Practice

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.