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mfryer

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Posts posted by mfryer

  1. The aluminum end fittings on the Aircraft Spruce belts shown in the above link bother me. I'd like to know if they were engineered and to what loads they have been designed. They may be fine, but who knows?

    I have two of the ACS belts for my long-ez project and the fittings are definatly steel.

  2. Well, I didn't complete the spar by new years. But it is done now..

     

    The Long-EZ plans now call for the spar to be permenantly installed in the fuselage. I think however that I will hold off on that for now. With the spar and canard installed, my EZ takes up a huge amount of space in the shop.

     

    Instead I am considering skipping ahead and constructing the wings. With those out of the way I think I will cut down the size of the work table.

     

    Also I see some cozy and other long-ez folks are aligning the wings to the center spar before mounting it to the fuse.

     

    Any thoughts on this strategy?

     

    Posted Image

    Posted Image

     

    more photos at...

     

    http://flyingbackward.blogspot.com

  3. Yeah...so I'm told, and I shoulda known that. It was a pain in the ass to get the glass to lay down in those holes.

     

    However, I guess I'll put them in now that I did carve the holes, cause if all the electronics crap out it might be nice to know if there's fuel in the plane.

     

    Of course; at that point I would be a glider.

     

    Perish the thought.

    Marc, I hope you plan on having some redundancy. I am not sure what options are available for an auto confersion, but if you have a separate electrical systems for the ignition you would'nt nessisarily become a glider.

  4. ....so what do you plan to use for a canopy bubble?

    If the red foam is overpriced, perhaps now would be a good point to stop. :D

    In one of the cp issues, they discuss the temporary unavailibility of the 250 lb 1/4" foam. They did approve 1/4" plywood as a substitute.

  5. Quote:

    Originally Posted by goatherder

    Or Kwanza or whatever. Eat Drink and be Merry.

     

    We're having goat stew.

     

    leg of lamb here................................Mary Christmas

    Prime rib here.

     

    And for the rest of us, a happy Festivus!!

  6. Burt and Mike were demonstrating the spar cap layup that they were NOT pulling all the little cross weaves out of the spar cap UNI. They just slapped it in there, wet it out and squeegeed it in. So...I wonder if you really need to bother with that?

    RAF used a few different techniques for spar cap layups, including the use of their uni cloth in the GU canard. At the time of the video, many techniques were still being perfected. I too was a little confused when I saw Burt and Mike laying up the spar cap with the cross weave.

     

    My understanding is that the spar cap material is designed to be used without the cross weave.

     

    The cross weave does not allow the uni fibers to lay as straight as they can be with the weave in place. If one examines the weave, it is very irregular and obviously only there to keep the roving in place until installation.

     

    The most latest RAF documentation (perhaps there is a CP article as well that I missed) that I can find is the Special performance canard (Roncz canard) instructions, that specifically mentions the removal of the "fine thread that is obviously not fiberglass" and the cross fibers. Perhaps there is a reason that fine thread is red.

     

    The procedure to remove the cross thread is not difficult and I cannot think of any reason to keep the cross fibers in place for spar cap layups.

     

    Spar jig: Good to know if found a new home, it would have been chopped up if you didn't take it. Be sure to measure everything again, I just want to make sure mine is the only plane flying crooked!

  7. when you do large layups you mix it in small batches so a 3 hour gel time is more then enough. the original Safetypoxy used to build the cozy IV only had a 2 hour gel time and it worked fine.

    I guess that makes sense. I usualy mix in small amounts as well, use it up in under 1/2 hour. I suppose what had me concerned is the time it takes to complete a large layup. My center section spar shear web took me over 5 hours to complete, what with phone ringing, santa and fire department stopping by, etc. But then you say "gel time", not "cure time". That there lies the fallicy of my origional comment.

     

    Marc, sounds like you are on to something with the local suppliers. I don't suppose you can russle up a cheap O-320 for me while your at it?

  8. It's been a little too cold here until just lately, so progress has been slow.

     

    Its been a tad warmer over the last few day so I managed to complete the center section spar shear web last evening.

     

    Posted Image

     

    More photos of my center section spar progress are at:

    http://flyingbackward.blogspot.com

  9. The "Special Performace Canard" (roncz) plans are included in the RAF Aircraft Encyclopedia (TERF) CDs. However the plans are not to scale. The TERF CDs are not free, they can be purchased from the terf website or search long-ez on eBay.

  10. Yes - it was Metal Supermarket. I had it wrong. I was after some 316 stainless a while back and talked to them.

     

    Also - Alaska Copper & Brass carries non-ferrous metals and probably has that stuff too. We buy alot of alum, stainless and some bronze thru them.

    My bro picked up the aluminium angle from Alaska copper and brass for my landing gear brackets. Later he returned to find some 2024 stock and they didn't carry it, perhaps there stock fluctuates.

  11. Good to know - I have a Fastenal store 5 min from home. Tacoma Screw .

    I contacted Tacoma Screw, and they can supply AN hardware, but at about twice the cost of ACS and Wicks. You may have better luck with the salesman than me though.

     

    If you total up the cost of the AN hardware vs, other sources you probably will not save enough $$ to justify the time spent on this site justifying it :).

     

    I did find a contact for 2024 aluminum and steel in Peirce and King county. The sales rep didn't think they could necessarily beat ACS prices but with shipping and time a factor they may be a good source. The sales rep also told me that they had a good contacts for small project machining. I will try and remember to bring the info home tomorrow.

     

    Also, one of the things that I find myselft wasting $$ on is shipping cost, particularly epoxy. The hazardous materials fee can really add up. Try ordering in larger quantities of foam, glass and epoxy where possible.

  12. Thanks for all of the input. I will not be inalling retracts and I plan to build my my spar as per the plans. I am using EZ-Poxy throughout my build, so I assume that there will be no inconpqtibiliy issuse with avgas.

  13. Materials arrive tomorrow for my center section spar. I have been combing through the CPs again and I think I have found all the updates. If anyone has any words of wisdom to share before I dive in, please let me know.

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