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 Sailplane Construction Project Session #133

Comet Sailplane Project 
There is a small complex balsa fairing shown below that I made to fair the fuselage into the forward portion of the stab. Today I did some finished sanding and cover the fairing in white and then orange silk. However, this turned out to be a big mistake. The bottom knife edge on the fairing's end grain warped causing the fairing to no longer fit %$#&*!
 
To recover from this situation, I first remove both coverings of silk with Acetone. Then I sanding the front face of the fairing  back until it fit in place with a piece of 1/64" plywood sheet between the front face of the fairing and the rear fuselage bulkhead. Next I cut the piece of  1/64" plywood sheet to the approximate size and glued it  to the front face of the fairing as shown below.
 
I sanded the 1/64" plywood down to fit the contour of the fairing and did a trial fit on the fuselage/stab juncture. I had to sand off a little on the bottom to get the fairing to fit right, which is the reason for the darker color on the bottom face as seen below. I gave the fairing three coats of clear dope with sanding in between and covered the fairing with white silk as shown below. 
 
I trimmed the white silk and applied three coats of clear dope. Then I cover the fairing the second time with orange silk as shown below.
 
I trimmed the orange silk and applied three more coats of clear dope. I mixed up some 15-epoxy and carefully applied it to the bottom balsa side of the covered fairing. I then placed the fairing down into the fuselage/stab juncture, being most careful to align it to the aft fuselage bulkhead as shown below. With a little thumb pressure, I was able to squeegee out a small amount of excess epoxy between the fairing and the stab, which I wiped of with a Q-Tip dipped in alcohol. I will now let this dry for the rest of the evening as we have planes to go to dinner with some friends. 
 
Before I left the model room for the day, I place the Sailplane's wing on the pylon's wing saddle and took this picture so you can see how the Comet Sailplane project is shaping up......................Tandy
 
 


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