It's a Big Day

We reached a big milestone today, the canard is finally in place!  I wound up having a big crew today and they made the operation go smoothly. Thanks go to Pete Polete, Larry Flesner, Bill Hunter, Clarke Deacon, Bob Kolkmeyer for jumping in and lending a hand.

The day before, Pat and I had located the mounting blocks for the rudder pedals.  I established this position from their location on the old canard.

 Got up early to add the glass that really locks the mounting blocks in place.  I am rather sensitive about this, since I had an accident on my 15th flight in this a/c, because the rudder pedals tore loose. I would just as soon not repeat that act.

After I explained what we were trying to accomplish, the crew and I did a dry run to make sure everything aligned properly.  We had to verify canard skew, angle of attack in relation to the existing airframe, centering on the fuselage left-to-right, and tip-to-tip level.

After the dry run, I had a little more grinding to do, then it was time for the real deal.

This reminds me of the teetering rocks seen in the Road Runner cartoons.  We used this stack of Styrofoam to keep the wings level.  Rube Goldberg would have been proud.

Finally all glued up.  We just glued in the canard to the firewall and to the bottom of the magneto box.  After it cures for 24 hrs, I'll start adding the fiberglass reinforcing tapes.

I remember what this feels like.  Feels good.