Chapter Log

Step 0 - Materials
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 787.35, Actual: $ 1814.00
Date Completed: 10/15/2005

Step 1 - Reinforcing Glass Strut
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 3.50
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 01/12/2006

2006-01-12 (2 hours):
This step probably didn't need to take as long as it did, but I wanted to clearly understand what was going on. I have Jack Wilhelmson's nose lift and thus have two sets of directions to read and follow.

Otherwise the work was simple - cut the strut to length, sand it down in some spots, and glass it. At least, it was simple because I have an oscillating spindle sander, which made quick work of sanding down the attach areas to make sure the brackets would all fit. Without this tool this would have been a painful step.

2006-01-13 (1.5 hours):
The other half - laying the BID on the front face. Easy as pie now that I know what I'm doing. The only awkward thing is figuring out a way to set the strut up on your bench so you can DO the layup. I rested mine on some narrow sticks. It makes stippling the layup an annoying job, but I didn't want to bondo or 5-minute the strut down. Not for this little layup, anyway.

Step 2 - Fabricating NG-30s
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 11.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 02/02/2005

2006-01-17 (2 hours):
I cut the NG30 foam pieces and laid out the holes. I also drilled the holes in the aluminum mounting plates for Jack's nose lift. His instructions, unfortunately, aren't very easy to understand, and they're written for a retrofit, so I've been going slowly, making sure I know what's going on before I do each step.

2006-01-18 (1 hour):
I wanted to get this out of the way yesterday, but ran out of time before I head home. Work and home life have been increasing the time pressure lately, so my build time is less than it was. C'est la vie. I did the BID layup on the NG30 pieces. I had a few dry spots where I over-squeeged at the edges. I'll fix this with an extra layer of BID when I do the BID taping. Just a few small bits along the bottom edges, nothing serious. Be careful using a hair dryer on a layup. You have to pay attention to the type of foam you're working with. I've just finished one wing, so I'm used to working with styrofoam, which holds (and allows the flow of) less air than the stuff for the NG30s.

2006-01-23 - 2006-02-01 (6 hours):
This was a rather difficult piece for me to finish. Work has been very distracting, and I kept making mistakes. I also have a devil of a time getting the skins laid up without bubbles on the outsides of the NG30 pieces, especially around the compound curves.

For the first time, I tried the "LoVac" technique as described by the CozyGirrrls, with mixed results. The technique itself is fine, but since my shop is not at my house, and I had no way to check on the (hot and getting hotter) pump, I didn't want to leave it running all night. I did my best to seal off the bag, but when I came in the vacuum had still gone. No surprise, of course, but it didn't help the layup. Around all of the compound curve areas by the hardpoints I have air bubbles that I'll have to inject.

On the other hand, this is clearly a good technique when you can do it. It produces very fast layups, since you can basically slop on the epoxy - there's almost no working of the material involved. In fact, if not for the compound curves, even removing the vacuum after an hour would still have produced a good layup on a flat part, much as if I had hand-worked it. It just didn't help keep things in the curves.

I put an extra 2 layers of BID in the layup after reading about NG30 failures others have had. I didn't realize until it was too late that another suggestion is to raise the horizontal section 2", and round the corners. But, this middle ground should be a reasonable compromise. There are plenty of Cozies flying with no modifications at all. I won't be as survivable through a pothole as some, but more than others. I'm fine with that.

2006-02-02 (2 hours):
I finished (I hope!) the NG30 pieces today by carving out the area around the MKNG6 mounting point, and glassing it with two plies of BID. Not much to say - it was a pretty easy step, if a bit messy during the carving.

Step 3 - Installing Worm Drive Assembly
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 02/02/2006

I'm marking this step completed and moving on. I'm installing Jack Wilhelmson's electric nose lift, and it's best fitted a bit later in the build cycle. That's the only way you can accurately drill the holes for the mounting plates.

Step 4 - Installation of Box Assembly
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 3.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 02/08/2006

2006-02-07 (2 hours):
I didn't go through as many gyrations as some of the builders I've seen. Not to say their techniques are invalid, but I thought this was one of the easier steps I've done. My fuse was sitting on the floor, on carpet. I clamped a SmartLevel with audio beep turned on onto F22's center rail, and shoved some pieces of plywood under the firewall until F22 was perfectly level (vertically). I also leveled the fuse horizontally - it was only 0.1 degree out to begin with.

I then used some foam scrap to position the NG30 assembly at the right height and position. I moved the SmartLevel to the face of F0 for this task, and got IT perfectly vertical, with the bottom edge of the NG30s flush with the bottom edge of the fuse. I also leveled the sides of the NG30s. Finally, I laid a long carpenter's square along F22's center layup (better line than the outside layups) and flush with the centerline I drew on it ages ago (thankfully). I aligned the center of the assembly, which I had drawn onto NG5 and F0, with this square. My assembly was thus perfectly vertical in both directions (to a tenth of a degree), and square to the fuselage.

I filled a small gap between the NG30s and F22 with flox, and made a flox fillet on the back side. My NG30 assembly was slightly wider than my F22 center bar. No problem. I then wrapped a BID tape all the way around from one NG30, across F22, and onto the other. It was faster than cutting two tapes, and about the same amount of cloth anyway. I left that to cure before adding the rest of the tapes, so I wouldn't disturb the assembly's alignment.

2006-02-07 (1 hour):
Today I added the rest of the BID tapes on the insides of the NG30 box against F22, and the inside of the box formed by F0, the NG30s, and F5. It's really a pain to get the tapes in there. I don't know why the plans say it's better to do it on wax paper first. In my opinion, it would be almost impossible to do it properly any other way.

I'm learning about corners, too. I've always tried to make a nice flox fillet, and I've always had problems with little air bubbles around the bends. Today, I tried something new. I mashed in twice as much flox as I needed, making a convex filling instead of a concave fillet. When I laid on the BID tape, I pressed it into the corner starting from the center, and ran my fingers along the corner. This pressed both the bubbles and the excess flox out along the line. I scraped off most of the excess flox as it came out each end, and will clean the rest up when I trim the tapes with the Fein.

I'm also experimenting with putting peel ply into the tape when I lay it up on the bench. Previously, I would make normal tapes, apply them, and peel off the plastic and add peel ply if necessary. This time, I added the peel ply as part of the tape itself. YOu have to be careful to be sure it ends up on the correct side, but it's pretty obvious if you've done it wrong when you peel off the plastic. With some acknowledged hubris, I have to say it would be difficult to forget.

Step 5 - Nose Floor and Sides
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 0.00, Actual: 0.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 04/26/2007

Step 6 - Rudder Pedals
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 6.00, Actual: 9.00
Est Cost: $ 350.00, Actual: $ 350.00
Date Completed: 03/07/2007

Installing the rudder pedals was a bit of touchy alignment work. To provide a solid mount for the Matco master cylinders, there are two aluminum angle brackets installed with plenty of fasteners and BID over the top, as you can see in the bottom of the photo below. The rudder pedals themselves are Dennis Oelmann's, and look great.

Also in this photo you can see a taped up box over the nose gear lift. I installed Jack Wilhelmson's lift, and wanted a tight seal around it to prevent air leaks. Details in another post.

Step 7 - Master Brake Cylinders
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 9.00, Actual: 12.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 03/07/2007

See main photos above.

01-10-2009 and 01-11-2009:
This weekend I installed some nut plates to hold the oil reservoirs. I put them on the back face of the nose gear pivot support box, which is out of the way but easy to inspect during the pre-flight, and also conveniently very close to the master cylinders.

To do this I marked and drilled out the locations where nut plates would go, then used temporary bolts through the reservoirs to hold the nuts plates in position while I floxed them in. I did this on Saturday. I used wax in the bolt holes to protect them. On Sunday, I removed the reservoirs and put a layer of BID across the face, then a sheet of plastic, then clamped the reservoirs back on so the BID will cure in a flat layer to support the reservoir mounting brackets.

Next time I'm at the hangar I'll drill the holes back out and permanently install the reservoirs with their final (short) bolts.

Step 8 - Nosegear
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 25.00, Actual: 30.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 07/11/2007

I don't have a great shot here of the nose gear itself. I lost a bunch of pictures during the move and need to take some new ones.

Here you can see a few shots of the top of Jack Wilhelmson's nose lift. The manual extension rod runs through a bronze oil-impregnated bushing through the face of F22 and through a universal joint to the top of the lift. On the other side, if you look closely you can see where I accidentally broke open the sealing boot on the universal joint on the other side. Unfortunately that's going to be an expensive replacement - those things aren't cheap.

The manual extension rod runs through another bushing installed on the instrument panel. Right now it's hooked to a socket wrench that we use to adjust the gear when the power is off.

I did purchase and install the auto-extension unit (seen below just below the gear extension rod), although I'm not that thrilled with it. It's not that smart. Auto-extending the gear just because I turned the power on is an invitation to tip back, and I'm finding myself leaving its breaker off a lot to avoid that. I may rebuild the unit at some point to require at least a few mph of airspeed before it auto-extends.

Step 9 - Piping the Pitot and Static System
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 12.00, Actual: 14.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 00/00/0000

For the pitot, I found a small air compressor blower nozzle on McMaster-Carr that had a threaded fitting on one end. A threaded bushing in the nose provides the connection, giving me a removable pitot. An elbow joint completes the picture by connecting to the aluminum tubing that runs up to the instrument panel.

For the static port I found some small machined aluminum static ports that seem like they'll do the job. They (one per side) get installed in recessed holes just under the outside skin and plumbed the same way.

Step 10 - Closing the Top and Glassing the Outside
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 18.00, Actual: 16.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 04/26/2007

In the top of my nose I have a bigger door than the plans call for. This will make it easier for me to do visual inspections of the brake fluid reservoirs, allows me to install and remove the nose gear cover (it's pretty big), and will give me access to two small storage compartments I built into the nose to the left and right of the nose gear support box. I'll use these for storage of some items, perhaps a spare inner tube and/or tools, or extra ballast if necessary.

The door itself is held in place with two quarter-turn fasteners and the canard cover. The small door in the nose for access to the ballast compartment is held in place with four quarter-turn fasteners.

Step 11 - Nose Door
Status: Completed 
Est Time: 15.00, Actual: 22.00
Est Cost: $ 0.00, Actual: $ 0.00
Date Completed: 07/11/2007

On the advice of some builders who have had gear-up landings, I went with a plywood nose pad around the front of the gear door. This gives stopping ability, but more wear protection than a small puck. With the fairing around it, it won't add much drag.

John spent a lot of time tweaking the doors to work just right. His finishing work is excellent. You can also see the sealing box here. If you look closely you can make out a small fiberglass lip that extends up from the gear box. The cover fits into this slot, and with some RTV sealant will completely seal the space.