Wing progress

I’m moving along on the wing detailing. I got the right wing wheel well painted.

Ailerons and flaps

I am fine tuning the ailerons and the flaps, doing some basic detailing also. I got the sweep in the tip of the aileron and I;m doing some rough sanding. I will coat the entire wing, aileron and flap with spackle past, then sand it for glassing. I am not going to cut the servo hatch opening until I glass. Wing tips and LE are next, then join the wing.


TB

Rinse and repeat

Everything I do on the right wing, I do again on the left. That’s the only thing I don’t like about the wing, I have to do the same thing two or three times over. So here is the Left wing

The wing tips are on, the LE is rough sanded and I finally joined the wing

So I put the landing light in the left wing tip. Most are doing the razor back and putting the light by the landing gear. It looks like later models they moved the light to the wing tip so that’s where mine is going to be.

Home Depot, light isle, just a 12v light, they have LED the same size but cost 3x I am picking up another for a backup and I will list the make and part number.

TB

I am redoing the cowl flaps, I did not like the way they were coming together. So I laid up some carbon fiber directly on the cowl. The contour changes at each flap so the homer bucket really did not work well, don't know what I was thinking I am also doing a different hinge system. The prototype was to loos for me, I was worried about flutter. So I should have them done and working this weekend.

TB

Here is a peak at the revised cowl flaps. I used epoxy instead of CA and I’m using two hinges instead of one. The tube is carbon fiber instead of plastic and the fit is like a glove.

I also glued in the wing dowels, I drilled threw the spar joiner and glued them in with 30 min epoxy.

TB

I have been tweaking the cowl flaps. I think I have a really solid system now. The tube for the nyrod was not working in the location and I did not like it just being glued. I came up with a more reliable system then glued in tubes. I do not want to have stuff falling apart on the taxi out so everything on this bird that is in question will be bolted.

Cowl flaps continued, finishing prep.

I am getting ready to start finale sanding before glassing so I fabricated my fuselage jig. This gives me clear access to the fuselage and it is solid, no stand moving around. I can rotate to any position and this will be great when I start to shoe shine sand the fuse.

Thanks Gary, yes, I want to get the putty and sanding done first so there is no change in position once I fitting wing and do the filets. I am so ready to start glassing.

Spackle and sanding

The paist spackle I used worked really well. It sands easy and it does not go airborne. It stays on the surface or falls to the ground. I use a vacuum with a brush so I just sand a little then vacuum. I went ahead and spackled the bottom of the wing and will sand that tomorrow and layup my gear doors before I do the belly pan.

TB

So I am thinking of glassing the wing before I fit it to the fuselage. Then doing the filets and the belly after I fit the wing. This will allow me to glass the whole wing, then get a tight fit with filets and fuse. Then I can do the gear without the belly in the way. Finish up with the belly. Anyone see a problem doing it this way?

Wing Progress

I have been getting the wing ready to glass. It is all spackled, sanded, and ready to fit the ailerons and flaps for the final fitting before I glass. I got the gear door layups done and ready to fit. I really want to get this wing glassed. Every time I look at it I ding it or scratch it. Once Iget the ailerons and flaps all spackled and sanded I will do the final fitting and glass them all. Then I will prime and sand, over and over. Once that is done I will fit the wing to the fuselage and build the belly.

TB

Glassing the wing Bottom.

I spent the morning sanding and fitting the ailerons and flaps, also I got the ding that Gary put in the wing all sanded out too

So I official started glassing, this is my first plane getting glassed so I have no experience. I did the bottom of the wing and I learned a lot just doing that. I think I am OK, I have a few wrinkles I could not get out at the seam. This is under the belly pan so no biggie. I tried to lift the weave after I got started on the second half, not a good idea. So now I think I got it down, we will see. This is where all the fun starts

Glassing

Glassing, second round

I glassed the tops of the ailerons and flaps. I did the ailerons a little different, I finished the tops with no hanging. I glassed the top and trimmed the edges about a 1/4” and folded them under to the bottom kind of like you would with covering. I know you are not suppose to do this but what the hey. On the flaps I folded the LE and let the TE hang for trimming after they dry.