May 2000

Interior:

The final adjustments have been made to the seat (primarily in the stick area to allow free movement). A foam bicycle style grip was installed with a push to talk switch wired to the panel.

The baggage compartment and rear trim panel was installed. A Sea King pilot friend informed me that in his a/c my baggage compartment is called a "pubs bag". I reminded him that in my a/c his fuel tank is called a "bowser".

Finishing:

A great deal of touch-up work was required prior to filling. Fillets between the gear leg and wing were formed and glassed. These are important aerodynamically for drag reduction. The fillets between the fin and stabilizer and fuselage are more for esthetics. The basic rule is any two structures (exterior of course) intersecting at less than a 90-degree angle should be filleted. The fillets consist of a single layer of 6-oz cloth for flexibility.

The first 2 coats of filler (over raw fiberglass areas) are resin and glass balloons. This is likely the lightest weight filler you can find. The West System epoxy works quite well here. It's low viscosity makes mixing the glass balloons in much easier than some "stiffer" resins like T88. The trick is to know how much glass balloons to add to the mixture. Too few balloons mean extra weight and harder sanding while too many make the mixture difficult to spread. Trial and error will quickly give you a good sense of the right consistency.

Oh yes, don't forget to bag the engine compartment. Things are going to get real dusty next.

Once you are no longer "building up" areas you may want to switch to a commercial polyester type filler for its ease of use. Even the lightweight ones (7.5 lbs/gal) will likely be heavier than the epoxy/glass balloons mixture so try to keep its use to smoothing rather than filling.

Then you sand...a lot...then you fill...then sand...then fill...then sand...then...

Anyway, you get the picture.

When you get close to level on a panel it becomes difficult to tell where to fill or sand. Try spraying a light coat of black lacquer on the panel and wait for it to dry. After sanding/dusting, the low spots will show up dark. Apply filler and have at it again.

Be careful not to sand into the cloth, especially in the spar areas. Better a little extra filler here than to risk cutting into the glass.