It's just all white now, but my Goat is officially covered and assembled in a flight configuration!
It was nice to see that the aileron lines did line up nicely with the inspection panel access to connect the crossover cable. I had no issue sticking my arm inside to make this connection.
I did not have terrible problems assembling the pins with the covering installed. It worried me a little this would be tougher not being able to reach through the structure, but concerns were unrealized. All the cables and pins and things were okay, save for a couple places where the covering made a little "tent" over a nearby bolt head. Nothing stood out as an actual problem.
The covering and paint definitely added some weight to the wings, which showed up as a bit more aft mass. When sitting in the seat, I used to be able to lean forward and pick up the tail. Now the mass is far enough aft of the CG that I really need a person to step on the nose to get the tail off the ground. It still balances with my mass forward of the wheel when in a flying attitude, so the simple CG check still passes.
I definitely need some trim color, but Mr. Goat looks happy :-)
3 comments:
Can you comment on your inspection ring access? How is that patched? Do you use Velcro or something else to hold on the patch after you connect the cable? I didn’t put a ring there. Instead I made the hole on the inboard end large enough to slide my hand in and connect the lines.
The inspection ring in the covering is a plastic ring that is bonded into the fabric during covering. The removable ring is a few bucks from Aircraft Spruce, and is a thin dome of aluminum sheet metal with a thin spring-steel clip on the back. You can simply slide the cover into position too far, then back centered, and it stays in place quite nicely.
Having extra inspection rings in the covering, but not cut out, does leave convenient places to inspect in the future.
I thought about following your idea to make a really large access at the root. I'm sure that works a-okay.
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