Neil’s Blog

Since my last post almost a month ago, we’ve had a few setbacks — mostly in the tail section. Here is an uncomplete list of the problems we’ve had:

• Design changes - The design was changed from a foldable Kolb-style to a fixed type about halfway through construction. We had to re-order several pieces, wait for them to arrive, and re-cut/drill/bend them all.
• Elevator hinge selection - There were a few heated arguments as to how we should hinge the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer. Our horiz. stabilizer and elevators are fully enclosed, and the stainless hinge brackets I picked out left a 1″ gap between them. Having no gap would obviously be better for aerodynamics but in my eyes it’s only a marginal improvement since the Weedhopper has so much drag to begin with. We eventually found a compromise that can both agree on. We’ll be using the same brackets, but hinging them at 45°, which will not only have 1/3 of the gap, it will also allow us to fold the elevators 180° to rest on top of the horizontal stabilizer when in storage. We had to make some minor modifications to the placement of the stabilizer in relation to the boom but it shouldn’t hurt anything.
• Fabric covering problems - We decided to cover the tail section ourselves (well Hal is, I wouldn’t trust myself to sewing fabric) rather than buy a professionally-made set. We saved a few hundred dollars doing it this way, but I’m still wondering if it was worth it. Trying to get the fabric drum-tight is a tedious process. In the end we found a clever way to do it… I should have the pictures of the completed surfaces in a few days.
• Time - I don’t have enough of it.
• Money - It’s not exactly pouring in :)
• I’m sure there were a few other things I’m forgetting…

Progress has finally picked up though, and I should have a lot of stuff to post in the next few weeks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 12:03 am and is filed under Weedhopper ultralight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.