Nov 20 2015

Nose removal

Today, did something I wanted to do for years, but was truly reluctant to get started on. I had even delayed placing my order for foam and kept procrastinated about getting out the saw to get stared with the work. i have reached the stage where I need to just get it done.

This is how it looked.

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When I shot the laser, I found the nose was actually constructed 1.5” below the point it should have been. The proper point is at WL 8” but was actually set at WL 6.5”

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It really didn’t matter much because it will all be removed and rebuilt properly. With a heavy heart, I got started.

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You definitely want to protect yourself from the dust generated from this urethane foam. I really like my hobby air system for supply clean air. A mask in this case would have worked just fine.

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Total removal only took about 15 minutes. Wow, I could chop the whole plane up in an hour to so….

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Not much left of the old nose.

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Later in the evening I actually felt good about cutting the dam thing off. I am totally committed now and have now gone as far down the rabbit hole of total destruction with this plane as I had planned. Now to start with building her back up. After clean up the cut lines in prep for the foam installation, i will build a cover for the nose lift system to seal the area against air leaks since I have easy access to the nose lift now.