Chapter 10 - Canard construction - Part 9

Good progress the last few days. I received some parts from the Cozy Rirrrls a few days ago. Included in the order were the NC-3 and NC-3a hinge plate assemblies, hinge pins and other canard hardware. I had made these parts myself, however after test fitting them I was not happy with my workmanship, they probably would have worked fine, however I feel that control systems are not something to take a chance on. I decided to play it safe and order some parts from the girrrls. I am glad I did. They shipped the parts right away and the workmanship on everyting including packaging was wonderfull. Thanks Crissi, thanks Randi!.

Pictured here are the elevators mounted to the canard via four plywood jigs. The jigs secure the elevators in place while the hinge plates are floxed in place.


After the flox bonding the hinge plates cured I used the pictured template to verify the elevator travel. Full forward stick should bring the elevator to 15 degrees up. Unfortunately the elevators were only moving up to the 10 degree position.


The plans suggest that one sand away some trailing edge of the canard to fix this situation. After sanding away a little less than 1/8' from the trailing edge the elevators could be positioned to the full 15 degree forward deflection.



Here the elevator is showin in the full back position of 30 degrees down elevator. Also shown is the duct tape I used to protect the elevator while I sanded the training edge. the sanding block, and the strait edge to ensure the trailing edge was strait while I sanded away.



If you look closely you can see two of the elevator jigs reinstalled (with Bondo) to the mid underside of the canard to hold the elevators at 0 degrees deflection. This is used to align a curve to the canard tips (blue foam blocks pictured).

Chapter 13 - Nose Gear - Part 1

Time for a little diversion....

I am in need of some parts to complete the eleveator installation on the canard, so I have turned my attention toward the nose gear.

I purchased this used worm drive nose gear retract assembly and I spent yesterday evening cleaning it up and panting it. You can see the previous owner had many lightening holes drilled into the aluminum assembly side plates and the round gear as well.