Esser's Build

[Paul Z]

Gloves excellent, glad to see them. I missed you were using super fill.

[Esser]

Quick update,

We went and picked up our new engine and ass. parts. We will be parting out the Pelican if anyone knows of anyone needing parts.


Daniel strapping the pelican down.


In the shed

[Esser]

Well I have been delinquent on posting lately but we have been getting work done.

Yesterday we put the rib reenforcement plates for the flapperon brackets on. We also drilled all the holes in the flapperons. We will be using solid rivets instead of pop rivets.

We also laid out and drilled the holes for the counter weights and the inboard insert.

Does anyone have any tips on the flapperon tips using the moulded tips? They weren't exactly what I was expecting.


Me prepping for bonding



Bonded


Daniel laying out holes.

[JohnB]

Here are a few pics from when I did mine. These kind of baffled me until I read on this forum that others hat stuffed/bonded the tips completely inside the flaperon.
I ended up trimming the tail end of the molded tip along with the aft end of the flapeon to get things to match up. Then a little superfill to smooth it all out.

[DesertFox4]

Looks very good John. Nice work.

[cap01]

there is no need to stagger the counterweights on the new planes ?

[Esser]

Thanks for the pictures John, it clears things up for me. You did a very nice job.

[Esser]

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts lately. I'll put up some pictures soon but to keep you in the loop we have been working pretty steady lately. The Flapperons are all done now with the tips in and faired. There is something I want to change about the tips but I'm not sure what yet.

I also have wrapped up some loose ends with the cap strips under the tank and fuel gauge site. One this to note if you are doing the fuel gauge sight: Dont follow the template. The left and right tank holes are not symmetrical.

We also epoxy primed the interior of the spars and popped the pitot tube in.

Didn't get to covering before Christmas like we hoped as little things take longer than you hope. Soon!

[rosslr]

Ho Josh,

It's good to hear you are getting back into it again! Have you got a new place for building in the winter or have you got the heating going well in the shed? Looking forward to watching the progress again and learning from your build. (ps. we have the opposite problem here at the moment with 40C temps - I get to about midday and have to knock off because of the heat!)

cheers

[Esser]

Well I have been delaying posting as I was having trouble putting pictures online due to an issue with my phone and it turns out after all the waiting I lost the pictures anyway after a corrupt phone back up.

Had a slower month but to keep you updated:

Flapperons have been all assembled, mounted, and have very loose play after shooting with LPS1

My second wing tip is tightly fitted a year after the first haha.

Tail Access Bulkhead finally epoxied in place.

Baggage area angle and support tube have been installed

Tail Access Cover is fabricated and ready to install (The instructions show two ways of cutting for the aerofoiled tail. Unfortunately I didn't see the second one until after so I am not sure which is right. I went straight up and down all the way through. I have to say that this piece is tight to fit on the plane. Any tips?)

Fabricated a bracket for a rudder trim tab to be installed on the rudder. (Anyone have any suggestions on how big of a tab is a good starting point and the thickness of the tab?)



We are now waiting for the MD-RA to come out and do a precover inspection so that we can make this thing look like a real airplane. Once they inspect, we need to permanently install the LLE and then it is cover and paint time. After lots of research, it looks like we are not conforming to the masses and will be painting our fabric with Endura.

We also are looking into an LED landing light set up that is brighter than AeroLED Microsuns, will fit into the same wing tip recess, and will be half the cost. Right now we are working through light weight heat dissipation as we are trying to keep our LEDs under 60C.

I'll try to get pictures back and rolling with more progress updates.


We received our firewall forward kit but I don't think there are instructions that came with it. Is this a factory oversight? Or am I missing something?