Wednesday 1
I didn’t do any building today, but Jenny made some nice weight bags and filled them with lead shot. Put the rudder back in the mold and tried out the weights. They worked well, but it was a little tricky to decide where in the mold the rudder should go. The next piece I build I will make sure that I draw alignment marks along the edge of the blue foam.
Friday 3
Cut off the foam block from the trailing edge with a hacksaw blade as described in the manual. I purchased a holder for the blade, which made it much easier. Mixed up a batch of filler and fixed the surface dings from the mold glue, the edge I had just cut off and a few hot wire grooves. It seems to be difficult to mix up a small enough batch of filler.
Saturday 4
I checked my bench to make sure it was still flat with no twist. I glued the jig block to the bench with Bondo, and then glued the rudder into the core. I should have cut away a bit of the jig block to make the lay up around the tip and root areas a bit easier. I weighted the whole lot down with my bags filled with lead shot.
When that had set, I lightly sanded the surface, particularly where I had cut the edge of the jig block. I should have not cut it so close, it would have been easier just to sand it back to the right size, rather than fill all of the scuff marks.
Lay up time. I put the heater on a couple of hours before I was ready, and got the resin up to temperature. Filled the flox corners first, the lay up seemed to go easier, but we did have some trouble getting the 30 degree alignment, needed a couple of goes. Got some bubbles in the flox corner, and made them much worse by trying to work them out. We need to come up with a better process here. Jenny has become the squeegee expert, and with the resin warmer it went well, not too wet or dry. Temperature was 26 degrees and relative humidity was about 50 %. Kept 2 samples of resin, labeled them number 2 & 3.
Sunday 5
We left the heating lamp on all night and the temperature had risen to 28 with the relative humidity down to 45%. Keeping a localized heat source seems to work well. The lay up surface was good, not too wet or dry, but we were unhappy with the flox corners. I guess a bit of useless filler will spend the next 20 years getting a free ride. I removed the rudder from the jig block. The Bondo didn't let go easily. I think I will continue using the 5-minute epoxy.
I laid the rudder on the bench, and suddenly all was not well in builder land. The darn thing has a twist, it rocks on the bench. Not happy, time for a cup of coffee. I had a cup of coffee, but didn't feel any happier so I called it a day.
Monday 6
I decided to call Andy Draper at Europa and ask his advice. Andy could offer no clue as to why this happened but seemed to think that it wasn't really an issue. He did suggest that if I wanted to heat it to cure temperature and weight it down I could get the twist out. I was really considering tossing it out, but Andy suggested I treat it as a learning exercise and if after completing the other parts I though I could do a better job, then think about building a new one. Good advise.
Tuesday 7
Sent an email to my friend Tony Renshaw (builder # 236) to see if he was coming to the Oshkosh air show this year. Mentioned my rudder problem to him. I got a reply back, his rudder has a twist also, apparently not an uncommon problem.
Friday 10
I was going to do some building but I got invited to join in on a night flight. Some friends wanted to go to the Casino at Green Bay, 100 or so miles north, past Oshkosh. It was a beautiful clear evening, we were greeted with the setting sun and a rising full moon. The flight back was even better, the moon was reflecting off Lake Michigan, and the hundreds of small lakes in between. Moments like this remind me why I am in the basement up to my arms in sticky stuff.
Sunday 12
Spent some time cleaning all of the rough edges after the curing. I got another email from my friend Tony Renshaw and it would appear that due to the shape of the rudder, it is normal for it not to sit quite flat on the bench, so all that worry for nothing.
Friday 24
Time to do the lay-up on the inside of the hinge area. Cut the bid slightly wider that required, but this turned out to be unnecessary - this stuff will pull to any shape you choose! Tried to flox the corner to put a better radius in it, but micro was the better choice. The first layer needed a bit of fiddling to get it wide enough to cover the thick end of the rudder. Applied the hinge pieces next and then the second bid. The second piece went much better, hindsight wisdom I guess. It took quite a bit of fiddling to get the end corner lay-ups nice. The lesson learned here was to use slow hardener on this job. It took a couple of hours from beginning to end and we had to discard some resin part way through. Kept resin sample # 4
Saturday 25
Checked the lay-up, no bubbles and all seems well. Started cleaning up the glass edges.
Sunday 26
Finished all the edge clean ups today. Used a long T bar with adhesive grit from Aircraft Spruce to get the tailing edge straight. Cut the hinges and filled out the rebates. I promised myself I will get some Perma-Grit tools at the air show next week.
Tuesday 28
I purchased a straight edge to set the hinges up on, along with some small G clamps. Set up the hinges ready for marking up. If you have 3 hands you can do this by yourself, I don't. Marked out and drilled all of the hinges and the rudder. I could not find my hinge wire anywhere. It was taped to the TU2 tube. I must have left this inside the fuselage, which is in storage.
Wednesday 29
Counter sunk all 20 holes ready for pop riveting.
Thursday 30
No building - Oshkosh air show
Friday 31
No building - Oshkosh air show