This class, as with all of the other classes, provides invaluable information, and for the $350.00 price tag you need to soak up as much of it as possible. There are at least 2 or 3 more of these classes I intend to take in the future, including, welding, firewall forward, and maintaining your aircraft. These will come later on, but for now I will add this latest class to my existing list of attended classes, including basic sheet metal, RV construction techniques, and Electrical systems.
While there on Saturday Mike Rettig (attending the electrical class) and I stopped by the hangar where the builds for Bob Markert (RV8) and Sean Thomas wage on. Sean has now passed me up and is working on his fuel tanks. I got to see some Proseal action in progress, so that was good. I learned from him to use a technique where I will use a scale that can read in gram units to measure out the proseal by measuring the correct amounts for each of the two parts of this stuff, then mix together in a separate cup, then take a plastic bag and place the mixture inside it, and then cut abottom corner out the bag, and using it like a cake frosting decorator, squeeze the mixture onto an appropriate syringe, which I will then use to apply the proseal in precisely the areas that I need.
Bob Markert is still wrapping up some wing stuff and working on his fuselage. It is great to see both a completed RV8 (Jim gray), and Bobs fuselage under construction, all in the same hangar. I took some additional photos of Bob's planned parking brake mechanism, ELT mount, access door for back side of the avionics bay, and his static port assembly. One other item that I was not aware that he was going to add was a prefabricated removeable Smoke Tank, which I also intend to install on my aircraft. Jim Gray also has this same tank for his aircraft, so I will have lots of knowledgeable folks to ask questions about all this when the time comes.
First pic is of Bob's Fuel Pump assembly. taken from the front of the firewall looking down from the top. The issue with this little assembly is about the tight space with which to make bends in the fuel lines. Bob spoke about providing bends in the line to provide some flex capability, which apparently does not exist if the lines are left too straight. Not sure I understand all that yet, but in time I will I am sure. Wow, those sure are some tight 90 degree bends.
Next shot is of the parking brake assembly. That is all I know about it at this point, but I plan on putting one on my plane so I will be paying close attention to how Bob does his. This was taken from the front again looking rearward:
And now from the cockpit side:
Next is the smoke tank. There is another version with a smaller tank that I think that Sean said he was going to put in his plane, and I may end up doing the same, but this is a typical full size tank that is used for those that are so inclined.
Next is Bob's Static source plumbing in the back of the fuselage. I ahve the fittings for all this already. Just need a fuselage to mount them on!
the last two pics show the Adel clamps and nuts/bolts used to atach everything to the bulkhead.
NOw on to the sport air composites class. I managed to get a few pics of some of the activity today. We learned how to use a bagging technique for vacuum forming that allows the parts to cure more quickly and also provide a much better finish by extruding all excess epoxy from the parts during the process. THis was very cool to witness, but it does involve some tools and know how in order to do it correctly.
First is instructor Scott Vanderveen getting ready to place some NACA vents fabricated from clay molds under the vacuum. There were about 14 of us in the class, so doing all of these at the same time presented some challenges.
The blue plastic is a self adhesive vacuum bagging vinyl material with some double sided sealing tape applied to the bottom layer. The red stuff on top of each part is a perforated teflon coated release material that allows excess epoxy to be extruded and separated from the parts.
Next is a heat pamp area and our primary working table where we made all are creations come to life. For the class you will make a canard airfoil section with a spar cap and foam core, a polystyrene foam and fiberglass sandwich that later becomes a partial wing spar assembly, and the naca vents shown above.
Next is the modeling clay that is used to form molds. You can apparently get this from Hobby Lobby locally. Sounds like time for a trip to the hobby store.
Next is a pic of what I think is just bed batting material that you can get from Joanns or any fabric store. this is used to help maintain a constant temperature while under the vacuum.
then the top layer of the bag goes down, and theother side of the tape, which actually resembles the clay or caulk, is exposed:
Then some pics of the vacuum pump assembly and process:
And finally the pump turned on the vacuum being applied:
And lastly, once the vacuum started working we had to try to massage the top of the bag around the parts. Mine did not turn out so well because the vaccum did not apply evently around the part and I could not get the wrinkles in the bag totally removed.
what I got most from this class was the confidence to be able to to acquire some supplies and create some mock ups from which I can fabricate my own machine gun composite parts. It will be a lot of fun, albeit time consuming, to fabricate everything and seee how it turns out. Totally worth while and highly recommended if you are even thinking about building an airplane.
To be continued.......
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