Chapter 13 Chapter 13 is where we put the nose on the plane. Lots of excitement because it will stop looking like a canoe. We will even have breaks and rudder pedals after this chapter! This is a REALLY long chapter. I made it shorter by using the Wilhelmson EZ noselift but this is still a killing chapter.


NG30
NG30 pieces with inside fiberglass applied and mounting pieces for Wilhelm EZlift. I chose this electric noselift because of the good reputation and the fact that no modifications to the F22 or F28 bulkheads would be necessary. Don't forget to increase the height of the middle section and add a radius as suggested by Nat PUFFER in one of the newsletters.
The NG30s have been cutout, fiberglass has been applied to the insides and the ousides have received the birch doubler and aluminium insert but not the aluminum doubler. In order to make sure that the NG30 pieces and holes were identical, I used double sided tape to hold them together while I made all adjustments to the outside geometry and while I drilled the holes. I used a column mounted drill to ensure that the holes were perfectly perpendicular to the sides. In the end, this worked out perfectly. There was LOTS of setup time but it was all justified. I also mention that I drilled the holes before I removed the foam for the MKNG6 bearing in order to avoid any flexure between the pieces as I drilled the hole for this bearing.
The holes have been drilled in the NG30 pieces. Cutouts for the MKNG6 have been made. Hardpoints are installed as well as the outer fiberglass layers. Don't forget the extra UNI that is called out in one of the newsletters and mentioned in the FAQ.
.NG30s assembled, all holes fit perfectly and the NG30s remain well aligned.
NG30s assembled, all holes fit perfectly and the NG30s remain well aligned.
NG30s assembled, all holes fit perfectly and the NG30s remain well aligned.
Mounting the NG(4)? bracket for pulling up the nose gear. You can see the MKNG6 bearing assembly already in place.
I decided to follow many other builders and deviate from the manual by building the nose assembley on a workbench and then mount it on the fuselage. Seems a hell of a lot simpler this way. In this photo, the nose bulkhead has been mounted and I am in the process of mounting the strut, which had been previously glassed per instructions, into the assembly. Note the presence of TWO clammps. This is the second time I did this step. The first time I only used one clamp which was not well centered. End result, the strut twisted in the mkng6 retaining bracket and was unusable. A few swift wacks with a hammer to break it out of the retaining bracket and voila, time to start over.
Two clamps are better than one.
This time, the strut has not twisted in the bracket. Yaaaa!
Getting ready to put the NG30 assembly on the fuselage. Rather than building a table as the manual suggests, I attached a support underneath the fuselage with clamps. This support was used to support the weight of the NG30 assembly while the epoxy/flox dried.
Of course, the NG30 assembly would still have fallen if I didn't retain it at the top. I used my 1/4" long drill put through the EZNoselift brackets along with some clamps and a block of wood to hold the NG30 assembly in place. Don't forget your rudder pedal cutouts. I used the rudder pedals from Dennis O. so I had to use 3/4" holes.
Another picture of my support assembly. It was very nice because there were no additional holes drilled in the fuselage and no epoxy or bondo to sand off when I was done.
Had to make sure that the strut was perfectly vertical AND and aligned with the centerline of the fuselage. I used a plumb bob to make sure that it was vertical and a laser to ensure that it was aligned with the centerline of the fuselage.
Here you can see the laser is in the center of the strut which verifies that the strut is aligned with the centerline of the fuselage. I took a lot of time to get this right. In the end, I think it was worth it. It was difficult because the shape of the end of the strut is irregular to say the least.
Hollowing at the urethane nose bottom and adding the urethane nose sides
Hollowing out the bottom is not to bad. I marked it up as per plans and then started removing "layers" to make a stepped surface which would then be sanded smooth.
Making good progress. The rotozip is a great tool for this. A normal router is way to heavy and just damages the foam. Even with the rotozip, it was a bit delicate.
Smoothing it out. The intersection of the steps makes a very nice guide. I used the advice from the Burt RUTAN video and used another piece of urethane to "sand" the bottom urethane block.
The side nose pieces have been added. Man does it ever look ugly now. I thought I would smooth it right out but that ended having to wait almost two years.
Long hiatus: August 2008 - June 2010
Cutting the nose wheel hole
June 5, 2010: This moment filled me with terror. What if I cut it to the wrong size? How can I cut a hole in this; I worked so hard on it! I started by making a template on paper with the aid of a carpenters square.
Always good to have help from all the family!
June 13,2010: I only needed part of the template but used the NG30s for additional alignment help.
June 13, 2010: The template has been transferred.
June 13, 2010: The wheel is up and barely misses the garage door. You can see lots of leftover micro on the urethane. The fairing between the NG30s has not yet been put in place.
June 13, 2010: The hole is a little too small . I am progressively enlarging it to avoid problems since it is always easier to remove material than add.
June 13, 2010: The inner line is an approximate shape cutout for the wheel. The outer line is to add some clearance.
June 20, 2010: The wheel finally goes down as it should. Very little clearance for the moment. I also decided not to use the foot supplied in Jack Wilhelmson's EZ noselift kit. (I misdrilled the holes in the foot!!!)
Nose Shaping
August 1, 2010: I have used the initial form on the bottom urethane as a guide to shape the initially straight side blocks of urethane. A little problem, the ends abutting to F22 are not even with the fuselage sides.
August 1, 2010: Here I have removed the calibration error between the urethane and the fuselage sides.
August 1, 2010: Overall view.
August 1, 2010: Now that the sides have been shaped initially, I am moving on to shape the bottom urethane pieces. The nose is still boxlike, but it is getting closer to the final form. The big problem is to make sure that the two sides are even and that the progression from the nose to sides is done smoothly.
August 1, 2010: Closeup on bottom urethane shaping. On the left is after the shaping and on the right is before.
August 31, 2010: Instead of buying the front landing gear cover to place between the NG30s from featherlite, I decided to economize and make one on my own. Pretty easy piece to make. In fact, it probably would have been smarter just to put some foam on the top sides of the NG30s and glass over.
The rounding strategy was going to be simple.
Step 1: make a 45° chamfer
Step 2: break each side of the chamfer by sanding equally to 1 inche above and below the chamfer lines.
Step 3: break the breaks using the same strategy to break the new flat surfaces and the lines/creases at the top and bottom.
Step 4: round up
The only subtlety of this procedure was to account for the decreasing radius as you approach the nose. To accomplish this, I linearly increased the removal depth for step 1 as I approached the nose. This is why there are two lines on the bottom urethane and two lines on the side urethane to begin with.
August 3, 2010: I have removed the first chamfer at a constant radius and now need to do the decreasing radius.
August 3, 2010: Areas to be removed for  step 2.
August 3, 2010: Areas removed in step 2.
August 3, 2010: Areas to be removed in step 3.
August 3, 2010: Areas removed in step 3.
Putting on the nose cone and pitot
I purchased a featherlite nose cone in the hopes that it would be easier, faster and of better qualitythan sanding a bunch of urethane blocks to shape. In the end, I wish I had done the urethane blocks because it would have been much easier to ensure the proper form. In fact, the featherlite part did not have the same outline as my F0. Was this featherlite's problem or mine? Don't know, but in the end it required a lot of work to get it to fit and my FO was reduced in size considerably.

August 6, 2010: Putting on the wooden plate which will ultimately hold the half hockey puck to protect the nose in case the nose wheel is not lowered when landing.
Before putting on the nose cone, the pitot tube has to be run. I asked the Zeitlin newsgroup for some suggestions for the pitot. I wanted to make mine removable and was worried about bending the plans specified aluminum tube. In the end, I purchased a "pitot pal" from LAS aero in the UK but the same thing is also available from Spruce and probably Wicks.

August 14: 2010: I have drilled out a hole to receive the pitot pal assembly.
August 14, 2010: A closeup of the hole. I was lucky that the pitot pal was not so large that I had to cut through the fiberglass.
August 14: 2010: Part of the pitot pal in place.
August 14, 2010: The pitot pal assembly in place including the aluminum tube extension.
August 15, 2010: Here I have mounted hte nosecone. It doesn't show well but I had to slit the nose cone on the top and bottom so that it would fit properly. You can also see that the supports are not in full contact at the very front. I have also put the hole in the nose cone to receive the pitot pal.
August 15, 2010:  The pitot pal assembly is put in place though not yet epoxied. I am wondering about recessing the black part a bit. There is plenty of room since the supports don't reach the back of the nose cone at its front.
Putting the nosedeck on and installing the access panel
A long layoff and then lots of work without pictures during which time I fiberglassed the bottom and top of the nose.
April 12, 2011:  covered the top block but no pictures. Easy operation. I paid extra attention to making sure that the access panel jog was done correctly.
April 15, 2011:  After I fiberglassed the top nosedeck, I cut it off!!! The dry fiberglass will have to be trimmed and then some filler to make the fuselage smooth.
April 15, 2011: Here is what was cut off. You can see that I have already cut out the initial hole for the access panel. The "lip" will ultimately be cut back to about 3/4 of an inch. The red mark are my normal alignment marks for 45 degrees. Some of the fibers got moved a bit but this a very lightly loaded piece so I am not to worried about it.
April 15:, 2011: Here is what it looks like with the fiberglassed nose deck on but no access panel.
April 15:, 2011: Here is what it looks like with the fiberglassed nose deck on but this time with access panel.
April 17, 2011: I thought it would be a good idea to "clean" out the insde a bit before putting the topdeck in place permanently. I have to admit that I was surprised by the amount of room the access panel gave. I was going to finish plumbing the brake lines before putting this on but not I think I can do it later.
April 17, 2011: I am now beginning to dish out the foam underneath the access panel. At this point I thought everything was going to be simple, but ...
April 18, 2011: Even though I now that all modifications to the cozy make for a longer build time, I thought that having a hinged door would be nice so I ordered the cozy girl J-hinges and started to install them. I asked for some advice and they sent the following:
"
Dear Bruce,

Take a block of 2x4 about 5" or so long, clamp it between the two hinges at the perforated portion, have the axle ends touching the table and a perpendicular end stop to align.
Make two 1/4" ply or G-10 tombstones that will be the forward hinge points, bolt each on with an AN3 and locknut, washer in between.
Hopefully your front deck has not been bonded on and the door is not cut out? If Door has been cut out but the deck not bonded on then use popsickle sticks to bondo it back on.
If you can, cut away inside skin where hinge pivots go to get hinge pivots up under top skin, scoop out  large enough area then bond inside skin to outside skin.
Make sure spacing is wide enough to avoid NG-30 tops.
Bond hinge points as close to top skin as possible, add 2x BID ea side.
Temporarily remove block and rotate hinges into door, mark area and cut slots, if too angular an intersection then cut hinge perf area to make it work. flox in place with 2x BID about 1" up sides.
Cut door out. .
 
Regards, Chrissi & Randi
www.CozyGirrrl.com
CG Products, Custom Aircraft Hardware
Chairwomen, Sun-N-Fun Engine Workshop
636-946-9020"
Getting advice is good, using the advice after thinking a bit is even better.

(the blue radio control corsair in the background was crashed when I had a tip stall in final followed by a spin. 12 years later, I am finally rebuilding it. Anyone who ever flies with me will not a tendancy to keep a little extra speed in final. I think this is understandable when you look at the picture of the corsair after its crash.)
April 18, 2011: Everything looks good so far, right?, Wrong, I put the hinge point to close to the opening. (stupid). When you do this and try to open the access panel, the front runs into the nose after lifting the panel and inch or so. Having a panel which would only open by an inch or so is not so great so I removed and tried again but only after engaging the mind.
April 19, 2011: Here they are finsished except for BI, or so I thought. I made urethane forms to put on each side of the J-hinge and then filled in with flox. I was then going to BI everything in place.
April 19, 2011: Here I have removed the J-hinges and removed additional urethane so that the hinge points may be moved forward. A really frustrating loss of 2 days. Of course, if I had the guts to use fast setting expoxy I would have lost less time.
April 22, 2011: Here it is, nosedeck set in place (but not BIed), access panel in place and closed. I still need to add the hold-down bolts in back. (I suppose that I could probably apply the Nat technique of using the canard to hold the back down in place but I am still debating that one.
April 22, 2011: It opens!!!
April 22, 2011: A view from the back.
April 22, 2011: A neat installation but I still have to apply the BI to the back of the nosedeck as well as BIing the hinges in place and their supports.