tonyslongez

I started on the Engine mounts tonight. Here are the pics. Pic 1) The engine mount angles are made from 1/4in birch per plans. I have this hudge sheet of 1/4in phenolic so I opted to use that instead. The engine mount triangles are 3"in apart from one another. So in order to keep things coplanar. I used a 3x3x5in piece of extrusion, I made a mark in the middle of the block. I held each triangle agianst the block and lined up the red mark on the block with the red line on the firewall. Once lined up, I superglued the engine mounts in place. Notice that I tapered the edges that are facing the firewall. The edges facing the fuselage are tapered as well. This is per plans. Pic 2) Here are the mounts glued in place. Don't worry I went back and sanded the other two pieces of phenolic:D . There are several plys of fiberglass that will join the mounts to the fuse and firewall.

Pic 1) I removed the duct tape and sanded around the hole. Pic 2) I layed up 2 plys of bid over the hole and covered it with peel ply. Pic 3) Here are the centers of the holes from the hole saw with duct tape on the back. As mentioned before, this will be my "release". Pic 4) Here are the plugs back in their respective holes Pic 5) I clamped everything together between alumium blocks. Once this all cures. I'll go back and drill a .750" hole in the center of this hole leaving an 1/8in lip all the way around. Once I've drilled my wings. I simply drop the plug in the hole with flox and layup two plys of bid over the top. Tony

Sorry guys, I've been a bit busy lately. Today was the first real day that I've been able to work on the airplane. I did manage to finish up the T-Tape layups last week, pretty boring stuff. I just repeated what I did on the other side. Now that the T-Tapes are done. I had to order some 3M dp460 adhesive from Mcmaster Carr. Dp460 is the stuff Dave R. uses to adhere aluminum to fiberglass. Once I have the Dp460 I can begin the layups for the wing attach area. While I'm waiting for my shipment, I took the liberty of getting things ready for the spar face close out. Here it is. (Just a quick note. I never liked the idea of drilling blind thru these spar faces. In order to not make the same mistake Walt Sally made. I had an idea that I think will work very well for drilling the spar and wings) Pic 1) The first thing I had to do was project the center of the aluminum pad above the spar cap. I achieved this, by using a square positioned at the center mark. Pic 2) I measured from the square to the edge of the spar cap. Pic 3) I translated the measurement to the spar face and made a mark. Using my circle template. I drew a 1"in circle around my center mark. If done correctly, you should be directly over the aluminum attach point center mark. using the 1"in hole saw attached to the drill press. I drilled a hole on my mark. Pic 4) As you can see, I'm directly over the center mark on the aluminum. Pic 5) This is the backside of the spar face. Just prior to drilling the hole, I used duct tape on the back of the spar face so, 1) there would'nt be any fraying of the edge. 2) So the back of the plug from the hole saw would have a perfect circle of duct tape on it, as a "release" when I put it back in the hole.

John O.K. I'll do just that. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't using up all of your web space. On that note. I want to thank you for keeping this site running. I really enjoy sharing what I'm doing. I probably wouldn't if it wasn't for this site. Thank You:) Tony

Well I don't have alot of time for that. I would've started that process already. lack of time is a big problem for me. This site is already up and running it only takes a few minutes to snap off some pics throw up a description and I'm off and running. Maybe I'll look into a site that I can easily maintane. It needs to be fast and simple though. Tony

I believe you are correct. I haven't seen anyone else do that. That makes sense to me. Just a quick observation here, John Matcho if you are out there what happens at the end of this page? Do we have to move the thread or will I have to stop posting?(it says last page, for page 11) I don't know how much of this build we can fit onto this site. I may have to get my own site like James Redmond has. Tony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.

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

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

Copy that 7500 no one gets hurt. I'm going to take a shot of resin with a 285 chaser. that should calm my nerves. good to here from you Dave. I miss our forum banter. I know your busy but GEEEZZZZ. Tony

Yeah I see that. That's O.K. though. I have few tricks up my sleave to highjack the highjacking.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Paul looks great. What it is going to be called? Will it have foam core wings or molded? What is the projected cost? What other mods will there be if any over the Berkut? (length, width, height) Market analysis? Tony