New Instrument Pod

[banaari]

Alan - great stuff on the photos... I like your approach to building up the lip for the panel.
Hehe - I've just come up from the garage - some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on: Hacksawing polystyrene - it works really well, and it's a strangely satisfying sensation
I wound up buying a slab of wall insulation 40mm thick (they had to cut it into 4 sections so I could get it home) and I'm sort of building it up in laminations using PVA craft glue. The stuff sands beautifully too, using 150 grade.

[Brian Jackson]

John,
I'm likin' it bro! How are you planning to mount it? Similar to Alan's method? Anxious to see the finished product. Thanks for sharing the pix.

Brian

[banaari]

Thanks for the kind words! Some sort of aluminium strut - I'm contemplating thickening the underside (which is flat) to support mount points, radio antenna and pitot/static tubes. We'll see...
cheers, John

[Brian Jackson]

Cool. Can't wait to see it mounted. By the way, which CAD program did you use for the wireframe? I'm working on something similar for my Bee; a composite "sculpted" look that's complimentary to the QB tail geometry, but extremely light like you're doing. I hear ya' when it comes to that "strangely satisfying sensation". To see & touch a physical manifestation of something you've only dreamt about is a strange and rewarding feeling indeed. Makes me feel sorry for all the poor chaps who've never heard about gyros . I can't imagine throwing my heart and soul into anything else.

Keep us posted!
Brian

[Alan Coats]

John,

You might want to consider molding some thin plywood into the bottom of you pod, for mounting points.

Alan

[banaari]

Alan - thanks for the tip, that looks like a runner. I suspect I'm also going to have to include a foil ground-plane for the antenna in the layup.

Brian - I'm using Proge CAD LT, via Tucows, which seems to be an AutoCAD workalike. I want to get the pod finished before the tail arrives from StarBee so I can dispatch them together to a competent paint shop. Virulent (pustulent?!) dayglo blaze orange.

[Brian Jackson]

Day-glo orange? Holy-retina-scan-Batman! Add a little deer feremone to your exhaust & you'll confuse the hell out of hunters and deer alike

Hey, I revisited your site today and was most impressed by your exhaust layout photos. I didn't realize the exhaust system came as individual "LEGO" pieces. I did note your comments about having the ceramic application done. Are they anything like These Guys? They did a chrome Rotax exhaust for a member here that knocked my socks off. The results were amazing. I haven't seen it in person though, just through photos.

[Alan Coats]

I recently saw a Rotax that had the exhaust powder-coated in silver. Not quite as flashy as chrome, but it looked really nice. The owner said the finish had lasted through many hours of flying. I will sure consider it when I get a chance to pull my exhaust off for refinishing.

Alan

[banaari]

Yep, that looks like the same process - aluminised ceramics of some sort. And compared to the cost of the engine, it's peanuts... the local outfit will do what they describe as a "2-into-1" go-kart exhaust for ~US$90.

Current photos... that strange lump of polystyrene in the last photo is there to fill in the last little gap.
More cutting & sanding in the a.m.

John

[Alan Coats]

That's looking good. You shop probably looks like a snowstorm hit it. Have you tried using a Sureform file for the rough shaping? I used a hand saw to whack off the high spots, then shaped it on the belt sander.

Alan

[Brian Jackson]

John,
Man that's sweet. Nice work with the station sections/templates. I like how you contoured the shape resultant of the depth limits of your instrumentation. I'm a nut for "form follows function" but always seeking "grace and style." Blending the two mindsets is a real art.

Brian Jackson

[banaari]

Would probably have been easier using a Sureform, but I haven't got one... I did think about it, though... but I'm really trying to resist buying one-off-use tools. Used a hacksaw and 150 grade sandpaper (not 400 as posted earlier). And yeah, snowstorm's about right. I've got a small hand-held vacuum cleaner... it gave up the ghost this afternoon with clogged filters.
Hehe - the real breakthrough in the shaping was when I quit using the cardboard test jig, and just took to the thing aggressively in long swipes to feather the ridges into each other.

The dominant factor in the whole pod is the durn radio - it's long, and it's got to be kept away from both the compass and the engine monitor - which is why it's off to one side... and why the pod is so deep in front.

Challenge for this afternoon - similar to Alan's, there's a lip to support the panel... how best to form it... see photos for sheer deviousness. I intend to form a couple of additional support braces using the same technique.

Yet more sanding to come & some strategic use of fairing compound.

[Red Sky]

Very nice! Just melt away what you don't need. 1:43 AM? You're as bad as me! So, were you up that late working or just couldn't wait to post the pictures?

Can't wait to see the finished product.
Don

[banaari]

It's incredibly effective - just sink the loop into the foam and drag - and up comes a neat square strip of foam cut out of the trench.
Ha! The timestamp on the messages shows up in your local time... no matter where they were sent from, and it was only 8:43pm here.

[banaari]

Got the first layer (and some patches) of glass on the pod tonight - what a blast! Cloth that just doesn't want to cooperate when dry suddenly clings willingly to impossible contours when wet - just like a T-shirt.

The packing tape's covering patches of fairing compound... and the trench I dug for the lip... have aborted that approach, going to go with the Alan technique and do it afterwards.

Tomorrow, we sand...