Page 5 -Fuselage

Got a fair bit done this week (holidays are a wonderful thing!)
The seat back is a dry fit at present - still have to cut the access door in it as well as the inspection window and back supports. After that I will work on the skeg box, the carry-throughs, and then I have to start some of the metalwork.

Well as you can see above, as of 13 May 2005 I have the seat base in, the control column mostly done, and the seat back access door (and window) in place. The window still has the protective paper on it for the present.

Fuselage has had the skeg box and cockpit floor fitted. The picture here shows the rear fuselage lower skin glued on. I'm trying to avoid stapling or nailing - hence all of the clamps and weights!

Made hatchcovers from thin guage aluminium and engine turned them. The rear one has to be aluminium because the control wires for the tailwheel need to go through it.

Fuselage sides are on. I was lucky enough to get a larger piece of 1.2mm ply so could do a larger area at a time. You can also see the rudder cable tube exiting the fuselage.

Stained and varnished the cockpit and inside forward fuselage. Have also fitted rudder and tailwheel guide tubing ready for rudder pedals.

One side of the cockpit inner lining is glued and clamped in place. The purple on the lower side is the card template that I was working out for that side.

5th August 2005. OK I swore I wouldn't do this but at least for scale, here I am in the Flitzer making "Vrrrmmm"ing sounds.

29-08-05. Fitted the Harness today. It is a 6 point, aviator twist buckle style but I am only installing the 4 points.

Well today was a momentous one! The undercarriage has the fuselage sitting on it. Albeit without any fittings or bolts. My little baby can stand!

Played around with a can of auto touch-up spraypaint that was supposed to be the colour I was after - not according to this! I wanted a gold and got browny-copper :(

My Flitzer's big day out. Before covering the rest of the turtledeck I wanted someone who knows about wood aircraft construction to have a look over it. So on Wednesday 14-09-05, I loaded her up into the back of my ute and drove off to the airfield. Allan Usherwood was good enough to give it the thumbs up and a lot of other guys were around at the time to give it the 'once over' as well.

I didn't plan on staying till 8.00 PM and freezing my bits off but it was a worthwhile exercise. A big thanks to Allan and the other guys who put my mind at ease about my first homebuilt aircraft.

After the big day out, I was able to put on the rest of the turtledeck. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this scarfing :)

Image of rear turtledeck15-09-05_1655.jpg

Have glued in and faired the rear turtledeck balsa infill this week. Have also given the entire fuselage three coats of epoxy varnish.

Spent today making up and fitting the windshield in acrylic.
After cutting out the shape and heating it in a kiln, I draped it over a 20litre drum.
The fittings are made from thin aluminium (I sprayed them here with pot belly light brown but will probably go back to the natural finish). I might change them anyway - I know this is supposed to be a 1920's style German biplane, but these look a little too much like something from Metropolis!

Spent 3 hrs outside yesterday sanding the epoxy varnish on the fuselage. One more coat and then I think I am ready for the Polyfiber.

Above you can see the framework I made up to enable me to easiily roll the fuselage over for covering and painting. I just used 6mm rod bent to a 90degree angle at one end for inside of the fuselage, and drilled and tapped come old nuts to act as collets for the other end.
The pic on the left shows the tail end. One 6mm rod bent to 90degrees and passed through an upright that is screwed to a sawhorse. It is held onto the upright by a saddle clamp and the straight end passes into a 1/4" hole in the fuselage sternpost. A Flitzer rotisserie!

Well above you can see my 'poor boy' spraybooth. I was able to use cheap plastic dropsheets duct taped to the garage sectional door framework (and yes, I remembered to disconnect the power to it as the door opening and dragging the sheeting over my paint finish would have certainly ruined my day!)

I used a HVLP spraygun I bought from an ebay store which resulted in a lot less overspray. The three coats of UV protection (silver Polyspray) are complete now and I am waiting for the 'True Blue' Polytone colour.

Well the paint is all done now. The colour isn't my first choice but that colour isn't available in the Polytone colours and I wasn't game to go with an 'unapproved' paint on my first homebuilt. The personal insignia is an adaptation of Ltn. Janzen's of Jasta 6. The nice thing about the Poly system is if I don't like it I can spray over it in a few minutes and it blends well with the rest of the base colour (it is apparently designed to meld itself into the same product almost seamlessly).

Well here is a test fit of the wings to the fuselage. It's actually the first time that they have met as I built the wings at work whilst the fuselage was at home. Thankfully all went well.

I was able to get a low hour Jabiru 2200 engine with the prop that came off a homebuilt biplane that is a similar size to mine so hopefully it will be suitable.

I made the engine mount by melding the Jabiru design with the VW one on the plans along with the mount that this engine had on it's original aircraft. The result is quite strong and should give enough room for all of the associated bits and pieces that need to go on the firewall.

FUSELAGE