Legal Eagle XL in Pennsylvania

[Kamcoman77]

I made my rudder and elevator horns a little differently. They angle forward so the cable attach points are in line with the hinge pivot points. Hoping to have less cable slack. On elevator it gave me a little more weld surface.

[Pilotarix]

That looks pretty good.
How did it work out for you. I understand that your plane is already in flying, correct ?

My flying experience is limited to Piper Cessna and the like. I always hated the cable slack in our Piper 160 Cadet. For a while I flew DA20 Katana, this plane has pushrods, at least for the aileron and elevator. Very precise steering, no comparision to the Piper. So I would look forward to a solution that has the least amount of slack.

[Kamcoman77]

No, not flying. Probably next year. I'm sidelined with a hospital stay and bout with Covid. Taking a couple of months out of my life, due to my age and general health.

[DA Miller]

Kam sorry to hear about the covid; our prayers are with you.

[Dan_]

Tell them to hit you with those monoclonal antibodies... 

I know a guy that got that infusion and dint even have to go to hospital.  They told him to for sure not get the vaccine for 90 days thereafter.

[Kamcoman77]

Thank you all.

[Pilotarix]

No, not flying. Probably next year. I'm sidelined with a hospital stay and bout with Covid. Taking a couple of months out of my life, due to my age and general health.

Sorry to hear that, COVID is no joke. Unfortunately, I see that every day. I hope you make a 100% recovery so you can enjoy flying your eagle next year.

[DA Miller]

Pilo, are you aware of the push-rod solution for elevator control that several builders have implemented?  I made it on my XL. It's fairly straight forward.

[Pilotarix]

Pilo, are you aware of the push-rod solution for elevator control that several builders have implemented?  I made it on my XL. It's fairly straight forward.

Da,

Thank you for mentioning that.
A while ago, in the nearly infinite space of the Legal Eagle universe I came along some guy who had implemented pushrods at least for the aileron. Can't remember where that was, it just flew across my eye and disapeared in the universe of pixels and bits. I would appreciate more information if possible. Even though I like the idea of pushrods very much, as an unexperienced builder this would probably be too much modification of the original plans.
However, I am really looking forward to get more information about the foldable wings. That is something I am very interested in.
Both have the downside that they will likely add weight to the bird.


Here is my update from the last couple of days.

I wasn't able to accomplish much because I had to work the entire weekend. I try to stick with doing a little bit every day.

I sanded almost all of the 18 wingribs I made so far. I used an oscillating sander with 220 grit and made a couple of sanding sticks with 180 and 220.
I continued with rib fabrication, currently ribs with the K-block and the K-block gusset.
Unfortunately my jig becomes more and more contaminated with epoxy even though I try to work as clean as possible. As an unwanted result of that I cracked another rib while getting it out of the jig. Victim number two,crap. This is pain in the behind, but not really a problem since I have surplus material.
I have tried wachs on the jig but that didn't work for me. Yesterday I found this mold release agent which I have used on silicon molds. I tried it and it was much easier to get the rib out of the jig than it was before. So I will use that for the rest of the ribs. 

I also made the aileron stiffeners that will cover the whole rib behind the rear spar from Lloyds approved Meranti plywood.

[Kamcoman77]

Nice work. I really like the way you designed your rib #7 stiffeners. I got my ribs out of the jig without breaking by sliding a skinny stainless steel ruler back & forth under the rib. Broke the T-88 loose every time.

[DA Miller]

I saw some aileron push rods. They were on a DE/CE.  I don't think anyone has done them on an XL. Remembering where you saw something and how to get back to it is, for me, extremely difficult.  Here are 2 elevator push rod pic sites: click on (co) single seaters XL-co p6-co converting to elevator push rod-go to Dan click on link. 2nd site: search tail wheel ( use search block at top of page, not the search in upper right hand corner) go to page 2 #36 Frank's XL. Another site which has many good pics is Darron  Crompton search scarf-co #19- go to p4- click on Dan's link.  This is very confusing, but it's the best I could do.  DA

[DA Miller]

Help me out.  What is Lloyds approved Meranti plywood. Where do you get it? aircraft approved?  Just wondering. DA

[Pilotarix]

Nice work. I really like the way you designed your rib #7 stiffeners. I got my ribs out of the jig without breaking by sliding a skinny stainless steel ruler back & forth under the rib. Broke the T-88 loose every time.

Thanks!  I have a similar technique, but I think my main problem is that I am sometimes not patient enough. 

Help me out.  What is Lloyds approved Meranti plywood. Where do you get it? aircraft approved?  Just wondering. DA

Thank you for pointing me to the information about the pushrods. I will see if I can find it.

Llyods  BS1088 approved Meranti plywood.

https://www.midwestboatappeal.com/marine-plywood-lumber/bs-1088/

BS 1088 is a European (British) standard for Marine plywood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_1088

Germanischer Lloyd developed a standard for aircraft plywood (and much more) primarily used in Europe.



Germanische Lloyd SE is now https://www.dnv.com/

Marine Plywood, like Okume, has been used extensively in European aircraft build. If I recall this correctly, Jodel and Robin have used Okume for their boxed main spar for a long time. Not anymore. I have read somewhere that they now use Birch plywood. https://www.robin-aircraft.com/en/ateliers/
Okume is very strong and light but not very rot-resistant, which is now given a reason not to use it in aircraft.

If you look at all the specifications, MIL-spec Lloyds, and the like, a big part is the glue. Water-resistant and boil-proof. Then the number of layers, the direction of the grain, no voids and the like. Birch seems to be the strongest but is also the heaviest.
As an example, Okume 4X8 sheet 18Lbs - Birch 4x8 sheet 25Lbs.

So, I would think aircraft approved means that the plywood meets all these criteria and/or is made specifically for use in aircraft. The latter is going to make it pretty expensive because somebody has to sign for it. I think certified marine plywood is pretty good stuff, but it is not explicitly made to be used in aircraft. However, it is used very often for that purpose. I think I read somewhere that the first Legal Eagle was made out of plywood from the "marine store."
At the end of the day, I would not substitute one material for another in load critical areas without testing. But the plans don't say anything about the type of plywood that should be used, or? The designer assumes that we will choose the appropriate material.
But how can we do that? We all would like to achieve the same results Leonhard achieved while testing the XL wing, correct? But we can only do that by using precisely the same materials. But we don't know what was used, at least I cannot find this information.

Anyhow, I am using Birch for the spars, Meranti and Okoume for other not-so-critical components. I use them because I have them in my plywood pile. Otherwise, I would probably use Birch throughout. Actually, I am trying to avoid the Okoume (see above), but I may not have enough of the Meranti.

[DA Miller]

Thanks

[Pilotarix]

Hi all,

Another update on the progress.

Not much happened over the weekend. We used the gorgeous weather to be out on the Chesapeake Bay with the boat.

Somehow I screwed up some of the K-Block cover gussets and had to make some new ones. Here the laser comes in pretty handy, easy to make just a few new ones.

Also, I made some of them out of 1/4" plywood on the CNC. They will go on rib #7 and face the aileron, also on rib #12.
The Irondesign videos show a normal K-block covered by a 0.8mm K-block gusset on rib #7, so why not make a thick K-block gusset, everything in one piece.
The screenshots are from the Irondesign videos.