I have received a few emails and comments asking where I have been and why I haven’t posted on the blog. Rest assured that while the last 10 days or so have been full of distractions that have kept me out of the Garaggio, I had the opportunity to spend the day out there today. In fact Greg was able to help out too.
Thanks to Wayne Blackler, I ran across an article from an interview of Burt Rutan in the Cour d’Alene Press. It is titled ‘True Innovation Has Stalled.’ While the subject of the article in and of itself was interesting, I found a quote about large projects, specifically Rutan going to space, particularly timely.
Every night you go to bed with something in ‘cure’ and after awhile, all of a sudden you realize… hey! I have a plane. – Burt Rutan
So to go to bed with something in cure, we got the right wing back up on the tall saw horses. We removed the aileron and sanded to get the aileron gapped appropriately. The plans require .080-.200 gap, and we now have that through out full range of aileron travel. The gap is even somewhat straight and consistent.
After the aileron was gapped appropriately, it was time to epoxy wipe. We put masking tape on the leading edge to limit the extent of the epoxy wipe and create a clean edge. Then it was mixing up epoxy and doing 4 coats of epoxy wipe, both on the aileron and the wing.
While I was focusing on the epoxy wipe, and having something in ‘cure’ before bed, Greg started to prep the left wing and strake for eventual micro fill.
Hopefully we can get the epoxy wipe sanded and the rest of the left side ready for filler tomorrow.
the Garaggio 