Chapter 5 - Fuselage Sides
The Plan
In this chapter you will make the fuselage sides. You start by making jigs to provide the correct fore and aft curvature of the sides. The jigs will be laid out flat on your work table so that the upper longerons may be laminated together in the correct curvature. The jigs will then be mounted upright on the worktable and covered with masonite to provide a form for the fuselage side layups. Then a layer of foam and spacers will be cut into the proper shapes and glued together. The insides will be contoured for fuel gages and additional stick areas. The insides are fiberglassed and longeron attached. Additional beefup of the longerons, and the bottom longerons are installed. Local beefup of the landing gear and center spar areas are added.The Jigged Foam
This is where the real airplane building begins. I built a jig( 1 x 8's and masonite) to form the complex curves of the airplane sides. The foam is glued onto the masonite with 5 minute epoxy( should be called 2 1/2 minute). Then the additional build-ups( white foam) are put in place. A notch is cut out for the wires to run from cockpit to engine. Indents are cutout for fuel site gages and additional room for knuckles on the control stick. Next we will layup 2 layers of UNI, add the longerons, and gear support spruce. Then finish the wire trace, and cover the bulkhead cover areas. Inspected
Had my first Tech Inspection today!!! Wow, does that relieve alot of the unknowns. Things that you fell you have done right, but have never done them before, can be quite intimadating when your life will depend on how well they were done!!! Having someone , who has done this before, tell you everything is OK, sure does feel good. So on to My biggest layup so far. It will be 102.5 inches long and 43 inches wide.
Additional Beefing up the Landing Gear Area
Well these are the hardest layups so far! UNI is definately not as easy to work with as BID. Harder to wet out, and get the air bubbles out. Take your time and plan on it taking longer. The complex shape of the sides is like doing a layup on the inside of a ball. And the plans say "Don't overlap the UNI.", Yea, Right. Then you get to layup 4 layers of UNI across the full length of the longerons. Well at least doing the elecrtical cutouts and 6 Bid layup was fun.