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Home of the Spodplane
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Date:  8-1-2020
Number of Hours:  4.20
Manual Reference:  21-07
Brief Description:  Strakes lower skin preparation

Was the featured builder for Russ Meyericks Virtual Shop Night, this morning. No actual laughter at the progress of my project. :)

Trimmed the sump tank, all lovely.

Gritted my teeth and tried out my turnover D thingies, with the castors locked. I took out the ballast and tried lifting the nose. As far as I could cautiously lift it there seemed no tendency to overbalance, and with a couple of rests and careful consideration I discovered I could lift the nose right up, and hanging on to the nosewheel gently settle on the D thingies. The aeroplane sits quite comfortably like this, at an angle of attack of about 70 degrees. I could with ease pull the nose down nicely and settle back onto the gear. With a bit more effort from ground level, and holding the nosewheel, I can lift the main gear off the ground for a few inches, but only with a lot more effort, as the moment back to the D thingies is greater than the gear. If you try this at home, remember I am 193cm tall, I doubt Nat could have done it...

Looking around the back I discover I have not allowed for the sweep of the centre spar, only the outboard edges of the D thingies is touching the ground. I mark them up by eyeball and trim gradually until they all contact together.

Just for fun, and as part of a sales pitch to those I have drafted to help with the turnover, I weighed the Spodplane as it will be for the task. No ballast, wings or canard. Nosegear fitted. I note others have removed it for the turnover, but I'll only do that if the number I got scared me. 160.3kg, using bathroom scales. I made some spacers the same height as the scales, and substited the scales one wheel at a time, going around the aeroplane three times and averaging the result. Individually, Nose - 36.2kg, Starboard gear - 62.5kg. Port gear - 61.6kg.

Played some more with ropes and slings, etc. getting my head around the concept.
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Trimmy, trimmy

Trimmy, trimmy

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Defective D thingie

Defective D thingie

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Practicing step #1 of the turnover

Practicing step #1 of the turnover

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