Got the bulk of the work done for the taildragger conversion today...

Closed up the stock hole for the gear mount. There was a ply piece on the top of die-cut sheet no 8 that was an exact fit for the width of this gap, just needed to cut the three lengths out of it.




For the tailwheel mount, I added a doubler. Since there is a second F8 piece, the angled piece was pre-cut, just needed to cut to length.




For the main gear mount, I epoxied in a piece of 1/4" ply to match the footprint of the main gear. Good bond with the fuselage doublers and F2. Also picked up some bolts and blind nuts for this mounting.




I altered the Sullivan tail wheel mount just a little. Cut off the top cap of the spring mount piece(using a dremel w/ a cutting wheel) and expoxied on a servo arm. Will run a connecting arm up and then into the back hole of the fuselage. Should look relatively clean when i get through with it.




Did some sanding and got the fuselage smoothed out with 120 today. Sure cleans up when you get that excess glue sanded off. Gonna run over it with putty and then 220 tomorrow.



Gotta fit the servo tray so I can position/install the pushrod holders for the tailwheel and then I can start pondering the fuselage covering.

Verified my covering iron's temps tonight and marked the 220ºF and 300ºF positions for the Ultracote I am using. Practiced covering a piece of scrap. That covering material is neat stuff. Need to do some more reading regarding covering techniques for corners. The covering covers the wood but doesn't hide rough surfaces... I'll be doing a little bit more putty work than I originally pondered. :P

Total build time: 47 hours

somegeek