Build Log Discussion - Bruce_L

[LA F2 Flyer]

Looking great Bruce. I am loving watching the build move forward.

Once thing to keep in mind in regards to the transport struts...unless you intend to remove the flaperons every time you fold the wings, they aren't going to tuck in quite that tightly. I believe my wings fold to 8'2" from outside tip to outside tip. (This is with the flaperons folded up and one flaperon control arm removed.)

[ksatter26]

Same with mine.

[Bruce_L]

Yep, I agree with both of you guys on that fact. I took some width measurements with the wings retracted and even rigged some simulated flying wires from the rudder to the horizontal stabilizer to see what hits first as the wings come back.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that my trailer is a raw chassis only at this point and I can make the walls 8 1/2 feet wide. Same as a race car transporter. But a 22 foot race car hauler weighs 3700 pound EMPTY!! And, the suspension is not set up for a 250 pound load either.

That's a project for another day since I recently discovered there is a grass strip at the airport where I am currently a tenant. I hope that the grass will be a lot more forgiving for this rookie pilot.

I walked it last week and it is very level and should have some nice turf once spring arrives. I even volunteered to be one of the mower crew.

Today I let some ADHD kick in and worked on everything else but never touched the plane not even once!

Trying to get a mental picture of the jury strut arrangement. (ANY GOOD PICTURES OUT THERE???)
Still need to crimp, bend and drill the aluminum tubing.

Cleaning and painting small parts. Got some painted parts baking in the oven right now.

Had a flying lesson arrangement for today, but the instructor cancelled. The plane was a 2 seater with control yokes, not a stick. I basically
was hoping to get some practice for the local traffic pattern at my airport. Very rural field, hardly any traffic,

Taking a few days off from the build as I have to get some things taken care of at home. Will post updates ASAP.

[Bruce_L]

Today I had two items I wanted to get started. (sorry about some image quality here, I had a big smudge on my camera lens I found out later)

1. Start painting all the items such as rudder/brake pedal, flap actuator handle, bellcranks, etc...

2. Start putting on the aluminum trailing edge stock ( triangle aluminum extrusion) on the flaperons.

Painting was a new color, not the usual white today. Wanted all the control pieces to have a different look. (Will post picks sometime)

So in the build manual, there are two methods for getting the trailing edge extrusion prepped for the flaperons. Keep in mind the flaperons are mostly a rigid foam core in the shape of an asymmetrical airfoil with a few of the airfoils clad in thin aircraft plywood at key locations. One method is to flatten the edge where the rib is (about 1 inch wide) and the other is to trim with tin snips. At first I grabbed the snips but the amount of metal to remove is so small, I bailed on using snips and went with a fine hacksaw blade. I just held the blade in my hand by itself. No hacksaw handle used.
I drew some guidelines parallel to the edge of each foam rib and cut on the line. This wasn't that hard to do as I made me a work area where I could sit
down and have easy access to the extrusion. Just took a while as there are 18 foam ribs with 2 sides per rib (4 cuts in all since there is top and bottom)

After cutting the slits in the extrusion, I now needed to bend the small flap of metal (1 inch wide) up about 35 degrees to be inline with the larger flat surface of the trailing edge material. The metal needs to sit flush on top of the foam rib. To do this I made a specialty tool.

I purchased a metal seam working tool at Horrible Fright that looked like something I could modify to help me do this task. Since there are a lot of ribs on the flaperons as well as capstrips on the wooden wing ribs that also need aluminum trimmed to fit, it would speed things up considerably if I had the right tool to do it with.

Below is the tool purchased. I think it was something under 15 bucks I want to say.

The tool I bought has two aluminum "Jaws" that are held in with two screws. I removed the screws from ONLY ONE of the jaws (upper), laid it on a foam rib on the flaperon and drew lines to mark how wide the new upper jaw needs to be to grab and bend the aluminum tab that was a result of two saw cuts.

I put the jaw in the vice, cut the metal as needed with a hacksaw, and finished up with a flat file. Below you can see the finished upper jaw and the two pieces of metal I removed from the original wide jaw. I did not alter the lower jaw at all. I use it a flat reference for bending the tab that needs to flatten out.

To use the new tool, I put the wide jaw against the outside portion of the extrusion and place the narrow jaw on the tab to be bent, give it a gentle squeeze and the aluminum bends to become flat, same as the entire surface of the extrusion.
Below you can see how I grab the one inch flap to bend it. If you zoom in and look to the left, you can see one flap I just bent

After bending all the flaps on one side, I flipped the extrusion over, and using the flap edge as my guide, I used the hacksaw blade and cut all the metal on this side. I put a piece of tape on the saw blade to make sure I had the teeth always pointed in the proper direction.
Below, I am now cutting the opposite side of the extrusion. Lots of cuts today !!!!

After all the cutting and bending, I placed the extrusion onto the flaperon assembly and it lined up as planned. The extrusion fit real tight where
the foam ribs are reinforced with the thin plywood. I did not have to trim any aluminum, wood or foam to get the trailing edge extrusion to slide in all the way and fit snuggly. I think making the custom tool was worth the effort. So now, how do I get a patent? (yeah right, I might sell 2 !)


Below you can see I put on a few clamps to see how things line up.

I trimmed about 1/4 inch of excess extrusion from the root side to get it flush with the thin plywood cap on the last rib. I am now ready to clamp and glue the trailing edge to the flaperon.

I had to go buy a bunch of extra clamps since I need to glue and clamp all the ribs with the Hysol adhesive in one pass. The flaperon trailing edge does not use any rivets to hold the aluminum extrusion in place. I plan to scuff up the inside metal with rough sandpaper to give more texture for the glue to grip the metal better.

I need to get all the trailing edge installed ASAP before it gets too warm here and my working time for the Hysol pushes me close to panic mode.

One observation I also made today, was since I really only bent the metal along the slits I cut with the hacksaw blade, the metal was still there and this gives me a lot more surface area for clamping and also more area for the Hysol to have some bite on the aluminum extrusion too.

Hope everyone is doing well.

[Bruce_L]

Today I wanted to get a least one of the flaperons fitted with the aluminum trailing edge material. Before I started with the adhesive I figured I might want to first go ahead and do all the saw cuts and bending for the other trailing edge. I wanted to get another trailing edge prepped today so the next time I work, all I have to do is glue it on.

I made a change to my process today, and it worked out much better. Much quicker and less noise from the cutting of the metal with the hacksaw blade.' Here is what I did differently. The problem yesterday was that as I pulled the saw blade across the thin aluminum extrusion, the blade would snag and pull the metal trying to deform it as well as make a horrible grinding noise. My solution was super simple. I took a scrap piece of wood that I used earlier as a shim when setting up the wings and cut a slot in it.

The wood is a bit less than 1/4 thick. About the same size as the gap in the extrusion.

I then slid the wood into the slot in the extrusion, pull the metal together to grab the wood and saw away.

This worked so much better and I discovered I didn't need to flip the extrusion to cut the slits on the other side. I just used the first slit I cut as a guide for the sawblade and zipped right through all the cuts much faster. I can do the same thing on the trailing edge for the wing itself. Actually, the wing will be much easier since there are a lot less ribs on the wing than the flaperons have. I got the tough cuts out of the way first it seems.

Next, I put a small roughing bit in my Dremel tool and roughed up the smooth aluminum on the inside of the extrusion where the "Flap" is.

You think I have enough clamps now?


Below is a close up of the etched aluminum. It got scuffed up pretty good. Since the adhesive is the only fastening method, I wanted it to adhere well.
( Note: I blew out a lot of metal shavings/bits with compressed air before I got ready to glue on the trailing edge)

Since this was my first try at putting Hysol on a flaperon with 18 ribs, I didn't have a clue how much adhesive it would take to get the job done. I didn't want to mix up too much and end up wasting the expensive stuff. At first I pumped out 6 good globs about the size of a Hersheys kiss.

I mixed it up and used a popsicle stick to put a small glob of the adhesive on each rib. I did not spread out the glob as I was hoping the glue would be thicker that way and would fill any gaps where I might have bent the metal incorrectly. You can see the brush in the picture that I almost used and it would have spread out the Hysol too thin I think. It turned out that I did not mix up enough Hysol so I made 3 more "Kisses" worth and got all the ribs ready. I made sure to put plenty on the wooden plywood caps on the end of a few ribs since these were more critical high stress area I Ifigured. I also put plenty on the outside corners at each end of the assembly.

Next, I slid the extrusion onto the ribs until I felt the metal contact the hard plywood capped ribs and added a ton of clamps.
In the picture below, you can see the grey Hysol oozing out at the corner. I made sure to use plenty of clamping power at the corners for sure.
The orange clamps are metal and are the strongest ones I have. (leftover clamps from another previous wood working project)

I scraped up the excess Hysol wherever it was present and used it it to add to any spots that I thought were rather lacking adhesive.

After I got all the clamps in place, I cleaned up any glue mess with some acetone and I was FINISHED !!!!!

If you look at this view below, you can see that the gap in the aluminum extrusion is almost closed up all the way. Notice I used the metal clamps where the foam ribs are capped off with the thin plywood.

Since it was such a nice day and not cold at all, I managed to get the last of my control pieces painted. These are the rudder pedals.

If you zoom in a lot you will see the paint has a hammered metal look to it. This color is called antique pewter. I think the contrast against the white fuselage will look good. I like the industrial look and this paint is very tough and resistant to wear and tear. I painted a metal workbench with it years ago and it still looks great after all kinds of abuse. I put on 2 heavy coats about 45 minutes apart and let them dry in the sun today. Not a cloud in the sky all day. Would have been a perfect flying day! If only I had an airplane...

My only problem is I know I am running out of Hysol so I will order 2 more cartridges I guess. Well, there goes my Hawaii vacation fund.

[Bruce_L]

Today I removed all the clamps to see how well the left flaperon turned out. It turned out good. No gaps or issues on both top and bottom surfaces.

Below is a shot of the detail where the metal flap I made and folded out (with the homemade tool) meets the rigid foam. No major lip or snags.

The Hysol is pricey stuff but does the job well. Scuffing the aluminum with the dremel tool worked good.

Here is a completed left flaperon. I circled the corner that I cleaned up with a flat file today. I left it untrimmed before I applied the epoxy so that there would not be any voids there. The corner looks good, surface is flush. I know any imperfections will show up clearly when the fabric covering is shrunk. I want my plane to look good, so a little extra effort is worth it to me.

The flat file cleaned up the corner as well as the aluminum flaperon spar tube that was protruding out past the plywood spar cap about 1/8 inch. Everything is nice and flush with the plywood.

Wouldn't a carbon fiber end cap look wicked covering this area?

Since I am waiting on more Hysol adhesive to arrive, I can't do much else. I decided to re-read the build manual section regarding the flaperon droppers (basically tubular hinges) and see how they attach to the rear of the wing. There are 3 droppers per each flaperon. Two are already
installed but you have to install the last one that is closest to the wing root. I had painted these a while ago so why not prep them now. All that really involves is placing the plastic bushing in a hole that has some Hysol applied to it. The bushing has a lip on one side to center it in place and also act as a bearing surface to keep the side of the flaperon from rubbing on the metal dropper bracket.

This picture shows the lip sticking out since I have not pushed the bushing all the way into the white bracket.

The control arm is the lever that moves the flaperon when the flaperon drive cable pushes or pulls the lever arm. These look like some fancy aluminum CNC pieces for sure. (see picture below)

I mixed up a tiny bit of what little Hysol I had remaining and put some on the inside of the white bracket.

I put on enough that when I slid on the bushing, the excess oozed out. I know now that there are no voids or gaps where water or moisture can accumulate under the bushing leading to rust years later.

Wiped up the excess and made sure there was no epoxy inside the bushing surface, That would not be good!

Went ahead and did both for LEFT and RIGHT flaperons since I already mixed up the magic goo!

PAY ATTENTION WHEN GLUING IN THE BUSHING AND DON"T MAKE 2 IDENTICAL BRACKETS, they are opposites!

Wish I would have accomplished more today, but every little bit I do is getting me closer to the finish line. Gotta keep up the momentum here.

I do have a good picture in my head of the woodwork I have to do to the wing ribs to fit the rest of the aluminum flaperon plates,

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Really nice work. I love the "L" and "R" on the flapperon parts! Excellent!

Todd

[Bruce_L]

My extra Hysol that I ordered came in so I can now mix up a batch and finish putting the trailing edge on the the right flaperon.

The service from this vendor is excellent and they also have the best price. It's half the price they charge at "Amazing" as in Amazingly expensive.

Before I mix any epoxy, I use a pencil and trace a line where the edge of the metal flap lands on the foam. This gives me a target location of where I need to put my glob of the grey epoxy mixture. I use pencil so I don't worry about some sharpie ink bleeding through my fabric finish as I apply the finish and you see marker lines bleeding through all over a pretty covering job. Kind of a precaution I suppose, it might not even be an issue.

I mixed up this much (9 squirts) today, and still added about 1/2 a KISS (hersheys) more to finish up. Recall that my initial mix for the left flaperon was six kisses and not even close to being enough for all the glue joints for foam to metal. One full squeeze of the glue dispenser gun yields one nice kiss of glue.

Here it is all mixed up. I saved up a bunch of take-out food lids just for mixing my epoxy on this project.

I put extra on the corners, as well as any foam ribs with the thin plywood doubler there.

Each foam rib gets some, making sure I don't put any on the wrong side of my pencil mark I drew earlier.

Add a ton of clamps and it's complete.

(If you zoom in on the corners you will notice there is some clear polyethylene plastic there to help trap epoxy in the corners and keep the epoxy off the clamps. Epoxy does not bond to polyethylene at all. The clear bag my Hysol was packaged with is an example of such a plastic.)

I am done with flaperon fabrication. Honestly, there really is not much to do for the flaperons. Badland does all the tricky work for you with their fancy alignment jigs. All the work for me was prepping the aluminum trailing edge to fit the foam ribs. I can use this newly acquired skill to do the trailing edges of the wings next. Should be a lot less work since there are fewer ribs to glue onto.

So before I started working on my plane today, I made a one hour flight in this plane. It is an Aeropilot L600.

Its a 2 seat LSA, Rotax 100HP injected motor. I flew for a while and then did a simulated engine failure, steep turns both left and right and even flew over my neighborhood. We cruised at about 100mph ground speed. My instructor demonstrated a side slip to scrub some altitude quickly without adding speed to the aircraft. That was neat to experience. He had the rudder pedal all the way to the right the whole time with the yoke cocked sideways. It was pretty turbulent for most of the flight as we just had a front come through and we got some bad weather/storms as a result. I noticed how sensitive the controls were. Very little movement yielded big changes in attitude/roll. This was a very nice plane, but it does not check off any boxes from my wish list "Dream Airplane" It is mostly marketed as a flight school trainer aircraft. I can clearly see why.

Fancy glass cockpit. Dynon 7 inch display had a ton of information on the screens. At first, I was visually overwhelmed to be honest!

I flew left seat. Right hand for throttle, left hand on the control yoke. I was not ready for this, I thought I would be using my right hand mostly. I know when I fly my Badland, my right hand is going to be on the stick with my left used for throttle, flaps, and switches. I did use the rudder pedals a few times to stay coordinated in the turns. The turn slip indicator was a small circle on the Dynon screen.

Even though this plane is nothing like mine, I still learned a lot today. I wanted to at least get the sight picture of the local airport pattern and see the approach procedure at the same airport where I am building my plane at. And besides, you could not have picked a more beautiful day to make a flight!

[Bruce_L]

Today my goal was to start figuring out the way I am going to trim a small amount of wood from a total of 6 ribs altogether. The ribs need trimming to allow the aluminum flaperon mounting brackets the ability to sit flush with the top surface of the rear most portion of the cap strip that sits on top of the plywood wing rib. The capstrip is a flat piece of thin wood that provides a wide area for the covering fabric to have something to rest upon/adhere to. These capstrips are not plywood, but a narrow strip of some lightweight wood instead.

I thought about how am I going to remove the necessary material. I ended up digging through my assorted tools and found a new pack of small round sawblades I had laying around. I recall buying these in order to try to make a tiny electric table saw for cutting large balsa wood planks into thinner strips for my model airplane builds. My focus has shifted to larger planes I get to ride in so I never built the saw. So I had these. I took one of the larger blades and put it in my drill and did a test cut on a pine 2x4 scrap. Below is a picture of the blade.

I then made some guidelines on the area to be removed from the capstrip and cut into it with the saw. The saw did a good job of quickly cutting the capstrip material. I made my marks a bit wide so the saw would not end up cutting into the plywood rib under the capstrip.

Below is a picture where I stopped cutting to check I was not accidentally sawing into the plywood rib. I slid a thin piece of metal in the saw kerf and I had no issues cutting to close to the plywood, so I kept on cutting. I wanted to use the saw to get a good start removing most of the wood, but not all of it.

Since I used to spinning saw to do most of the cutting, I would finish up more precisely using a utility knife with a new sharp blade. This worked great but every now and then I had the grain of the capstrip wood want to steer the blade in too deep. So, all I did was to reverse my cutting direction to avoid chasing the grain with the blade and taking too deep a cut by mistake. I took small slices until I had the capstrip trimmed flush with the plywood rib. You will see in a minute why I had to do this.

Below is a picture of a capstrip where I completed removing the wood from the left side of the capstrip. Still have to finish the other side.

In this picture you can see how the aluminum flaperon bracket needs to sit flush with the top surface of the capstrip material.

This bracket will have another that is a mirror image of it on the other side of the plywood wing rib.


Here is the same bracket from another viewpoint. You can see the 90 degree notch I cut at the top. I did this with a hacksaw blade.

The black line at the tail end of the rib is where the edge of the aluminum trailing edge extrusion will come to when it is installed.


Here is another view, you can really see how flush the aluminum bracket is with the wood capstrip. The small holes in the bracket are where rivets will be placed to create a sandwich of BRACKET-PLYWOOD-BRACKET at this location. This will be very strong to handle any aerodynamic loads from the flaperon in flight.

Here is a picture of one capstrip that is trimmed and ready. Both brackets fit flush.

One rib down, five to go. Six pairs of aluminum brackets will go on the rear of the wings. Three pair per side.

There is another smaller bracket that will connect to the "Bracket Sandwich" that is here. These brackets get installed after the covering fabric is installed and painted. It will be a while before I post any pictures of a covered wing. I am trying to go fast on this project but as usual other time thiefs pop in and steal me away from my progress. Gotta try and keep up the momentum here. I want to fly this thing.

Oh and just to help out those that don't have the fancy round blade, I did a test cut with the hacksaw on the other side of the capstrip and it can be done, just takes more time. Still finish up the final trimming with the utility knife.

Some of you may have one of those powered oscillating cutters like carpenters use to flush cut wooden trim moldings with, I bet that's probably an even better tool for this job.

Hope everyone is doing well.

[Bruce_L]

I had a bit of free time today so I worked on the left wing some.

The left flaperon is finished and ready to test fit on the wing. I used a few clamps and the aluminum brackets to rig up the flaperon mostly to see what it looks like hanging off the back of the wing. I also wanted to make sure the flaperon droppers (the white painted brackets) lined up with the center of the 3 ribs that the brackets get bolted on to.

Everything lined up great, no problems. The flaperon pivoted with no excessive friction for full travel both up and down.

I removed the temporary flaperon and got to work test fitting the aluminum trailing edge extrusion. I made alignment marks with a sharpie pen just like I did for fitting the same trailing edge material to the flaperons as I did earlier.

I trimmed the trailing edge extrusion using the same method I used for the flaperons and did a test fit. I found a small problem with
my process. It seems that the locations to cut slits in the aluminum were traced by me using the wooden capstrip as my width guideline for the hacksaw cuts. (Then use my homemade flattening tool to bend the flaps to match the profile of the wing rib) The problem arises when I did a test fit with the two flaperon dropper brackets that slot into the rear of the rib where I removed some of the wood to allow the pieces to be flush with the capstrip. The width of the two brackets (that attach to the center plywood rib) is much wider than the width of the capstrip and my slots are in the wrong place. The metal trailing edge does not allow the brackets room to enter the extrusion so the fit at the top is also off. OH NOooooooo !!!!
Below, you can zoom in and look at the red arrows next to the rib and you can see the problem.

Luckily they make a tool called pliers and I just bent the metal on the other side of the small slits I cut earlier. Problem solved,

I will make sure I cut the slits for the right wing trailing edge to accommodate the width of the metal brackets correctly. Easy fix.

Below, you can see how I bent both sides and now the brackets fit as needed. They are now flush with the wood, no problems.

Here is another view of the same location. Notice that bending the metal with the pliers did not cause any height issues with the metal being higher than the top of the wooden capstrip.

After getting the trailing edge in place, you can see how the wooden capstrips ( both upper and lower) meet up with the taper of the aluminum extrusion that makes up the trialing edge. I will need to pay attention to this when I get ready to apply my Hysol adhesive to join the trailing edge to the ribs, otherwise I could end up putting glue where the metal and wood don't connect at all.
This is at the outside corner at the wingtip.

Here is the extrusion at the root end of the wing. You can really see how the trailing edge extrusion completes the airfoil shape of the wooden rib.

The camera angle here is not dead on so the bottom edge may not look proper, but it is actually Ok here.


All that is left is to mix up some Hysol epoxy, and glue the extrusion in place. The build manual calls for a few rivets as well to retain the extrusion.
(I went ahead and roughed up the inner surface of the extrusion to give the epoxy a good surface to bond to)

Now that I figured out the left wing trailing edge, the right wing should be easier, no mistakes.

For most of this airplane build, I have noticed that a lot of the time is spent figuring out my approach to getting a task done. Doing things like test fittings, assorted measurements, temporarily clamping things, plenty of "What-ifs" and visualization too, and lots of blue painters tape on standby just incase.

[LA F2 Flyer]

Bruce, your attention to detail (both in your build AND in your documentation) is astounding.

Future builders are going to be very lucky to have both your log and Kurt's. I imagine they would be able to build without the manual if need be!

[Bruce_L]

Today I prepped the trailing edge extrusion for the right wing. This time I made sure I made my cuts for the ribs to also include the
width of the 2 aluminum flaperon brackets for the upper capstrip clearance cuts. I made my marks with the brackets temporarily in place.

Below you can see the wider cuts I made.

The build manual states you can also bend the metal to make it fit but I wanted to cut mine for making a tighter/neater fit and better glue contact too.


Keep in mind the bottom capstrip has no metal in the way so it is still about 1 inch wide for that cutout area.
The capstrips where there are no aluminum brackets are wood only so the cutout is narrower on those.
Here is the size I measured for a typical capstrip.

Since I trimmed the wooden capstrips on both wings, I went ahead and put on some polyurethane to protect the exposed wood. When I went to scuff up the wood on the left wing to bond the extrusion with the Hysol, I noticed the polyurethane was not completely dry so I will wait a few days just to make sure. I want a really good bond at that location.


Since I still had some work time available, I wanted to join the left wings trailing edge extrusions to make one continuous piece the entire width of the wing. The extrusions are made in 10 foot sections so In order to do a 12 foot wing you have to add a short piece to the 10 foot section. To join the 2 pieces, the build manual shows how the cut/trim one piece to make it slide into the longer piece, then rivet it in place. I decided to do it differently. Again, my reason is to make it look smooth and a good connection too.

Here is how I joined the 2 extrusions for the left trailing edge.

First, I dug through my scrap pile and found some aluminum sheet about .030 in thickness. I then used the tin snips and cut out a rectangle. I drew a centerline on it and bent it over in the vise until it was 90 degrees. I used a soft plastic mallet to do this. I then took it out of the vise and bent it over into a Vee shape that was close to the shape of the trailing edge material.

I was worried the aluminum would crack with such a severe fold in it but it was fine.

I slid it into the extrusion to check for fit and adjusted it until it was a snug fit.

Because I knew there also going to be an aluminum flaperon bracket close to the splice, I made sure the Vee piece I bent would not contact the bracket. Otherwise this would make the trailing edge have a high spot in that area. I am glad a caught this possible conflict before i drilled my #30 hole and riveted in my custom piece. The red arrow in the picture below points to the location where the 2 pieces almost touch but don't.

Because of the issue with providing some clearance, My Vee piece was offset to one side (there was more of the folded metal sticking out on one side when I went to rivet it in place, so I could have actually made my splicer Vee piece a little narrower to start with)


Once I was sure there were no conflicts, I drilled the #30 hole through both pieces at the same time.

Next, I pulled a rivet on the splice then drilled the left side hole and put a rivet in there next. The final splice is very neat and flush. I like the look.

Didn't get too much done today, but I am slowly creeping forward on the project. Gotta keep up the momentum. It's about to get pretty hot in the hangar soon. We already have temps in the 80's already.

Hope everyone is doing well and getting ready to start building their kit soon!

[Bruce_L]

So I do an annual bike trip with a few buddies in early spring.

One of the riders is just now recovering from a major bout with cancer. Man I am I ever so blessed to be alive and well, thank you God!!

We try to ride when its not too cold in the day and hopefully not freeze to death at night.

I have to haul everything I need for the trip including drinking water. Not all campsites have potable water fit for consumption.

My bike is seriously loaded down. I love this bike, it eats up the miles with ease.

I built a metal luggage rack and my sleeping back acts as the most comfortable backrest ever.

Been eating freeze dried meals for a while. I lost about 5 pounds on this trip. Should improve my take-off distance too!

Maybe the owner of this airplane company will toss me some ad revenue for the promotional wear I am sporting. --- hint hint Chri$$$$

Currently, I am waiting on a few parts and supplies and am spending the time designing my motor mount for the Hirth F23 motor.

I have a pretty good drawing so far as well as a list of materials needed.

The forward section of the fuselage has 4 holes for attaching a motor mount that are 1/4 inch in size and a standard AN4 bolt fits there nicely.

I just saw a post on Facebook Badland forum where Clinton Folden posted that he has an earlier Kitfox Lite airframe with a red tubular engine mount he says he got from Badlands (spelled as he put it with the S) He says he has some issues figuring it out. I looked at his engine and it does not look exactly like mine, I think it is Fuel Injected perhaps. Curious to see how that mount connects to his cases.

I also noticed he has a different type of landing gear setup. Looks like a solid aluminum gear leg.

Well, I need to get back on the build ASAP, and refresh the momentum I had going for me.

I hope everyone is doing well and getting some warmer weather so they can start building their own kit soon.

[13brv3]

Good to hear you were just out enjoying life!

I know the Badland and Kitfox Lite mounts should be the same. Chris sent me the measurements earlier to make my mount. I've used the F23 in the past as well, so I'll be interested to see how you're mounting it. The mount I made for it on an Airbike was a completely different animal.

Rusty

[LA F2 Flyer]

Welcome back Bruce! Sounds like an awesome ride, and that is definitely a comfortable bike to do it on. My motorcycle road trips happen on a Yamaha YZF600R, and it is always a killer on my back. I am actually considering selling the YZF and replacing it with an adventure bike.

Looking forward to more build progress from you!

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Funny how many of us have the same hobbies. Up until about five years ago, I was a motorcycle rider from age 13. My last bike was a Honda Valkyrie, touring edition. It was chromed out. I loved the bike, and riding, but there were too many instances where people in Dallas tried to run me over. I eventually gave up. I was spending more time watching and defending my riding than I was enjoying the ride.

Anyway, glad your back, and I hope you will be sticking around for a while. Chris and I talked the other day. My kit was estimated to be ready in 3 to 5 weeks. Then he texted me back and asked if I'd have any issues with 1 to 2 weeks instead! Of course, I said "yes" ---- NOT! If he's got it ready, I'll be on my way the following week to pick it up. Then, the BUILD begins!

Todd

[LA F2 Flyer]

Todd, I am currently in the same situation - It's a toss-up between my passion for riding, and the dangers it entails these days, when most people aren't paying attention and staring at their phones. I half joke at times, saying I'd rather be riding around a bunch of drunk drivers than around people on their phones...at least the drunks are TRYING to look at the road...

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Todd, I am currently in the same situation - It's a toss-up between my passion for riding, and the dangers it entails these days, when most people aren't paying attention and staring at their phones. I half joke at times, saying I'd rather be riding around a bunch of drunk drivers than around people on their phones...at least the drunks are TRYING to look at the road...

It was worse in Dallas. The people about to run into me, were typically looking right at me! Yep, I'm not joking. They would start pulling into my lane, looking right at me as they did so, expecting me to back off so they could make their right turn ahead. At least in the sky we've got a pretty good chance of not being hit by another pilot. Of course that goes slightly higher when we're near an airport, but even that seems to be a lot safer than being on asphalt. It just drove me nuts how people have no respect for bikes. Ride safe buddy and keep an eye on the idiots!

Todd

[Bruce_L]

So back to work again! Still waiting on a few parts and supplies so I went ahead and ordered a few supplies form A$$ (I'll let you figure that one out!) and went to the hangar today.

I did a small order of fabric to see if there is a quality difference from the Ceconite and Supeflite Brands they sell. Both were 1.8 ounce fabric weights.

I ordered 2 yards of each. (FYI a yard of aircraft fabric is a piece of material that is 36 inches long (1 yard) and 6 feet wide)
The fabric is sold off of a 6 foot wide roll in the warehouse. So 2 yards ends up being a 6 foot by 6 foot piece, unless the worker at the warehouse is really nice and adds another 4 feet to your order no charge!!! I guess maybe it was the last remnant end of a big roll and they knew they couldn't sell such a small piece????

Thanks warehouse person !!!

I measured the vertical stabilizer on the fuselage and cut out a piece from the Ceconite roll I got.

I added about 4 inches extra around the perimeter to give me room to play with as needed.

Notice that I have a 4x8 foot flat table for a work space. It's about a must have for this type of work. Just a quick 2x4 frame with a sheet of cheap bathroom 1/4 inch smooth white wall board. I even put wheels on the legs so I can roll it around.

I clipped the fabric to the fin with some plastic clothespins to see how it looks.

Next, I applied the Stewart Systems EkoBond Glue the metal tubing. At first I used a 1 inch toss-away wood chip brush but
found it loaded up too much glue and left heavy brush marks. I then switched to Plan B and used a 1 inch foam brush instead.
This worked much better, and laid down a smooth even coat of glue. I will still use the bristle brush a few steps later however.

Notice I taped off the areas where I do not want any glue om my powder coated airframe that you will see when I am finished building.

(I will discuss at the end of this posting why I went with the Stewart Systems products for my airplane build)


I let the glue "Tack-Up" for about 5 minutes and lined up my fabric and pressed it into the tacky glue. The glue holds it in place but you can remove it easily and reposition it again if you make a mistake with your alignment of the piece of fabric. This is a great feature of this product.

You can see here where the glue is pressed into the fabric, but not yet into the weave/fibers of the fabric.

I made a few relief cuts in the critical area of the fabric where there is a sharp bend or corner transition.

This is the upper rudder hinge tube that the fabric needs to be trimmed to fit in the narrow space there.

By making the relief cuts, I got the fabric to make the transition at the curve with no issues. Keep in mind that this picture is showing the fabric
glued down only, as I have not yet applied any heat from the iron to shrink it taut as needed.

The last step is to brush the EkoBond over the fabric again and wipe off any excess immediately. I did not try to do the whole fin in one pass, as the glue dries too quick in a hangar that is already into the mid 80's temperature already. (Here comes another hot summer in south Mississippi!)

I did about an 8 inch strip at a time, glue, wipe, glue wipe, etc... I did this task with the bristle brush because the objective here is to apply
enough glue to penetrate the weave of the fabric and bond it to the previous layer of glue I applied to the metal earlier.

Since it takes about 4 hours for the last coat of glue to dry, I decided to spend the rest of the day figuring out the best way to utilize the leftover Ceconite fabric to do the rudder. The rudder is a lot bigger area than the fin since the rudder extends under the elevator to the bottom of the fuselage. So it turns out, I had enough fabric left to do both sides of the rudder as well as enough to do both sides of one flaperon. What a bonus!!

The best part is that I still have another rolled up piece of fabric which is the 1.8 ounce Superflite material. This is more than enough covering to do the pilots cockpit area sidewalls, from the firewall up to the vertical tubing just under the trailing edge of the wing. Still undecided on the choice to cover complete fuselage or go with the 3/4 look.

My next work day should have me completing the other side of the vertical stab and iron the fabric taut, then I can do one side of the rudder. This should be a lot easier since I can work on it while it lays down flat on my big table. I had to use a step stool today to apply glue/fabric at the top of the vertical stab.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SO WHY DID I GO WITH THE STEWART SYSTEM FOR MY COVERING JOB?

The answer is this: When I went to Oshkosh for Airventure 2024, I made it a point to attend as many sessions and seminars as possible. I even managed to get some hands on at one session where I got to do some basic gas welding. One session I made sure to attend was the Oratex session.
There was a pretty good crowd there. By the halfway point in the session, I had decided Oratex was not for me. There was a lot of talk about how things can go wrong and all kinds of issues with non-compatible surfaces/materials reacting poorly to the Oratex Special glue. There were no demonstrations, just a sales pitch more than anything. I did some research on youtube and I found plenty of great tutorials on how to apply fabric with various brands of covering products. So why Stewarts, one answer --- Its water soluble, no mess, no smell, no hazmat crew locking down the airport if my glue cup tips over! The quart of EkoBond was around 80 bucks and I probably used about 12 to 14 capfuls (max) today to do what I did. Some was still in the cup when I was done. The EkoBond is super easy to work with, I wiped off excess or drips with a bare finger, no gloves. The ability to reposition your fabric as needed is great too. I sent an email to Tech Support at Stewart Systems regarding some technical questions before I bought any product and I got a positive answer in less than 12 hours. They also have some great videos on how to use their products.

NOTE: If you happen to get a Badland kit and get your fuselage powder coated in a light Turquoise color, then you certainly don't want to use EkoBond. Talk about a complete mess. Ha Ha !!!

[Bruce_L]

BTW --- Here are the current Fabric Prices

Ceconite 1.8 0z $12.65/yard

Superflite 104 (Uncertified 1.8 oz) $7.95/yard

[LA F2 Flyer]

As always, a great write-up and detailed pictures. Thanks Bruce!

What are the paint options with the legacy covering systems? I went with Oratex for my build just for this reason - I didn't want to have to paint, and didn't really know much about how to go about it, what paint to use, etc.

[Bruce_L]

I will have a surprise reveal when my paint job is finished.

As for now, its going to remain a well guarded secret.

[Bruce_L]

Today I finished the left side covering on the vertical stabilizer.

The EkoBond glue cured well from yesterday and it was not tacky at all.

I cut out my piece of fabric leaving plenty of room to have enough material to wrap completely around the metal tubing
and continue around for a one inch overlap on the other side of the fin. This overlap is very important because it ties the fabric
together with enough surface area to make a strong bond. The only drawback to this is there will be a seam one inch over from the
metal framework of the airplane. The seam is not hidden on an edge or termination spot. However, I noticed the seam was a lot less
visible after I applied the final glue "Top Coat" to the fabric. Then after 2 or 3 coats of primer and a few topcoats of color, the seam
should be about invisible, but still very strong.


To do the left side, I put on a light coat of glue with the foam brush around the entire perimeter.

I drew a light pencil line on the right side fabric to locate where to put glue for the one inch of fabric overlap coming from the left side.

I then applied the glue all the way to the pencil line.

I let the glue tack up after a few minutes and placed my fabric on the left side.

Here you can see the overlapping fabric. Notice the edges are "Pinked" with special pinking scissors I stole out of my wife's sewing room.

The pinked edges are there to prevent the fabric from unraveling when you try to brush anything onto it especially tacky glue. Look at any fabric
covered aircraft closely and you will see pinked edges everywhere.

I used my small hobby shop heat iron at 130 degrees C (Iron has no F scale available) to tack down the fabric around the perimeter. My pinked edges almost touch the outermost edge of the glue I put down around the perimeter of the framework. I was surprised the iron stayed clean and the glue did not melt as I applied heat. The fabric bonded real good and you could see it shrink some and eliminate some small wrinkles.

This curve was not a problem since it was concave, the fabric did not tend to bunch up or wrinkle here. I learned I could tug on the fabric as I applied the heat and the wrinkles went away.


After I got all the fabric ironed down, I put on the top coat of glue with a bristle brush and wiped off with the blue paper shop towels. Again, I did about 6 to 8 inches of gluing at a time. Glue, wipe, glue, wipe,... Again, the wiping removes excess and presses the glue into the weave of the fabric.

Since this area curves outward I had to make relief cuts. If you zoom in you can see where I had to make some cuts to get the fabric to make the sharp curve at the top of the fin. Otherwise it would be a pile of wrinkles there that won't iron out later no matter what you try to do.

After all the edges were glued down, I was done with both sides of the vertical stabilizer.
I had to post the picture sideways to get the website to post it here, no vertical pictures allowed here for some reason.

The glue needs to dry overnight and I then I can shrink it with my iron.
1st shrink is at 250F and second is at 300 degrees.


I shoot the metal surface of the iron with an infrared thermometer to get an accurate setting.
My iron is rather old and nowhere near digital in any way.

Here it is. Its almost 50 years old.

My mother bought it for me when I started college in 1977 and somehow I never threw it out.
I am a t-shirt guy, I don't iron any clothes. I guess she knew I would be covering an airplane with fabric sooner or later. Thanks Mom!

It has a Teflon coating and does a great job of gliding over the fabric. The OraHex (hmmm....) vendor wants you to buy some super-duper blinged out iron with 32 microprocessors running on Ai and if you don't your wings will disintegrate at 10,000 feet.

Later on, I will post my final tally of how much I spent on covering my plane for those of you on a tight budget.

I know many of you are saving up your hard earned cash to order a kit and surely can't afford 3000 to 5000 bucks for a basic covering job too.

Hope everyone is doing well. I suppose building season should be firing up for some of you in the colder climate zones.

[LA F2 Flyer]

Okay, now I'm intrigued...looking forward to that unveiling of your paint job when the time comes!

And now I know WHY pinking is a thing...it's not just there because it looks cool.

[Bruce_L]

So many hands-on skills needed to finish a kit. I am learning a lot. I really like that aspect of this hobby.

I did the smart thing and started the covering process the day after my materials arrived. Watched a lot of tutorials online while I waited for
the fabric. Didn't spend 3 months contemplating how to start out, just jumped into it right away.

Just before I started, I took 2 minutes and read the directions on the Stewarts EkoBond container one more time then I poured some out and got busy.

I wanted to get the vertical stabilizer done asap as its about to get hot in the hangar, and dragging the fuselage around is not gonna happen. I can work on everything else at home and bolt it on as I finish. I have a pretty big kitchen with enough room to set up sawhorses and work in an air conditioned area. The cooler temps will give me better working times on the glue I hope. Plus I will get more done since I don't have to make the daily drive to the hangar every day. So much of the kitplane building process is finding personal motivation and figuring out how to eliminate the opportunity of being able to start making excuses.

Since the wings are just huge rectangles, covering them will be super easy. The only difficulty will be how I cover the wingtips, since there is an airfoil shape there to deal with. I think i will cover bottom 1st, then cover the top so the overlap is under the wing, then cap off the ends to cover all the material from the top and bottom skins that are wrapped around the end to keep the fabric from retracting back to the next closest rib bay as I shrink it.

Shrink the fabric on the end caps before I shrink the fabric on the rectangular large areas over all the ribs.

The shrinking of the fabric over the large wing surface has a lot of force and can pull the fabric off its glue point if there is not enough area for it to grip and hang onto. Some airplanes with superlight wood construction actually get mildly crushed/deformed as the fabric shrinks down and tugs on the tiny 1/4 inch stick built wooden ribs, stringers, etc...

The next item to learn is Cable Fabrication and Swaging the ends of the control cables/flying wires. Never did that before.

Want to get the horizontal stabilizer flying wires done before I apply any covering. Don't want to punch a hole in a brand new covering job while fiddling around with swaging tool/fittings.

Got bad/stormy weather in the forecast all next week so working at home will be a great recovery from that situation. NO EXCUSES!!!!

[LA F2 Flyer]

For swaging the ends of the control cables, make sure you use the gauge to confirm that the swages are properly crimped. I've heard of cables pulling through the swage if it isn't pinched properly. I bought a swage tool kit from A$$ (haha) that works well. It requires a wrench to tighten it, versus the expensive plyer type tool, so takes a bit longer per crimp, but it got the job done.

[Bruce_L]

Today, I had a bit of time before the weather turned bad so I set out to cover half of the rudder.

Because the tubing for the rudders trailing edge is a small diameter (about 1/4 inch) the welds poked out a bit and I wanted to add
some anti-chafe protection on those 3 welds.

First, I made a strip of donor material by applying some diluted EkoBond glue to a scrap of fabric. I diluted it with a few drops of water,
not a whole lot really. I then laid the fabric on a sheet of plastic and brushed on the glue. When this dried, I had a piece of coated
material that I could cut some anti-chafe patches from.

I made a pattern and cut out the patch to make 3 patches for the three welded areas to cover.



I applied glue to the area, then let it dry.

I ironed on the patch over the weld.

Here is what the patch looks like after ironing it onto the metal.

Next, I applied the glue to the entire rudder perimeter.

I then placed my precut piece of fabric over the frame and measured where I needed to make a hole for the rudder contol arm.

I used a small 23 watt soldering iron with a 1/8 inch round tip to melt a hole for the round tubing that is the conrtol arm.

This works real good since the iron melts a hole and then seals the edges so you don't have any issues there with fuzzy edges/unraveled threads. You just move the iron in a circular pattern until the hole is the size you need there. GO SLOW, it melts the fabric quickly. I use a pencil and draw a dot where the center of the hole begins and then poke the iron into the fabric at that starting point.


Below, you can see how the tubing fits in the hole and there are no scissor cuts to give me problems later when I shrink the fabric taut.

I also had to melt a hole for the curved tubing that makes the rudder stop arm that is at the very bottom end of the rudder. This entire rudder assembly is really nice and is well made. I would have a hard time replicating it since there is more to it than just a perimeter frame.

Below you can see where I trimmed around the hinge tube, and the other tubes that the fabric has to pass over to attach to the tacky glue.

I use an Xacto knife to make any cuts around the hinge areas.


I then applied the final pass of glue again with the glue, wipe, glue wipe process to get the glue to penetrate the weave of the fabric. It will take about 4 hours to dry completely. So I cleaned up and called it a day (short day!)


Below is the rudder after the last glue process. The color will change when it is totally dry. I positioned my lamp to try to show the presence
of some saggy cloth/wrinkles in the fabric at this stage before I shrink it completely with the big old timey iron set to 250 F. I will post a picture after that so you can see how much of a difference the ironing of the fabric makes. You can literally watch the fabric shrink and tighten as you apply the heat.

When I do the other side, I will have a 1 inch overlap with pinked edges like I did earlier for the vertical stabilizer.

Hope everyone is doing well.

[mrpilotron]

Hi Bruce, I just got done browsing back through 3 months of your updates. I am curious about the hacksaw cuts you did on the flaperon trailing edges prior to smashing the crimp back to flat with that customized seaming tool. I see that the wing trailing edges just got smashed flat without those relief cuts, which is the way I've always seen this done. It seems to me that those hacksaw cuts would create a stress riser point that could lead to cracks in the future? Why are the cuts used in some places but not others?

[Bruce_L]

Cosmetic reasons only. That's still a great observation you made however. I am not too concerned with stress at this location. I think the V2 manual even lists cutting with tin snips as an option too.
The aluminum extrusion is pretty soft anyhow and not brittle.
The biggest stress there is the tug-o-war from the shrunk fabric. The stuff really tightens up when heated. No real source of extreme vibration there.
Your attention to technical details will have you building probably one of the safest kits out there and I hope I get to follow your build path here soon enough. I know I will learn something for sure. I am hoping this is not the last airplane kit that I get to I build. Always trying to learn.

FYI - My motor mount will have no cosmetic embellishments and I even did research on the best aluminum to use for the two plates that bolt directly
to the motor crankcase. Check out the properties for 2024 aluminum as opposed to typical 6061 that is quite commonly used. Pricey stuff, 2024 is.

[mrpilotron]

Sounds like you're on the right path. 2024-T3 is great stuff for stressed parts such as engine mounts, just don't try welding it. It machines beautifully so milled parts with threaded holes tend to work very well. I had good luck milling 6061-T6 on my CNC router to make parts for my Sonex too, but I don't think it's a good alloy for an engine mount. Spend the money on the 2024 and be extra careful cutting it out. For vibration isolation, the rubber donuts used on sway bars or shock absorbers can be adapted nicely.

I've been going 100 mph in 5 directions lately so my Badland wing hasn't seen much progress. My summer is probably going to be insanely busy too, but I've got hopes to be ready for a test fit of the new composite leading edge before Memorial Day. The math says it should add enough support that we can remove all the false ribs on top and probably end up about even or maybe trim a few pounds. My vacuum bagging station should allow building them in a production-level process. If the testing works out, I'll offer them as an upgrade to other builders.

[Bruce_L]

Since I now have the rudder covered, I decided NOT TO COVER the horizontal flight surfaces (elev-stab) so as to be able to rig the 1/16" stainless steel flying wires without dropping a tool and poking a big hole in my brand new fabric.

For those new to this airplane build stuff, flying wires are the aircraft equivalent of the Guy Wires that are in place to keep a tall radio antenna in place or perhaps the standing rigging wires that supports the tall mast of a sailboat. Some aircraft use stranded cables while others use rigid rods or metal small diameter tubing to make this happen. You will see a ton of these wires on some ultralights like the Quicksilver model.

My Badland kit came with 28 feet of stranded 1/16" stainless wire (aka - cable)

I mounted the horizontal stabilizer after making sure the fuselage was level in its side-to-side configuration, so rudder was true vertical. If you skip this step you can end up with a level stabilizer that is not level with the fuselage/wing geometric plane. I used a sawhorse with wood fixtures under the left
and right tips of the stabilizer. I had to support to tips because there is significant droop/sag when unsupported by the upper flying wires yet to be made.

Next, I started with fabricating the rear upper wire on the right side. My plan is to do the left and right rear upper wires first since they are closest to the trailing edge tubing on the horizontal stabilizer and this is the beefiest tubing on the structure.

First a needed to do a few things to prep the metal tangs for installation. The tangs are the interface between the cable and airframe/structure.

I had to drill the holes to fit the AN3 mounting bolt as well as make room for the cable thimble that the wire wraps around for a 180 degree U-Turn.

I made a simple set of "Soft-Jaws" to put in my EL-Cheapo vise so as not to mar/nick any items I will be working on while making up my flying wires.
They are just pieces of thin scrap aluminum that I bent to 90 degrees.

I need to bend the tangs since they come flat when I got my kit supplies. I made a test with a piece of wood to see what angle the wire will be at when in place.

I measured the angle with a protractor.

The angle was 35 degrees from horizontal.

I put the tang in a vise and bent it with an adjustable wrench. Notice that the soft jaws are utilized here.

I did a test fit on the stabilizer.

The tang that will attach to the rudder location will need to be set to 55 degrees. (MATH = 90 minus 35 = 55)


Below, you can see they are bent differently.

I then assembled my first wire with a tang thimble and nicopress fitting. Sometimes the nicopress is referred to as a ferrule. This is the soft metal
fitting that you will crush with the crimping tool that traps the stranded wire in the thimble that is in your tang.

Below is a page from the EAA magazine from 1972.

Notice that there is a specific sequence listed for the 3 crimps you will complete. Middle crimp is 1st.


I found this issue in the Freebie pile on the front porch of the EAA antique bookstore while at 2024 Airventure OSH.

I wish the EAA magazine they publish today was more oriented to us experimental/ultralight builders. More how-to articles and tips-and-tricks needed in my opinion.


So I made my first fitting and it was not good. I already made two mistakes in my procedure.

1st mistake - I forgot to set the crimp force depth to the 1/16 wire setting on the 1st crimp.
2nd mistake - I did not allow enough "SLACK" in the wire to accommodate the loss of length as the crimp number2 is finished.

Notice that the thimble is jammed up against the nicopress ferrule and the final assembly is now tilted up and crooked.

So I cut that one off with the dremel tool and started over. I use an abrasive cut-off wheel to do this as well as cut the stranded wire when cutting a cable to desired length. I put a block of wood behind the cable so I can apply enough force to cut through the strands.

I figured out the problem after some close examination. The soft metal ferrule is deforming as well as the wire tightening around the thimble.

I tried again an ruined another fitting.

I am having trouble getting the nicopress ferrule to stay in place as I go to crimp it with the big bulky jaws of the crimping (swage) tool.

The article from the magazine does not address this problem.

There are 8 wires to rig for the tail. Time to call it a day and figure out a solution or I am going to waste a lot of materials/time on this task.
This is all the process of building a kit plane with no experience or local help. Time to figure it out.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Nice job on using the soft jaws for the vice. Are the tangs galvanized, stainless steel, or aluminum?

I like the way you checked for the proper angle, too. I have one of those protractors. Been using it on trying to straighten up my pole barn. It leans to the east on my farm. I also saw the ferrule, purchased a few about an hour ago, same project, cables to pull the poles. I like the ferrules, they clamp really well. A little clumsy to work with, especially with the thimble and clamp tool thrown in, but when done right, they hold exceptionally well. I've had two of the screw U bolt clamps fail on me here with the pole barn, but not one ferrule has failed. Of course, the come-a-longs are pulling a lot of weight compared to that of a control stick in our planes! Still, confidence in the ferrules and thimbles must be absolute.

My ferrules don't have crimp indicators on them, but Chris's most likely will since that's what you've got. Good note to know they don't get smashed in any order, but follow a proper sequence - back to that confidence and absolute trust in thing.

Agreed on the better coverage for experimental and UL builders in the EAA Sport Pilot Magazine. I have noticed that more articles for UL's are being published in the back of the magazine. Many are getting rather vocal about the EAA providing better coverage for UL's. In time, as more commercial pilots realize the fun that UL's are, maybe the EAA will expand coverage on how to do x,y, and z on your UL kit. Fingers crossed.

So there is no turn-buckle to adjust, you have to get the cable right with very accurate measuring?

Just as I mentioned above, once all the pieces are in there and the crimping tool is added, it gets clumsy to handle. Good call on taking a break. Amazing what happens when a little fresh air is let into the brain, and the problem is allowed to rest a bit. The answer will come.

Anything on YT for instruction on how others accomplish this? Also, Kurt used metal tubing instead of the cables. I'm wondering if that would be a good alternative?

Great information!

Todd

[LA F2 Flyer]

So there is no turn-buckle to adjust, you have to get the cable right with very accurate measuring?

Correct, there is no turnbuckle. You use stacked washers under the tangs to tighten or loosen the flying wires as needed.

It's a bit of a dark art to crimp the ferrules when working by yourself, I've found. I had a few that ended up getting tossed as well, but for the opposite reason. I had so much slack that the thimble would slip out.

[Badland1]

Here is a cool trick I use with a cleco pliers you should like. Makes life easy.

Cleco

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

And there it is, the man himself - solving all our problems!

Certainly looks a lot better than what I've done recently!

Thanks Chris!

[Bruce_L]

To solve my flying wire problem, I needed some type of helper to hold both wires for me while I held the swaging tool.I tried putting some tape on some small vice-grips to clamp the wires but they were too heavy and the wire would try to sag. Too awkward and could possibly crush the wire too.

So then I thought what do I have that is light, and its aluminum. No need for super strength here. Dig around the scrap pile for some material.
So I made me a simple clamper jig. Doesn't weigh anything at all. Super easy to install, I can remove it with only one screw too,

Works great. I even glued some old bicycle inner tube squares on the inside so there is no metal to metal contact on the fine strands of wire.
The rubber really adds a lot of grip too. The flat side of the jig also helps position the nicopress fitting exactly where needed.
I crimp the bottom tang 1st, then run my wire for the top tang on vertical stab, clamp it snug with a stubby phillips driver then remove it to crimp in a more comfortable work position. Below, the ferrule is in place and I already have pretty good tension on the wire. Then its crimped and I can add or subtract washers as needed to adjust final tension.

Another problem off my plate. I am still learning here. Gotta get this plane flying man!

[Bruce_L]

I prefer the nicopress sleeves with washers as shims to do this rigging. A turnbuckle is of course super easy, but has several disadvantages I feel.

1. Weight -- At least 6 to 8 metal turnbuckles placed way aft on the airframe.
2. Drag ( rather negligible really)
3. Cost ---$$$$$
4. Another part to fail/corrode, need to safety wire, etc...

I plan to leave my final swaged fittings exposed without heat shrink covering so I can inspect super easy in a preflight. I might put a piece of black heat shrink on the cut-off wire tails for a no snag solution however.

[Bruce_L]

If the weather cooperates, I hope to get some more wires done tomorrow.

We have been getting some pretty bad thunderstorms here lately.

Should go quick with the new jig in use.

[13brv3]

Your clamp should work great. If anyone wants to do this with off the shelf items, look for "split-nut" connectors. That's what I've always used, though the trick is probably finding them small enough. You're local hardware store will have larger sizes for coupling ground wires and such.

[LA F2 Flyer]

Haha, I learned about the Cleco plyer trick after I was done with mine. And then promptly forgot about it...until you reminded me now!

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

I prefer the nicopress sleeves with washers as shims to do this rigging. A turnbuckle is of course super easy, but has several disadvantages I feel.

1. Weight -- At least 6 to 8 metal turnbuckles placed way aft on the airframe.
2. Drag ( rather negligible really)
3. Cost ---$$$$$
4. Another part to fail/corrode, need to safety wire, etc...

I plan to leave my final swaged fittings exposed without heat shrink covering so I can inspect super easy in a preflight. I might put a piece of black heat shrink on the cut-off wire tails for a no snag solution however.

This worked out well. The break you took worked like a champ. Nice work Bruce! I like it! And where ounces count, this would be one fo those!

[Bruce_L]

So today I had a little bit of time to work, before the bad weather ran me off. I wanted to at least finish most of the flying wires on the tail.

It didn't take long and I finished the 4 wires that connect the horizontal stabilizer to the vertical stab.

The clamper jig really sped things up and I had no slack in the wires and all is still level. When I install the lower wires to the lower part of
the fuselage, I should be able to pull tension on all the wires without any problems. I can add or remove washers to set the tension. Adding or removing only 2 thin washers makes a significant change in final tension on the wire. This tension tuning trick works because the wire is strung on a diagonal.

I still need to trim the excess tails off with the dremel tool.

My only problem now is that since I had a few mistakes getting this wire task done right, I wasted some materials with my mistakes and have to order some more to finish all the bottom wires. Not a big deal as there are other items on my wish list anyhow that I need to get.

Does anyone want me to make a "HOW-TO TUTORIAL" on the complete wire rigging process? I can post it as a new separate topic so it won't get buried on page 999 somewhere else in my build write-ups, like the write-up I did earlier for mounting the tires onto the wheels.

Hope all you guys are doing well out there.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Does anyone want me to make a "HOW-TO TUTORIAL" on the complete wire rigging process? I can post it as a new separate topic so it won't get buried on page 999 somewhere else in my build write-ups, like the write-up I did earlier for mounting the tires onto the wheels.

Hope all you guys are doing well out there.

Yes sir, please do, if you have the time. I find myself reviewing a lot you've done here, and I'm sure more in a month or two. Finding some posts is difficult, so having the HOW-TO is fantastic. I love the detail you put in along with the pictures. Like in this part of your build, I wasn't sure how the washers fit in or could make much of a difference. I can see now how a little space taken up by, or removed with a washer or two can put a lot more or less pull on the tab and cable. The bend in the tab is also important, and doing that little part properly looks like it can make a bid difference in the adjustment department.

As always, awesome tutorial.

Thanks,
Todd

[Bruce_L]

Today I had enough time and materials to complete the Y-shaped flying wires that are located underneath the horizontal stabilizer on the right side.

The first thing I did was secure the left side of the horizontal stabilizer with a ratchet tie down while level. This is a must-do item as the tension on the flying wires on the vertical fin depend on the tension on both sides of the fin. Everything has to be in equilibrium here.

I then measured out enough of the wire to be able to make 3 connections to the airframe. 1. Rear spar on stab 2. Lower fuselage near tailwheel bracket. 3. Front mount on horizontal stab. Note: I left me about 6 inches of excess at each end to give me something to tug on as I pulled tension then clamped my homemade cable clamp jig that I made earlier.

The first crimp is in the middle of the wire for the connection to the lower fuselage mounting point. My logic is that since this one is in the middle of the group, I need to do it first since the other two fittings are dependent on this position to maintain proper tension. This wire is more complicated than the wires that are on top.

Because the tension on the middle fitting will have force coming from two different angles, there needs to be some method to make sure the tang stays centered as you make one connection at a time. I can't pull tension on two wires simultaneously so I made me a pull jig. My jig is small utility turnbuckle that is easy to set up and adjust. I used a piece of safety wire to tie one end to the fuselage tubing.

If you don't do this step you will have one wire under tension that is straight out from the tang and the other wire will be at a much sharper angle. My goal was to split the total into two identical smaller angles to get even stress on the fitting/thimble location.

I put this in place after I completed the rear wire (second connection I did) while figuring out the wire length for the front fitting.

I then finished the last connection which is on the front mounting point on the stabilizer. I kept checking with the level at each step.

The first picture I posted here is the completed lower wire assembly. I took it after I was finished.

When I finish the lower wires on the left side, I can play the tuning game by adding and subtracting washers for final tension.

Right now, when I pluck any flying wire, it vibrates, just not at a high frequency. That would be way too tight for sure.

Now I am just waiting on the stainless stranded wire and 1/16 ferrules on order. I also found a cool deal on a neat goody for my flight instruments at the same vendor where I got the wire at. Much better prices than at A$$. I will do a complete write-up much later about my panel layout.

So while I wait on supplies, I need to find some small odd jobs to keep my momentum going. There is a lot left to do on this build.

I hope everyone is doing well out there.