Chapter 6

When fiddling with F22 I discovered a strange thing. I have built the bulkheads using the large drawings - not the M-drawings. I then discovered that the width of F22 on the large drawings is 33.7" while the width according to the M-drawing should be 34.5" approx!! There is no doubt that the drawings differ, but which one is correct? I asked the question on the Cozy-list, the canard-list and the canard-forum. No one could answer this but several builders had used the large drawings and confirmed that their F22 was 33.7" wide. I got a tip to check the lift-tab-position of the canard to assure that they fit F22. That should be no problem, so I will continue with the 33.7"-version of F22.

The tub is starting to take shape! Here I have followed the plan assembling the tub the right way up. Many builders have assembled the tub upside down, but I chose to do it the plans way. I started by leveling of the plank at the bottom, and also the 2"x4" fore and aft. The longerons are at WL23 - i.e. 23" up from the plank. This is only a dry-fit. I will use flox when I assemble the tub permanently. I measured the diagonals to look for straightnes. It was only 2mm difference, so I call it good to go. Just to the right of the tub in the picture is the landing-gear bow. I bought it from a builder in US that had to abandon his project. It is brand new and came with the nose-leg as well. I got a good deal and helped him out as well. Pity he wasn't able to continue his project though.

I used the plans method to squeeze the fuselage-side together using a couple of planks and some rope. Making a tourniquet it's easy to adjust the pressure. Now it shall cure for 24 hours without anyone touching it. As Nat says in the plans: "Don't even let the dog inside while curing!".

While curing I started to cut all the BID-tapes using the plans method of laying an 8" BID-ply ontop of some plastic, apply epoxy and then cut in 4 2" strips. Worked rather good, but if I should do this again, I would use 3" wide tapes rather than 2". My problem was that the BID-tapes stretched a bit hence got more narrow. Then I had to widen them again, much hazzle her. Had I been using 3" tapes instead I would have had a greater tolerence here. It was also a suprisingly long job to glue the BID-tapes on! I spent 2.5 hour to make the tapes and glue them on and peel ply.

The next step was to flox the landing-gear-bulkheads. Goofed up the aft. I forgot that there are a front and an aft side of this bulkhead. The front side had 8 plies of bid extra. I managed to flox it backwards. It was easy to cut it out and reattach it, no big deal at all. I discovered that I was not the only one doing this, luckily I discovered it early. I sent a tip off to the Cozy-FAQ mentioning that it's easy to do a mistake here. After cure I floxed the front lower LG using the plans method.

Suddenly the temperature outside dropped to -10 degrees celsius (14F). Christmas is also just around the corner. I decided to turn the heater off to save some money and wait for the temperature to rise over christmas again. The weather-forecast says it will be cold until next year, so I guess this will be the last work done in 2009.

2010:
Off to work again! The temperature has raised to approx 0 degress celsius so I have started the heat-pump again. I finished the landing-gear bulkheads using the plans method. I have also added 3 plies UNI on the front side og the front LG as per plans. Finally I BID-taped the front LG to the fuselage and taped the joint between the lower and upper front LG. The next step will be to turn the fuselage upside down!

I need to fabricate the bracket for the fuel-selector. I bought the aluminum-piece from Aircraft Spruce - but I had to cut it out according to the template in the plans. After carefully measuring and drilling the holes, I have to bend the piece making to 90 degreees bends. Many people have had problems here with the aluminum breaking in the bends. The first thing to observe is to bend across the grains in the aluminum. The next thing is not to make a sharp bend, but make a radius. To help me I cut a piece of wood 2" wide that matches the inside of the bracket. Then I sanded the corners making a gentle radius for the bracket.

The whole assembly is now curing. When cured I will glass the outside with two plies of BID.
Here is my first deviation from the plans. I was to install a aluminum-tube through a hole in the plywood for the landing-brake-mechanism. Since I am going to use an electric actuator instead, I don't need this tube. I didn't realize this until after I drilled the holes. I just filled the holes with flox - no big deal.
Actually I see now that I could have skipped the plywood-inserts completely.

When I tapered the spacers in the fuselage sides (chapter 5) I used a manual hack-saw, quite a job that required much sanding afterwards. This time I decided to use my jigsaw. I have quite often used it as a table-saw by fasten it upside-down in a workbench. I developed this concept further and made a solid base of 15mm plywood where i routed a depression to fit the base of the jigsaw. This plywood-base is then just fastened in my workbench when I need it. It's easy to slide the jigsaw in and out of the base when I need to use it elsewhere.

To make the 30° cut required I had to make a jig since the maximum angle I can tilt the jigsaw is 45°. To get the geometry correct I actually have to tilt the blade 60° to make a 30° angle if I was to use the jigsaw without any aiding-tools. The above picture show how the jig was made out of some plywood-pieces I had. The jig is fastened to the base with a couple of screws so it sits firm. As seen on the full-size picture the cut is clean and requires no additional sanding.

Beware your fingers if you try this method! Since the blade goes both up and down the foam may jump right out of your hand and possible your fingers may slide into the blade! Happend to me a couple of times, luckily I managed to avoid my fingers getting hurt. It's very important to hold the foam steady with a firm grip while passing it slowly through the saw. I also used a wood-stick in front to push the last inch through the blade as an extra insurance.

Now the spacers are sanded and prepared for glassing. I put the floor on place on the tub to check that everyting fits, and it looked all very well. Spent an hour and a half afterwards cutting the glass and peel-ply. I can't glass the floor before I know I have an uninterupted room of hours ahead of me, so I guess I'll wait until Sunday. The family demands my attention also :-)

Btw - I am not using Last-A-Foam for the spacers, but Divinycell H80 since LAF is not available in Norway. H80 is a better quality foam, but also more expensive. Still - it's cheaper for me than paying freight for the foam across the Atlantic. Since LAf is urethane-based I guess it's a bit easier to sand and form than H80, but with good tools sanding H80 is no problem at all.

The next thing to do after the floor was glassed was to flox it onto the tub and weigh it down while curing. The plans tells us to glass the floor, wait 12 hours, then flox the floor and BID-tape it right after. Many builders choose to do this is three steps since the workload is rather high during these steps. I choose the same thing. So I glassed the floor, allowed it to cure, then floxed the floor to the tub and allowed it to cure again. The last step in this chapter was to BID-tape the floor to the sides. According to the plans I should do this while the tub was upside down (since the floor was curing). Luckily I know could turn the tub sideways and do the BID-tapes a lot more easy. The last picture here is the BID-tapes with peel-ply, curing.