Chapter 5

Fuselage Sides

This chapter was not too difficult, however I question how the final measurement was supposed to work out with the wing spar. Having limited room It would have been impossible for me to actually construct both sides at the same time. Therefore, I completed a right side and then a left. I used the completed right side temporarily to accurately jig the upper logeron. This ensured that both left and right sides would be parallel.

Construction starts with jig building, and then building the longerons. This was fairly easy and the method used in the plans works great! After completion of the longerons, I sanded them to remove excess epoxy that had oozed out, to prep them for installation on the sides. Following this, I erected the right side jig, the plans called for using 5min epoxy to hold the masonite together, but I hot glued them, this seemed to work well. I cut and 5min epoxied the side pieces together, and layed them into the jig, added the spacers and dished the foam. Micro'd and glasses the insides, some of the curves in the spacers created problems getting the glass flat, but perserverance pays off here. Also, be sure to use plenty of micro at the edges of the spacers to avoid bubbles. Floxed in the longeron (which fit very nicely) and weighted it down.

After cure, I cut the triangle longeron (I waited to do the upper longeron layup) and fit it, along with LWX, LWY and the triangle doubler. This is where I encountered my only problem. I used nails as per plans, and this worked great...Until I added flox, the holes for the nails had become too loose after removing them to apply enough pressure to the longeron to hold it. I didn't have enough clamps, and it was late at night. I ended up having to redrill and remeasure everything. I drilled each hold point at two opposite angles and inserted nails. This worked ok and go the longeron on...for the left side I will have lots of clamps ready!

After the longeron cure I created the conduit plug following plans...oops. The plans state to have a .75" plug, but that is too tall for the .70 stringers. So I cut mine and held it inplace with the foam parts and micro'd, and epoxied them all together at one time. This worked out ok, but the left side I will create a plug the correct size. After that cured, I layed up the six plys and did the 4 plys on the upper longeron at the same time.

I finished the left side, much similar to the right, however the lower longeron was a total pain!!! The only way that I managed to complete it was to drill holes at opposite angles and insert nails, then add weight. This worked...but it was a serious pain! Also on the left side I made the clark foam filler between the longerons and stringers out of a single piece of foam, and then sanded and glassed the conduit channel. This worked excellent, as all I had to do was sand the clark flush with longerons and stringers.

Upper Longerons Jigged	Left Side Glassed
Left Side Completed	LG Reinforcements
Both Sides Complete