Door mods

I epoxied the magnets inside the door latch pins (and later carefully cleaned up the threads):

Door latch pins with magnets epoxied inside

I had to try a few different sensor positions to get the right sensitivity - in the end, attaching to the top screw worked well:

Attempted reed sensor position that didn't work

Reed sensor position that worked properly


Testing the door sensor

I then started the work to close up the hinge pockets, so that the McMaster seal can seal that part of the door. I made 4-layer fiber "plaques", trimmed them to fit just slightly inside the hinge pockets, then attached them with two more layers underneath (grabbing the sides of the pockets), and two layers on top (to make a smooth transition, and also to follow the cranial cavity curve):

Laying up a flat plaque for closing the door hinge pockets

Sanded hinge pockets for attaching the covers

Hinge pocket cover plaques marked up for trimming

Hinge pocket cover plaque held in place

Hinge pocket cover plaque held in place

I used some 2x4s (on top of peel ply) to keep the layup on the same plane as the original door surface:

2x4 block "press" to keep hinge pocket covers flat with door surface

Hinge pocket cover fiber layup inside the pockets

Hinge cover layup in place

After a lot of sanding and filling to make it smooth again, I applied a coat of primer, and this is now ready to fit back:

Hinge pocket covers after sanding

Filling holes in the hinge pocket covers

Hinge pocket covers with primer applied

With this done, I can finish fitting the McMaster seal, position the gas strut bracket and drill the door to attach it.

Time lapse:


Total cabin door rivets: 72
Total cabin door time: 147.9h

Rudder fairings done

We finished filling and sanding the rudder fairings and their gaps:

Bottom rudder fairing with a huge gap to the rudder

Bottom rudder fairing after a lot of filling and sanding

Top rudder fairing after filling and sanding

and finally covered them with primer (which I have to say ended up being less smooth than the sanded surface :) but it's only temporary until paint anyway):

Top rudder fairing with primer applied

Bottom rudder fairing with primer applied

The only empennage fairing left now is the top VS fairing, which has a huge gap to be filled in the forward portion.

Time lapse:


Total empennage fairing rivets: 175
Total empennage fairing time: 98.9h

Bottom wing skins complete!

Section 20, Bottom wing skins, is finally complete! It mostly went smoothly, and I even managed to do a lot of it solo this time, partly by riveting all but the last bay top-to-bottom rather than leaving the last 3 bays for later. The last bay is pretty easy to reach (compared to the others) through the rib holes.

Completed right wing

While technically part of this section, I'm not actually attaching the pitot tube now - I'll leave that out until after the wing is attached to the fuselage to make it easier to handle.

Time lapse:


Total bottom wing skin rivets: 1536
Total bottom wing skin time: 107.9h