10/16/2004 [8] Engine Swap - Curtis and Ray
We removed the engine from Plane Mantis and placed it back on Carbon Slipper. We have it down to a fairly rapid procedure. It takes more time to undo the tie-downs and pull Plane Mantis out of the trailer, pull Carbon Slipper out of the garage, remove the cowl and prop extension from Plane Mantis, then when the engine is in its new location on Carbon Slipper, then put everything away in their respective places.

08/30/2004 [6.5] Firewall Forward - Curtis
Today I mounted the remote oil filter bracket and the air/oil separator and cut, positioned, aligned, and tack welded the 3" intake tube to the aluminum flange (that Ray had cut out) as it connects the tube to the carb.

08/28/2004 [2.2] Wing, Sanding and Prep. - Curtis, Ray
We sanded more on both surfaces of the wing and applied a thin colored primer coat and again sanded it down until it was mostly gone.

08/29/2004 [4.2] Wing, Sanding and Prep. - Curtis, Ray and Jacob
We sanded more on both surfaces of the wing and applied a thin colored primer coat and again sanded it down until it was mostly gone. Then we rolled on a thick layer of Primer/Surfacer on the top of the wing.

08/27/2004 [3.6] Wing, Sanding and Prep. - Curtis, Ray
We sanded the wing with a "Fairing Board" that is 4-1/2"wide x 30" long and after we had the surface sanded down to fabric in spots we filled the voids. After the filler cured we sanded again and sprayed a thin coat of a contrasting color so we could see the surface deviation and fill only where the color remained after sanding.

08/29/2004 [2.8] Oil Lines for the Filter and Cooler - Curtis
I made hoses for the remote oil filter and oil cooler with -10 hose and AN fittings (straight,45, 90, & 120 deg.) and "Dry Break" quick disconnects. There is a multitude of colors. (red, blue, silver, black and gold)

08/29/2004 [2.4] Aileron Arms - Curtis
I milled a hole in two tubes for the aileron arms and welded bolt flanges on to another set of tubes then slid them through the holes and welded them in position at a right angle to the first creating arms that the aileron pushrods will attach.

08/16/2004 [5.0] Canopy Latches - Ray Debs, John Raquet
John and I bonded the canopy latches in place and some nutplates and screws for holding the springs. Also caught up on the latest news.

08/15/2004 [27.0] Flew w/ New Engine - Ray Debs, Curtis Weinman, and Kevin Pinger
Curtis and I drove the tractor-trailer to PAO where Kevin joined us to finish installing safety wire, zip ties, air ducts, etc. Then we put the cowling on and loaded it up in the trailer. We drove down to Hollister, put the plane together in Gavilan Aviation's Hangar, and I did 3 flights. The engine is running smoothly and reliably, and only has a couple of minor issues (small oil leaks, too much cooling). Then we drove back home after a LONG weekend. Plane Mantis is still in Hollister so I can go fly some more for practice and engine break-in.

08/14/2004 [36.0] Tore Engine Apart, Rebuilt - Ray Debs, Curtis Weinman, and Kevin Pinger
When Curtis and I got to PAO, Kevin had already taken the oil pan off and was working on some other things trying to figure out why there was no oil pressure. We checked and double checked the line to the pressure gauge, and the gauge itself. We could see that some oil was flowing through the engine, but couldn't figure out why there was no pressure. We pulled the accessory case off and ran the oil pump with an electric drill and it worked great. After scratching our heads for a while, Curtis said he remembered something about a bolt needing to be in the camshaft or crank. I went over and picked up the second engine's camshaft and pointed out the screws in the end. Kevin said he guaranteed there were no screws in the camshaft in the engine. Unfortunately, there is no way to get to that end of the camshaft without splitting the case. Kevin suggested we only take off one half of the cylinders to reduce the amount of work we would have to do. That worked really well until we tried to rotate the crank and one of the remaining pistons pulled its oil ring out of a cylinder. Then we had a hectic few minutes trying to put it back in so we wouldn't have to completely disassemble everything. We got it back in, and put the screws in the cam (safety wired), and closed the engine back up. It was a lot of work, but we finished it and installed it and around 10pm we started the engine and got lots of oil pressure! Unfortunately, it ran horribly. We traced that to some misplaced plug wires and mistimed mags. Around 12pm we had the engine running very smoothly, so we quit for the night.

08/13/2004 [12.0] Completed Engine - Ray Debs and Curtis Weinman
Curtis and I went to West Valley Flying Club (at PAO) and finished putting together the engine that West Valley had started. We got it all together and on the plane, then filled up w/ fuel, and started it up. It started on the first try, but we didn't get an oil pressure reading, so I shut it down after about 20 seconds. We spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why there was no oil pressure. Finally we gave up so we could work with Kevin the next day.

07/25/2004 [10.2] Layout and Design of the Dynamic Elevator Counterbalance - Curtis, Ray
We made a mockup of the support arm out of sheet aluminum and checked path, clearances, weight, and attachment methods. And we came up with a final design. Ray cut up some .090 thick Chromoly stock and made the metal parts that will be welded for this bracket. I took these parts and tack welded them together then welded all of the pieces complete. We have a couple more pieces to weld and fill a 5/8" tube with a lead like substance.

07/24/2004 [18] Seat Bottom, Back and Harnesses - Curtis, Ray
We made a template out of cardstock of the proposed seat layout/design and transfered it to some 6061-T6 aluminum. We cut and bent the pieces until they were a perfect fit. We added two reinforcement ribs in the seat back and also in the seat bottom. An aditional rib placed perpendicular to the other two ribs was added in the bottom to add strength as the bottom will get some pilot wear and tear from ingress and egress from the aircraft. After completion of the seat system we drilled and installed the harnesses that were custom made by Silver Parachute Co. into their positions. Ray was first to check our completed installation and found that it is a perfect fit and then completed the first emergency egress drill for all of about 1.5 seconds.

07/22/2004 [8.0] Aligned landing gear and wheels - Ray Debs, John and Jacob Raquet
We blocked up the fuselage to flying attitude, dropped plumb lines from the tail and center of the front, installed the center pin which goes through the gear leg into the fuselage, pulled a string attached squares to the wheels, and measured the angle of toe-in. One side has basically none, and the other is 1.9 degrees. They should both be about 1.5 degrees, so I will order some shims from Aircraft Spruce. John and Jacob also sanded the turtledeck and cowlings.

07/22/2004 [2.0] Delivered Exhaust Manifolds to Welder - Ray Debs
I dropped off the engine, engine mount, firewall, carburetor, and cut and fitted exhaust manifold pieces to JoeRacer.com's shop today. Joe seems to be a pretty intelligent guy, and he has lots of good ideas on improving performance. He said he is pretty busy, and won't be able to get to it for a couple of weeks, but we probably won't need it for that long. He will tack it all together so we can make sure everything will fit.

07/21/2004 [9.0] Cutting pieces for Exhaust Manifold - Ray Debs and Jerry's Mufflers
Jerry (from Jerry's Mufflers) had tried to bend some 1.5" tubing, but his bender was decreasing the size of the tube by more than 1/4", so he just bought a bunch of mandrel bent U-bends. I marked the tubing to copy the PVC mock-up, and he cut the pieces, then when we had all of them, we fit them in place, holding them with bits of duct tape. This was a long process, but now it looks pretty good.

07/21/2004 [4.5] Cleaning up inside of exhaust manifold - Ray Debs and Jacob Raquet
Jacob and I took apart the duct-taped exhaust manifold pieces, cleaned off the duct-tape gum, and used a deburring tool and dremel tool to clean out the insides of the tubes. Then we taped them all back together and put them on the engine so I can drop it off to be welded.

7/5/2004 [5.1] Rear Spar Fuselage Support - Curtis
Today I built a wing rear spar fuselage support. This part fits between the rear spar attach points and is connected to the fuselage from one side to the other via a 5/8" chromoly tube and two plates that are welded to the ends of the tube. I bent (purposely) the tube and cut a slot in it and also tapered the ends as the need for strength diminishes further along the weld line. The two pads that now make up the ends rest on the fuselage mounting points and will be sandwiched between the rear spar bracket that will all bolt together to the fuselage frame.

7/3/2004 [2.1] Canopy Attach Pins - Curtis
Today Ray and I looked at how to anchor the canopy tight with a latch. I took a 1/4" steel rod and bent (with a torch) a dropout "U" protruding out one side for a place to attach the pin that will stick out the canopy for opening it up from the outside and serves as the rescue release points.

7/3/2004 [3.0] Control Yoke, Finished! - Curtis
Today I welded the support braces on the main yoke tube that go up to the aileron pushrod arm control "U" brackets. All is complete on the yoke. Now it needs a sandblast and a coat of paint.

6/24/2004 [2.6] Control Yoke, More Modification - Curtis
Today I welded a "T" intersection of Chromoly tubing for the aileron pushrod connection points. After I welded the "U" ends on I welded the "T" together then welded that to the yoke in alignment of all axis.

6/23/2004 [5.2] Modify Control Yoke - Curtis
The control yoke was already built when we purchased this aircraft (now Carbon Slipper) and I didn't see any thing that was square, level, straight, etc. on it. I cut off one end and re-welded it in the proper position, I cut off the aileron yoke because it was off center and tilted in the X, Y, and Z axis. The bottom end of the joystick needed the end fitting welded on to it. And the tiller arm for the elevator had multiple holed drilled in it so, I made a new one without excess holes. Next is to finish welding the aileron yoke in the new position (about 1-1/2" forward) which will lessen the angle of the aileron pushrods to a position fairly perpendicular to the output position on the yoke.

6/23/2004 [9.5] Fit Gear Leg Skin, Attached Fuel Tank Cover - Ray and Connie Debs, Sam and Gloria Kahn
Cut openings in gear leg skin for gear, pulled all skins off fuselage, put gear back on fuselage, put skins back on, fitted cowling, matched skins to cowling and drilled and clecoed the fuel tank cover. Lots of time spent cleaning the garage so now there is a lot of room to work, and find tools. Thanks guys!! Talked to Kevin Pinger about engine. Made definite plans on building engine. Called Alan Silver. Belts will be done next Wed. Parachute coming soon.

6/20/2004 [7.0] Attaching Canopy Frame (2) - Ray Debs
Cleaned up turtledeck to canopy frame flange, drilled and clecoed in place.

6/19/2004 [12.5] Attaching Canopy Frame - Ray Debs, Sam and Gloria Kahn
Drilled and attached turtledeck w/ clecoes. Attached canopy frame with tongue depressors and hot glue. Layed up carbon flange between turtledeck and canopy frame.

6/15/2004 [4.0] Canopy Frame and Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs and John Raquet
Fitting canopy frame and fuel tank cover over the fuel tank. They don't fit very well, so I had to trim quite a bit of material off the front of the canopy frame and canopy. It looks good, though. I guess the fuel tank is bigger than I thought when making the plug.

6/14/2004 [2.5] Instrument Screw Holes - Ray Debs
Drilled screw holes for instruments. Mounted them. Now it looks really great!

6/13/2004 [9.5] Cut Instrument Holes in Panel - Ray Debs
Finished layout of instruments, used hole saw drill bits I just got to drill the holes. Then I used a dremel tool to trim them to the exact hole size. The panel looks great, and there is even room for the radio.

6/12/2004 [11.0] Grove Wheels and Brakes - Ray Debs
Took old wheels and axles off the landing gear, put Grove wheels, brakes, and axles on gear leg. Worked on instrument panel.

6/10/2004 [12.0] Skin Stringers, Bulkhead Material - Ray Debs and Curtis Weinman
Curtis and I cut triangular cross section stringers out of divinycell(sp?), sanded one of the corners smooth, slathered epoxy/micro mix on them and put them length-wise in all of the carbon skins. This is to strengthen them. Then we made a 2x4 sheet of plastic/peel-ply/carbon/glass/foam/glass/carbon/peel-ply/plastic sandwich and put aside to cure (non-vacuum bagged).

6/10/2004 [3.0] Instrument Panel Planning - Ray Debs
Worked on Instrument panel shape and layout. Sanded surface of panel to make it smooth and it looks great (it's carbon)!

6/9/2004 [3.5] Flipped Fuselage - Ray Debs and Mike Luvara
Mike came over to retrieve the vacuum pump he loaned me for doing the fuselage skins (Thank you Mike!!). We flipped fuselage frame over, removed landing gear, and positioned molds and skins in place. It's starting to look like a plane again...

6/8/2004 [4.5] Cleaned up Reinforcements - Ray Debs
sanded smooth the reinforcements applied to the mating edges of the skins, put skins in molds and layed up an overlapping lip from the tail piece to the gear leg cover and from the gear leg cover to the fuel tank cover. Also applied more reinforcements to the turtledeck

6/7/2004 [3.0] Fuel Tank Cover Reinforcements - Ray Debs
Applied reinforcements to where the attachment screws will go for the fuel tank cover and the gear leg cover. I used 4 layers of carbon in a patch 1.5"x1.5". This gives enough meat for countersinking the screw holes.

6/6/2004 [8.5] Trimmed Skins - Ray Debs
Trimmed all carbon parts. Cleaned up edges. Put them together and took pictures.

6/5/2004 [21.0] Bottom Skin Layup - Ray Debs, John Racquet, Jacob Raquet
Popped Turtledeck out of mold. Layed up Fuse bottom in mold. Ran out of carbon, had to go to Tap to buy more. Took a while to get all the leaks out of the bags. Lots of work!! John and Jacob get a lot of credit for staying to the bitter end (even past when their dinner was ready). Thanks guys!

6/4/2004 [7.0] Turtledeck Layup - Ray and Connie Debs
I asked Connie if she wanted to help me tonight. She said she would, so instead of going to a movie for our date night, we layed up the turtledeck in the mold, and vacuum bagged it. Fun date night!

6/4/2004 [4.0] Delivered Engine - Ray Debs
Took engine parts to West Valley Flying club and showed Kevin Pinger what needed to be done to put it back together. Then talked with Josh Smith and Kevin about plans for getting the plane ready.

6/2/2004 [2.0] Trimmed Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs
Trimmed flashing off the fuel tank cover and the gear leg area cover. These pieces look great now!

6/1/2004 [9.0] Gear Leg Cover Layup - Ray Debs, John Racquet, and Jacob Raquet
Layed up Gear leg area cover in mold and vacuum bagged.

5/31/2004 [12.0] Prepped molds for layup and Bagged Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs
Finished waxing and spraying mold release on all the molds. Layed up the fuel tank cover and vacuum bagged.

5/30/2004 [13.0] Primed and Sanded the Molds - Ray Debs
Primed and Sanded the Molds.

5/29/2004 [12.0] Filling and Sanding Molds - Ray Debs
Filled and sanded molds.

5/27/2004 [4.5] Filling edges of molds - Ray Debs
filling edges of mold

5/25/2004 [13.0] Introduce Kevin Pinger, Clean up molds - Ray Debs, Kevin Pinger, John Racquet, Jacob Racquet, Curtis Weinman
Introducing Kevin Pinger to the project. We have a new Sponsor: West Valley Flying Club! Kevin is the head of the Maintenance Department, and will be rebuilding our engines for us (and other stuff).

Welcome Kevin and West Valley Flying Club!!!

Worked on cleaning up molds.

05/19/2004 [3.5] Wheels and Misc. - Ray
I started cleaning up a little after last night's demolition party. Removed parts from the fuselage frame that we don't want sand-blasted (like the rudder cables and brakes cylinders), and organized some of the parts. Assembled the Grove wheels w/ Cheng Shin tires and inner tubes. I have to repack the wheel bearings since they are packed with preservative grease. Got the Grove axles and brakes out, but now it's time to go to bed...

05/18/2004 [3.0] Popped Molds - Ray Debs, Curtis Weinman, John Racquet, Jacob Racquet, and Mike Luvara
Popped molds off plug, destroyed plug. Cleaned up fuse frame a bit. Then we all stood around having fun, hangar flying, daydreaming, etc. We put all the mold pieces together and it sorta looks like a plane!

This was a momentus occasion for Aerophile Racing Team!

05/17/2004 [3.0] Finished Mold Layup - Ray
Put resin on XMat. Molds are now complete!! (except for clean up after popping them off the plug).

05/16/2004 [10.5] Lower Left Fuse Mold - Ray
Layed in fillets around flange with body filler. Layed up 1.4oz and 6oz glass cloth on left and bottom molds. Sanded and put XMat on, but didn't have enough, or enough resin.

05/13/2004 [7.0] Lower Fuse Mold XMat - Ray and Curtis
Cleaned up mold on right side of fuselage. Turned fuselage over. Cut flange pieces for left side.

05/12/2004 [4.0] Lower Fuse Mold XMat - Ray
Sanded surface of right molds rough. Layed up Xmat.

05/10/2004 [4.0] Lower Fuse Mold Layup - Ray
Cut 1.4oz and 6oz cloth and did layup of both rear and forward lower right side of fuse molds. Next will be XMat.

05/09/2004 [5.0] Lower Fuse Mold Flanges - Ray
Finished building flanges, used body filler to make fillets to bond the flanges to the plug. I also made a shelf set for Connie's beads. It's good to do things for my wife occasionally. She appreciates all the tools I have more if they can benefit her...

05/08/2004 [11.5] Fuel Tank Cover Mold part IV - Ray
Added XMat to fuel tank cover mold. Sanded turtledeck mold clean. Popped fuel tank cover mold off, and cleaned it up. It looks really nice, and it separated cleanly so I won't have much touch up to do. Built flanges for right bottom side of fuselage. Will attach and do mold layup tomorrow.

05/07/2004 [2.5] Fuel Tank Cover Mold part III - Ray
Layed up first layer of 1.4oz and 6oz glass cloth for mold of fuel tank cowl in the morning before work. Got home and sanded the outside rough to prep for XMat.

05/06/2004 [1.5] Fuel Tank Cover Mold part II - Ray
Bonded all flanges in place w/ body filler. Prepped for glass.

05/05/2004 [2.5] Fuel Tank Cover Mold - Ray
Cut all mold flanges for fuel tank cowl, fit in place.

05/04/2004 [1.5] Popped Turtledeck Mold - Ray
Popped mold off turtledeck, and cleaned up a little. It looks really good! Almost no pinholes or voids. I just have to fill in around the flanges and remove some body filler that came off of the plug.

05/03/2004 [4.5] Put XMat on Mold - Ray
Sanded first layer of mold to prep for XMat. Cut and fit XMat. Brushed on resin, then layed XMat over that so it would stay in place and wet out easier. Then put a bunch of resin into wetting the XMat.

05/02/2004 [10.0] Skinned Wing - Ray and Craig Catto
Flew out to Craig's in my Bonanza. We cleaned up the wing cores, cut carbon and glass cloth for skins, bent aluminum strips to airfoil shape, slathered the cores with micro-epoxy mix, put reinforcing patches where the aileron support blocks will go. Put carbon cloth on wing at 45 deg bias, wet out. Put second layer of 45 deg perpendicular to first, then layed glass over that, wet everything out. Put flox where removeable wingtips will attach, pushed aluminum strips in place (after waxing) with long wood strips to compress aluminum in place. Looks great! Flew home.

05/01/2004 [12.5] Applied Mold Release - Ray
Finished fitting the mold splitter plates. Sprayed PVA over whole fuselage plug. My neighbor Ray (WWII POW) came over and helped me roll the fuselage over so I could spray all sides. Attached splitter plates w/ body filler. Glassed first layer of 1.4oz and 6 oz glass over plug and splitter plates.

04/29/2004 [4.0] Fitting Flanges - Ray
Fitting splitter plates to fuselage. Prepping for mold construction

04/28/2004 [3.5] Mold Flanges - Ray
Cleaned out garage. Building mold splitter plates out of 3/8" mdf (actually called Fiberboard) and pins from 5/16" dowel. My band saw has recently become one of my favorite tools!

04/27/2004 [7.0] Met with Painter - Ray and Curtis
We met with Mike the painter to discuss ideas and colors. We don't know yet what we want to do, but wanted to get some ideas and find out how long it would take as well as prices. We are supposed to get an outline of the plane for him to do some renderings.

Worked on filling and sanding the fuse. Pretty much all done w/ fuse plug.

04/25/2004 [4.0] Filling and Sanding - Ray
More filling and sanding and...

04/24/2004 [7.0] Primered fuselage - Ray and Curtis
Second coat of primer on fuselage. It is much easier to see if it is smooth when it's primered, and it leaves a nice finish after a little sanding.

04/23/2004 [5.0] Sanding and Filling - Ray
More sanding and filling and sanding...

04/20/2004 [5.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray Debs
filling and sanding fuselage plug. Connie helped me turn over the fuselage so I could work on the lower left side.

04/19/2004 [4.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray Debs
filling and sanding the turtledeck

04/18/2004 [2.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray Debs
filled a few of the low spots. Didn't have much time before going to my mom's house for Easter festivities.

04/17/2004 [9.0] Painted Primer on Fuselage Plug - Ray and Curtis
Ray cleaned out the garage and draped plastic sheet up to try to keep the overspray from attaching to everything, then masked off the canopy and opening for the stab. Curtis came over with his painting machine and sprayed primer/filler on the fuselage.

4/16/2004 [4.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray Debs
filling and sanding fuse plug

4/15/2004 [5.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray Debs and Curtis Weinman
Turned fuse over again. filling and sanding fuse plug

4/13/2004 [3.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray Debs
filling and sanding the right side of the fuse plug

04/12/2004 [6.0] Filling and Sanding Right Side of Fuselage Plug - Ray and Jacob
filling and sanding right side of fuselage plug

04/11/2004 [2.0] Filling and Sanding Right Side of Fuselage Plug - Ray
filling and sanding right side of fuselage plug

04/08/2004 [6.0] Filling and Sanding Left Side of Fuselage Plug - Ray and Curtis
filling and sanding left side of the fuselage, turned fuselage over so right side is up. Sorry there isn't something more interesting to say in this log entry...

04/06/2004 [8.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray, John, and Jacob
John and Jacob Raquet came over and helped fill and sand the left side of the fuselage plug. More to be done.

04/05/2004 [3.0] Filling and Sanding Fuselage Plug - Ray
I filled and sanded the right side of the fuselage plug. More to be done.

04/04/2004 [6.0] Fiberglassed Left Side of Fuselage Plug - Ray and Curtis
Curtis and I turned the fuselage over so the right side is up, and we fiberglassed the left side.

04/02/2004 [4.0] Fiberglassed Right Side of Fuselage Plug - Ray
I fiberglassed the right side of the fuselage plug. I lapped the glass onto the turtle deck about an inch so the final parting lines will be perfectly smooth. I used Finish Coat polyester resin (much cheaper than the epoxy we use on flight worthy parts), and a single layer of 6 oz cloth.

04/01/2004 [9.0] Exoskeleton - Ray and Curtis
We designed and built an exoskeletal frame around the fuselage which holds it off the garage floor whether it is on the wheels, back, right or left sides. It is made of electrical equipment rack material that Curt had laying around. He had almost exactly the number of bolts and captive nuts for the whole system. Amazing! Now we can turn over the fuselage and work on the bottom (or sides) easily.

03/31/2004 [11.0] Finished Shaping Foam on Fuselage - Ray and Charlie
Tina's (my sister) boyfriend Charlie was visiting her from Boise and had a day free while she was at work. He came over and helped me get a lot done on the fuselage shaping. First we moved the 1/4 scale Piper Cub into the living room so there would be enough room to put the tail of the Cassutt up on the ceiling, then we tied a weight onto it so it wouldn't go higher than we needed. Then we started working on shaping the bottom so it was even and smooth. That took a while, and we got lots of foam all over us. Very messy. We thought it would be easier to see the smoothness and the lines if it was outside in the sun, so we rolled it out and it did help. It also made it easier to clean the garage. After shaping a lot, we used spackling to fill in the cracks and dips. The spackling is white, and having the fuselage covered in one color also helped us see the shape. After going out to Japanese food for lunch with Connie, Tina showed up and took Charlie back. Oh well, it was nice having his help while it lasted!

03/23/2004 [1.5] Sanding Turtledeck - Ray Debs
sanding turtledeck

03/22/2004 [4.0] Filling and Sanding Turtledeck - Ray Debs
filling & sanding turtledeck

03/21/2004 [6.0] Filling and Sanding - Ray Debs
filled and sanded fuel tank cover some more. cleaned up canopy frame sill, removing flashing and tape. cut 1/2x1/3x48" divinycell strip and using propane heater, bent into shape of canopy frame bow. Attached to turtledeck w/ skewers so it supports the canopy frame in the right place relative to the turtledeck. Then I used lightweight filler to match the turtledeck to the canopy frame. Now the frame is temporarily bonded to the turtledeck, and the transition is very smooth. pulled the tape off the sill beading and it looks beautiful!

03/20/2004 [16.0] Filling Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs and Curtis Weinman
Ray carved out the divinycell and filled the edge of the canopy frame w/ epoxy/micro slurry and covered w/ small strips of carbon. Curtis bought a pair of speakers for the radio in the garage so we can have some working music, and some bondo filler and a bunch of squeegees. We used lightweight filler on the fuel tank cover and started sanding it smooth so it has a nice transition into the cowling and canopy frame. Then we started filling the turtledeck.

03/17/2004 [0.5] Separated Canopy from Frame - Ray Debs
Cut canopy off of frame. It looks great and fits perfectly!

03/16/2004 [14.0] Canopy Frame and Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs, Jacob Raquet, and John Raquet
Measured 4 or 5 times, marked, partially cut canopy from frame, leaving tabs so it stayed in the correct position. Put plastic tape on the canopy side of the parting line, built up front and rear canopy lip into frame with 6ply carbon across the parting line, so it will bond to the frame and make a lip for the canopy. Sealed around the perimeter of the frame w/ micro slurry and carbon patches.

03/15/2004 [10.0] Canopy Frame and Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs and Jacob Raquet
Cleaned inside of canopy, covered in plastic and masking tape, marked canopy split line, cut along dotted line, so it is still attached. Built up foam/carbon ledge. Made some rails from foam and carbon by sanding a rounded edge on foam strips, squeegeeing a slurry of epoxy and micro onto the foam, cutting strips of wetted out carbon and laying over the foam with plastic on the outside, then taped carbon down on foam over edge of a cardboard box.

03/14/2004 [6.5] Canopy Frame and Fuel Tank Cover - Ray Debs
Put carbon on other side of canopy, and across top bow. Fiberglassed left side of turtledeck. Fiberglassed fuel tank cover. Prepped wheel pants for bonding. Trimmed and sanded carbon on canopy. Trimmed fiberglass on turtledeck. Parted canopy from fuel tank cover fiberglass. Fit turtledeck to canopy and fuselage.

03/13/2004 [4.5] Turtledeck and Canopy Frame - Ray Debs
Sanded off micro/epoxy filler from cowl and canopy. Put carbon on canopy extension. Tested polyester resin compatibility on polyurethane foam used to form fuse skin plugs. Cut glass, removed turtledeck from fuselage, fiberglassed right side of turtledeck w/ polyester resin.

03/11/2004 [15.0] Canopy Frame - Ray Debs, Curtis Weinman, Jacob Raquet
Jacob sanded edge of frame where it contacts the canopy. I sanded inside around second layer of carbon patches. We pulled off the protective coating to reveal a gorgeous canopy. Filled in area between canopy and turtledeck with pink foam and X-30. Sanded/shaped to blend in. Curtis recovered the canopy with plastic to protect it. I dremel'd out the exposed honeycomb and filled back in w/ micro/epoxy.

03/09/2004 [3.0] Bonding Canopy to Frame II - Ray Debs
Removed clecoes, sanded first layer of patches, filled cleco holes w/ epoxy/micro mix, put second set of 2ply carbon patches all around canopy/frame where the clecoes were.

03/06/2004 [7.0] Bonding Canopy to Frame - Ray Debs
Drilled more holes for clecoes, drilled larger holes for bonding, sanded edge of canopy glass, painted epoxy all around edge, put frame over canopy, clecoed in place, squeezed epoxy/micro mixture between canopy and frame and into canopy bonding holes. Placed 2ply carbon patches all around the edge of the canopy, attaching it to the frame.

02/24/2004 [4.0] Canopy Prep - Ray Debs and Curtis Weinman
Curtis and I worked on shaping the fuel tank cover to meet the canopy frame correctly, then we cut the excess off the canopy itself in preparation for mounting it permanently in the canopy frame. We started to make a plug for the tail feather fairings, but decided that should be done after a couple of test flights so we can set the stab incidence correctly. We also curved the turtledeck in more foreward of the trailing edge of the wing, so there is more of a coke bottle shape.

02/22/2004 [4.0] Cowl Cheek Extensions - Ray Debs
I built up the cowl cheek extensions with pink foam and X-30. Then I carved them to shape and spackled them.

02/15/2004 [3.0] Sanding Fuse Skins - Ray Debs
After spackling the surface of the fuselage skins, I spent quite a while cleaning the garage and sanding the surface smooth. I also continued cleaning up the shape. It's getting closer...

02/09/2004 [1.8] Shaping Fuselage Skin Plugs - Ray Debs
I used a hack-saw blade to slice off excess foam, and it works great as an adze/scraper on the foam. Then I used a long sanding bar to smooth it all out. The shape looks really nice, but I think I need to remove more foam. I also built up the tail of the turtle-deck so it won't be so flimsy. I am planning on making the skin molds in multiple parts with the turtle-deck being one, and maybe 2 or 4 for the bottom of the fuse. X-30 is a lot of fun to work with.

02/08/2004 [4.5] Building Fuse Skin Plugs - Ray Debs
I forgot to mention that I decided that the skins we have are actually going to become the plug for skin molds. The pink, lightweight poly-urethane foam just seems too fragile to leave in the skin. I would always be worried about delamination and losing the integrity of the skins. It would be a big problem if one of the skins came loose in-flight. So, now I don't have to worry so much about how heavy they get because they won't be flying. I started shaping the foam and realized that in order for the fuselage to be thickest at the trailing edge of the wing I would have to add some material. I x-30'd (new verb) a sheet of foam on both sides of the lower fuse. The top looks fine already. Now I am back into the messy part of composite construction. The foam bits get in everything (ears, eyes, pants, socks, wallet, ...). The cool thing about this part of building is seeing the shape being unveiled as the excess foam is removed. Really makes me think I might have liked living during the Rennaissance as a sculptor ...

02/07/2004 [6.5] Button up Cowl and Fit Fuse Skin Plugs - Ray Debs
Today, I cleaned up the ducting flanges and all the pokey bits around the ducts (you get lots of these when using carbon). Then I mounted the cowling on the firewall flange and re-drilled the holes in the right places. Then I countersunk the holes so everything looks nice and neat now. Then I checked the baffling cover plugs and adjusted them to match the duct flanges. To make myself feel better, I screwed the top cowl onto everything and it looks really nice (and mostly completed). I cleaned all the excess tools and parts off the fuselage and put the stab in place (weighted with a couple of cans of body filler) and put the tail up on a stand so I can work on the belly easily. Then I took the fuselage skin parts I had made last year sometime and held them in place to check fit. When everything looked ok I used X-30 foam to hold the skins in place. I had to put it all together and take it all apart a couple of times, so this took a while. It is starting to look like an airplane now, and with the new wheel pants, it looks like a FAST race plane!

02/05/2004 [2.5] Duct Flanges - Ray Debs
I cut back the outer layer of glass and foam on the engine side of the cooling ducts, made some packing tape covered cardstock molds for the flange, mixed up some epoxy and micro, and layed up a couple of layers of carbon overhanging the edge and the outside glass. This will provide a strong flange for attaching the soft duct material (probably a tire inner tube).

01/31/2004 [6.0] Picked up Wheel Pants - Ray and Jacob
Jacob Raquet and I (Ray Debs) flew in Ray's Bonanza up to Lincoln airport to meet with Dan Borgstrom and Clay Bolton from Team Half-Fast. Dan was visiting for a couple of days from Sweden to pack up his plane to be shipped to Sweden so he can fix it before the Reno Air races this year. He said shipping will take 6 weeks each way, so he won't have a whole lot of time to work on it. He seems to be doing well except for a stiff neck. It was nice to see him and Clay. Clay has been working in Auburn, so we weren't sure if we would see him. I talked to him the night before to get directions if I drove up, but when I woke up in the morning, it was a beautiful clear blue day. I called up Jacob and asked if he wanted to go and he jumped at the chance. Jacob flew most of the way up to Lincoln (except take off and landing), and had some practice making radio calls. It was a bit bumpy, but so clear we could see Mt Shasta! It took us about 40 minutes each way, and was much nicer than the 2-1/2 hours it would have taken to drive.

The wheel pants are gorgeous. The finish is so nice, we will probably leave the bare carbon showing (since the plane is called Carbon Slipper). Dan showed us how to mount them, and said don't wait until the week before Reno because it really is a lot of work. When we got home, I put one wheel pant against the gear on the fuselage in my garage, and it instantly transformed the steel tube crane structure into a race plane!! (pictures coming soon).

01/27/2004 [3.0] Cooling Intakes - Ray Debs
I used a dremel tool to sand the epoxy-flox slurry from the intake seams. I also used a palm sander to clean off the slurry where I had filled in the screw holes and cleco holes.

01/26/2004 [3.0] Cooling Intakes - Ray Debs
I sanded the spackling off the foam plugs for the cylinder head baffle covers. Then I cleaned out the foam showing at the seam of the intake duct and the cowling face. I mixed up epoxy and flox and filled the gaps. Then I filled the cleco holes around both cowling halves, and the screw holes against the firewall which needed to be moved to make the cowling fit perfectly.

01/24/2004 [4.0] Cooling Intakes - Ray Debs
I mixed up a batch of epoxy and micro and filled the corners around the inside of the cowling and the outside of the duct. Then I cut carbon strips and put them all around the intersections. I also built in a vertical support so the ducts are not just hanging off the face of the cowling. Then I carved the foam blanks on the cylinder head baffling so the air will flow smoothly into the cylinder heads, and won't leak out of the top of the baffling. Then I covered the foam with spackling to prepare for fiberglass layup to make male plugs. After the intake ducts are finished, I'll mate the baffling covers to them. Then I'll layup carbon and fiberglass parts.

01/01/2004 [920.8] Carry Forward From 2003 - Aerophile Racing Team
Opening a new log page for 2004.