I am quite please with my progress today. Iused the cloudy weather with perfect temperature to sit outside with my dust mask and got the LEsanding done. It took about an hour to sand it all. Iused the ribs drawing on sheet two of the plans to determine the location of the most "outer" section of the curve of the LE. Then, Idrew a line to the length of the LE and sanded a curve to that line which matched the curve of the ribs.
I cannot imagine doing it without the Perma-Grit sanders.
A word of advice to anybody buying a set. Do not bother with the curved sanders. They are useless... Iam yet to find a sanding application that Ican use them on. Ialways thought that sanding a leading edge will be it... Iwas wrong. Much easier to do it with the long flat sander.
Ihave also released the left aileron from the jig after gluing the top Fliteskin. The LE will need work (as expected). My next step was to released the "tack glue" from the bottom and to apply Gorilla glue. Ihave then placed it back in the jig. Unfortunately, no matter what Idid, Inoticed that the bottom surface is not perfect flat. To avoid destroying the aileron, Itook it out of the jig and clamped it using sheets of balsa (to protect it and to apply even flat force). This worked well and the bottom surface looks good.
Being the first aeroplane part I used the Fliteskin on, Iam not sure what my opinion is about it all. Ifind doing the process of gluing the Fliteskin very difficult, with the glue being hard to work with and the obvious need for pressure to stop the expansion of the glue lifting the Fliteskin from the part. On the other hand, the result is quite impressive. I think, that to make it all more workable (on small curvy parts) Iwill need a "fluid" weight, something like sand-bag if you get my idea. This way, a uniform weight can be applied more easily. Iwill have a think about it over the next few days (which Ibelieve Iwill not have a chance to make progress on anyway due to other commitments).
Ihave spent the day today trying to buy new transmitter to give me more then the 7 channels of my trusty Spektrum DX7. I have made my mind to get the JR 11X. I have visited two shops, and called the third one (the 3 big shops in Perth) and none had it in Mode 2 (it is not mode changeable). Then, Iwent on the Internet and could not find a single shop in Australia that had it in stock (3 shops didn't have stock level indicator, so Iwill call them tomorrow). How sad is that? Shame on the Australian distributor. While Iwas in the first shop, the shop owner called the distributor and he indicated that it will be available again in 2 months... Irepeat, 2 month, not weeks...
Idid however got some bits and pieces, the most interesting one is stainless steal 1/4" rods which are much lighter then the brass rods I had for the control of the flaps. Iwill check with my friend who volunteered to drill them for me if he mind doing both sets for me, and will check if it feels as strong (which Ithink it will be also the wall thickness is much narrower).