Fuselage Bottom Scarf Joint #1

I sent off a drawing of the front gear spring for quote today to a local spring maker.   Hopefully he will be able to make it for a reasonable price.  I decided that I am going to buy a 12" X 12" X 8" tank with a 2" sump because one is available locally for a good price.  I will have to mount it about 3" below the top longeron so I may need to add a filler neck to the tank in the future.  The arm for this tank will be approximately 0.24 m.

Tonight I fiddled a bit with some minor trim work and excess glue removal and then I decided to glue the first scarf joint for the plywood that will cover the bottom of the fuselage.   No pictures today as this looks exactly like my last scarf joint.  I hope that you can use your imagination.

Number of hours:  0.5
Total hours:  151.1

Fuselage Top Continued

I finished shaping the fuselage top this evening.  During the day I struggled through some theoretical weight and balance calculations for gross weight and maximum aft cg location based on the numbers found in the operations manual and some of my own estimates.  The former was not so positive but the latter was a lot less bleak.  I attribute the disparity to the fact that the data provided in the manual is for the fiberglass version and not the wooden version.

My next step is cleaning and then some more scarf joints.

Number of hours:  1.3
Total hours:  150.6

Onyx Videos

Here are links to two videos of flying Onyx's

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ttro_onyx-montage2final_sport

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiZOzZ28O5I

from this classified ad:  http://www.avions-piel.com/ventes/topic1284.html

Fuselage Top Staples

Sorry, no pictures tonight.  Work continues on and I finished pulling the staples out the fuselage top tonight and then I trimmed the sides of the top flush with the longerons.  I got half of the cockpit opening trimmed and shaped also.  Hopefully, I'll be able to finish that up tomorrow night.  Then I need to do some housekeeping because of the sawdust.

Number of hours:  3.5
Total hours:  149.3

Fuselage Top

I removed my clamping set up from the scarfed sheets this afternoon and then cleaned the excess epoxy from the joint.  My next step was to scuff the underside of the whole thing.  I mixed up a lot of epoxy and applied it to the top of the fuselage crossmembers, longerons, and F1.  I carefully placed the plywood on top of the fuselage and tacked it down with staples.  I was a little off where it butts up to F2, but I can fill the gap with epoxy later.  I was hoping to get my next scarf joint glued tonight, but I had some errands to run that got in the way; plus I didn't realize it at the time, but this process was a lot of work and really tired me out.

Number of hours:  2.4
Total hours:  145.8

Starting to Scarf

I have spent countless hours trying to decide on a method to cut the scarf joints that I liked and could be done at home.  I gave up on that plan today and decided to cut the scarfs on my 1.5mm thick plywood sheets for the top and bottom of the fuselage at work.  Now I know it can be done with less than $100 tools, but this was a very easy way to cut them.  I chucked up a 3/4" diameter ball end mill in one of our CNC routers and programmed a parallel finishing operation to cut the angle.  I was able to scarf one end of the sheet in about 5 minutes.  We have four Komo CNC routers at work.  I have included a picture of one of the routers cutting the plywood and a picture of one of our high production routers.  I glued up the first set of sheets when I got home tonight.  This project seems to require some interesting clamp set ups.

Number of hours:  1.3
Total hours:  143.4

Masts

I machined out the 4 masts at work today.  When I got home I laid out my plans for scarfing the plywood for the top and bottom of the fuselage.  I will bring the plywood to work tomorrow to be cut.  Then I figured out my plan for mounting my 4 point harness and cut and glued two hard points to the forward edge of the landing gear reinforcements.   I am still working on a connection point for the shoulder harnesses, but that part of the design can wait a little while yet.  Disclaimer - do not follow some idiot on the internet, i.e. me, for the proper design and installation of your safety system.

I hope that everyone is starting their new year healthy and happy!

Number of hours:  1.8
Total hours:  142.1