The Bulkheads, Sides, Landing Gear and their assembly.
Following the plans, chapter by chapter,we started with the bulkheads. Here, Bob is squeeging off the excess epoxy after applying it to the fiberglass placed over the plywood core of the forward bulkhead, F-22.
Bob is stippling and squeeging out the epoxy to be sure it is saturating completely, but not too wet. I was working on the instrument panel on the left when I stopped to take this picture.
Instrument panel on the left, and the foward bulkhead, F-22, curing before turning them over, trimming the excess glass and applying epoxy and glass to the other side. This is the typical construction method for all the bulkheads in the plane.
Here, Bob is taking a break from the fuselage and applying the glass tape and epoxy to the "tunnel" on the trailing edge of the main landing gear strut that covers and protects the brake lines.
With all the bulkheads ready, it's time to start the rest of the fuselage. These are the foam sheets for one of the sides being layed out, rough cut and formed, prior to glassing the inside only. The outside won't be covered with glass and epoxy and carved to the final fuselage shape until after it has been joined to the other side, the floor, the bulkheads and the longerons. The gears are being used as weights to hold the pieces in alignment until the joining epoxy has set. Note the rolls of fiberglass cloth against the back wall, all ready to be pulled out over the side like unrolling very expensive toilet paper!
Here is the right side, all the bulkheads, and the floor being set up and aligned to check the measurements and preliminary fit. One upper longeron (the light colored wood strip from front to back) can be seen at the top of the side panel. The two sloping bulkheads (there is a smaller one in the shadows near the back and the firewall) are the seat backs for the pilot and the passenger.
Front view of the upside down fuselage, without the floor, being held together using tape and flat boards while the epoxy/flox mix used to join the parts together cures.
View from aft, looking forward, along the bottom (of the upside down fuselage) clearly showing the aluminum main landing gear mounts and the lower longerons that run full length of the fuselage, They provide mounting points for the wing centersection spar and the engine mounting angle pieces. The bulkhead with the big, round hole in it is the rear passenger seat back. The hole provides access to the landing gear area when the floor is completed. This is the last time that the infamous "hell hole" is easily accessible!
After the outside is shaped, and wrapped in fiberglass and epoxy, about the easiest way to work on the inside is to just climb in. Here, I am working on the landing brake which is assembled through the floor in the aft passenger seat area. That triangular shaped piece in front of me is the pilot's head rest and the support for the rod that is used to hold the canopy open. Later builders have replaced that rod with a more secure and easier to use gas strut, using the same mounting point.
Darren took this picture of Bob and I enjoying our very first flight (in our imaginations, of course) in the fuselage that was finally standing on it's own legs. It may look small, but as any Cessna 150 pilot can tell you, they wish that they had that much shoulder room in their planes! The notch in the front is where the canard will eventually be mounted and the square hole by Bob's arm is where the centersection spar will mount to hold the main wings.
