I'm mostly recovered from the previous weekend's marathon of activity. This weekend I did some more sanding on the horizontal stabilizer plug, and then sprayed the finish coat of white Poly-Lux 300 on the top surface.
I'm beginning to mull over the next few moves in the program. I'm pretty sure that the next thing to do is to attempt to get a mold set off of the horizontal stabilizer plug. But after that, I'm wondering whether to start prepping the wing plugs or to make a first-article full-length fuselage. The fuselage would give me something big and shiny to show off, but the wing plugs would advance the background work more. And the fuselage would just be one more thing to store; although until I join the right and left shells it will only take up a few thousanths of an inch in the molds. Either way, the program duration is about the same, so it's sort of a toss-up.
And by the way, I've been working out the layup schedule for the fuselage. The basic materials will be 7725 fiberglass and Kevlar 181 or equivalent, using a thickness and orientation schedule based on one suggested by George Applebay. Though I think I'll be adding a few ply in the area of the fin root leading edge (where these things do tend to break).
Next weekend is probably more sanding, and then maybe work on the perimeter flanges to make a mold off of the stabilizer plug.
page updated 1 November 2004 all text and graphics copyright (c) 2004 HP Aircraft, LLC