Speed 400
Cloudster Project
The next step in completing the
recessed leading edge is to make the two curved portions of the leading edge
and glued them in place as shown below. This now has the center section
recessed leading edge firmly tied into the temporary leading edge, which can
now be removed. Notice that the inside curvature of these two pieces is
finished, but a fair amount of trimming and sanding has yet to be done to
shape the outside curvature of the recessed leading edge.
Using an X-Acto razor saw, the
temporary leading edge was cut away and separated from the primary wing
structure as shown below. It has served its purpose well to hold the wing
structure true and accurate until the recessed leading edge could be built.
I have spent most of the day
today carefully trimming, sanding, and shaping the difficult curved portions
of the recessed leading edge. The top view of the recessed leading edge is
shown below.
The bottom view of the recessed
leading edge is shown below. A considerable amount of time was spent making
the two curved pieces that form the recessed leading edge symmetrical. The
curvature of the left side was finished first. Then a paper template was
made and traced onto the bottom of the right side, which was most helpful in
getting the two curvatures the same.
This shows the finished recessed
sculptured leading edge. Notice the three turbulator spar extensions and the
way they tie into the center section's recessed leading edge. Also notice
that top portion of the 3/8" X 1/2" leading edge has been partially trimmed
down along the top, but there is still quite a bit of work before
the leading edge is completely shaped.
Work has stopped for the day.
The next step will be construct the center section's remaining structure and
planking behind the main spar, which will also include the rear wing
attachment.
However, this will not get done
tomorrow. My grandson (Steve) is coming over tomorrow morning (before
he returns to Texas A&M on Monday where he is a junior in computer science
engineering)
at 10:00 a.m. to do some "brain surgery" on my computer. :O< He is going to
first save and then delete all files in the memory of the two partitioned
disk drives. He will then remove the partition between the two drives so
that there will be only one large composite disk drive. Then he restore all
of the software with the six recovery CD's and reload all of my files. Thank
goodness for smart computer savvy grandsons....................Tandy