Week 251 - Gear leg fairings and Paperwork

Hours to date: 2585.5

I finally got around to fixing up the gear leg fairings.

As you will see below they were wafer thin at the leg to fairing junction, so I put 2 layers of glass on the outside to strengthen them up and allow a little more material to be taken off on the inside (to allow for the paint thickness on the gear leg later).

I also fixed up the gaps in the front edges by building up multiple layers of glass underneath and then sanding down the top surface until the same thickness was achieved overall. I hope I've got this right as I am sort of working blind as the rest of the aircraft is away - although I did measure the gaps before it left.

The proper way to fix these gaps would have been to do a lay up directly onto the fuselage base with the fairing on top. This would ensure a correct profile to the fuse base.

The other thing I've been doing and am still doing is paperwork!

Lots of it as you can see below. I applied for a 'Completion Pack' from the LAA and they sent a wad of paper and forms to fill in.

I should be visiting both Pete and Murray next week as Pete has said he will make up some aileron pushrod fairings for me next week (fingers crossed!). When those are done I will take them and the gear leg fairings up to Murray.

I spoke to Murray yesterday and he had put primer on all the control surfaces and the wings and is just about ready to do the same with the fuselage. After that gets flattened off and a gloss coat goes on he will see all the little imperfections and more work will be needed before the top coats. He did say he thought I'd made a "cracking job" of the kit so that was nice to hear.

I've got some more resin on order so when that arrives I will start back on the long range fuel tank.

Hopefully more to post about next week.

Wafer thin gear leg fairing - even has some holes in it it's so thin after making it fit the gear leg.

Adding layers of glass to the front corners to fix the gaps.

All done. 2 layers of glass added to the top areas, then filler to smooth everything out.

Multiple layers of glass sanded down from the top to end up with the same thickness as the rest of the part.

Paperwork trail from the LAA

Making my way through it slowly...