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I started the Fuselage Feb 99 | |
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Fuselage sides glued and clamped. the top is to the left and the seat back is just beyond the Excel bottle. (Yea, I know this picture stinks). " | |
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In this picture the top of the fuselage is closest, the diagonal piece is the seat back. The bowed piece of 1/8 strip is acting as a spring to hold the seat back braces in place while the glue dries. | |
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Same angle after the 1/8 ply is attached. I misted the entire piece of fuselage side ply with water, then let it sit for 20 minutes. I repeated this twice to allow the ply to expand before gluing. (Thanks Tony Bingles and W. J. G. Ord-Hume) I applied glue to the Spruce frame and laid the Ply in place and stapled. Note: This is before needed modifications for a ballistic Parachute. | |
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The rear part of a fuselage side, it's up-side-down as you see it. | |
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After getting the fuselage sides done, decided to "improve it". I saw the recommendations from
BRS for the Fisher 404 which is very similar to the Special, so I incorporated some of them. I also was concerned that many Specials are having to have very long noses to get the balance correct, since I am not a light person, I decided to be proactive and move me forward 3" and the lower wing back 3.5". |
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And this is how the seat area turned out. | |
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1/4" plywood doubler added and seat back support. | |
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Here is one of the carry-throughs before gluing the ply webs on. | |
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To box up the fuselage I pretty much followed Roger's directions, but will list the steps here. I used the 2x2 fence on the front of my table as blocking for right side of the fuselage. I marked two lines, one 12 1/4" out (for centerline) and another line 24 1/2' away (left side) and parallel, on the table top. In this picture I show short blocks nailed to the table to hold the left fuse side in place so they will be square and can't shift. The fuse' is up-side-down on the table. |
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I cut all of the cross pieces of the cockpit area at the same time using a stop on my radial arm saw, so they would all be the same length. Then I assembled the spar carry-throughs seen above. Here I am dry fitting the spar carry-throughs, seat supports and cross pieces, I even pulled the tail together most of the way to get a view of how it would look. The white square on the front seat support is the UHMW bearing for the torque tube. | |
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Both spar carry-throughs are in place, here I am gluing the front seat support in place. Note: with my reclined seat the front support is elevated. | |
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Pipe clamps holding all of the bottom cross pieces in place . | |
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The 1 1/2 x 3/4 rear landing gear support with gussets on both sides. | |
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To pull the tail together I put plastic wrap down to protect the table, laid wet clothes on the top longerons and wrapped them around the lower ones. I gradually tightened the pipe clamps at station 76 until the tail ends came together on the centerline. | |
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By putting the clamps at station 76 it gave me a strong curve between stations 54 and 76, with the rear part of the fuse' having straight sides. The pile of scraps looks bad but very handy if you need a shim or a block. (The camera is skewed, not the plane.) | |
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The wedge for the tail post ahs to be custom cut the plane to get a tight fit, mine needed to be 21 degrees. When I was trying to glue the wedge, it kept slipping out because of the glue. I used a scrap stapled in place and a block wedged inside to hold the top end. | |
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Just another view. | |
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The diagonal braces that go at stations 76 and 98 are as Roger says "a cut and fix operation", they require compound angles. I found that they would seat better with the gussets if I sanded away a bit at the matting surfaces. This is two views of the same end of a diagonal. | |
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When the fuse' tail is pulled together the vertical members get skewed a bit. The corner gussets need to be bent the get a good glue joint. I did this by wetting the gussets and taking advantage of grain direction. Once it dried I had good joints. | |
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With the clamps off everything looked good, and this thing is strong!. | |
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Going a test fit of the landing gear. Yup it fits, whew!!. | |
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Rear fuse' gusset strips, tail wedge and rear landing gear in place. (AL wedge plates will be added later) | |
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Main landing gear bolted in place on top of 1/8 ply fuse' bottom. | |
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Flip it over and it has legs. No Airplane noises yet, but to quote Steve Thoele "It's beginning to look a lot like airplane" |
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Rear fuse' top gussets. And look a tail wheel! | |
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Starting to fit the controls. | |
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Cockpit area with UHMW bearings in place for the torque tube. | |
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Seat bottom in place. | |
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Torque tube, joystick and seat bottom. | |
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Aft section with Aluminum plate before the top wedge was added. | |
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I needed to do some sanding on the fuseleage and tailfeathers, so I brought it outside first chance to test fit one of the wings. | |
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Another angle. | |
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