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Step 10
Closing the Top and Carving & Glassing the Outside |
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Like the previous step, Piping the Pitot & Static System,
this step has fallen victim to the computer crash. Not so many under
construction photos. Anyway, we'll hit the high points. Here's shot
of the fuselage bottom, after carving and glassing and cutting free the
glass over the nose strut. Mine is wider than most, this is because of
my custom design strut cover, which is as wide as the spaces between the
NG-30s. Sure, it'll have more drag, but, you need drag on this plane
when you're trying to land it so it's no big deal. |
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Here's the strut cover I used, I
think this was version/layup number four. You can see it is full-width
between the NG-30s, with only a flange on either side 'vertical' that serves
as a place to flox it to the sides of the NG-30s. I played around with
the fore and aft adjustment for quite a while until I got it in the place
where the movement of the noselift shaft up and down was best
compensated for. Also in this image you can see that the glass cutout is
full width. I've trimmed up the edges after making that cutout in this
shot. |
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I made my nose bumper out of a full hockey puck. It
has two bolt holes in it, with recesses, these AN-4 bolts bolt into some
aluminum slugs I installed in the nose bumper plywood support. It
might be a little too thick, we'll see. I can always cut it in half,
depth wise, then re-install. I may leave it like this, in preparation
for my first gear up landing (1300 flight hours and I haven't had one yet,
but....) 'cause I'll have more 'scrape' time before I eat into the
airplane's nose. |
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I ended up with a pretty thick piece of foam on top of the
nose strut to get it flush with the fuselage bottom. I ended up
covering the sides with 1 ply of BID. I will also have to redo the
front of the layup, immediately behind the pivot, because it sagged as the
glass cured. No sweat, trim the layup, supply some backing foam, do
another layer or two on top and I'm in business. |
| That's all the pictures I have of closing &
glassing. The next step is the Nose Door. |
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