Chapter 13
This chapter deals with the nose
section of the airplane. I purchased the
nose sections from Aerocad. The nose is obviously one of those “high
profile” parts of the plane where everyone can see any little mistake you may
make. I figured since these are molded
pieces, they will give me a better start on contouring the nose to the sides,
top, and bottom of the fuselage. Much
work will follow such as fabricating the rudder pedals and mounts, brake
cylinders, retractable front landing gear, etc. During the cold weather though,
I try to keep the project moving even though it is difficult to do any large layups. Keeping this
in mind, I decided to go ahead and fabricate the front hatch door. This door is normally held in place with
screws/nutcerts at the 4 corners of the hatch. I wanted something a little cleaner looking
so I fabricated some hinges, mounts and latch mechanism that will be operated
by cable from inside. This will look
neater and add a little more security to the plane.
First, I marked and cut out the
access door. Next, at drip rail needs to be fabricated. I put 12 layers of duct tape on around the
inside edge of the door. This will
simulate the 1/16” gap needed for the weather stripping that will go on top of the
drip rail. I then placed the door back
in place on the nose section using stir sticks to hold it flush to the top of
the nose. I then glassed the drip rail
from the backside of the nose.
The picture below shows the drip
rail layup after cure but before it was trimmed. You can see the duct tape on the access door.
Next, I fabricated ¼” aluminum hardpoints for the latch and hinge mounts. This was
followed up with drilling and tapping each hardpoint
for the attach screws. The picture below
shows the inside of the nose with the hinges and latches all assembled.
And here is the completed access door.
As you can see, it is a much
cleaner install. It’s steps like these that are taking
me longer to complete the plane than what other builders are doing. To put 4 screws and nutcerts
in would have taken an hour or two. This
took me a total of 15 hours, but since I am only building one of these, I will
take the extra time and make it look a little nicer.