Gettin' Cozy

Getting back to work

2009-06-29T17:12:00.004-05:00

Wow, looks like it has been over 6 months since I posted! While I haven't been terribly busy with the airplane, I have managed to put in a little time here and there and finished up chapter 5 about a month ago. Did all the prep work for putting the fuselage sides together and finally got it actually put together today.

Here's the firewall, sides and F-22 test fit:

Had some help during the work with the newest addition to the family. Julia helped some too, it made life a lot easier to have an extra pair of hands for a couple of parts

Everything in place, used the plans method to squeeze the sides together, and used dry wall screws as well. Really didn't have too many gaps, test fitting everything on the jigs helped a lot and a bit of luck didn't hurt either. Only real gap I had to work with was on the bottom of the starboard side of the seat back.

Everything looking good and level.

Now to leave it alone for 24 hours

LWX & LWY/Electrical Conduit

2008-12-04T07:15:00.005-06:00

I've read of a lot of people having issues with the angles and lengths of LWX and LWY. Thankfully, I was able to learn from their issues and had relatively little trouble in putting the pieces in place. Basically I cut everything a little bit oversized and over angled and then sanded till I had a good fit. Also, instead of using nails to hold them in place I used drywall screws. After everything had cured I removed the screws and filled the holes with flox.

Port:

Starboard:

A closeup of the joint between LXY and LWY:

For the electrical conduit I followed the plans and formed a male plug which I covered with box tape. After taping the plug and the board I would be working on, I put one ply bid over the plug:

Then covered with peel ply:

Here's the conduit extension on top of the foam :

And five-minute epoxied in place:

Now I just need to place the foam around the conduit, add 6 plies of Bid, fix one minor repair area on the upper longeron and cut the sides to size and I'll be finished with ch. 5. Hopefully by next Wednesday!

Lower Longeron Doublers

2008-12-04T07:10:00.004-06:00

The lower longeron doublers were pretty easy. The idea is to provide a square section for strength and to create the area for the electrical conduit area. Basically just floxing another triangular piece of spruce onto the lower longeron.

I used lots of clamps -

And the finished product -

Upper Longerons Glassed and Lower Longerons in place

2008-12-04T06:52:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I posted due to a wonderful new addition to the family - Alyssa Faith Bennett was born on September 11 and has been keeping us all pretty busy. I have been able to get a little bit of work done though. I got the upper longerons glassed:

Then cut and placed the lower longerons. I used the method of cutting little blocks of wood to get a good clamp on as well as pre-drilled holes for nails to hold everything in its proper place.
Starboard side:

And Port:

Fuselage sides glassed

2008-07-28T05:15:00.002-05:00

I completed glassing the fuselage sides (interior) tonight. As I've read, it did end up taking a while. I started at 2100 (or 9 o'clock pm) and didn't finish until 01:30. I didn't realize how long it was taking until Julia came out at 0000 (or 12am) to see how I was doing. I'd just finished the first ply of uni! All in all, it was a pretty easy layup. I'd prepared everything before starting, so that helped a lot. I did spend a good deal of time on the areas where the spacers meet the other foam, but I'm afraid that I'll still end up with an air bubble or two. Should be pretty easy to fix any problem areas though. As I finished at 0130(midday in my day), I've been out there every couple of hours and only seen one possible problem area where the spacers meet the foam on the aft end of the starboard side. We'll see....

Fuselage Sides Spacers & Control Stick Indentions

2008-07-25T05:49:00.003-05:00

The last couple of weeks I've been working on sanding the spacers to their proper dimensions. Here they are micro'd on to the fuselage sides:

The electrical conduit cutouts:

The upper longerons are there just to make sure that they fit properly. I've also sanded out the control stick depressions.

I tied my sharpie to a piece of 4" metal hanging wire (seen in upper right corner of pic) attached to a nail to get a somewhat perfect circle. I used same said nail to verify that the depression was a 1/4" deep by marking a line at where the top of the foam met the nail, and then measuring a 1/4" down from there. As soon as I saw the second blue line on the nail, I knew that I'd made it a 1/4". Also laid a ruler across the depression to verify consistency of depth across the depression.

I've marked out the depression for my Vance Atkinson fuel gauges, and will sand those out tonight. Hope to get everything glassed in the next day or two. I've read that it can be a rather large lay up, so will likely devote a whole day to it.

Fuselage sides

2008-06-19T05:43:00.003-05:00

Started work on the fuselage sides and got the masonite placed on the jigs, foamed 5-min epoxied to the masonite and cut out the spacers, although I haven't completed sanding the spacers to the proper angles.

My masonite:
Nailed down to the jigs:
I cut the foam and masonite before doing all the jig work:
5-min epoxying the foam to the masonite:
And some of the foam spacers laid out:

Upper Longerons

2008-06-19T04:29:00.005-05:00

I started working Ch.5 around the beginning of June. Ch.5 is where you build the left and right sides of the fuselage. I finished up the upper longerons last week. Overall, they went pretty well. The only issue I had was with the jigs "FJA." The jigs are there to provide proper curvature for the upper longerons and then the fuselage sides.

Most are simple cuts (i.e. 42" long with one side 6" high going to 1.5 " high - a nice simple strait line) but FJA has a bit more curvature to it. The first time I made the 4 FJA jigs, I did them each seperately and ended up with something I was not happy with. The second time around a cut one FJA jig exactly how I wanted it, but about 1/20th of an inch to high. I then traced my "master jig" for the cutting of the other jigs, clamped them all together and sanded with a 1/4 sheet finishing sander until all of the FJA jigs were identical and at the proper hieghts. Also, the plans call for 2 1"x 1"x 8' pine boards. I needed 4. Even if I hadn't destroyed a set of FJA jigs I would have needed 3.

Here are the jigs laid out and ready for the longerons. I screwed the jigs into my tabletop:

The longerons are made of 3 thin strips of spruce held together with epoxy between each strip. I went ahead with the plans method and used nails to hold them in place while curing. Looking on other people's sites, I saw that many of them had 30 or so of those nice $20 clamps that they were able to use to hold them in place. If I had 30 of those nice big clamps, I would have gone with that method. The nails seemed to work pretty well though.

Both sides:
Here's a closeup of the nailed sections:
Doubler's and stiffner's with saw cuts for bends:
All weighted down:
And complete. Not sure why a bunch of stuff up there got underlined. Couldn't make it go away, oh well.

Chapter 4 complete

2008-06-09T05:19:00.001-05:00

I did manage to finish the firewall on May 29th, just haven't had time to post anything. Or, rather, haven't taken the time to post anything. Currently working on Ch.5 fuselage sides. Will post more later.

Firewall

2008-05-29T04:50:00.003-05:00

I'm almost done with the last bulkhead of chapter 4! I've finished the firewall except for the last layer of bid on the fwd side, and cutting the temp firewall (which might wait until I'm in ch.6).

I cut the firewall out of 1/4" birch on Monday night, and cut and installed the 1x1x1/4" alum. inserts for the engine attach points on Tuesday night/Wed. early a.m. How early? Ask Julia - the power tool section of the project (cutting the alum., cutting the holes for the alum.) didn't wake her ~ forgetting to close the garage door and lightly tapping the hard points into the birch however, did. Sorry! To ensure a good bond with the birch, I sanded the aluminum with 60 grit sandpaper and epoxy to prevent any oxidation before installation and fiber glassing.

Here's the 4 piece section of the firewall with alum inserts installed:

And a detail of the alum. inserts:

For the 14 blind screws, I drilled the holes after glassing one side and cut a countersink:

I did diverge slightly from the plans after reading about problems of having the screws turn later on. After looking at either cutting a cross shape into the screw head or installing piano type wire inlaid into the screw head and birch, I decided on the cross shape.

Here's what it looked like:

And after installation with flox:I should be able to glass this side this afternoon before I go to work as my wife has a wedding rehearsal to run tonight. Chapter 5 will have to wait until the 6th of June however, as I start my week on tonight. If I finish up the firewall tonight, I'll probably post the requisite "all bulkheads together and in position pic.

F-22/Doubler

2008-05-29T04:37:00.003-05:00

Well, I guess that I didn't keep things as updated as I meant to. 1 post at the beginning of may, and now one at the end. Again I have been working on things, but simply not posting. Some small boring things that don't warrant photos, much less a post, such as finishing tracing my firewall drawings, sanding, and reading.

I did manage to finish F-22 and the doubler though.

F-22 with doubler installed:

Glassed and waiting for cure:

Here's a close-up of where F-22 and the doubler meet:

And finally, F-22/doubler completed. I've been sanding off the excess fiberglass and I'm afraid that it is all over the bulkhead here. No, my bulkhead is not full of air pockets!

Aft Gear Attach Bulkhead

2008-05-01T06:02:00.003-05:00

I completed the aft gear attach bulkhead. Here it is ready for glassing:

And glassed:

I'll try and do better about keeping my blog updated in a more timely fashion. On the plus side, I've started a new 7 days on - 7 days off shift which should allow me more time to work on the aircraft. On the minus side, I've started studying for my dispatcher license and that will take up a good deal of my time in the near future. Minus being that I'll have less time to work on the aircraft, getting my dispatch license is definitely a good thing overall. Just have F-22 and the firewall left in chapter 4. Hope to complete that next off week (I start my on week tonight) and get things prepped for Ch.5.

Forward Gear Attach Bulkhead & F-28

2008-05-01T05:41:00.004-05:00

I've completed the forward gear attach bulkhead and F-28. I traced the outlines for the G.A.B. hardpoints onto the solid fiberglass from the plans and cut them out using the router attachment a fiberglass cutting bit for the dremel. It wasn't easy and I ended up cutting close to the trace lines and then sanding w/ 36 grit sandpaper to fit. Worked well, just took a while.

Here are F-28 and the upper portion of the forward GAB and F-28 ready for glassing:

The upper and lower sections will be joined later. Upper portion of the forward GAB completed:

The lower section of the forward GAB ready for glassing:

And completed:

F-28 completed:

IP Complete

2008-05-01T05:17:00.002-05:00

I realize that I haven't posted in a while, but I have been working on the aircraft. The IP is complete now. I finished glassing and then added the stiffeners. Here you can see them cut and laid out. I might add that I shortened the vertical stiffeners when I realized that they were too long:

I used 2x4's to hold the pieces in place while 5-min epoxying them into place:

All stiffeners in place w/ micro along the edges:

For the electrical conduits I would glass first the single ply on the upper surface, allow it to cure, and then do the 2 plies for the conduit itself as shown below:

Finally, the IP completed:

Instrument Panel

2008-03-27T04:40:00.004-05:00

Glassed the front sided of the IP this morning. 2 plies bid overall and 1 ply uni above the thigh cutouts.
Here it is ready for glassing:

Glassed:

And weighted down:

Gear Attach Bulkhead Hardpoints

2008-03-27T04:00:00.003-05:00

Last week I laid up the 1/4" solid fiberglass hardpoint section to cut cut out the gear attach bulkhead hardpionts.

Here's the 22 plies of bid laid out and ready to epoxy:

Epoxied:

Weighted down:

And ready to cut the hardpoints out of:

Aft & Forward Landing Gear Attach Bulkheads

2008-03-13T20:39:00.003-05:00

I ended up having some extra time this evening and was able to cut out the forward and aft landing gear attach bulkheads. The .25" foam used for these two bulkheads was a lot easier to work with then the .2" used on F-22, F-28 and the IP. I was able to cut everything with a razor and then just do some light sanding.

Everything laid out and ready for cutting:

And everything cut out:

F-22

2008-03-13T15:38:00.003-05:00

I finished cutting and shaping F-22 and the F-22 doubler on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Here they are traced out and ready to cut:

Cut and ready to by 5-min epoxied together:

5-min epoxied and weighted down:

And finally, all put together and ready for glassing:

Well, its back to work tonight and I'll be working several overtime days next week, so I don't expect to get too much done. Still need to finish shaping F-28 and then it's on to the landing gear attach bulkheads and the firewall/temporary firewall.

Instrument Panel

2008-03-11T08:28:00.004-05:00

I've finished tracing all the drawings for Chapter 4 and can now finally get to work. Last night/this morning I laid out the drawings for the instrument panel. I traced the bulkhead by punching small holes through the paper using the pointy end of a compass. Then, I connected the dots lightly with a sharpie.

After transferring the drawings to the foam, I cut the general shape using a razor and then got close to the exact shape using a dremel tool. Finally I used 80 grit sandpaper to get the foam to the final shape.
Finally, something recognizable as aircraft part-like! After sanding, I 5-min epoxied the sections together (with wax paper above and below to avoid sticking) and weighted everything down.

Now, its time for bed. I hope to cut out the foam for bulkheads F-22 and F-28 tonight. Oh, and while the dremel works great for getting close, it is very dusty.

2008-03-06T05:43:00.003-06:00

So, what have I been doing this week? Tracing drawings. It's slow going, but I've found myself really enjoying the process. There's just something very simple and relaxing about spending an hour or two tracing drawings. Aside from that, I'm out of epoxy so I decided to get (a little) ahead of myself in the tracings. Not too much, though - I'm still tracing things from Ch.4. On the subject of epoxy though, I found a boat supply store about 20 miles away that supplies the kind of epoxy and hardener I need. Should save some cash on shipping at least. Want to see 1.25 hours worth of tracing compressed into 1 minute? Click the video below. Oh, and the flip is because the drawings often require you to trace a mirror image when both the left and right sides are the same. I had already traced the left side and the plans have you trace the right side as a mirror image.

Front Seatback Bulkhead Finished

2008-02-28T04:34:00.005-06:00

Well, pretty much finished anyway. I cut and floxed the corners Wednesday night and went to the mall with Julia to try and find some maternity clothes. After we got back I glassed the back side. I worked inside as it was a bit too cold to work in the garage and I was impatient to finish the seatback.

Detail of floxed corner:

And the finished piece (now in the garage after cure and knife trim):

The pretty much finished part is a couple of air bubbles I found where the foam had been 5-minute epoxied to the workbench (you can see them in the foreground of the pic). I don't think that I let the micro cure in the holes long enough before I glassed out the back. Should be a pretty simple repair.

Next will be bulkheads F-22 and F-28. Before I can start on those I have a lot of drawing tracing to be done. I found that setting up my first seatback bulkhead (yeah, guess I forgot to mention that - it didn't go well, but after doing some more online research I've found where I went wrong. Aircraft Spruce, in their wisdom, supplies you with two pieces of the 3/4" foam used in this step. In my research I saw that others had benefited from that as well so I didn't feel too bad.) set up on a card table with a bright light works very well for my drawing tracings.

Beginning Chapter 4

2008-02-26T05:22:00.000-06:00

It's finally warm enough in Texas for me start working on Chapter 4! Chapter 4 consists of the seven fuselage bulkheads to be used in the aircraft. The first is the front seatback. The seatback is 28.8" X 48".
The instructions say that you might have to glue two pieces of foam together because of the size, but Aircraft Spruce supplies pieces of foam large enough that you don't have to do any gluing. After cutting the foam to the right dimensions, I cut a 45° angle along the top of the bulkhead as it will be installed at a 45° in the fuselage.
I also went ahead and trimmed the the top cutouts although the plans say to do this step after glassing the first side. After reading problems that other builders encountered when trying to cut these after glassing I went ahead and precut these. I decided to wait until actually fitting the bulkhead in the fuselage before making the other cuts though as many suggested that this might make life easier in chapter six. We'll see how I feel when trying to cut the bulkhead then.

Detail of front seatback top front cuts:

After cutting the piece I cut the bid. fiberglass to be used in glassing the front side. The bid. has to be cut and put on at a 45° angle. The problem is that the fiberglass roll isn't wide enough to cover the piece with one section so you have to use a small triangle to finish each of the two plies used. I must admit that I'm not 100% comfortable with butting up the edges of the fiberglass, but that is the method prescribed in the plans for use with bid. fiberglass. Uni fiberglass has an overlap of 1" when putting two pieces together, and I must admit that I was tempted to overlap the bid. but followed the plans and simply butted the two pieces together.

Here's a pic of the fiberglass cut out over the piece before starting glassing:

I then applied micro to the front of the front seatback bulkhead after 5 min epoxying the bulkhead to the workbench:
Then I glassed in the two plies at opposing 45° angles and peel-plied the edges and the area where the two pieces of the second ply butted together:

I hope to finish out the seatback bulkhead tonight (or tomorrow a.m.) if it stays warm enough.

Oh, and just because I like my speedometer-like thermometer:

Hope to post again tomorrow a.m.

Practice

2008-01-31T20:22:00.000-06:00

While waiting for my first section of materials to arrive, I started working on a practice airfoil section with materials from my starter kit. The section was made by hot-wiring a foam core into the desired shape with the help of Julia. After sanding the foam and patching a few small holes, I glassed the bottom first:

After giving the bottom section a day to cure, I glassed the top. After another day of curing I sanded everything down for the finished section:

The section is far from perfect (notice the 2 large air bubbles on the leading edge) and not 100% "finished" in terms of sanding, but I certainly learned a good deal. Had this been an actual section I would have had to throw it out. Not because of the air bubbles which could be repaired, but because of a mistake I made while glassing the top of the section.

After I finished the spar (dark section running lengthwise across the airfoil - provides strength) and 2 of the 4 plys, my remaining epoxy quite suddenly developed a solid chunk in it. Instead of mixing new epoxy, my only thought was to get the remaining liquid epoxy on my 3rd ply of fiberglass. I was able to get the ply wetted out and place on the final ply before it started getting solid, but I'm pretty sure that that was not the best way to go about it. Still, a good learning experience. I should receive the first section tomorrow and start working on Monday or Tuesday night.

The Work Bench is Done

2008-01-11T22:25:00.000-06:00

I just finished the work surface tonight. I still want to add a couple of things like a pegboard, drawers under the lower shelves, and a 1 foot extension attached to the front by hinges to give me three feet of working space. Right now, it's 11 x 2.

I ended up making two 5 1/2 foot sections so that I can either have an "L" shaped bench or move them side by side and get them out of the way if I need the work area for something like bringing in my truck (or at least the cab) in case of a storm. It splits in a kind of offset manner with one board section longer than the other, like so:

I'd like to say that I had some sort of really neat reason for doing it this way, but the fact of the matter is that I hadn't thought about the extra inches that the two by fours at the ends of the table would add on to the frame. rather then make my table longer than 11 feet, I just made the other table a bit smaller and took the 2x4's into consideration on that one.

On thing that I did do on purpose was by some nice 1/2" plywood for the table, and then cover it up with cheap 1/4" plywood. The aircraft plans suggested this so that when you destroy the table finish, you can just remove it and put a new one on pretty easily.

Hopefully I'll soon have some interesting work going instead of prep stuff, but for now this will do.

The work space

2008-01-10T06:24:00.000-06:00

I'll be building my Cozy in the garage of our house. A co-worker recently asked me when exactly a garage became a hanger since it had an aircraft inside. After much discussion(it was a slow night), we decided that it could be called a hanger once a recognizable aircraft design had been created. This does not necessarily include wings but there must be an aircraft type fuselage present. Hopefully I may soon call it a "hangerage" since there will still be a car parked beside the aircraft.

As you can see, much work must still be done before I start work on the actual aircraft. You can see the "workbench" is still in the design phase. I'll also need a cutting and storage area for my fiberglass cloth as well as a plan to get rid of the rest of the stuff on the right side of the picture although I'd like to keep the weight bench somewhere usable. On the right you'll also see a very nice work surface for my miter saw that my parents got me for Christmas. I put it together the other night and completely forgot about it as I started cutting boards. What was I doing squatting to cut wood at 2 in the morning?! Also, while it might seem great to have all sorts of free time to work at night, I've realized that power tools are loud. REALLY loud. Especially after 10pm. I think I'll have to do my power tool stuff before then, or risk the ire of my neighbors and the visit of the cops.

The aircraft

2008-01-10T06:10:00.000-06:00

As I stated, my wife got me the plans for a Cozy MK IV for Christmas. The plans come in two sections with cutout layouts and several updates. It is a composite aircraft built of foam, fiberglass, wood, and aluminum. I worked a lot over December as there was a great deal of OT available at FlexJet, and have just now really started to look over the plans. For those of you who may be interested in specs, the aircraft is a four place (read seat), pusher (prop in the back) type, canard (elevator in the front) aircraft. Exact published specs are:

Engine--- Lycoming O-360 180 hp.
Wing Span: 28.1 ft
Take-off solo/gross: 1200/1700 ft.
Wing area: 88.3 ft2
Climb solo/gross: 2000/1200 fpm
Canard Span: 12.6 ft
Cruise 75% 8000 ft.: 220 mph
Canard Area: 14.7 ft2
Cruise 40% 12000 ft.: 185 mph
Length: 16.9 ft
Max. range 75%: 1000 mi
Height: 7.9 ft
Max. range 40%: 1300 mi.
Cabin W/H: 42/39
Ceiling: 20,000+ ft.
Max. front seat: 400 lbs.
Ldg.Dist.solo/gross: 1000/1300 ft.
Empty wt.: 1050 lbs.
Gross wt.: 2050

These figures may not mean much to a lot of you, but for me they're exactly what I'm looking for in an aircraft. Range, speed, and payload. While it's a four place aircraft, I understand that maybe the back two seats are intended for people of reduced stature and weight. All that for the cost of a nice car!

The Purpose

2008-01-10T05:16:00.000-06:00

I'm starting this blog to serve as a record for my work on a Cozy MK IV aircraft. The project should take me anywhere from 3 - 7 years, and I'm hoping for somewhere in the 5 year range.

I decided to build my own aircraft for several reasons.

First, I realized that renting aircraft has become more and more cost prohibitive.
When I started flying in '98, I could rent an aircraft for about $65 an hour, but currently it is closer to $120 an hour. That's near a %100 increase in cost over the course of 10 years. The only kind of flying I can do at that kind of cost is just enough to keep me current (which, looking at my log book - I realize I really need to go get in the air for a couple of hours soon). That isn't flying, that's just enough to to stave off ground fever (It's a lot like cabin fever, but you end up getting crazy ideas about how to get back into the air and GO somewhere instead of practicing a couple of stalls and chandelles and then doing 13 touch-and-go's like: "if I work an extra month worth of overtime, I could fly to Boston in the fall" or, "I'll build my OWN airplane and forget those FBO rentals!").

So, then one starts to look at the cost of buying and owning a new or used aircraft. A new aircraft is just out of my league, and I don't know that I'd really be happy with what I could afford even on the used market. Why blow 40 grand on an aircraft that can barely travel faster than highway speeds and is on its last legs?

I then had several conversations with people about the idea of building an aircraft, but I thought that there would be no way that I could afford or build a good aircraft. The thought however, continued to nag at my mind so I began to research the different aircraft kits and plans. Almost immediately I ran into the Cozy MK IV and was quite enamoured with it. Although I continued searching, I always kept going back to the aircraft and looking over its specs, time to build, and cost.

After deciding that if I was going to build an aircraft it would be a Cozy, I approached my wife with the idea. Expecting instant rejection or great trepidation on her part, she (once again) amazed me by saying OK. Flat out, she accepted my idea. Of course she wanted more info ("where will you build it?, "how long will it take?", "how much will it cost?... Now where will you build it?... the garage?... Can you do that?!... OK, as long as I can still park on my side of the garage") but really came around to the idea very quickly and even bought me the plans for my Christmas present!

In the bigger picture, I feel that building your own aircraft really gets back to the true spirit and passion of aviation. Law suits almost destroyed the General Aviation(GA) world back in the 80's, and I don't think that it ever really fully recovered. Clinton helped some (can't believe I wrote that!) with some reforms to product liability on aircraft, but still it has become a world in which an average working class Joe such as myself simply cannot afford to purchase a factory built aircraft unless they make some serious concessions in regards to the rest of their life. GA is dying in the US, and I truly believe that it will by the experimentals that help too keep it alive and innovative new aircraft continue to be developed. Aside from the cost and sappy spirit of aviation stuff, I think that it's going to be a blast to work on. I think at least 50% of the joy will come in the creation of the Cozy, with another 50% in the flying once done.