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John, you mentioned all of these wires, have you sized them based on the size of the bundle and the amount of juice, ifin you hav'nt, shame on you, since you have, how dificult are the computations? My partner the dentist who has a minor in electronics wants to know, you know the one who sanded and pour foamed and sanded and pour foamed and sanded and pour foamed and sanded the bottom corners all those weeks. Hehehe Partners are great to have. Mike

When shaping the bottom corner, the first real forming that is done on the plane, we struggled to "get it right" to our expectations. We are building two planes and no one knows which plane is whos, so not only did we want the right to equel the left, we wanted each right to equel each right and vice versa. Well the solution for the first 2/3 of the curve is quite obvious and universal amoung builders. The curve is constant so a sanding jig can be fabricated using the materials at hand and that you are comfortable with. For us it was Wood. We glued two 2x10's together, cut and sanded the curve, glued on sandpaper and double tapped skid plates on the Fuselage bottom and side, rough cut edge with sabre saw,rough sanded with sanding block and then finish sanded with form. The problem came from the final 1/3. Well, we sanded and filled with pour foam and sanded again and again until we (spelled Thane my partner) got one side looking gooooood. Now how to get the exact same shape on the other three edges. Well, Dave came up with the idea, each ten inches we drew a line and taped plastic on curve. then we rough cut a piece of plywood to fit over edge.. We then laid down a line of bondo on the plastic and set the rough cut curve into the bondo and let it set up/marked the position of the longeron on the curve and now we had templets for every ten inches to sand to. It worked so well that the laid up "in place" landing gear covers fit BOTH planes. Mike

We have a lot of knowledge lurking on this forum and it is not coming through. I know, I see people reading and check where they are on the plane and many are a long way down the road or flying, that equates to experience and little tips and tricks, wellllllllllllllllllll, write them up. You, experienced builders, start going to the chapter specific areas and start posting tips and tricks. We all have little things that we have done that have made particular tasks easier or more accurate, well, start filling in the blanks. Mike

Well, the current canard design fails above 14 g's( both with a good cover and a damaged cover) per testing done by Rutan and has recently recovered from going into flutter, without damage to canard or plane, why substancially increase cost, become a test pilot to try to improve that? As a general rule, the components of the plane work as a system, if you stiffen one you are now putting more stress on other parts, a viscious circle. As an example, a friend had a 34 foot boat, the bulkheads showed signs of falure and were stiffened by adding fiberglass layers. A few years later it had hull cracks, I asked him if they were in the area of the bulkheads that were reinforced, they were. The stiffened bulkheads were not bending as before, so the hull couldn't give in those areas and cracked. If you stiffen one part, you may be transmitting stress to a diferent part and cause it to fail. Carbon fiber is about 3 times as strong as e glass, if laid up perfectly straight, but if it is not laid up perfectly straight, then it has about the same strength of not perfectly laid up e glass. This is not a problem with spar layups, as it is a simple matter to comb each layer straight, it is a problem with all other areas of the plane that I can think of. Mike

So who sells "dressed" foam, unless you call size 12 imprints in foam dressed? The first step in using the foam from wicks and aircraft is squaring up, it is also the perfect thing to do to get familiar with a hot wire saw, by the time the blocks are dressed, you are trained in its use. Mike

spent saturday making less parts, combined the upper winglet and wing, piece o cake, much easier than it appears. We will spend the next four weeks combining parts, had 12 wing parts, now have 11 and will end up with 4, we are on a serious parts reduction binge. In the forseable future we will end up with 2, airplanes that is. Mike

forgot to mention why it wsn't good - the foam cut more in the area of th adhesive, not a problem, just a tad more fill later on, but, I wouldn't use it again Mike

So, who got plans for christmas???? I did a few years ago. Mike

Well, I have started to finish the canards and my object it to fill the low spots and make all surfaces perfecto, without damaging the glass. So, I first lighty (i mean really lightly) sandblast to remove the shineys and then apply thickest micro, i add micro until it no longer shines on the mixing stick, make straight pencil lines every 3 or so inches and then sand with a 36 inch flat sanding board, mostly at a 45 degree angle, I move the board and roll it slightly as i go. The board stays straight to the canard but the motion of sanding is at a 45 or so degree angle. YOU can really feel it when the shape is right and the canard templet tells you the same thing When I reach glass, I stop and refill the areas that still have pencil lines (the low spots) and do it again. The pencil lines really help me and I also use them in furniture building. They can also tell you when to switch grits, when all of the lines are gone, step up a grit Mike

Well as a tool junkie, I understand your feelings, but I can understand the problem. The biggest investment you make in building an airplane is time. The sooner you make that investment, the sooner you will have a plane. The monetary cost of an airplane is usually backloaded, engine/instruments at the end, labor hours continious. You can spend 1500(500 for plans and 1000 for materials) and keep yourself busy for quite a few hours. I have been building for 4 1/2 years and enjoy it greatly, family life hasn't suffered and monetary expenses drip out, a great schedule. I can afford to go faster from a monetary standpoint, but not from a time standpoint, nor do I care to. So instead of spending thousands of dollars on tools that don't need to be bought, spend it on plans and supplies and GET BUILDING. Let the fun begin! Mike

BTW, all those tools I mentioned are available to anyone who wishes to use them,m-f night or sunday unless sunday is plane day, then saturday. For building planes or furniture, I have had people from all over, even had a german kid (ok well to me 23 is a kid) for a year to build a chair and do other things. Mike Troy, MI

Well, my large band saw, daves medium bandsay, my large disk/beltsander and our small belt/disk sander and our drill press's router's laminate trimmer close quarter drill unisaw jointer thickness planer oscilating spindle sander small med and large nailers shaper welders air compressors hmmmmmmm not wood work lathe not used on plane router table chop saw skill saw need i go on, I am a tool junkie have all been used, but we could have got along fine without them! Mike

nope, a hand held sabre saw will do it. close quarter/90 degree drill, ocassionally needed, just find someone to borrow from, only needed a few times Mike

MEK is nasty stuff, very low flash point, we hide brushes in trash so dave will not clean. We have expensive cleaner ($16 quart) we use for scissors/squeeges, i'll look up name (avial?), expensive but have not much used, and not harmful like MEK. I used scissors until we tried rotory cutter, saves many hours, especially when doing sheer web and landing gear pieces. Like cutting a pizza, fast Mike

some one mentioned a swiss army knife and brush, well i use my pocket knife quite a bit, but never a brush, althou we did use a half of a mans comb in laying out the spars, i forgot that in my minimum tool listing, did i forget anything else?

oh that solution, well I have that solution, our nose lift manual overide is in the center of the dash, a square drive socket sticking out, we will fabricate a large "PRESS IN EMERGENCY" button for aesthetics and passenger peace of mind. Mike

john, i was thinking more on the lines of one problem per post and sarcastic/caustic creative support for it. For the money problem I can easily support it, I have to go to the bar and drink with my buddies every week, that thirty dollars a week is very important and i will never get a raise and be able to afford a plane and i don't want a plane with used instruments and a used engine, it has to be new ALL OF IT has to be new and i don't want a partner in the plane, it has to be mine and no one else's, i have to have a plane 52 weeks a year, 26 isn't good enough because if i had a plane i would go somewhere in that plane every night and every weekend. So there Mike

This thread is to give all those who are contemplating building an airplane a reason to not go ahead with the project and for all of those who are building an airplane a reason to not go into the shop again. THE MOST IMPORTANT It's too hard, i won't be able to do the work. You are right, just because thousands have gone before you, with no special training or skills definatly confirm that you won't be able to build an airplane, you are a moron and are incapable of learning. Mike

well, I am planning the following speed improvements Befor I fly Engine turboed etc. Two blade prop (I would like a one blade but am not a true experimentalist) Max prop extension (more clean air to prop) After I fly Attach video camera to outside of plane in various spots, attach strings, determine flow problem areas and try to fare or otherwise improve. Change the profile of the landing gear to a naca airfoil that doesn't produce lift in eithor direction. Try to "trip" bad areas into micro seperation/turbulence (sorry, I don't know the technical term) rather than allow it to happen. The problem with most improvements is that they don't tend to work as well as computed or at all. So my solutions will be of the quick and dirty kind for testing purposes. Mike

360 is it, just hope it is a two stroke, fuel inject, auto prop, single lever, turboed diesel Mike

Well, I'm for both, everything fared as well as i can do it and add some good ole brute force and we will see what comes out. But, I want an airplane engine in mine, i save the auto engines for my cars and trucks. Mike

Exposure, thats really the long, short and cozy of it. Right now there 11 guests signed on, they didn't need to sign up, they can just come and lurk and then maybe join and then maybe build! The lurking is the start and it is easy to lurk here. They are all over the place, viewing many subjects and this is the onliest place they can do it this easy! Mike

well, we all look at things different. My buddy just bought a 1956 vtail bonanza fo 60,000. engine 700 hrs, airframe 5500hrs, old instruments, medium old radios, old interior, it's a really nice plane, but it aint no COZY. I have a partner in this plane, so everything costs me 50%. I am building this plane for two reasons I love to make things(my other hobby is building furniture 6 days a week). I want a modern airplane that's really fast. My choices for this are the cirrus or columbia, each of these cost ALLOT more than I plan to spend and as far as operating costs, try 17 gph on a 300 horse and costly annuals, etc, etc. Turbo normalizing/intercooling/CS prop give the plane more speed and more options for altitude, if i can get 250 mph or more at altitude I BE A HAPPY CAMPER. If those "extras" cost me 10% or 15% or 20% of the cost of a cirrus or columbia ,cool, I didn't have to pay the whole cost and i'll be faster and I built every part of it (well, almost every part). It's not a big deal, it is what I want. I'm taking 6 or 7 years partying, i mean building and paying for it, cheaper than going to the golf course each week. Life is good and we are really lucky to be able to do this stuff. Mike

where does this put me at 15000 feet in TAS?

i've been told to get the use of the power at altitude, the prop will help allot. It's only and extra 7,000 or so