Tuesday 1
Well its time to get some sticky stuff out for the TPA01 tube bushes. I don't have a great love for things that are sticky and when ever I mix up some epoxy or resin my thoughts often drift towards a gleaming all metal aircraft, oh well.
I made sure the glue was well keyed to the bush surface and pushed them into to a pre marked depth. I placed a piece of wood onto the bush on the other surface to make sure the alignment was correct. It would be easy to have this twisted a little and not know it. I then slid the TPA01 tube through both sides to get them parallel. The tolerance on this fit is tight and even the smallest amount of glue on the TPA01 tube would be undesirable.
While this was gluing I marked out the ply. I went through my collection of hole saws and as luck would have it I found a 44mm size. I set up all 4 pieces of ply and drilled them all at the same time.
Wednesday 2
No building
Thursday 3
No building
Friday 4
I spent an hour or so and marked out the shape of the rudder onto one of the pieces of ply. I started to sand the chamfer by hand but for the time it was going to take I decided to set up the sanding disk in my saw bench. I was able to put a good bevel onto the edge which allowed for a good transition onto the foam. I think the extra effort will pay off when I get to the lay up.
Saturday 5
I spent most of Saturday in the workshop. I put the port side back into the foam core and stored it away for the next few weeks. I spent some time cleaning up the workshop and the cutting table. I got the starboard core out and vacuumed off the surface. I glued up all but the last slit using my epoxy syringe. I put the breather holes from both ends just in case the foam blanking plugs cover the holes. I used the paper template from the port side to mark out the tip radius. I held this in place by pinning onto the foam core using dress making pins.
Sunday 6
I glued in the blanking plugs and tried not to get any excess glue on the surface where I wanted to sand. I found, when I was sanding the port side, that the glue was much harder than the foam and the made shaping difficult. I cut the curve with a coping saw and spent some time sanding the radius. I used a combination of Permagrit splines and my rubber backed sanding block.
Monday 7
I marked out the rebate and sanded one side down. I used the Permagrit sanding spline for this, which was perfect for getting the depth correct.
Tuesday 8
I finished rebate tonight and sanded the radius. I found that while I didn't have any glue in the area I wanted to sand the blanking plugs were not firm enough and they wriggled. I cut some thin slithers and wedged them into the gaps between the blanking plugs and the core. This worked quite nicely and also helps fill the gaps. I then glued in the blanking plugs.
Wednesday 9
No building, too much work to do.
Thursday 10
I scuffed up the bushes with hacksaw cuts and glued bushes into place, in the same manner as the other side. This is a pretty straight forward process. I pre-marked them for depth and alignment and pushed them into place. I made sure no excess glue was anywhere and slid the TP4 tube in place while it all set.
Friday 11
No building, too much work to do, again !!
Saturday 12
I didn't do any building today, but I did go out to the airport and talked about flying which is almost as good !
Sunday 13
I cut the plywood rib out today and put the bevel on all edges. I took some time to get a nice transition between the edge of the ply and the foam so that when I do the lay-up I hopefully wont get any bubbles.
Monday 14
t a "V groove" in a block of wood and used it to G clamp the TPA01 tube vertically onto the side of the bench. I then put the inner core onto the TPA01 tube and blocked off the hole with foam and putty to stop the epoxy getting down into the bushes. I spent some time masking up the foam core with tape and newspaper to protect it during the lay up.
Tuesday 15
I cut out 4 pieces of bid and did the lay up. This was fairly straightforward, a bit of care was needed to get the correct amount of cloth into the rebate. The most difficult area of the lay up was on the leading edge. It was difficult not to build this up too much. I floxed on the ply and made sure that flox oozed out all around. This operation took more flox than I thought it would. I then applied the final two layers and put on the peel ply. Saved samples number 7 and 8. I raised the temperature with local heating to 30 degrees c @ 38 % rh.
Wednesday 16
A close inspection revealed no bubbles, runs or drips. I removed all of the peel ply, masking tape and the newspaper.
Thursday 17
I used the Dremmel with a Permagrit cone to grind off the epoxy on the TP4 bush. This grinding bit did a nice job of getting the epoxy and cloth off, and I was able to get a nice radius without a lot of effort.
Friday 18
Cut cloth for the next layup
Saturday 19
No building today but I attended an FAA safety seminar at the local airport. These seem to be well run forums, with interesting topics with information available that is hard to come by.
Sunday 20
It was a nice day, nothing for it but to go flying . I did set up the other core on the TPA01 tube ready for the inner rib lay up.
Monday 21
Lay up on the inner rib. Saved 2 samples, number 9 and 10. The lay up temperature was raised with local heating to 28 c @ 48% rh.
Tuesday 22
No building, the EAA chapter meeting is on tonight.
Wednesday 23
I removed all of the masking tape, newspaper and peel ply from the inner core. The job came out quite nicely, no bubbles around the ply, no runs and a nice smooth finish. I think all that will be needed is a bit of a clean up and removal of the resin around the TPA01 tube
Thursday 24
No building , but I telephoned the SAAA in Australia to find out the status of the experimental category. I have been waiting for 7 months to get my test piece signed off and my approval to manufacture issued in order to comply with the existing 101.28 regulations in Australia. I was advised to continue building under the 101.28 regulations and that my approvals will be forth coming. The SAAA confirmed that they will accept my pre close out inspections to be carried out by an EAA technical councilor.
Friday 25
No building, but I tried to locate a technical councilor from my local EAA chapter to do my inspection.
Saturday 26
Cleaned up all of the resin drips and a general workshop vacuum & tidy up.
Sunday 27
No building until I can get an inspection.
Monday 28
I photographed the inner ribs on the port and starboard stabilizers for future documentation (see above).
Tuesday 29
I left a message for the technical councilor in our chapter to call me back for an inspection.
Wednesday 30
No building until I can get an inspection.