This morning I read the sad news that long-time Air Sailing pilot Reuben Zelwer was killed in a sailplane accident. Details are scarce, but it seems to have been a rope-break accident; I believe he was flying his ASW-20 at the time. Reuben was an always-there, always-friendly, always-helpful presence at Air Sailing, and we will all miss him very, very much.
I spent this weekend at the shop, readying my HP-18. Most of the time was spent finishing off the instrument package. I mounted the transponder encoder and GPS-NAV display, built a mounting bracket for the GPS-NAV model 20, plumbed everything, and wired everything. I also got a last coat of rattle-can paint on the stabilizers and ruddervators. Next weekend the family and I are going to Disneyland, the weekend after that I figure to finish assembling the HP-18 and get it through annual inspection.
Here are some pictures of the final version of the wing/fuselage fillets that Brad Hill designed for the HP-24. What you see here encompasses the fuselage and the compound-curved fillet. The actual parting surface between the wing and the fuselage will be about halfway between the fuselage and the surface where the fillet meets the ruled portion of the wing. I'm thinking that I'll go ahead and embody the fuselage portion of the fillet in the fuselage molds. That will make it easier to align everything, and easier to develop the structural connection between the fuselage shell and the transverse lift tubes.
page updated 10 May 2004 all text and graphics copyright (c) 2004 HP Aircraft, LLC