Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 1

Back on the last day of January I took some time to shape depressions on the exterior sides of the NG-30 plates. I had already cut the high density foam and glassed 4 plies of bid glass on the inner sides.

These NG-30 plates make up the sides of a box that will contain the worm drive retract mechinism and the NG-6 bearing block.



Here you can see the 15 plies of BID fiberglass hardpionts where the worm drive mechenism and the NG-6 bearing will be mounted.


Finally 4 plies bid cover the entire ouside sides of the NG-30 plates. This photo is actually taken after I added one additional ply. The plans called for each of the hard points to be weighted down during cure and the results were not very pleasing to me. I did some repair work that damaged the top layer of glass and so I added one additional layer to the affected areas. I was about ready to completely trash the two NG-30s, however I feel the final result is acceptable.


Today and yesterday I spent some time fabricating some parts. Yesterday was spent cutting bending and welding the NG-64 crank. I am not very practiced at welding, and the equipment I used was far from ideal. However the weld is strong and with a little craftmanship I ended up with a good result.

Also pictured are the two NG-8 disks that I fabricated today. The discs were quite easy to make. I simply used a 2" hole saw fitted into my drill press. Then drilled out the 3/16" holes and counter sunk them. Then treated with alodine. The 1/4" hole saw pilot hole was also drilled out to the final 5/16" size.


Here the NG-8 disks are mounted into the forward portion of the NG-30 plates.



Here is the whole assembly trial fitted. In this photo the mechanism is in the retracted possition. The spring loaded linkage will be attached to the nose gear strut. The 5/16" bolt will secure the bearing attached to the top of the strut.


Here is the mechanism in the grear down possition.


From the pilots view...

Chapter 13 - Canard installation

Over the last couple of weeks I have been slowly working on fitting the canard to the fuselage. This involved ensuring the fuse longerons were level in both axes, that the canard was level and strait, and at the correct incidence.

Then the canard was clamped to the fuse at the aluminum lift tabs and the two high density foam canard attach tabs were glassed in place.


Here you can see the canard clamped to the fuse. If you look at the left side (closer) clamp you can see a peice of scrap aluminum used as a shim to ensure the canard has no sweep. Later I laid up about 7 plies of bid to that location to keep the canard in the correct position after final assembly. Also visible is the template used to ensure the canard is at zero incidence.

Like the plans state.... "this step may crowd your shop slightly"


I made an attempt to shape the elevator fairings. This was turning out quite nice, however it started to get damaged because I needed to remove the canard many times while ensuring it fit properly. It should not be difficult to shape the final fairings once the canard is finally ready.

Chapter 10 - Complete!

Finally I have completed chapter 10!. Most of the latest work was actually completed last month. I have just been awaiting some miscellaneous hardware from ACS to complete installation of the elevators.

The canard and elevators are not quite complete. I will wait until after the canard is installed and the inboard elevators have been trimmed to fit before I install the counter weights and ensure the elevators are balanced properly.

Here is the completed canard


Here are some shots of the swoopy tips being formed

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.

Chapter 10 - Canard construction - Part 8

Slow but steady progress. Over the last couple of weeks I have been taking my time glassing and assembling the elevators. Lots of little parts and steps with these. I have tried to be as careful with these parts as I can.

Here is the elevator torque tube installed in the left elevator foam core with micro. The 2 aluminium triangles ensure the tube is in the correct position.


Here are the left and right elevators fully glassed and ready to begin installation to the canard. Visible is one of the stainless steel hinge pins temporarily installed. It was used to align the end plug prior to riveting. Also visible is the hole to accept the allen set screw that will later safety the hinge pin in place.


Canard and elevators ready to be mated. You can clearly see the micro fill on the trailing edge of all three airfoils. I did a little sanding on the trailing edge of the canard, hence the dust.

Chapter 10 - Canard construction - Part 7

My brother decided to start a project of his own about a month ago. He bought a '78 Datsun 280Z. Unfortunately it has been stuck here at my home until he can get it road worthy. Not that I mind much, but his "Z project" has been a distraction, or more really a diversion away from the my "EZ project" these last few weeks. Hence no blog update in a while. However I have been making some progress and the main canard is glassed. Also thanks to his help I have some machined parts for nearly free thanks to Deano and Jeff, my brothers co-workers that machined them for me.

Here is the canard bottom after glassing. You can clearly see the copper pipe used to keep the foam straight during the glassing process. A thicker steel pipe probably would have been preferable, but this copper pipe was available.


Here I am cutting off the foam "fish tail". Without this extra foam the trailing edge would be far to delicate prior to glassing.

Just after removing this foam I realized a frustrating mistake I made. The newer Roncz plans call for a 1" wide strip of peal ply to the trailing edge just prior to glassing the bottom. However the original plans clarify this and tell you to apply the 1" peel ply only halfway onto the trailing edge. Unfortunately I did not catch the later point and was left with one full inch of peel ply to remove from between the bottom glass ply and the training edge foam. The result was quite a bit of damage to the foam core. This caused me some deal of grief, but the next day I masked off 1/2" of the trailing edge glass and repaired the foam with dry micro. The result was acceptable and I happily continued with glassing top spar cap and skin.


Here you can see the top spar cap laid up. Also visible is the yellow micro repair to the trailing edge and the higher density foam inserts to later receive the aluminum elevator hinges



A close up view of the elevator torque tube machined to receive the NC-2 insert pictured (gold colored part). The smaller hole will recieve a stainless steel hinge pin while the larger hole is mearly to accept a pop rivet that will secure the NC-2 into the torque tube. These parts were machined by my brothers co-workers, Deano and Jeff.


Finally here is the canard fully glassed and waiting for the elevator and swoopy tips. The plans call for the canard to be stored leading egde down and I have made every attempt to save the waiste foam from when the cores were made for purposes such as this.