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