More Sanding & Filling

After waiting an extra day due to cold weather moving through, I was able to pull the Dacron this morning. It still looked a little soft and I pulled the fuselage back out in the sun to help it cure completely. I think that wasn't exactly necessary as the heat from sanding also helped it quite a bit. However, it is nice to keep the dust away from the house as much as possible. This time I focused on sanding the canopy line down to the electric tape. This is definitely a job for manual labor as sanding through the tape by accient is just not an option I want to consider. Eager as I am I forgot to take photos before putting more filler on - duh! Anyway, sanding down to the tape really takes some patience and a sharp eye. The red tape came in quite handy at this step. Now I filled it with another coat of micro-ballons/resin mix. I focused not just on the canopy line but also at those saggy spots that had no support under them.

Unfortunately, all the areas I need to work at, besides the skirt, are inside the plane at this point. And so, they are UNDER the canopy which I cannot open. This reduces the effective time I can work on the weekends, which is less than exciting at this point. I really would like to get forward with the build right now before the temps will go above 100F again. The curing time of the epoxy really is a show stopper at this time. I might just try to get into work even earlier than usual and see that I can take off in the afternoon early enough to get another sanding job done before sunset. It's nice to have natural light for that part of the job.