Speed 400
Cloudster Project
The work today focused on constructing the
turtle deck right behind the firewall. The first step was to cut out and
sand the two bulkheads from 1/16" medium hard balsa as shown below. No,
those are not lightening holes in the top bulkhead!
As you can see in the picture below, the two
hole are openings for the two top blind nut on the firewall that permit
the balsa bulkhead to be glued to the back of the firewall.
Soft balsa 3/32" X 3/16 strips were cut in
graduated lengths, tapered, beveled along the sides, and individually
glued to the two bulkheads to form the turtle deck surface as shown below.
This is a view of the completed strip planking
on the turtle deck looking down from the top before it was trimmed and
sanded.
The aft edge of the strip planking was trimmed
off around the cockpit area and the turtle deck's outer surface was then
carefully sanded flush with the top of the arched contour of the firewall.
With good tight strip joints, the surface of the sanded turtle deck
appears to be sheeted a continuous piece of 3/32" sheet balsa as shown
below. I am most pleased with the appearance of the turtle
deck.............................Tandy
