final shape to then use it as a mold for the top of left winglet video camera mount.

I didn’t get a shot of it, but I spent the remainder of my evening taping up the top of the left winglet and cutting glass in prep for the top of left winglet video camera mount that I plan on laying up first thing tomorrow (so I can monitor the kerosene torpedo heater).  And with that, I called it a night.

Still pressing forward!

Or trying to anyway!

Again, since this is during the Thanksgiving holiday, this post covers the last couple of days.  I didn’t get a ton done, but I did make a good little dent.

I started off with making yet another threaded insert —ala baggage pod style— for yet another video camera mount.  This one will be on the very top edge of the left winglet, which has the 1″ added internal foam cap that just happens to be the denser PVC foam. I did this when I constructed the winglets simply because I had a piece of foam that size sitting there and decided to use it.  Well, many years later that denser foam should help in adding some oomph to the pair of threaded inserts going into it… or not.  Either way, that’s what’s going on.

I’ll note that like the other pair of threaded inserts I’ve recently installed, the first one is 6061 aluminum, while the one I just made (nearest camera) is 2024 aluminum.

Yet another small victory I attained was drilling out the 12 year old Saran wrap stuffed into the threaded inserts on the inboard leading edge of the right wing.  These are actually for the baggage pods and it was nice that they cleaned up so easily.

To ensure these baggage pod hardpoints were good to go, I threaded a screw into each one.  Ahh, they work as designed!

Starting late in the afternoon today (Thanksgiving) I got busy knocking down the cured epoxy wipes on the left wing, winglet and aileron top (not the rudder… yet).

Yep, I spent over 3 hours with my trusty orbital sander in hand, with 80 grit discs (a few of them!) to knock down and level out the finish on the left wing, winglet and aileron top.  In fact, it took me over an hour just to finish both sides of the winglet.

I’ve got a good bit of running around tomorrow, and the weather is forecasted to start getting much cooler, but I will adjust as necessary and push forward as best possible!

A funny thing happened while I was building my Long-EZ, or technically micro-finishing this bird, in that I realized that except for the canard many moons ago, I have not really dealt with LEADING EDGES in my previous micro-finishing endeavors.

Yes, we all know what happens when we assume things, and beyond using the longboard on my leading edges initially, I really didn’t give them a lot of thought after that since they looked straight.  Again, that assumption thing!

Well, out of curiosity I checked my leading edges on my left wing and winglet.  Wow. What I had assumed was straight was far from it.  The wing leading edge looked ok in merely casually looking at it, but with a closer look it had some significant peaks and valleys going on.  The winglet LE wasn’t as bad, but still not as razor straight as I’d want (especially for a “show bird” as my fellow builder <singular!> likes to claim… ha!).

At this point I would like to highlight that unlike most of my current building buddies, I was not able to avail myself (due to scheduling and relocating overseas) the services of Mr. Stephen James in acquiring his Eureka CNC wing cores. That’s right, although I bought my wing cores from Feather Light, they were still cut the good ol fashioned way: with hot wire and templates.  e.g. not perfectly straight CNC edges!

So whipping up some micro/West 410 was in order, which I slathered on the winglet leading edge last night.  This morning I started knocking it down and didn’t stop until I got it down quite a ways.  Obviously with some added filler on the front, it was going to cause a few gaps where it feathered back onto the existing winglet/fill… so a bit more filler was required to transition those gaps.

Thankfully the wing leading edge added micro-fill, after knocking it down, did not require any extra fill.  The wing LE is pretty darn straight now up until the outboard 18″, which has about a 0.08″ dip until the very tip of the wing, due to the added glass for the wingtip.  Now, I plan on adding a LE “disrupting” landing/WigWag light in this area, so I think that will disrupt the slight dip, so I’m not worrying about it.

If you’re wondering about the already epoxy-wiped right wing and winglet, well, yep… I will be reworking those leading edges as well.  The winglet I’ll do in the next few days.  For the wing I decided to do it with the wing off, LE up, as I’m prepping the right wing for final primer and paint (and installing the LE light on that side as well).

Ok, so for any builder reading this pre-wing/winglet finishing, the trick I now know (in retrospect) is to dial in the straightness of the leading edges FIRST, then contour the rest of the airfoil from there.  I probably read this somewhere in my myriad of research, but clearly missed putting it into application.

Another issue I found that I needed to deal with is the forward side of the left wing end, terminating at the front corner wing tip (AKA Nav/strobe light base).  The micro out here is piled up significantly more than on the right wing.  Clearly we pile the micro up when applying it to then give us a straight, smooth surface… but there is a balance.

First, obliteration of the natural shape of the wing is not part of the process, IMO.  And out here this piled up micro was doing just that.  Again, especially compared to the right wing.  Moreover, our Long-EZ wings have a washout, so although the LE is straight, there is an overall downward curve/twist to the wing as it goes outboard.  And I felt that I was affecting this washout with all my “straight” micro piled up.

Finally, looking at the wingtip from the outboard end (pic 1) one could see the micro piled up on top to the point that the Nav/strobe was no longer centered on the wingtip, but rather looked low because it was, with more than required micro atop the wing in this area.  Thus, I marked up the forward area of the outboard left wing to knock down the micro a good bit (pic 2).

I have to say I’ve read a number of accounts of builders using long sanding blocks/sticks to ensure the surface is even all the way down the line, and I think there is a good bit of area on the wing that is conducive to this approach. I too of course employed the classic “stick of pain,” long sanding board.  But I also think these wings have some natural (or unnatural really) curves that require the shorter 30″ or 18″ boards to blend in the overall contour in those areas… which is primarily each end of the wing: inboard 2-3′ near the cowling and outboard 2-3′ near the winglet.

All that stated to say this wing end is one of those areas (again, IMO).  My goal here was to knock the surface down approximately 0.1” CAREFULLY to 1) match the right wing, 2) find, ‘allow’ and maintain natural wing washout, 3) have my Nav/strobe light at least somewhat centered on the wing end.

Yes, the micro is still piled a bit higher than I had planned for, right where the wing extension dives into the outboard base of the winglet (pic below).

If looking from the front this matches the inboard height/level of the wing surface intersecting the base of the winglet.  In using a sanding block to knock down this forward area, I of course feathered in the entire area to get a nice transition.  This inboard spot of the wing intersecting the winglet flowed even with the rest of the wing… and to force a reduction in height in such a small area is asking for trouble in my book, given that it could knock out the nice even flow of the entire area and result in a mismatching low spot.

Best to swallow the little frog in regards to my Nav/strobe light position —which is noticeably better— and press forward in getting this bird finished.  [Little frog is a reference to wilderness survival: eat little frogs for protein… easier to gulp down than a big ‘ol frog staring you in the face.  Also pertains to a stock trade going bad: take the little loss (little frog) vs merely hoping as your stock falls off a cliff and losses climb (big frog). But I digress!]

With all my leading edge and wing tip shaping shenanigans under my belt, I started another marathon round of epoxy wipes on the left wing and winglet.

And a mere 6 hours later I was finished, replete with all the protective tape boarders removed and nothing left but to allow the 5 coats of epoxy to cure.

As I did on the right side, I of course also epoxy wiped the left aileron top and both sides of the left rudder.

Another shot of the epoxy wiped left aileron top and rudder (both sides).  Here I only used 4 coats of epoxy before calling these good.

Needless to say, given the time of year and weather situation at hand, I’m very pleased to have the major aircraft components (wings, winglets and strakes) micro-finished and epoxy wiped.  I still need to micro-fill and epoxy wipe the outboard 3′ of the wing bottoms and inboard bottom winglet, as well as the top of the nose, longerons and turtledeck.  And finally, the elevators need to be completed as well.  Thankfully on all those I can focus heaters and heat lamps to keep localized temps elevated to acceptable curing levels.

I expect tomorrow to be a light build day, and the day after is Thanksgiving, so probably even less building then.  Happy Thanksgiving all!

Although the majority of my efforts —as felt by my shoulders and back!— were on performing the final sanding and shaping of the left wing, winglet, rudder and aileron, most all of the pics I have are in regards to knocking out the video camera mounts’ threaded inserts install.

Clearly the video camera mount that I am most concerned about is for the left wing, since I want to have both threaded inserts floxed/micro’d in place prior to my epoxy-wiping the wing surface.  That being said, I pressed forward with other video camera mounts since I was currently performing the task on the left wing.  10 minutes cutting glass, doing a small 5-ply layup or prepping a threaded insert/hole for floxing doesn’t add a whole heck of a lot of time in the grand scheme of things.

Here we have the left wing video camera mount with the front threaded insert installed and the aft 6061 insert/hole ready for install (pic 1). Again, I installed the threaded inserts one at a time due to the curvature of the wing and wanting to ensure they were configured/spaced correctly.  I was a step in tow on the right wing, following suit of the left side, with the forward hole and threaded 7075 insert prepped for flox/micro (pic 2).

And an “action” shot of the left side aft threaded insert floxed/micro’d in place (pic 1) while the right side’s front 7075 threaded insert floxed/micro’d in place (pic 2).

I did a number of micro/West 410 refills on the left wing and winglet, with a decent sized one on the aileron as well.  Here’s a representative shot of some West 410 filler on the outboard wing/winglet intersection (just above the Nav/Strobe light position) and some fills on the lower aft winglet.

In hindsight, I guess I could have grabbed some shots of both the rudder and aileron installed, since today is the first time since I micro’d those that they’ve been on the bird. With that, I took a fair amount of time dialing the fit and finish of those in relationship to the wing and winglet, respectively.

Since I had the template I made up for the wing bolt access covers lying about in the shop, I grabbed it, 4 pieces of carbon fiber scraps and some tape (ok, peel ply too!) and in one of the rounds of my epoxy mixing/layups for the video camera mounts, I added this layup to the mix.

As you can see, I simply used the right wing as the “mold” for both the left and right wing bolt access covers.  Here they are after I laid up the 2 plies of CF each side (pic 1) and after they cured, peel ply pulled and trimmed to shape (pic 2).

And a shot of just the right side carbon fiber wing bolt access cover set in place.  These will be painted the same white as the wings (although in my snarkiness I almost want to leave them black to have the appearance that the holes are still open… haha!).  Moreover, I’ll note that I will be making up a pair of these for the wings’ bottom bolt access ports as well.

Back on the camera mounts, here we have the left side after the aft threaded insert installation cured (pic 1), and then a trial fit after I cut the video camera mount to shape and cleaned it up (pic 2).

Over on the right side, with the forward 7075 insert cured, I drilled the aft 3/8″ hole, prepped the hole innards as well as the 6061 threaded insert for embedding.

I then floxed/micro’d the right wing video camera mount aft threaded insert into the wing (pic 1), and then grabbed a shot much later after cure with the mount cut to shape and all cleaned up (pic 2).

BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!  I had grabbed a pic of yet another video camera mount on the outboard edge of the right strake, underside of course.  Unfortunately, in my rush to get the layup knocked out, the shot was way blurrier than I realized… so here’s a shot of my placement outline using my 3D printed template (note the drilled 3/16″ holes, as this was after I pulled the layup).

Here we have the right strake outboard video camera mount, trimmed to shape and test “installed” with the screws merely inserted into the drilled holes.  Unlike the wing top camera mounts, this one will be held in place by K1000-3 platenut assemblies that I’ll flox inside the outboard strake once the wing is off.  I’ll note that I will NOT be doing this type of video camera mount on the left side, as my magnetometers are on the outboard left strake and I don’t want any screws, bolts, hardware or video cameras that close to the magnetometers.

Now, I’ll caveat that with I may very well mount a camera on the outboard side of the left baggage pod, somewhere mid-to-aft in location (perhaps pylon).  We’ll see.

For a better idea where the underside outboard video camera mount on the right strake is situated, here’s another shot looking inboard.

Ok, a lot more going on than these pictures tell the tale, but moving forward in prep to get the left wing epoxy wiped —TOMORROW, since the weather is forecasted to cool significantly after that.

Pushing onward!

It’s been quite chilly the last couple of days, so no major composite work in the shop, although I did get some smaller tasks done utilizing heat lamps.  It’s forecasted to be warmer for a couple days coming up, which is when I plan on epoxy wiping the left wing and winglet.

Since it’s cooler in the shop —and given that I want to embed some threaded inserts into the top of the left wing as hard points, pre-epoxy wipes, for mounting a video camera— today (and last night) entailed a lot of lathe work.

Since I’m out of any stock of “baggage pod” threaded inserts from the Cozy Girrrls, I decided to make some myself.  That being said, I should have paid more attention to their dimensions since a while back I ordered some 1/2″ aluminum 7075 and 2024 rods thinking off the cuff that that’s the natural diameter they’d be… uh, a quick check on the Cozy Girrrls’ site and I realized they use 3/8″ diameter stock, vs 1/2″.  And why waste metal and add any weight if not required.  Thus, I punted and did the first batch with some 3/8″ diameter 6061 aluminum I had on hand.

After some knurling, I started by drilling the center hole out (pic 1) to tap the 10-32 threads (pic 2).

Unlike the Cozy Girrrls I added some flox grooves on the side to give the inserts a bit more of hold inside the drilled hole (pic 1).  I then parted off the threaded insert and started the process all over again (pic 2).

Here we have a 3/8″ diameter 6061 aluminum threaded insert, replete with flox grooves in the side.  It’s a little hard to tell, but another improvement I made was that the end that goes into the hole is enclosed, so no more having to tape up that end before installing it.

Another couple shots of the threaded inserts I’m making.  Again, at this point specifically for securing some camera mounts to the outboard wing tops, and also on the top of the left winglet.

First two threaded inserts, hot off the lathe!

I placed an order for some more 3/8″ diameter 7075 and 2024 rods, among a bunch of other bits and pieces, that will come in Monday.  I didn’t want to wait to make some threaded inserts a little more robust than 6061, which is fine (probably for all the inserts in reality) but I wanted one in each pair to be higher strength 7075 or 2024.  I decided on the 7075, which I turned down from 1/2″ diameter to 3/8″… enough for 2 more threaded inserts (pic 1).  I then knurled the surface to provide a textured surface for the flox and micro to grip (pic 2).

And here is the sum total of last night’s and today’s efforts: 5 threaded inserts (3x 6061 and 2x 7075). [Unfortunately the lathe was giving me some grief that I had to contend with, so it took a few hours longer than I had planned… sigh].

After drilling 3/16″ holes on each end, I pulled the cured left wing video camera mounting base off the wing surface.  I prepped a 7075 threaded insert, applied grease to the screw threads, added some clear packing tape to ensure a good release, and drilled the forward hole out to 3/8″.

I added flox towards the top side of the threaded insert, with some flox also into a widened spot right under the wing skin (think washer, or donut) to lock in the insert.  On the bottom half of the hole, since it’s all wing foam in there, I simply used micro to set the threaded insert.  I then inserted an AN3 sized screw into the aft hole to ensure it was aligned correctly (pic 1). I then weighed the forward hole down to ensure the threaded insert was set in place and cured nicely (pic 2).

I’ll note that due to the curvature of the wing, and thus video camera mounting base, I’m installing one threaded insert at a time.

I then determined the position of the right wing video camera mount, which is a little more than an inch further outboard than the left side.  Since the right wing is already epoxy wiped, I put down a piece of yellow adhesive to ensure no errant epoxy gets on the wing.  I then marked the position of the video camera mount and added clear plastic tape over top of the mark.

I then wet out a piece of peel ply first, then 5 plies of glass (BID-UNI-BID-UNI-BID) just as I did on the left side (pic 1) and finalized the layup with peel ply on top (pic 2).

With all my composite work out of the way, I finally got around to the initial sanding of the epoxy wiped strakes to knock down the slathered on epoxy.  As I did on the right wing, I used my orbital sander with 80 grit to carefully knock down the epoxy wiped surface.  I did have a couple break throughs on the left strake, as well as nicking the left wing’s leading edge, so I will be doing some re-filling and re-sanding on those spots.

I plan on wet sanding the strakes with 150 grit tomorrow, as well as continuing to prep the left wing and winglet for epoxy wipes.

Since I was up until the wee hours of the morning doing the epoxy wipes on both the left and right strakes, I got a late start to my build day.  I also had an early afternoon appointment to get some new tires on my vehicle, so that put even a bigger notch into my afternoon build activities.

Thus, I finally made it out to the shop early evening.  Again, I’m very pleased with how the strakes worked out with the epoxy wipes, especially considering my biggest problem area finishing wise is/was the aft inboard corner of strake, where the wing/strake/top cowl all intersect.  To get this close to ironed out is a big relief and will really be a huge milestone in THIS Long-EZ build.

Specifically here, note the level surface of each strake… looking pretty good in my book.

At some point I was pondering how exactly I am going to cover the wing bolt access ports on the top and bottom of each wing.  I will most likely go ‘ol skool and simply make these covers out of thin aluminum (most likely plasma cut, then painted) or 2 plies of CF… either way they’ll be thin, feather light, and silicone RTV’d into place.

I used some scrap paper to trace the outline of the right wing’s bolt access port, scanned and uploaded that into Fusion 360 CAD and then added 1/4″ extra around the perimeter for a small overlapping lip where it will get RTV’d to the wing.  I put a big hole in the middle simply to save plastic, print time and have an inspection port for my finger if need be.  I then 3D printed the wing bolt access port cover mockup (pic 1) and then test fit it on the right wing’s bolt access port (pic 2).  I think this dog will hunt, and at some point in the near future I’ll make up a batch of these covers.

Now, an issue that I needed to tackle immediately, before I can move forward with micro finishing the right side top cowl interfacing shoulder bump is the rather significant oil canning I have right along this top cowling to fuselage-side shoulder bump.  With the CAMLOC removed at this spot, and thus the natural resting cowl position with no oil canning, I could see at least an 0.08″ gap between top cowl and flange that needed to be filled.

I started with a 3-ply stepped BID layup on the shoulder bump cowl flange side, laid up the glass and then peel plied it (pic 1).  On the inside lip of the top cowl, I also added 3 plies of carbon fiber at the shoulder bump, and peel plied that layup as well.  Also on the top cowl front edge I had a little bit of a break through when I sanded it down level with the turtledeck, so I added a couple of half-moon shaped plies of CF for filler and peel plied that layup as well (pic 2).

Jumping ahead a few hours, here’s the right side top cowl shoulder bump mounting flange with the cured 3 plies of BID.  I razor trimmed the overhanging glass and pulled the peel ply.  Tomorrow I’ll re-drill the CAMLOC hole (which has Saran wrap stuffed into it to protect against any errant epoxy).

Although not a direct build action, a significant task that I needed to tackle tonight was cleaning up the tons of micro dust and piles of micro powder that was currently everywhere within the plastic hanging sheet protective space I made for this micro finishing process.  Although the entire shop does have a thin layer of micro dust on EVERYTHING, it is much less outside the hanging plastic barriers than inside in and around the plane.

Here is the left side area of the plane, where I still need to make some more dust as I will be doing the final sanding of the left winglet and wing-winglet fairing.

I added the shot above really to contrast it with the ~2 hour cleanup I did on the right side —both sweeping and shop-vacuuming— to get the vast majority of that micro dust off the floor, etc.

And the main reason I did the major cleanup on the right side was I needed to commence wet sanding the right wing and winglet with 150 grit sandpaper (again, as per Cory Bird’s method) without turning the micro dust on the floor into micro “concrete.”

I’ll further note that in reviewing my final finishing steps this go around (on the top side of the bird), that I just pulled the trigger on a longer 30″ sanding block and blue wet/dry 150 grit roll of sandpaper just a few days ago, with these delivered just yesterday.

So with new tools in hand, I got to work and wet sanded the right wing and winglet (I still need to do the rudder and aileron top).

I’ll also note while out today, I stopped by my NAPA Auto Parts store —where I bought my Nasson paint— and talked to both the in-house paint guru, and fortunately for me, the Nasson paint rep who just happened to be visiting.  My question was about the dozens of little shiny divots (not pinholes) just below the surface on the right wing that the epoxy had not quite filled in.  When, How and What to fill these was my overarching question at this point in the build.  I also had separate chats with both Mike Toomey and Steve Beert regarding this issue as well.  I have to say these 3 different guys could very likely be in a Barber Shop Quartet, because their respective answers were all in harmony and exactly the same: prime, fill the divots, final prime good before top coat.

So that dear readers is exactly my plan going forward.

It was again very late and I had run out of evening to do all the tasks I had planned to prep the left wing and winglet for epoxy wiping.  Again, I still need to final sand and contour the left winglet and fairing, but I also want to install some hard points for mounting a video camera mounting bracket on the top of the wing (and very top of winglet too, but not as critical for finishing IMO as wing).

In my research on using and mounting video cameras on airplanes, not surprisingly I discovered some companies that make aircraft video camera mounting brackets and components.  I loosely copied a diamond-shaped bracket from one of those companies as the style I would use for my wing-mounted video camera.  I then modeled that up in CAD and 3D printed the template.

The wing video camera mounting brackets will use a pair of 10-32 screws to secure the mount to the wing, much like the baggage pods on the inboard side.  The company that makes this bracket only makes a straight aluminum bracket, whereas I want mine to follow the curvature of the top wing: so composite it is (at least for now).

I first determined where the left wing cable conduit was situated inside the wing, and then positioned the vid cam mounting bracket mockup so that I would have one screw hard point forward of the conduit, and one aft.  I then traced the bracket template onto the wing.

I applied clear packing tape over the traced outline of the template and cut my glass.  The 5-ply layup schedule here is the oft-used BID-UNI-BID-UNI-BID.  I wet out a layer of peel ply first, laid up my glass, and then finished it off with peel ply on top.

Here is a better angle of the positioning of the video camera mounting bracket on the outboard wing (again, sorry for the weird LED-light induced patterns).

Tomorrow I’ll drill the 3/16″ holes in the cured bracket before removing it, then widen the holes in the wing before floxing in the 2 aluminum threaded hardpoints into the wing top (again, ala baggage pods) for this video camera mount… so those threaded inserts can be dialed in before I epoxy wipe the wing.  Then back on the winglet to get it finalized for epoxy wiping.

Pressing forward!

Today was a twofer.  Two strakes for the price of one!  Yep, I’d buy that for a dollar (Robocop!)

I finalized the right strake top contour by sanding down the added West 410 fill in the inboard aft corner.  As with many things on this build (and assume many other builds… ahem…), it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn close.  Unless someone reads this writeup or they have an insanely keen eye, they’ll never know that area contains about a 0.0217″ dip.
Shhhh, I won’t tell if you don’t!

I then got to work on the left strake, repeating virtually the same process as the right strake.  I used my aluminum “yardstick” to mark the low points, sand just those marked areas, rinse and repeat… and I do mean repeat: about 15 times.

Once I got the top contour of both strakes dialed in and the final sandings under my belt, with both a visual and multiple, multiple feel tests (I do at least a half dozen with my eyes closed to focus on the surface), I then exposed all the covered air pockets just as I did on the right wing.  For some reason these guys seemed to be quite a bit bigger on the strakes.  I’m wondering if that has anything to do with these being hollow as compared to the wings… hmmm, I don’t know.  But expose them I did.

There’s a restaurant in the area that has locals’ night every Wednesday that Jess and I have been trying to make it to for over a month now.  Well, I wanted to fill the gaping divots I just exposed in the strakes, so I whipped up some West 410 using the 205 fast hardener in the mix.  I then filled all the air pocket holes and divots before running out for a nice early dinner with Jess.

Upon my return to the shop, I sanded down my pothole fills, then vacuumed and used high pressure air to clean off both strake surfaces before taping up the perimeter in prep for epoxy wipes…

Which I did next.  All 5+ hours worth.

That being said, I’m really pleased with how these strake epoxy wipes came out.

My last task in yet another very late night/wee hours was to remove the protective border tape, to ensure it didn’t get affixed permanently to the bird!

Again, I’m super pleased with how the strakes turned out and the epoxy wipes seem to have good coverage, at least in my initial take.  For now, it’s super late and I’m hitting the rack!