HardKnox

Try 'Great Stuff' from Home Depot - it is expanding foam insulation in a can. I understand it is hotwireable. I have not used it yet, however.

Hey, Sean. In the Cozy plans there's a chart that shows the heat absorption of different colors. I'll show you next time we get together. While the plans say that white is the only approved color for a Cozy, I do recall that yellow was the next lowest heat absorption. The dual engine cozy built in Venezuella had yellow on top. I can't recall the other colors at the moment, but it wasn't intuitive. Orange, for example, was way up there in heat absorption.

Thank you all. I failed to mention that I'm in the US and getting inspected by an FAA DAR, so this pertains to the US. I contacted a DAR and here's what I got as a reply. This DAR is very active and very thorough. I have a lot of respect and trust for this guy as do many. From the DAR: _____quote_______ The certification inspection is the same as any other airplane; after it is ready to fly. BUT, the aircraft needs to be inspected before the "fill" stage so that the fiberglass structure can be evaluated. What I like to see is at least one technical counselor report done at this stage with pictures and comments from the TC. Many of the composite aircraft now days have factory pre-molded skins. In this case, this inspection is not that critical, but for wet lay-ups it is very critical. In progress pictures are MUCH more important for a composite airplane. _____end quote______ So looks like tech councelor reviews and photos are important to him. And its OK to fill and prime everything after a tech councelor has had a look. As an aside, I really like the FAA relying on the private sector, where the experts are.

I am just about finished with ch 4, too. Any reason we don't use platenuts (bonded in place platenuts) and use bolts-into-nuts to install the pully brackets instead of nuts-on-studs approach? See EZ-Points here. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/pdf/2008Individual/Cat08109.pdf We could use drilled head bolts and safety wire in addition to lock washers. Thoughts?

I've only started building, so I'm a long way from the Airworthiness Inspection, but I have a question. When I had my first, metal plane inspected, it was only a couple days later that I made my first flight. With fiberglass, how much finishing is left undone so the DAR can inspect the plane? Can I go ahead and contour, fill, and prime before inspection?

Congrats! That's huge. I hope everything continues to go well. The oil pressure should be 60 to 90psi for the normal range (25psi at idle). The oil pressure on the 0-320 is easily adjustable, but you'll want to do it when the engine is very warm (HOT). Its normal to have 80 to 90 psi with cold oil and high RPM on the ground. The test is a hot engine at cruise, when you'll want the psi to be adjusted to right at 70.

The drive gears are actually part of the engine. When you buy new Slick's, you have to reuse the drive gears. So there aren't a lot of extra's laying around from a change of mags, and if they are, I'd be worried of it being out of spec.

RV pedals are hung like this, but they use UHMWPE for the bearings instead of real bearings -- UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene). RVs use two end blocks with a hole drilled not all the way through. The top rods are inserted into these blocks and the blocks are bolted to the fuse walls. There's also a center bearing block with the hold drilled all the way through. You can sort of see them in this photo of my RV under construction. Not having received my plans yet, I don't know if the Cozy calls for this stuff, but it has a million and one uses in aircraft constrution.

I just ordered my plans today... Here we go! This will be my second airplane to build. My first was a Van's RV-9A - the best flying airplane I've ever flown. My family grew with addition of my daughter, now 5, so I so I aquired a C-182 just over a year ago. I HATE not being able to work on it, and I HATE the cost of parts, maintenance, etc. So I'm doing it again... This time it will be a different experience, having both a daughter and an airplane to fly. I don't expect I'll complete it quite so quickly. Composite should be a totally different experience as well, while I can stay with the tried and true Lyc 160 or 180 with which I'm very familar. I'm hangared currently at CPT (Cleburne Muni) just south of Fort Worth, TX. I hope composite construction and Texas heat will work together. Please let me know NOW if I'm making a mistake. My shop is not insulated or climate controlled. I'll be attending the Composite Construction SportAir workshop in Dallas this weekend. Will I see any of you there? I hope to get some experience with some different expoxies because I'm SOOO confused as to what to use. I'm looking forward to adding some bells and whistles that I didn't on my previous build. I'll have dual displays for sure so the copilot can fly. I'm also going to focus a lot on cockpit organization (cubbies). These are invaluable, IMHO. Please EMAIL ME PICTURES AND WEBSITES. I'm a huge reader of other builder's sites...so if you have one, send away. I look forward to many discussions with y'all. Best Regards, HK:D

I've read a lot of posts about keeping your environment warm enough, but what is the typical max temp for a layup? My workshop can get very hot. I built my first airplane in there, but it was mostly metal with non-structural fiberglass components. I'm guessing its better to store epoxy in the house rather than the ups and down temps of an unairconditioned shop. Are there any other considerations for building in Texas? I'd like to hear your thoughts. Thanks, HK