Sun. 1
I decided to start my cable ducting project in earnest and I have determined that I will need one for the front and rear section on the port and starboard side, along with a section under the window frame. I made up a foam core for my first cable duct for the front on the starboard side.
The process was to shape it, then spot glue it into the cockpit. I then put duct tape on the cockpit module in all of the areas surrounding it and put 3 layers of bid over the whole section.
Wednesday 4
I pried the molding off the fuselage and took it down to the workshop for trimming. After about 45 minutes of work I had a fairly nice looking cable duct.
Saturday 7
I cut and shaped the foam for rear cable ducts for both port and starboard sides. I spot glued them in place and covered the areas on the fuselage where I didn't want the resin & cloth to stick.
Sunday 8
Today was mostly laying the stuff up. I used 3 layers of bid which I spread out onto cling wrap. I had to get onto the baggage bay and then have Jenny pass the wetted out cloth to me. I am just glad that I am not a 220 pound, 6 foot person trying to squeeze myself into that spot !
Wednesday 11
I cleaned out the foam from the glass lay-up rear port side cable duct and
trimmed around the edges. After about an hour or so I had a pretty decent
looking duct.
Thursday 12
I did the same operation for the front port side cable duct.
Friday 13
I couldn't see any reason not to "go for broke" so I glued the port side ducts on with Redux..
Saturday 14
I glued on the remaining ducts that I had finished in the morning. On thing I had forgotten was a small duct to run wires down the side of the fuselage for the push to talk buttons, and on the starboard side, the wiring for the Nav Aids servo that sits under the passenger seat. Now if I had really been thinking I would have incorporated something in the foam lay-up that provides the stiffener for the front lift pin for the wings. Since that lay-up was complete I decided to flox in a 10mm aluminum tube from the top of the cable duct to the bottom of the seat pan. It took a little bit of bending and shaping, but I finally arrived at a profile that would sit in quite nicely. I filled the edges with flox and put on a layer of cloth and let it all cure
Sunday 15
I did the final lay-up of rear starboard cable ducts. I had prepared
the blue foam former and glued it in place a week before and I hadn't quite
gotten around to the lay-up. Its quite a tight area to work in and it was
pretty helpful to have Jenny to hand me the wetted cloth on cling wrap
after I had climbed in. She actually offered to do the job, I suspect she
couldn't bear to see me muck it up.
I pulled off the peel ply on the cable tube lay-up I had done and it came out fairly neatly. I occupied myself for the rest of the day in making some small inspection ports and covers for the intersection of the cable ducts on the port side.
Wednesday 18
I have been nagging Graham Singleton to come over to the Oshkosh air show for some time and he finally agreed. I drove down to Chicago to meet his flight coming in from England, and he seemed more sprightly than he should have been after 9 hours of flying from England.
Thursday 19
I had to go to work, but Graham seemed pretty unperturbed by my absence. He set about fitting in the bracket in the rudder to which a push rod connects to swing it. This is how all of the classics were designed, and if you want to fit his tail wheel modification to an XS, you must also fit this little bracket in.
Friday 20
Well jet lag had not set in for Graham, so he busied himself having a go at hanging the rudder. I was pretty sure that this was going to be very tedious. The fin still isn't quite straight, and the rudder edge seems to have gone a bit wavy with time, so I suspect we are in for many fit / re fit cycles.
Saturday 21
We decided to drop the rudder about 3 mm to get a nicer looking fit so I had to re-position the hinges. The next job was to then cut away the port side of the fin to allow the rudder to fit. The trick here is to trim this at an angle so the gap doesn't look too big. The next thing that has to be cut away is the top of the rudder to allow it to swing inside the fin also. This will need a small lay-up to cover the exposed foam.
Sunday 22
I had the undercarriage all painted and assembled a few weeks prior so I took the opportunity to roll the fuselage on its side and mount the main assembly. We mounted the tire and brake assembly and got it swinging okay.
Some of the glass needed to be trimmed around the tire, brake and the swinging arm and this would have been quite a difficult operation to do a nice job, if it had not been possible to lay the fuselage on its side.
After we had mounted it all up it occurred to Graham that the brake plate we had was the older style and I needed the most recent type. Apparently with the older style, the brake cylinder could be damaged if the tire goes flat upon landing.
Monday 23
We flew straight on from there up to Oshkosh where I left Graham in the capable hands of the Europa team for a few days.
Thursday 28
My friend Tony Krzyzewski from New Zealand (Europa Builder 272 http://www.kaon.co.nz/europa/) was up for the Oshkosh Air show so I took the chance to meet up with him and have dinner. His project is progressing at about the same pace as mine, slowly, and like me I doubt if it will fly any time in the next 12 months.
Friday 27
It was time for my friend Graham to return to England, so I took him down to Chicago to catch his flight back to England. It was great to have him around, I believe we got a months worth of building done in a few days!
Saturday 28 ~ Monday 30
It was my turn to go to the Air Show and I flew the Comanche up. As usual all of the air traffic was miss behaving badly. I promise myself every year that this will be the last time I fly in.
I spent a lot of the time working at the Europa stand which was fun. It was great to catch up with the guys, and get a whole bunch of building tips at the same time.