Speed
400 Cloudster Project
Some time was spent with
Jerry Kestner here today while he resolved most of the remaining
issues on my computer that have cropped up since he did the restoration and
reformatting of the hard drive. There was not to much progress on the
Cloudster today except for the tail skid installation and some initial
concept work on how to go about building the cowl. However, I will go on and
post the work on the tail skid.
The tube for securing the 1/32" wire tail
skid was cut from a piece of 1/16" aluminum tubing with a 1/32" I.D. This
tube was installed in the rear of the fuselage structure using two 1/16"
plywood retainers, which were glued into the structure as shown below. The
plywood retainer at the bottom of the picture also has a small second piece
of 1/16" plywood glued on the bottom to prevent the aluminum tube from going
all of the way through. The aluminum tube itself was cleaned with Acetone
and CA'd to the two plywood retainers. The aluminum tube was left protruding
out the bottom about a 1/4". Once the bottom bulkheads and stringers have
been installed, this tube will be cut off flush with the stringer line. A
piece of 1/32" piano was bent on the lower end to form the tail skid and
inserted into the aluminum tube as shown below. However, it will not be epoxied
inside the tube until the fuselage has been finished and covered.
