The entirety of Goat has been mobile for the first time! The wing were strapped into the trailer with ratchet straps, and the struts and tail were strapped to the cross-beams with Velcro. The horizontal tail sat atop the upper wing and jammed in-between the wing and flap/ailerons.
The nose section was in the back of the sporty Prius-mobile.
With the tail section 'backwards' to the airflow, the rudder looked a bit wiggly at 45mph. I'm sure there will be a better placement for each of the components, determined from some trial-and-error.
The trailer rode reasonably well with the weight of the plywood and the stiffness of fully trussing the structure. I could probably get away with the current welding, but it would make me feel much better to weld everything completely.
The upper wing mounts could be about 1in higher and still leave ample room. The 1in square tube isn't quite large enough for the hitch pins to hold securely, so it would be nice to replace them with 1.25in square tube instead, and moving them up at the same time.
To-do's before the first flight are now:
take all of Goat for its first trip around the neighborhood- finish weld the upper rail to the vertical supports
- finish weld all the trailer joints
- do a weight & balance
- do a very thorough pre-flight check
- acquire radios (need 1x in car, 1x airborne)
Deferred:
- wing root kiss seal
- leather patch on wing tips where they rub the ground
- leather patch guides for elevator control lines
- trim color paint
- main strut fairings
- jury strut fairings
- emergency parachute
- drogue chute
- variometer
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