Month: June 2014
Plywood Sheeting
Glued the plywood sheeting to the rear cockpit area.
Once the glue was dry I cut out the openings for the BRS harness.
Spent the rest of the evening removing staples from the tail section.
Hope my nose wheel ships soon, being able to roll the fuselage around would be very helpful in this small garage.
Improve Directions
This Mini-Max kit is 30 years old and has seen numerous improvements over the years in the design. However it seems like the directions have not been improved much at all.
One example is the procedure for building the fuselage. The directions say to build the fuselage sides, apply plywood sheeting to the sides and then join the two sides.
When I followed this procedure I ended up with some cracked wood. Some other builders have posted on ETLB reporting similar experiences. Other builders have suggested a different procedure and I also feel it is a better method.
Build the fuselage sides, leave sheeting off, join fuselage sides and then apply the RS-657 side sheeting.
Hopefully this helps some future builder have less headaches than me.
Main Gear Progress
Glued the RS-540 sheeting to the other side of both main gear legs. Once dry I decided to first cut the 37° angle at the top of each leg. Very important to remember that there is a left and right leg and you need one of each not two of one side 😉
I cut a thin piece of wood from a 2×4 to extend the fence on my table saw. Set the blade to 37°
With some trial and error using some scrap I adjusted the fence. It ended up looking like this.
After testing this setup on three pieces of scrap I ran the landing gear legs through. One forward and one backwards so I ended up with a left and right leg.
The end result looks pretty good.
This ended up being a little easier than I anticipated. With a little planning and patients I can sometimes do good work.
Cockpit Modification for BRS
The BRS (Parachute) has two Kevlar straps that attach the fuselage to the parachute. These need to be routed through the top of the fuselage down to the landing gear. The entry point on the top is located in the rear cockpit corners. I added a wood block and cut a hole just large enough for the straps to fit through.
Once I glue the plywood sheeting on top I will radius the edges to prevent chafing of the straps.
Modified Motor Mount
I grabbed a piece of scrap plywood that was laying around and made a motor mount that moves the engine three inches forward. This is just to check for fit, not the actual piece I will use.
The cowl fits great and the extra room behind the engine is great.
Sent an email of to TEAM to see what they think of this before making it permanent.
Ultralight Builder 