6/13/02 - Made 10 6

This chapter deals with the first aerodynamic piece that will assist in getting the boat into the air. I purchased canard cores from Featherlite because this project is truly a one man operation. I didn't have anyone readily available to hold the other side of the hotwire saw.

6/13/02 - Made 10 6.5" long 1/4" dia. wood dowels. Drilled #10 holes in lift tabs. Riveted nutplates to insert tabs. 2 hrs.

Here are the inserts that the canard lift tabs will be bolted to. This is the main attachment point of the canard to the fuselage.

6/14/02 - Made table extension for use in canard construction. Made canard jig for shear web layup. Marked rear canard foam per plans. Started to jig foam cores in jig. 3 hrs.

My workshop is a tandem garage so I have plenty of length but lack for width. My table is only 8' by 3'. I constructed an extension to build the canard on so it would not take up as much space and it was easier to work on.

6/15/02 - Finished jigging cores. Microed cores together. Made Lift tab insert jigs. Microed inserts in place. Radiused foam corners. Siliconed insert screw holes. Lightly sanded, then vacuumed cores. Cut all glass for shear web layups. 7.5 hrs.

The canard cores need to be aligned together to make sure there is no twist in the canard when it is finished. This is easily accomplished by running a string the full length of the canard cores and lining each core up with the string as shown here.
This picture shows the inserts getting installed into the middle of the canard. The metal strap ensures that the 3 holes in the insert can be drilled accurately after the fiberglass has been laid up over the insert.

6/16/02 - Laid up and peel plied canard shear web per plans. 6 hrs.


6/17/02 - Removed canard from jig. Removed peel ply and trimmed layup. Took jig apart. Alodined lift tabs. Cleaned garage. 2 hrs.

6/21/02 - Made 10 "K" templates to jig canard. 2.5 hrs.

These are the "K" templates that the canard will rest on while doing the skin layups. They assure the canard is straight and true. They don't look like much but I spent a lot of time making sure they all matched each other to guarantee a straight canard.

6/22/02 - Floxed lift tabs in place. Made E & F jigs. Drilled out 1/4" holes in canard shear web. Mounted 10 K jigs to table and aligned. Started to test fit front pieces of canard into place. Notched leading edge foam around lift tabs. 5 hrs.

Here the "K" jigs are placed on the workbench as called out in the plans. A string was used to confirm they all were level and in line front to back.

6/23/02 - Finished jigging cores. Microed cores together and secured in jigs. 4 hrs.

6/24/02 - Microed radius on edges of spar cap trough. Made jig for 3" wide uni roll at end of workbench. 2 hrs.

7/1/02 - Sanded canard shear web for spar cap layup. Taped off shear web. 1 hr.

7/2/02 - Laid up bottom canard spar cap, peel plied, and knife trimmed layup. 5 hrs.

7/3/02 - Installed VOR antenna on bottom of canard. 2 hrs.

The beauty of composite airplanes is you can hide the drag inducing antenna under the fiberglass skin. They are also very cheap to make. They are just copper tape cut to a specific length depending on desired frequency. I installed a VOR (Navigation) antenna in the canard. Don't know if VOR's will still be around by the time the plane flys, but it is cheap and took very little time to make.

7/5/02 - Repaired foam on trailing edge where Featherlite cores did not match. Sanded bottom spar cap flush to canard template. Cleaned garage. 3.5 hrs.

7/6/02 - Peel plied canard trailing edge. Applied duct tape to leading edge. Cut glass and laid up bottom canard skin. Peel plied leading edge and knife trimmed lay up. 5.5 hrs.

7/7/02 - Removed peel ply and sanded leading edge of canard. Made jigs to turn canard over. Removed peel ply from trailing edge. Started to profile foam on top surface of canard. 4.5 hrs.

Here are the plans templates that are used to make sure the canard is the proper shape.

7/8/02 - Finished shaping canard top. Checked jig and canard on workbench for twist. Bondoed jig to workbench. Made 6 hinge hardpoints and installed 2.3 hrs.

These are the foam inserts that are installed into the canard. These inserts are what will hold the elevator hinge mounting points for Chapter 11.

7/9/02 - Cut out 4 remaining elevator hinge mounts in canard. Microed 6 foam inserts into canard. Microed transition into spar cap trough. Repaired foam gouges in canard. Cut canard from 141.5" to 141 as plans called out. 3 hrs.

7/12/02 - Sanded top shear web and prepped canard for top spar cap layup. Inventoried small Wicks order. 2 hrs.

7/13/02 - Laid up top canard spar cap, peel plied, knife trimmed. 5hrs.

Not a great picture, but this was my workout for the day....6 hours in 95 degree heat doing the spar cap layup!

7/14/02 - Sanded top spar cap. Cut glass for top skin layup. Cleaned garage. 3 hrs.

7/15/02 - Microed, laid up top canard skin and peel plied. 6 hrs.

7/16/02 - Trimmed layup. Removed canard from jig. Sanded overlap on bottom of canard, and sanded trailing edge straight. 2 hrs.

This ends Chapter 10. Total construction time: 78.8 hrs.