Twisted: Week 98 - Elevator Hexes, Headset jack & Firewall

Hours to date: 1004.75

In a moment of sheer stupidity I bonded in 8 bolts for the battery cover. Then when they were set realised that the cover would never come off as the angles of the bolts were different (due to the curves of the cell).

Not a huge problem though - I just removed the 4 bolts from the top and bottom edges and the cover came off. 4 bolts is more than enough anyway (8 bolts was overkill).

Onto the headset jack socket. A nifty little unit that when mounted makes the jack plugs flush with the edge of the cell and so protected from bumps. After much deliberation I decided where it should go. Just next to my right elbow. I wouldn't want to have it on the lefthand side of the cell as that is the throttle side and your elbow would be constantly hitting it.

Regarding the Starboard Horz Stab to Fuselage gap - after speaking with Pete it was a relatively straightforward fix - micro. Then sand to shape.

I used a piece of clear plastic taped on the root to make it flush with the edge.

Seemed to come out okay. I will use micro to fix the Port side too.

Onto the elevator hexes.

I followed Pete's advice and put plasticine on the rivet end of the ali hexes.

Once again packaging tape was used everywhere as a release. Including on the inside of the horz stab rear rib.

Following the manual on this one (Pete does it differently) I used 5 min resin to set the Port elevator at it's upward limit of 80mm. (this is done with the counterweight lowered to rest on the rib inside the fin).

After that was set I put the other tailplane on and set them both to neutral - with more 5 min resin (not flock as stated in the manual). Clamping them in place.

I do not have the ability to have both tailplanes on inside the garage so setting with flock was not an option for me (it takes 24 hours to cure).

The 5 min resin holds the hexes very securely and I will pour runny flock into the spaces around them as my next job.

After that all that needs doing is bonding in the carbon ribs (which don't fit very well!) into the elevators. Once that is done the only job left on the horz stabs is to bond in the front pin bearing.

While the tail was outside setting I took the opportunity to reinforce the firewall. In the absence of instructions to do so in the manual I used one layer of heavyweight (240g) carbon. (Pete uses glass I think).

Hopefully later on this week I can get the elevators finished off and then get onto the front pin bearings next weekend.