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N377JT

J_Turner

Active Member
I think I'm in the 90% there and 90% to go stage. Here is access to my build pictures... https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0W5oqs3qGwQXLs Need all of the critique I can get. I'm using two G3X touch screens, A GTN750, and a VPX pro. Remote mounted 2nd radio and transponder. Engine is a Superior IO400 and prop is a 3 blade MT. I'm working on fiberglassing in the tips on the elevator and rudder now. Let me know what you think...

Jamie
 
Looks real nice Jamie. We're at about the same point (the I hate fiberglass stage). I started with the dual G3X and stayed with it instead of moving to the "touch" model. Looks as though you have an 'army' working on it so you should be done and flying soon. Keep up the good work.
 
Not quite....

I think I'm in the 90% there and 90% to go stage. Let me know what you think...
Jamie

Jamie,
Not quite. When you get it flying, that's the REAL 90% done, 90% to go stage...trust me:)
Looks good so far. My 2 cents after 25 years, 2 RV's and an HR2, keep it simple, cheap and light.

The lighter they are, the better they fly...
And...the less stuff to break, the happier you (and your wallet) will be.
V/R
Smokey
 
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You are about where I was 2 years ago. I built almost every weekend and vacation day available. First flight was 27 January this year and I still have a large list of things to get done, as Smoky eluded.
 
Not sure why the 750

With 2 G3X screens you will not likely need the big screen on the 750; I have the 650 feeding the G3X and really never need to look at the GTN. Save some $...
 
I kinda like the fiberglass part of it......

Looks real nice Jamie. We're at about the same point (the I hate fiberglass stage). I started with the dual G3X and stayed with it instead of moving to the "touch" model. Looks as though you have an 'army' working on it so you should be done and flying soon. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Carl, The fiberglassing really isnt that bad. Yesterday, I got both horizontal stabilizer tips and the vertical stab glassed in. Today I put a bunch of epoxy and 410 fairing filler on it. I'll sand it out tomorrow and see how it looks. As for the "army" of people working on it, that was just one day when my brother and a friend helped me. 99% of the time its me, myself, and I.
 
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Jamie,
Not quite. When you get it flying, that's the REAL 90% done, 90% to go stage...trust me:)
Looks good so far. My 2 cents after 25 years, 2 RV's and an HR2, keep it simple, cheap and light.

The lighter they are, the better they fly...
And...the less stuff to break, the happier you (and your wallet) will be.
V/R
Smokey

You're probably right!

As for the weight, I'm pretty much committed to what I have now as far as the engine, prop and such.
 
You are about where I was 2 years ago. I built almost every weekend and vacation day available. First flight was 27 January this year and I still have a large list of things to get done, as Smoky eluded.

I can usually spend 3-4 hours a day on it, quite a bit more sometimes. I really hope I can fly it this coming spring but, we'll see what happens. No need to rush anything at this point of the build.
 
Fun with fiberglass

Today I got the Vertical and horizontal stabilizer tips sanded down. Need to fill some pin holes or I just may let the painter do it. Also got the bottom of the rudder glued and riveted on. Hopefully next week I can finish the rudder and elevator tips and get everything primed.
 
Update

I didn't get everything in primer this week but came close. I got everything sanded down on the elevators, horiz. stab, rudder and vertical stab. Sprayed some primer on the right stab and elevator first just to see what it looked like.... Needed a little more filler and some glazing putty. Sanded it down and shot some more primer on it. Looked pretty good. Pictures on my icloud dated 11-10-17. Next week I'll try to get the rest of the tips in primer.
 
trying out posting photos...

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O.K., now that I can post pics, I'll start updating what I do with pics attached. It'll just take a little time to upload them to photo bucket.

I did get all of the emp. parts into primer, filled pin holes and in primer again with excellent results. Now I'm working on the fiberglass canopy skirt. Filled it with epoxy and 410 fairing filler yesterday, and sanded it off today. Added a bit more on some low spots and painted on one coat of plain epoxy to fill pin holes on all other areas. Hopefully tomorrow I'll update with a ton of pics of the progress.

I've learned a lot about this fiberglass stuff over the last few weeks. The right sand paper is very important if you want to work fast. At first I used a little filler fearing how hard it would be to sand off and used 40 grit only to realize that I didn't use enough but it sanded easily. Another coat was used in the same way only to need another and so on. Took a lot of time

Now on the canopy skirt, I used what I thought was a little too much, used 40 grit and it turned out I needed a little more in a few spots. 40 Grit cuts fast so get it close with that then move onto 80 grit then 100. At that point you'll know if you need more filler or finishing sand paper. If more filler is needed add it and use the above process. If no low spots are seen then...... Well I needed more filler. Time will tell how this thing works out...

Another thing about sanding, On the emp. tips I used my hand to sand a lot of the first application of filler. It looked like an ocean. The next two times it was GREATLY improved using a semi rigid sanding block. My favorite is an approx. 12" long by 3" foam sanding block. It's very rigid, bends only slightly. Makes it very easy to see the low or high spots. My lesson learned......USE sanding blocks, they make them for a reason!
 
Canopy skirt.....

I made the canopy skirt back in March and got it to the point where I thought to myself "I'll let the painter finish it" but now it just looks so bad I'm going to tackle this thing head on and try to get it to look as good as it can. At this point I've applied two coats of epoxy mixed with 410 fairing filler and one coat of plain epoxy to fill as many pin holes as I can. Today I sanded everything down to 220 grit and sprayed a coat of primer. This revealed LOTS of pin holes. Used some glazing compound and a squeegee and tried to fill most of them in.
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Can't see it but there are LOTS of pinholes on the canopy fairing. No pic of it but I used some glazing compound tonight to see how many I could fill. We'll see next building session.
 
Sanded off the glazing putty today and sprayed another coat of primer on the canopy skirt. Still have about 20-30 pinholes to fill. Looking much better.
 
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Today I applied one more batch of glazing putty to the canopy skirt...
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Sanded everything down...
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Sprayed another coat of primer and I'm calling it done.
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I decided to finish the trim around the front windscreen so, I taped everything off and spread out some epoxy and 410 fairing filler using. I used some black pigment because there were a few spots that you might be able to see from the inside at the edges.
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Windscreen fairing

Rolled the plane outside in prep for some sanding...
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Sanded everything down with 100 grit...
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To the tape line...
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Brushed on a coat of epoxy thinned with acetone...
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I actually used a roller and then squeegeed most of it off to seal the raw glass and to fill pin holes...
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Today I sanded the thinned epoxy very carefully to prevent cutting thru with 180 grit paper then on to 220 grit. Sprayed a quick coat of primer to see what I need to fix. About 5 spots on the left side the size of a dime. The thinned epoxy trick filled in 99% of the pin holes. Awesome! I filled the others with glazing putty.
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Still need to figure out how to finish the transition parts from the windscreen fairing to fuse on each side.
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Today was pretty fun because I got to see some of the work I've been doing the last few weeks. I started out by making a sanding block to fix the corners where the windscreen fairing meets the fuse near the slider.
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Before:
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And after using my new sanding block.
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Then I filled in a few areas and sanded everything down with 220 grit and sprayed some primer. It was extremely windy today so I used one of our dyno cells at work with the fan on low.
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Results!!!!
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More pics of the final product. It's not perfect but at least I won't be ashamed to take to a painter or fly it for the first 40 hours.
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Thanks Carl, The fiberglassing really isnt that bad. Yesterday, I got both horizontal stabilizer tips and the vertical stab glassed in. Today I put a bunch of epoxy and 410 fairing filler on it. I'll sand it out tomorrow and see how it looks. As for the "army" of people working on it, that was just one day when my brother and a friend helped me. 99% of the time its me, myself, and I.

Nice work mate..
Your canopy skirt looks like mine..1 piece fibreglass
The problem i find with 410 filler is when you feather it out you will keep chasing pin holes.
Once i got mine flat with 410 i put it in the sun and brushed a 2k epoxy primer on it using the paint brush to fill the pin holes applying several coats.
It will look crappy but spray a black guide coat and block sand and try not to hit the fibreglass again .Spray one or two coats of epoxy primer again and its done.
I do all my fibreglass parts this way

Joe
 
Empennage Fairing

Last Friday I decided to try and get a nice finish on the empennage fairing. I started with this:
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Next I trimmed it and added some filler:
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Today I sanded everything down and sprayed a coat of primer:
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Didn't get a pic of it but it had so many pinholes that I knew this was going to be a challenge. Waited for primer to dry and went to town with the glazing putty:
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Waited for that to dry and spent about an hour and a half sanding it down to 220 grit.
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Another coat of primer and theres about 7 or 8 more pin holes to fix but it's 99% there.
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The inside of my homemade canopy skirts will be slightly visible so I decided to go ahead and make them look better. Sanded it down with 80 grit and added a layer of filler.
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Hopefully tomorrow I can sand it all down and finally get it ready to bond to the slider.
 
No Pics today but I did get the inside of the canopy skirt sanded. YAA!!!! More pinholes to fill! I'll tackle that tomorrow. Also pulled the landing gear fairings out today. Need to figure out how to jack up and level the plane so that I can start the cutting and alignment phase. Anyone got any simple easy ideas?
 
Today was a big day for me, I got the canopy skirt bonded on!
So, first I added a layer of glazing putty...
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Sanded it down with 180 followed by 220
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Cleaned everything with acetone and applied the Sika 209 primer (this stuff dries FAST and you need to work VERY quick) with a roller. Actually, I should have brushed it on using a chip brush directly from the can. There would have been much less waste using this method as the primer seemed to evaporate rather quickly. Next I applied a coat of primer to the canopy rail sections and plexi and let it dry for an hour while figuring out the install process.
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I didn't get any pics of the install process because my hands were sticky. What I did was to apply a nice thick bead of 295 sikaflex to the plexi and canopy rails then flatten it out using a mixing stick. Then cleckoed the canopy fairing in place. Pushed everything down VERY firmly and used gorilla tape to hold it in place. I removed the layer of electrical tape that is right beside the canopy fairing on the glass removing any ooze from the sika. Last I cleaned up any ooze material with a mixing stick and wiped it off with a paper towel. The left side layed down nicely but the right side had a little bit of a gap that I'm hoping the tape will hold in place while the sika dries.
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While letting that dry, I decided to go ahead and start the trimming of the gear leg fairings. I got one side trimmed to the template and then cut more of it off at the lower end to clear the brake line.
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A side note to the canopy fairing...... While I was trying to get a nice finish on the inside of the fairing, I completely messed up and created a few craters on the exterior of it. I will be filling in the low spots that I damaged and refinishing the entire outside of the canopy fairing before this thing is done. Note to self.....Finish the inside BEFORE the exterior to prevent extra work.
 
Today was time to get the outside of the canopy skirt finished. Spent most of the day filling and sanding. I installed the inner canopy skirt brace, took the canopy off and cleaned everything and hopefully sprayed the last coat of primer.
 
So, yesterday I got to the shop and the slider skirt looked pretty good, only a few spots or pinholes. It looked good enough to call it done. I took all of the tape and plastic off and reinstalled the slider. Except for drilling the roller assemblies to the slider I consider this complete. Just need to figure out how to clean off a little residue left by the tape.
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I also worked on the right wheel pant and landing gear fairing. I hope to be able to finish all of the landing gear fairings next week. (fitment only not finishing)
 
Fairing

Hey you did some beautiful work and it looks great.My question is in a process like the bonding of the fairing I would think it is no stronger than the weakest link did you test the spot putty it looked like a full coat on the inside.
Thanks Bob
 
Hey you did some beautiful work and it looks great.My question is in a process like the bonding of the fairing I would think it is no stronger than the weakest link did you test the spot putty it looked like a full coat on the inside.
Thanks Bob

The one pic I posted that looked like I sanded down the putty was actually an in progress pic. Not finished. When using spot filler it is just that, only in small spots or in my case, pin holes. After using it a few times I found that it sands so easily that it is actually easier to apply a lot of it in a very thin layer then sand all of it off to catch any pinholes that I couldn't see the first time. 99.9% of it gets sanded off, cleaned with acetone then primed. It looks like this when ready for primer.
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Jamie
 
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Today I made a support for the plane to sit on while getting the wheel pants and gear leg fairings aligned.
Used a chair and some spacers at the rear and an engine hoist to support the plane from the engine mount to take measurements for the support. Made saw horse style support 30.5" tall. This places the wheels about 1/8" above the ground.
Then placed a centerline to take measurements from. More pics tomorrow. On the right side I had to enlarge the opening for the wheel to allow the wheel pant to turn enough to be somewhat in line with the centerline of the plane. Also tied the rear of the plane down to my mini tug with ratcheting straps because the engine hoist "leaks"down a little in a 10 minute span so, it's not up to the task of supporting the front all by itself.
Wasted a lot of time rereading the instructions trying to get the best alignment of the wheel pant. Not much success today but tomorrow I might have this thing right......
 
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Yes would be great to see more about this step.. I am very close todo that! thanks..
 
Didn't get much done today but I think I have my head wrapped around the process. I didn't read the instructions all of the way through for the gear leg fairing and this caused a little extra work on my part to get a straight gear leg fairing. I cut out the template and just proceeded to cut out the whole thing all at once only to find out later I wasn't supposed to trim the trailing edge until after the hinge was riveted in place. This was a couple of days ago. Last night while reading every single word in the plans and drawings and getting the whole understanding of it I figured I could tape the gear leg fairing's trailing edge to something straight and install the hinge. Once I had everything taped down to a piece of square stock of alumnium I clamped the hinge in place on each end about a 1-16th" further inward to ensure that the trailing edge would come together perfectly. The plans say that you can not cleko both sides at the same time. I wanted to see how straight this thing was going to be BEFORE riveting so I staggered one side of rivets about 1/4" to one side of my marks that I made on the hinge. The result was that I could see how straight it was before setting the first rivet.
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Drilled, deburred and countersinked (with the hinge in place) everything. Then I reassembled it with with clekos and inserted the hinge pin. The result was not straight. The slightest amount of slop between the clekos and the parts caused a slight mis alignment resulting in an edge that was not perfectly straight. I was able to bend or manipulate the edge straightness by bending it by hand. I unclekoed everything and went back to the straight edge. While holding the trailing edge flush to the straightedge I then clekoed it back together. Now we're talking! Straight as a line. Next I removed the hinge pin and riveted both sides removing one cleko and setting one rivet at a time. Reinstalled the hinge pin and success! In the end I call it good enough. It was almost perfectly straight with a very minor tweak at the top that will be covered up with the intersection fairing. Installed it on the plane and setup a line that was parallel and straight with the plane. Using a square at the front of the fairing I decided the string would need to be 24.5" from the centerline of the plane and 21" vertical. Set up a couple of weighted boxes and taped a string around the fairing back to the boxes. Then used a small ruler and twisted the fairing to center it. Clamped it into place and made sharpie lines on the gear leg and fairing to make it easier to line up next time.
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Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to add a few reinforcement strips of fiberglass cloth to the inside of where the clamps hold the fairing to the gear legs and mix up some flox to put between the wheel pant mounting points.

The right main wheel fairing was a bit of a challenge for me as well. It was difficult for me to understand how this was to be aligned with the airflow of the plane because of the amount of positive camber the wheel has when it was not on the ground. When I reread the instructions is says that the wheel pant is to be aligned to the wheel as far as camber is concerned. When I did this it looks like the wheel pant is laying over on its side (rolling over). After thinking about it, it makes sense, when on the ground with everything attached on the plane i.e. fully loaded the wheels should be mostly vertical and when unloaded they will camber out quite a bit. I used my centerline to roughly get the wheel pant aligned with the centerline of the plane using the center of the rear pant and the most forward edge of the front wheel pant. I can't remember but I think the dimension was about 3?.125"? With this in mind I went ahead and raised the rear of the wheel pant to about 8.75" and drilled it to the U-808 mounting bracket with a #30 bit. I'll play around with it tomorrow to see if it is correct.
 
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