Berkut Kit

[tonyslongez]

O.K. here are some pics of what's going on in the garage. I havn't had alot of time to do to much with the holidays here. Dale is out of town until Saturday. Sunday him and I will get a few things done to get us back on track.

 

Pic 1) this is the outboard rib for the spar closeout. I ran down to home Depot and bought a bag of plastic electrical fittings.

the fitting is threaded on one end, this allowed me to make a very nice conduit. The fittings are slightly larger than

the aluminum tubing. I bought the aluminum at Home depot as well it's about 7/8 dia shower rod. It's about .010

very lite it's perfect for running wires thru it.

Pic 2) This is the inboard rib

Pic 3) This is the small rib I made from scraps I secured the conduit with the same fitting as the outboard side.

Pic 4) Another fitting on the inboard rib

[Richard Riley]

Very, very impressive, Paul.

 

I wish I'd known. I have a lot of parts tucked away that you could have taken molds from.

[Bob Setzer]

Tony

In the future you might want to use something I came across 20 plus years ago to do your wiring conduit. I went to the local golf store and bought a item that support the clubs in the bag. Its a lite weight plastic tube a little more than a inch in dia. Not being a golfer don't know what there called. Thay have been in my Vari-Eze 27 years. Not my idea, it was in a CP issue of some unknow date.

 

Keep up the great effort

Bob

[Bearair]

Tony

In the future you might want to use something I came across 20 plus years ago to do your wiring conduit. I went to the local golf store and bought a item that support the clubs in the bag. Its a lite weight plastic tube a little more than a inch in dia. Not being a golfer don't know what there called. Thay have been in my Vari-Eze 27 years. Not my idea, it was in a CP issue of some unknow date.

 

Keep up the great effort

Bob

And they make great light sabers when attached to flashlights! Hey, if you're going to build something that looks like a space fighter, you need to have at least one lightsaber with you right?

 

They are called 'golf club seperators' and there's actually several patents for them.

[tonyslongez]

Bob

 

Great idea. I should've asked before I made those. I'll take a look at the club sperators maybe Sports Authority has them.

 

 

 

if you're going to build something that looks like a space fighter, you need to have at least one lightsaber with you right?

Bear

 

I couldn't agree more. Now where is that darn R2 at?

[WolfManSpecial]

sorry dónt understud nothing,can put fotos for help my poor brain?.... :confused:

[rsrguy3]

In either case it is still the beautifull workmanship we tune in for. Keep it up at this rate you should be in the air buy sept 08. Max addition over golf tubes cant be more than 5 or 6 oz.

 

-Guy

[tonyslongez]

In either case it is still the beautifull workmanship we tune in for. Keep it up at this rate you should be in the air buy sept 08. Max addition over golf tubes cant be more than 5 or 6 oz.

Guy

Thanks, glad you like it. I hope all this will help other builders. I have to say though. I'm only doing what Dale (The Master Hydroplane builder) and others are telling me to do. It would be impposible for me to build this thing on my own. At least we are moving forward now. I like the golf tube idea but I already have everything in place for this conduit so I'll stick with what I got. It's so very lite and it looks good too.

[tonyslongez]

Just a quick update

 

Pic 1) Spar face being fitted.

Pic 2) This is how the ribs and forward spar closeout are suppose to fit together.

 

I have to plug the previous holes and do the layups for the wing mounts before the spar face is closed out. Shortly after that, I wi'll be mounting the spar to the fuse. Soon I'll have the airplane back to where it was the day I got it.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

I was working on my finishing technique for a few minutes this morning. Dale has been teaching me a few things about sanding but it takes some practice. I know I'm a long way off from paint. I want to perfect this technique by the time it's ready for paint. So here goes.

 

Pic 1) I used a sanding block to knock down the big stuff.

Pic 2) Using a pencil I scribbled lines on the area to be sanded

Pic 3) Here is the area with the pencil lines scribbled in.

Pic 4) As you can see. The line is sanded off where the high spots are and remains visible where the low spots are

This is a fast and accurate way of seeing the low spots. Remember not to press down real hard on the sanding block.

This is one part of getting your finish with no waves in it. (Still very time consuming)

[tonyslongez]

O.K. enough with messing around with paint. I'm trying to keep my A.D.D. under control here.

 

The other thing that has been holding me up are the holes that have to be plugged in the spar. The reason this hasn't been done sooner is the Long Ez is in the way of the lathe. I've been dreading moving the thing. Tonight I bit the bullet and moved the Long Ez out of the way and pluggd a few holes. I only took two pics of what I did. The process is a bit repetitive so a couple of pics should do the trick.

 

Pic 1) I used the lathe to turn down the 7075 bar stock to the correct Dia.

Pic 2) I pressed the aluminum into the hole and used PC-7 epoxy to glue them in. Now when I say pressed, it was more of a matter of hitting the plug with a really big hammer backed up with an aluminum block on the back side. Most of if not all the epoxy that was applied to the pulg was ejected out of the hole. I used the epoxy just in case any small voids needed to be filled. I doubt seriously that the plug is ever going to move.

 

I'll use a very aggressive RoLoc disc to knock down the blug so that it sits flush with the shear web.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

Here are the plugs sanded down. I can now start on the wing attach layups on the inside, so I can close out the spar.

 

Pic 1) This is the outboard back face of the spar

Pic 2) This hole was 7/8 dia. this is the inboard front face of the spar

Pic 3) This is the backside of the inboard plug

 

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

I would like to go back a bit and talk some more about blended winglets. I would like to get a better understanding of how they work and why. My first question to the group is.

 

1) Is there anyway to make the trailing edges of the winglet and wing match

without moving the winglet location. ( can you change the leading edge of the winglet angle to allow the winglet to go up higher? so in other words have a longer skinnier winglet as opposed to a shortrer fat winglet. Will the area be the same? and if doing something like that does that mean the entier airfoil has to change or can you scale it down?

 

Tony

[Richard Schubert]

Of course you can make the winglets with any planform and airfoil you desire. The real question is what will be the results.

The answer is, Nobody Knows.

Modifying the winglets will potentially change the wing bending moment, the yaw stability, the roll stability, the roll rate, the stall characteristics, rudder power, flutter characteristics of the wing, flutter characteristics of the winglet, and probably six other things that you or I have never heard of.

As many have said before me, do it like the plans.

You can always take the sawzall to the winglets later.

[tonyslongez]

well after I posted my question. I talked to a friend of mine who's an engineer and he says that we will most likely only see 1% gain in performance. Chances are without massive data and money to spend we will end up with adverse affects, as you mentioned Richard. Maybe it can all be figured out before I finish my wings. If not, I doubt I will ever go back and install blended winglets once the airplane has been finished. Oh Well moving on.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

I found this on the web.

 

 

Wingtip Design is Unimportant on Light Aircraft

Most light aircraft built since the 1960s, incorporated either the Horner or Droop tip. Cessna has favored the droop tip, in order to increase the ground effect on its high wing aircraft. Piper and Beech have favored the Hoerner tip for the opposite reason. Notably, Mooneys, which are among the most efficient aircraft built, use non of the above wing tip designs. The Mooney wingtip is simply cut off square, almost making the defiant statement “we are not Cessna or Piper.”

 

In recent years many after market modification kits have been offered for adding Winglets to aircraft, which did not originally have them. For some aircraft (e.g. the Navajo) claims such as cruise speed increases of 10 knots and/or range improvements of 10% are often made. These adverts are not necessarily lies, but they are misleading.

 

A Navajo has a service ceiling of 23,000' and at that altitude a significant amount of induced drag would exist. Therefore, if you install Winglets on your Navajo and fly it at FL230, slowing down to the optimum range angle of attack, the aircraft will cruise faster and use less fuel. Most Navajos however are flown below 10,000' and at speeds which require a much smaller angle of attack. Therefore, they are limited more by parasite than induced drag. In this case winglets are likely to make performance worse.

 

In summary, Winglets should only be installed on aircraft, which will routinely fly at high altitude and or large angles of attack (this fits the profile of a long range jet airliner, or a long range corporate jet, but not most light aircraft.)

 

Aircraft designers face a constant struggle to balance conflicting design objectives, including cost limitations and aesthetic considerations, when designing a new aircraft. The importance of an aircraft's appearance should not be underestimated. Many design decisions are made strictly because they will look good, and sell well, not because they are truly effective.

[tonyslongez]

O.k.

 

Today I started on the spar rib "T" tapes. Yesterday I layed up the ribs with two plys of bid on either side. This was not an easy layup. the pieces where small and uncooperative. It's not pretty but I got them down. Other than the first layup I've ever done, these may be the ugliest of all:irked: With the rib layups out of the way. I started on the T-tapes here are the pics

 

 

Pic 1) Rib layup (The more you drink the better it will look:D )

Pic 2) I made marks where the ribs are located on the spar face close out then transfered those marks to the back side of the spar face close out.

Pic 3) I layed down some gray duct tape as my release

Pic 4) I then layed up two plys of bid over the tape I'll let this semi cure then I'll flip the spar face over and flox the T-Tape to the rib. If I try to do it now the tape will fall off the backside of the spar face close out. If that wasn't obvious.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

Hello Hello Hello

Is there anybody in there. Just nod if you can here me. Is there anyone home?

[TMann]

We're here Tony.

I haven't done my center section spar yet so I'm kind of confused at to what I'm looking at here

[tonyslongez]

Big-T

 

Does the LongEz have spar ribs? Well anyway what you are looking at is how you go about making T-Tapes. As I understand it, the rib is only a 1/4 inch wide. When the spar face closeout is layed up the T-tape gives the spar face more bonding area than just a 1/4 inch. In the next set of pictures you'll see what I mean. It's a cool way of bonding things together but it's a bit time consuming.

 

Tony

[TMann]

Ahhhhh .......... okay. I'm with you now.

I'm planning on the same for my strake skins.

[tonyslongez]

O.K. home form work. I just flipped the spar face over onto the ribs here's how it goes.

 

Pic 1) Flox on top of the spar rib

Pic 2) Spar face flipped over onto the rib with the semi cured two plys of bid

Pic 3) Spar face and rib joined correctly

Pic 4) Weight is applied to the spar face to hold everything down untill cured

 

The next step is to pop the spar face off of the T-Tape.(remeber the duct tape?) Repeat for the other side. Once that is complete, I will do the two plys of bid under the T lapping onto the spar rib face.

 

Tony

[Lynn Erickson]

O.K. home form work. I just flipped the spar face over onto the ribs here's how it goes.

 

Pic 1) Flox on top of the spar rib

Pic 2) Spar face flipped over onto the rib with the semi cured two plys of bid

Pic 3) Spar face and rib joined correctly

Pic 4) Weight is applied to the spar face to hold everything down untill cured

 

The next step is to pop the spar face off of the T-Tape.(remeber the duct tape?) Repeat for the other side. Once that is complete, I will do the two plys of bid under the T lapping onto the spar rib face.

 

Tony

This a bit over kill, it seems to be a good way to bond them together but the bond is so much stronger then the spar face it is unnessecary. there is no load on the forward spar face it is only there to act as a close out. for the fuel tank. if done properly the flox on the edge of the bulkheads is more then strong enough. when cutting open tanks to repair leaks we have found that you can not break the 1/4" bond with out destorying the tank cover or the bulkhead. watch out for the time consuming mods that just add weight and time to the project and have no gain to performance. the berkut is a proven design and you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

[tonyslongez]

watch out for the time consuming mods that just add weight and time to the project and have no gain to performance. the berkut is a proven design and you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Lynn I couldn't agree more. I'm only following what Dave R. told me to do. Sometimes, when I talk to Dave a new set of instructions are given to me that won't necessarily coincide with the printed word. Hopefully it's because over the years that the Berkuts have been flying more knowledge has been gained about stresses, that is if He(Dave) where to ever do it again this is how it should've been done. Does that make sense the way I wrote that? I don't know if the T-tapes are overkill. It seems like they could be. I don't know enough about what is happening to the spar during flight loads to make any kind of intelligent guess one way or the other. What I do think though is, if your going to overkill an area the spar seems the logical choice.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

Here is the finished T-Tapes

 

Pic 1) T-Tape on the inboard spar rib.

Pic 2) T-Tape on the outbaord spar rib

 

 

 

Lynn

 

One other thing. The T-tape layup was in lieu of the micro "shelf" that runs along the top and bottom of the spar cap. Which probably would've taken just as long to do.

 

Tony