Chapter 11

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Chapters 11 and 12 finished!

Today I finished the canard. I’m saving the finishing work for a little later when the nose is completed, so I’ll do all the finishing on the fuselage and canard in one effort. I’ve heard from some other builders that this will produce a more unified, consistent finish in the end.

The only problems I have now are the finishing work around the joint between the elevators and canard. Currently the elevators are restricted from moving to full forward stick by the excess material around the tail of the canard. I’ll sort this out during the finishing step.

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Canard and elevator cores

 

 

For my canard, I bought the cores from Featherlite. This turned out to be a fabulous idea!

The cores were delivered with all the extra foam left over, and also with the elevators. When I ordered them, I didn’t know the elevators would be cut too, so that was a very pleasant surprise. The cores are cut pretty much perfectly, and substantially better than I would’ve done myself. Also, since I bought the wings from Dennis Oelmann, I may get away with avoiding a hot wire saw altogether.

One thing I notice about the cores is that the part of the elevator that wraps around the torque tube is really fragile before you glass it. There really isn’t much foam there, so I’ve been very delicate with it. I’d planned on storing this for a while, but I think I may go ahead and get the canard started, just because I’m not sure the cores will survive a few months in my shop.

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