Covering - Interior, Right Rear Continued...

First thing this morning, I heated the TOKO iron up to 160C and did a final shrink on the interior fabric. It shrunk tight as a drum.

I then made up and applied doilies to all of the cut outs around the edges, the cable guides, and tie downs, to fill the gaps and give it a more finished look. Took many hours of drawing, cutting, fitting, trimming, and finally applying them. Came out pretty nice and covered some big mistakes.

After finishing that project up, I started getting the left side ready to go on tomorrow. I applied the two coats of glue to the fabric, scuffed the fuselage, wiped it down, and applied two coats of glue to it. It's ready for fabric installation in the morning.

Covering - Interior, Right Rear

Set about covering the first interior piece today. I started with the right rear because I thought it would be easier than the left with the cargo door. The rear pieces have to be done before the front and I'm not doing the top piece.

Anyway, it was as difficult as I thought it would be with all the items that had to go through it. Rudder cable guides, tie downs, floor board tabs, and structure. Lots of cutting, trimming and hoping. I was too aggressive on a couple of cuts but I can fix those with doilies and clean it up a bit. All in all, I'm happy that it's done and I know the next one will be easier.

Covering - Top of Left Elevator

I finished covering the top of the left elevator today. Again, no issues, went on pretty straight forward. This is the last of the "tail feather" pieces. Next up, the fuselage interior.

Spinner and Panel

Gave the carbon fiber spinner another coat of Red paint today. Before painting it again, I wet sanded it with 600 grit paper to give it a very smooth finish and to remove a few blemishes. Once satisfied, I painted it again and set is aside to cure. I will repeat the sanding process and then clear coat it for the final finish.

Worked on the panel some more as well. I've been trying to finalize my switches (both number of, and placement). I've been working off of Steinair's CAD drawing of my panel trying to determine exactly where I want everything. It is a very time consuming task. Since the panel will be laser cut, everything must be in the right position since I only want to do this once.

I did decide on running a Key Master Switch, a la Steve Henry. I purchased an On/Off keyed switch that will be my master switch. The other option I was considering was a no key panel. This would mean anyone could get in and throw some switches and takeoff. Very similar to the Super Decathlon I just got my tail wheel endorsement in. No key required, just flip a couple of switches and off you go. After much deliberation, I decided I liked the idea of having a key. It will be a little nuisance but will offer a lot more security. I did consider having a secret or hidden switch instead, but opted for the simplicity of the key. Here is a shot of it as it is now...

Covering - Rudder and the Top of the Right Horizontal Stab

Had a pretty busy day, I finished covering the Rudder and Right Horizontal Stab. Still have the finishing tapes, doilies, and drain grommets to install. I'll also have to do a little finishing work around the tail light, control horns, and wire exit. They  came out pretty nice.

Covering - Rudder and Left Elevator; Fuel Valve

I cut out the fabric for half of the left elevator and rudder. I applied the first coat of glue to each and left them to cure overnight.

The epoxy paint I applied to several parts on Saturday cured. I applied the 3M carbon fiber tape to the fuel valve plate and remounted the Andair fuel valve to it. Looks pretty good.

Covering - Bottom of Left Horizontal Stab

I covered the bottom of the Left Horizontal Stab today and prepped the top fabric with glue for tomorrow.

Spent the last couple of days cutting out the fabric for the interior and the remaining tail pieces.

Interior: There are normally five pieces that cover the interior cargo area, but I'm only covering the sides and leaving the top open. This allows me access to the fuselage framework to hang my fuel filters/cutoff valves. That frame work also provides additional places to attach cargo tie downs should they be needed.

Tail Feathers: I cut out all the remaining pieces for the tail; right and left rudder, top and bottom left horizontal stabilizer, and top and bottom left elevator.

Friday, I covered the bottom of the left elevator. Saturday morning I did the final shrink on it and proceeded to cover the top.

Covering - Top of the Right Horizontal Stab

I covered what I thought was the bottom right horizontal stab. As you will learn below, I found out this was incorrect. Anyway, I began with the bottom (actually top) and was intending to do a blanket cover with one piece of fabric, starting at the bottom trailing edge, wrapping around the leading edge over to the top trailing edge. The bottom went on without a problem. The top was a different story. Got almost finished but had a good size wrinkle left in the outside rear corner that I tried to shrink out but couldn't. Worked at it for some time and pretty much had it out but it took all the shrink the fabric had to give in doing it. That wasn't acceptable considering I was going to have to final shrink it the next day. So, I cut the top off and finished the leading edge by wrapping the fabric to the inside.

Sunday, I came back to it and cut a new piece of fabric for the top and proceeded. Got it on without too much trouble.

Monday morning I put the final shrink on it and it came out pretty good. Next up, the finishing tapes around the perimeter then on to the next piece.

I received the following email pointing out that I had my Horizonal Stab upside down...

-----------------------------

Hi Im building a SS as well and have the flying tail...you can confirm with 

the factory but your stabilizers in your pics are upside down...i put mine 

on the other day and Jack said i had them upside down...the tall part of 

the curve is suppose to go down...to push tail down...opposite of the main 

wing.

Regards,

Ken Kitzmann
-----------------------------

On par with the rest of the build, I was given incorrect information when I purchased the kit. Yesterday, I did confirm with the factory that Ken was correct, I did have my HS upside down. I wish I would have known before covering as it is now covered backwards with the seams on top. Oh well, the finish tapes will cover them but it is extremely annoying.

I can only wait to see what problems this presents when I go back to mount these in final assembly since they were already leveled, drilled, and flying wires measured, cut and swagged. Now they will have to switch sides.

In any case, many thanks to Ken for sending me a note point this out.

Covering - Right Elevator

Started covering the right elevator Saturday. Because of the shape I decided to do it in two halves rather than a blanket. I began by laying out the frame on the fabric and cutting to size. I cut both the top and the bottom fabric. The next step was to draw out the frame lines on the back of both pieces to show where the glue must go. Next I applied the first coat of glue to both the frame the two fabric sides.

The glue must completely dry before applying a second coat on the frame and fabric. I let it sit up for several hours and then brushed on the second coats. That was left overnight to cure.

Sunday I started covering. I start with the bottom because I want the seams on the bottom side when finished. So, the bottom fabric wraps around the outside tubes into the inside, then the top fabric wraps around the tubes and attaches to the bottom fabric. After attaching the bottom fabric it was left to cure for 24hrs before shrinking with the iron.

Inside of right elevator bottom fabric installed

Inside of right elevator bottom fabric installed

Monday I inspected the bottom fabric installation and hit it with the Toko iron set to 160 degrees C. It tightened right up.

Bottom fabric on right elevator before shrinking

Bottom fabric on right elevator before shrinking

I then cleaned the fabric around the edges with the special Acetone cleaner. Then taped off the fabric leaving a one inch gap all the way around the edge for glue. I applied the first coat of glue on the fabric and let it dry. After the second coat was applied, I removed the tape which gave a nice straight clean glue line. After all the glue dried I began attaching the top piece of fabric. I finished attaching the fabric and allowed it to cure overnight.

Bottom fabric on right elevator after shrinking

Bottom fabric on right elevator after shrinking

Tuesday, I inspected the fabric and tightened it up with the Toko iron. Beautiful. I then set about applying the finish tapes around the entire outside edge of the elevator. After thinking about it a little while, I began with the trailing edge because I wanted to have the seams covered by the side tapes, then the sides covered by the leading edge tapes.

Top of right elevator after shrinking and finishing tapes

Top of right elevator after shrinking and finishing tapes

Bottom of right elevator after shrinking and finishing tapes

Bottom of right elevator after shrinking and finishing tapes

After several hours I completed the elevator. I'll finish up by installing seaplane drain holes to allow any moisture that accumulates inside the elevator to escape.

One piece down, many to go...

Tail Wheel Endorsement and Recertification

Well, I was going to have to start flying sooner or later to get up to speed. So, I started flying again February, 19 with Taylor Matta and his Super Decathlon out of Deer Valley (KDVT) with two objectives. First, to acquire a tail wheel endorsement (might be a good idea since I'm building a tail wheel aircraft). Second, to get recurrent on my private pilot license since I hadn't flown in 14 years.

I knew the tail wheel endorsement would take somewhere around 10hrs of training to acquire, however, I had know idea how long it might take to get back up to speed for my private pilot license.

After 13.1 hours, I received my tail wheel endorsement AND passed my Biennial Flight Review check ride on Monday, March 9th. So, I'm good to go. All thanks to Taylor. He is an excellent instructor and very patient.

Here are a couple of videos and some pics from a cross country trip to Grapevine airport (88AZ) on the 6th of March. Photo credits: Taylor Matta

Here are a few pics I took.

Instructor - Taylor Matta