Computer generated image from original sketch.
A rough layout view created on computer.
This started out to be an exercise in cutting sheet foam to get an idea of sizes, and became the actual fuselage plug!
Starting to add some former shapes. (note corrected white balance!)
Shape concepts getting serious now, note rough scribble of 503 engine.
As the bulkheads represented the OUTSIDE shapes, the planking was fitted between them using a hot glue gun.
Quick way of cutting, shaping polystyrene sheet. Like my prop collection?
Aft planking well under way.
Shape being roughed out.
Forward planking started and roughed.
Fuselage plug now suspended by slings to allow rolling over.
Planking cleaning up and tail stub beginning.
Foam in a can used to fill rough join gaps, doesn't attack polystyrene.
Needed to change the engine bay a little, simply cut off, added the adjustment and glued top back on.
Filling the adjustment.
Some of the hot wire tools I made, borrowed the transformer from a mate.
Wing core blocks. I had to buy these, cost me about $400!
The modified HQ-9 wing section profiles glued to alloy, ready to hotwire the wing plugs.
Long woodscrews holding the profiles in place.
I can hear the purists saying, "where's the position counters and assistants?" These are only plugs, so I can use plenty of filler if need be.
Centre section plug ready to install under fuselage plug.
That's the top cut, now to turn over and cut the bottom.
Centre section being faired to fuselage.
Creating the wing fillets from 'Expanda Foam'
Looks like I should fit!
Setting up my glass and resin bench.
Glass and bog being applied.
Glassing the front end while still shaping the back end.
A fin blank with some airfoil shape is added
Blanks for right hand wing plug.
Airplane noises? Just getting a feel for overall size.
Single layer of epoxy and glass on plug.
Glassing the underside. Epoxy was clear so some coloured ink was added to see where it was laid.
Wing tip shaped and glassed.
Back to sanding the filler.
First rough assembly of all plugs.
OK, some bits still missing.
This builds up the enthusiasm.
Making the canopy moulding box.
Canopy box in action.
Bubble pulled with vacuum, heaters off to allow setting.
New profile to get a better fitting bubble.
Experimenting with different bubble heights.
Bubble flexed into place.
One piece wing mated to fuselage to start wing fillets.
Sanding the tail plane blank. Only one needed as tail is symmetrical.
Divider plates in place and layer of tooling gelcoat added.
Laying up the tail mould.
Separating the tail moulds. Just a little bit of stick-up.
Tail plane moulds cleaned and ready.
Laying up the fin mould.
Fin mould didn't go as well as planned. Much scraping and polishing to fix.
Forming the canopy edge.
First spinner attempt.
Making triangle beads from urethane foam sheet.
Laying up the left fuselage mould.
Fuselage underside mould.
Preparing fin mould for first fin layup.
The added roll of Bias cloth on top.
First tail plane layup.
More fuselage moulds.
Right hand fin layup with coremat panel.
Right hand fin with front coremat.
Shaping the fin mould.
New leading edge for fin plug.
Smoothing the fin plug.
Top fuselage mould.
Lower rear mould at gelcoat stage.
A change of plan. Instead of making the tail from four pieces, I joined the tail moulds together and now make a top and bottom half.
Tail spar made from urethane foam sheet, glassed both sides.
Extra skin layers of glass in tail.
Coremat in tail leading edge.
First tail half pulled from mould.
Laying up tail half #2.
Tail halves almost ready.
Left side of fin.
Rear fin spar glued to skin.
Pulling off lower fuselage mould.
Another not very successful mould pull. Wax release agent was soaking into the porous plugs.
Lumps pulled off plug by mould.
Some moulds got really stuck!
Top mould was the hardest to get off.
Most of the filler came away with the plug.
Lots of careful scraping required here.
Most of the bits come off fairly easily with a plastic wedge.
Cleaning the moulds with wet n dry.
First fin skin.
Joining the fin halves.
More moulds.
Fuselage moulds.
Fuselage, tail, fin and rudder moulds.
Ouch!
Getting used to doing this now.
Laying up rudder.
Back at photo #45, the whole wing was mated to the fuse to make the fillets, to get the plug back in the shed the wings were cut off just past the fuse. Here the centre section is removed to start internal moulds.
Glassing the centre section plug.
To make more room in the shed, parts of the fuselage plug are cut off.
internal structure of aft fuselage plug. The 1" polystyrene sheet was supplied (FREE!) by a car battery wholesaler. The rows of holes are the tops of car batteries. I hear they now use corrugated cardboard.
Too hot to work in the shed.
Positioning the Rotax muffler in the cheek cowls.
Creating the cabin armrests.
The mould for the muffler cover. People using other engines can change the layout.
Armrest plug with panel layout.
Armrest moulds. It is planned that the armrests form a structural part of the fuselage.
Cutting out a firewall. some form of fire blanket will probably be fitted in front.
Creating a cabin floor plug.
More of the cabin floor plug.
This forms the mould for the cabin floor/lower fuselage section. The plan is to match the wing to this section, then fit to the fuslage.
About 10 layers of glass to form an U/C attach point.
Undercarriage and wing attach point brackets.
The cabin 'crutch' of the fuselage structure to carry the U/C and wing attach hardpoints.
Making the undercarriage bow blank.
U/C bow blank.
Pulling the U/C blank from the mould.
Starting the mould for the tail plane stub mould.
Taking the stub mould off the plug.
Laying up the first tail plane stub.
Tail stub and moulds.
Planning the rear fuselage bulkhead.
U/C and wing attach hard point.
Rear wing attach hard point.
Forward cabin floor and prototype brake pedals.
Machining(?) rudder pedals.
Prototype rudder/brake assembly. A bit heavy, but the right concept.
Working on the instrument panel blank.
Moulds for the tailwheel attach hardpoint.
Starting the fuel tank plug.
More on the tank plug.
Stating the canopy frame mould.
Filling and sanding, filling and sanding, welcome to the world of composite construction. Note; the power sander is only for roughing out, to get a good contour you need to use a long sanding stick. Also note I am now in my new hangar at Taree :)
A newly made stand for the rolls of glass.
Starting layup of the recess flange to join the top and bottom tailplane halves.
DISASTER, after screeding filler over the wing, it soaked through the epoxy cloth and attacked the styrofoam below. A large section of skin was cut out and filled with expanda-foam, recontoured and reglassed.
Using black guide coat to find the highs and lows, I fill the contours with 'Q'cell.
Finally the shape is right, now to get the surface filled. spray putty being applied.
Still getting pinholes, so filling with wet micro.
Starting the wingtip mould. Usually a join template would be used to create the flange of the two mould halves.
Once the first half has cured, I remove it, trim it flat and lay it on a surface to create the flange.
A tip mould with flange added.
The completed Tip moulds.
Laying up some prototype Wing Tips, had a problem with one of the release coats and had to re-do, hence one still only gel-coated.
No photos of the joining process, camera was playing up. Here the first Wing Tips from the moulds.
This really annoys me :( I let the gel-coat go off for two days, and still I get triping!
With the wingtip moulds done, I prepare the leading edges for moulding.
After waxing and release agent, the Leading-edge moulds are laid up and reinforcements added.
Leading-edge moulds as pulled off the wing plug.
Leading-edge moulds after trimming (haven't cleaned off the dust yet)
With Leading-edge and Tip moulds done, the wing lower surface is prepared to start the Lower-wing mould.
Lower Wing mould under way with assorted reinforcement added.
Initial bracing to the reinforcement.
Having created the tip moulds, the leading edge moulds and the lower surface mould, I now have to reshape the plug to create the front web which is a part of the top skin mould.
Here the wing plug is upright showing the front web and flange to join to the lower skin.
Starting to lay up the upper wing mould
This steel framework does not supply any strength to the mould, it just forms the stand.
Upper wing skin mould pulled off the plug, still getting little bits flaking off the plug, but they peel off the mould easily
With the top and bottom wing moulds done, it's time to chop the plug again to create the centre web.
The plug halves show the location of the centre web. This will not be a 'load bearing' spar in the accepted sense as the wing skins will carry the 'cap' loads. This will only be a web.
Routing out the styrofoam core of the wing plug.
With a layer of epoxy glass added, the web mould is smoothed.
The first web is pulled from the mould.
I decided that the caps on the web were a bit narrow to carry the bond loads at the centre of the wing, so I'm extending the cap flanges on the mould.
Instead of trying to create the assorted join joggles on the wing plug, they are added to the moulds later. This is the lower wing mould showing where the recesses will be for the tips and the leading edge.
Upper wing skin mould with join joggles being added.
Working on some of the waviness that has appeared in the lower wing mould.
Laying up a dummy wing section to check the fit in the fuse mould and work out the wing attach system.
Dummy wing in fuse mould. Rear spar was going to be a problem, so a mod was needed.
Rear spar area of fuse mould modified to suit new rear spar once made.
Spar web #2 sitting on lower wing skin mould. Note wider flanges in centre.
First actual wing skin being laid up. Spar web bonded to outer skin.
Close up of spar web, wide flanges and multiple layers of outer skin.
Also added a 'stringer' to the upper skin before starting to add the skin core layer.
Upper wing skin basically finished, just waiting for rear spar.
Decided the rudder was a bit small so modified the moulds to add some area. I was originally using 'tooling' gelcoat on the moulds, (the red stuff) but found it expensive and subject to triping, so now use a mixture of resin and talc which gives a hard surface.
The beginning of the control box in the upper wing skin.
Mould for the flap and aileron lower skins. Basically a flat sheet curved by being screwed down over a plastic packer strip (the green bit)
The flap and aileron upper skins are flat and laid up on a glass door.
Mould for the flap and aileron leading edge.
Flap and aileron with skins and aileron horn fitted. A little filling required.
Prototype parts for control stick.
Making push-rod ends. 1/4 hole drilled about 1" into solid alloy bar.
Just under 1/2" Ø drilled about 1/2" into bar.
The bar cut off at about 3/4", with the 1/4-UNF bolt and locknut.
Press (hammer) the 1/4-UNF bolt into the drilled bar-stock. The hex of the bolt head should just groove into the hole to stop it rotating.
Fit the nylock nut to the bolt.
Press the rod fitting into the push-rod tube and secure with a rivet fitted just behind the bolt head. (I need a better camera for macro!)
Push-rod and stick unit ready to try in wing.....
Initial fitment of stick unit and aileron drive belcrank.
Belcrank brackets bonded in place. The visible anchor nut is actually only a bush, having had the threads drilled out. Another anchor nut is fitted below.
Stick unit and aileron drive belcrank being trialed, as well as the wing attach tubes being located.
Mark 2 stick unit being trialed.
Aileron joiner belcrank being trialed behind main spar. Final belcranks will be two layered with some form of bush for the pivot. A second support for the mount will be added.
Aileron differential belcranks located and mounting angles fitted. Aileron pushrods will be on top of wing, similar to 'Stings', as the ailerons will be hinged on the bottom.
Flap torque tube bearings formed by waxing the tube and glassing into place. Half gusset is load support at flap handle.
Flap torque tube installed.
Auto connect system for the Elevator linkage. The link with the 'fingers' will be attached to the fuselage and match up when the wing is fitted.
All controls installed in wing and ready to close. Alignment holes drilled while wing in jig, guide pins ensure wing closes without any misalignment.
Glue everywhere! Always have lots of clamps!
Basic wing structure about 30kgs.
Wing mounted in the test jig.
First layer of blocks spread over the wing, 156kg per side.
Second layer of blocks for a total of 276kg per side.
After the initial test, I didn't like the way the load was all imposed on the main spar, so I tried a different layout. This is still only the 156kg per side.
I ran out of blocks at 360kg per side, will have to get some more.....
Hard to get shots that show the wrinkling on the top skin. The blocks under the wing are not actually touching the skin. Might add an extra layer of glass in near the root.
Making the plug for the tailplane attach/pivot rib and spar.
Plug for the tailplane rear sub-spar
Mould for tailplane main spar.
Tailplane MKII, a bit lighter than #1.
Laying up the narrower fin.
Fin MKII, a bit narrower and lighter. Picture doesn't easily show the angled rear spar, see picture #213.
The wider (and lighter) version rudder.
New fin/rudder arrangement (black tape as temporary hinge).
A composite photo showing the hinge action on the rudder. The flaps and ailerons work the same. Note the angled rear spar for clearance.
Laying up the first fuselage side.
Lower fuse skins being laid up, with the tail stub in place to check fit.
Rear fuselage sections being joined.
Which is not as easy as I thought!
With rear fuse cured, the moulds start coming off.
Didn't weigh this bit, but it felt around 9kgs.
Rear fuse with tail and fin/rudder taped in place. A little bit of VP (visual progress) goes a long way....
Laying up the forward fuselage halves with firewall in place.
Nose section joined. cutouts are for tank and cowl.
Nose section out of moulds.
Jigging front and rear fuse halves together. Temporary alloy sheets hold halves while being glassed internally.
Whole fuselage curing in the sun.
Trimming the cowl and fuel tank access hatches. Later decided to go with a tank behind the seat instead and use front for baggage or an aux tank later.
Fitting the tailwheel spring.
Sitting in the real thing! Was sitting on plastic chair a bit too high.
This is the fairing for the 503 exhaust.
Starting the 'Seat Tank' mould.
A sad sight as the fuselage plug is dumped at the local tip, just not enough room.
As in photo 111, this is the remake of the centre 'crutch' undercarriage hardpoints. I'm still thinking of changing this layout a bit......
Trying a new approach to the undercarriage mounting. These dummy pieces were carved to explore various shapes to use for moulding a one piece mounting bracket.
Using the concept of the previous experiment, a mould plug is formed to correct size for the undercarriage mount bracket.
Left and right hand shapes formed and given a mouldable surface.
Part of the undercarriage mod is to go to individual legs, bolted to a central mount. This is the plug.
Parts involved with the central U/C mount.
Forgot to take a photo of the moulded outer parts before bonding to 'crutch' section.
'Crutch' being bonded to fuselage.
First mating of wing to fuselage, needs a bit of trimming.
Some of the other parts hung on the fuse for a bit of 'Visual Progress'.
