tonyslongez

Isn't the problem of sorts with the E-Racer the leading edge to leading edge of the wing and winglet? I think I read that causes alot of drag. So the fillet was improvement. Just a guess, when your starting with such a "dragy" area to begin with you can only go up in drag reduction from there. Or am I way off base? Tony

Bob Thanks for taking a look at my project. Am I understanding that you are building a Berkut derivative of some sort? If so got any Pics:D ? im sure the tooling process for something like that is a major undertaking to say the least. Does it have a one piece flip up canopy?

Jack That's great, thanks for your input. good luck on the big race. For everyone else! I'll have pics of the lower cowling install tonight. As I suspected that wasn't done correctly either. Good news is, this is the last thing that has to be fixed. Once the cowling is installed I can install the spar. I'll then start fitting all the rest of the bulkheads. Hopefully in about 1-2 months time I'll be ready for strakes.

Hello all Sorry for not posting sooner. I have been very busy. I was wondering if anyone out there knows anyone that could help do a blended winglet. This is not an easy mod, it would take a conisderable amount of work to accomplish. I undertand that Gulfstream and Boeing payed a considerable amount of money for that technology. With that said it will take someone who knows how to blend airfoils. All I need is a 3 or 2d drawing and I can draw it in solidworks. Hopefully I can build one. Tony

Dale and I worked like crazy today got alot done here are the pics. Pic 1) Here is Dale sanding the side of the fuse. This is done so the bondo will stick to the side of the fuse when you level it. The black electrical tape above Dale is where I marked the cut lines for the canard. Pic 2) We had to cut out the indtrument bulkhead. I don't know if you guys remember but I was going to leave it in because I thought it was done correctly well it wasn't so it had to be removed. If you go back and look at the pics of the landing light it will be obvious what is wrong. Pic 3) This is where the landing light and the instrument panel sorta joined together (His way) not the plans way. this is what it looked like before I cut it out. Pic 4) Here is where the instrument panel is supposed to be. Pic 5) Here is the fuse leveled and bondoed into place. I don't have the pic but you have to run dry wall screws down thru the fuse and into the hobby horse to help stabelize the fuse in roll.

She's coming together! Ya'll better check six theres a Berkut about to fly up your A$$ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA:D I'm pre fitting the bulkheads. Just for fun I put the spar in to see how it was going to fit. (Perfect). Momma is calling me we're going to eat. Here are the pics gotta go.

Mak That's pretty cool that you guys can get such large amounts of MGS in one order. I don't think we can get that much all at once:sad: . You can buy as many individual gallons as you want to. I don't think we can buy it in say a 5 gallon bucket. How much is the hardner over there? Tony

Mak I'm using the good stuff 285. Unfortunately it ships HAZMAT damn expensive. Tony

Mak I thought the same thing about these kit manufactuers finding out about a persons ability before selling them a kit. Not only that, after talking to Dave R. he said that "Everyone that has completed a berkut was in constant contact with him and his staff". When I told him that I was buying Walter Sally's airplane. He had to search his memory banks for a minute (not a good sign). Dave couldn't realy remember who Walt was. Dave warned me that if He couldn't remeber who that person was immediately off the top of his head chances are the airplane was in trouble. Well he was spot on with that one. I bought a giant can of worms. As far as epoxy. I'm using MGS on the wings and everything else for that matter. Mgs has to be the finest epoxy I'v ever used. It's blue when you mix it . The slow hardner has a four hour cure time and it's viscosity is like water . It's great for bagging. Tony

Lynn Thanks for the post. I'm not mounting the landing brake that way. I will mount as per plans. What I was tryng to convey to everyone was how the previous owner had thought it was supposed to be mounted. I didn't get any real good pics of the break before I took it off, so I reinstalled the break the way I recieved it so everyone could see what I had to deal with. Tony

Satch Thanks for the encouraging words. Bad Ass is right my friend. Soon she will be fitted with new bulkheads all the way around. Next, close the spar out and get it mounted properly. I hope to have all this completed by the end of the week. More pics tomorrow. I have to work early in the morning so The pics won't be posted untill later in the night time (PST) Tony

Here are some pics of todays events. Pic 1) I had to cut the rear roll over structure there weren't any joining tapes there yet so this wasn't an issue. Plus this was the only way to install the new firewall Pic 2) another shot of the firewall Pic 3) Here it is with the level on it's face so I could triangulate with the instrument panel Pic 4) A shot from the front Pic 5) All tied up waiting to cure

Today I turned the airplane over and cleaned up a few things, The landing break and retracting landing light. I also thought it a good idea to clean up all the spilled epoxy on the belly, took a while but I managed to get most of it. Not sure what to do with the landing light. I think I'm going to get rid of it and do the landing light another way. Maybe in the wing leading edge? Pic 1) This is the bottom of the fuse landing break area. I removed the break so it could be fitted properly. Pic 2) I reinstalled the break so you could see how the previous owner thought is should be mounted. I'm trying to keep my composure here and not lash out. Pic 3) Here is the break fitted to the fuse. the break was slightly larger than the depression it sits in so I had to trim just past the trim lines to get a perfect fit. Pic 4) Landing light. I don't think this is how you mount this landing light. ( Just my guess) Pic 5) Landing light removed. I think I'll do a layup here and cover the hole up. A small repair will have to be made to the instrument bulkhead.

T I'm at work at the moment. When I get home tonight I'll check, and let you know. I'm going to be off tomorrow. Dale and I are going to go at it again hopefully we can get the firewall and the other bulkheads installed. Tony

Richard Not at this point. I haven't done the inventory. I'm still in recovery mode. I'll start the inventory list this week and see what is there and what isn't. I do have the inventory sheets for the A,B,C, kits. Everything has been checked off by the manufacturer but obviuosly. I have to go back and double check to see exactly what I have. Tony

I don't know about that Guy. Look how many views there are. I'm not getting alot of response. I'm not complaining. I just relly enjoy comments on my posts good or bad, it gives me something to do at work when I'm bored. Well I'm not going to put a 540 on it. After talking with John A. and Dave R. they both agreed that an Io360 is the better way to go. John said "If I had to do it all over again I'll put the 360 on it". So I'm going with the 360. This week we should see a dramatic transformation. I'll be installing the new firewall and bulkheads. I'll then follow the videos for installing the spar. Then I believe it's off to the wings. Tony

Does the cat got your tongues, or everyone still shocked over the spar removal? What's everybody thinking. Lotta lookers no posters. Tony

O.K. today Dale and I went at it for a good 8hrs. Here is what we accomplished. Pic 1) Here is the rear of the fuse. As you can see, the lower portion of the firewall has been removed. Pic 2) I removed what was left of the engine mounts. Pic 3) I was very carefull not to sand the micro that the firewall buts up against. I also made several referance marks to insure that the new firewall is placed exactly as the previous one was. I still have to chip away some of the old epoxy Pic 4) Dale is removing the rest of the forward face closeout. If you remember I cut this piece at an angle thinking I was going to reinstall it. After careful consideration, I decided to make a new spar face instead of trying to salvage the old one. This will allow me to clean up the spar entirely without having to worry about the old layup. Pic 5) Here is the spar all cleaned up and ready for the new spar face closeout. Tony

Here are a couple of pics. This is all I had time for before the trick or treaters got here. Pic 1) I've removed all of the inside layups. I'll have Dale do the clean up on this tomorrow. I'll make the inserts for the holes and epoxy the new plates in place. time to fire up the lathe. Pic 2) Just another shot of the layups that have been cleaned out.

O.K. More Pics Pic1) Right side engine mount layup pretty much gone just have to do some touch up. Pic2) Left side mount almost done. Pic3) inside spar face, removing the layups that hold in the w-18 aluminum plates Tony

Richard Yes I did get that.

macleodm3 Yeah, this kit has a very exstensive video collection guiding the builder all the way thru the build. What could be better than watching the guy who designed the kit, show you how to build it right on your T.V.? But like T-mann said. I don't think the guy watched even one video. Not one single thing was done correctly. Now I'm forced to go back and redo everything to make it right. OH WELL! I love the work:irked: Tony

This is what happens when bad people play with good airplanes. Tony

Here are more pics of the days events. Pic 1) Here is the micro under the firewall notice most of it pooled to the bottom of the spar Pic 2) This is my buddy Dale. Now Dale was all fired up about cutting this spar out. He didn't trust the other guy either. Dale is amazing at fiberglass work this is the guy you want in your corner when things with glass go wrong. Dale used to build Unlimited Hydroplanes. He is more than quilified to fix bad glass layups. Pic 3) I removed all of the layups that held the aluminum plates to the spar. Good thing I did too, because most of the layups where carbon right on the aluminum. No fiberglass barrier. BTW it may be hard to see here but when Dale was done with the spar it looked like nothing ever happend to it. It looked polished UNBELIEVABLE what this guy can do. Pic 4) I removed the other engine mount layup. I'm replacing the firewall so this was very easy to remove. Pic 5) This is the same mount only flipped over so you can see the bottom. Notice that there is no layup here. That is raw wood there was no lyup to hold the mount to the fuse from the bottom. Just so we are clear. This process came from a higher authority. I didn't just do this on my own. This was the only way that we could figure out how to correct the spar misalignment.

I wasn't going to post these pics, I was suffering from post tramatic syndrome:sad: But in the spirit of building here they are. I remember meeting a gentleman at the airport some time ago who was resurrecting an old airplane. He had to make several new parts from old pieces of aluminum. He even had to, remove good pieces of aluminum to replace old ones. I only mention this because I had to think about him alot to do what I had to do. So what you are about to see may shock you but in the end had to be done. You will quickly realize that my evaluation of the work that was performed on this airplane in the begining of this build was spot on. This kinda work would've very easily have killed me and possibly others. So here we go. Pic 1) Spar removed Pic 2) Where I placed the spar on the garage floor as I was picking up my jaw pic 3) This is what prompted this whole mess. Notice the micro fill on this side of the spar Pic 4) This is the micro on the other side of the spar see the differenc? Pic 5) After chopping the foam and fiberglass away from firewall that was still attached to the spar I noticed that it didn't sound right, as I was removing foam. As I suspected AIR lots of it The spar wasn't floxed to the firewall at all. See Dave was smart when he designed this airplane all you have to do is flox the spar right to the firewall and that sets the incidence of the spar, at the same time all you have to do is lign up the centerlines on your spar with the centerline of the firewall. Well obviously that didn't happen and now I'm left with removing the spar out of the back of the airplane. Scary part is The guy tried to use micro to attach the spar in place (good news for me as it was easy to sand it all off)