Vacuum Bagging Cowl Parts Note: You wouldn’t know it by subscribing to this blog, but I have actually been continually working on things in the Garaggio. My frustrations over the failures I was experiencing with vacuum bagging and how demotivating that was made it difficult enough to keep working on projects much less write volumesContinue reading “Huge, Humbling Hurtle”
Category Archives: Cowl
5 Years for Betty
November 2nd was the fifth anniversary of Betty’s first flight. So in celebration we had to take Betty flying, of course. As luck would have it, Jon was here on a layover to celebrate. Jon helped me on Betty all the way back to the early days, I think even the first year I wasContinue reading “5 Years for Betty”
Soaring Break and Greg’s in the Garaggio
On short notice, I took a week off of working on the Defiant project. A friend of mine was coming to Phoenix to do a commercial glider add-on, so I invited myself along on the adventure. It was about a week of really fun flying. I highly recommend it. After my soaring sabbatical, it wasContinue reading “Soaring Break and Greg’s in the Garaggio”
Lower Cowl Mold, times two
The lower cowl geometry doesn’t lend itself well to making it a single piece mold. The centerline scoop/tunnel/boat tail has geometry that would “capture” the plug, and subsequent parts, in the mold if it was laid up as a single piece. You can still do a single piece mold, but there are some draw backs.Continue reading “Lower Cowl Mold, times two”
We have a Cowl Mold; Inspired by Sid
The last few days, when I have been looking at the rear cowl, I have thought that the trailing edge shape reminded me of something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Turns out, it is the character Sid from the cartoon movie, Ice Age. While I am fairly certain this destines Brian’s Defiant to henceforthContinue reading “We have a Cowl Mold; Inspired by Sid”
Prepping for Mold Making with Jodi
On Monday, I got to the point in contour sanding and surfacing on the cowl where I was struggling to find flaws that needed to be fixed. Don’t get me wrong, there were still minor flaws, but most of them small enough that I would be liable to go backwards instead of making improvements ifContinue reading “Prepping for Mold Making with Jodi”
New Plan for the Aft Cowl
Last week Thursday, before our trip to Kanab, I got the layup on the lower aft cowl done. What an exercise in frustration. I have done quite a few layups in my building history, but this one made me feel like it was the first time I had ever seen epoxy or cloth. The planContinue reading “New Plan for the Aft Cowl”
About to layup Lower Aft TCSN1
The last post we started a right side lower aft engine cowl, say that 5 times fast, and got it to a point where the foam shape mostly replicated the left side. Since then, I spent a bit more time adding, sanding, and shaping foam using my handy templates derived of 3D scanning to improveContinue reading “About to layup Lower Aft TCSN1”
Replicating Cowl Shape with a hybrid low and high tech method
Replicating the lower cowl shape is moving right along. In the last post we discussed how it was going to be more difficult than the top was to duplicate and mirror since it is more complex. One of the benefits of blogging and posting all about this project is the constructive suggestions I receive. ThomasContinue reading “Replicating Cowl Shape with a hybrid low and high tech method”
More Challenging, but solvable
Today was further proof that the lower cowl certainly is more challenging than the top. Even though I have determined some defining characteristics of the cowl and come up with a plan for the overall approach, it is still a challenge to blend these shapes and features together. It isn’t always intuitive how to blendContinue reading “More Challenging, but solvable”