4 day weekend is a wonderful thing.  Even working a few hours each day, I get a lot of airplane building done.

    One thing I found out after nearly a month of building.  I am most effective working about 3-4 hour building session a day.  This may sound short for builders that are used to doing 10 hours straight.    Each builders have particular set of constraints to work with and effective working hours differ from builder to builder.  It is really important to know your working habit and limits 

    Here a few consideration that are particular to my building style.

1. I can only last about 4 hours without bathroom breaks (the shop has no bathrooms).
2. After 3-4 hours, I run out of things to do without touching wet layups.
3. After 3-4 hours of intensive work, I usually need some kind of head-scratching time figuring out what comes next.
4. It's important for me to balance other aspects of life with airplane building.

    Well, 1. is pretty self explanatory.  A few words about 2. and 3.  I am an impatient builder.  If there is one thing I hate, that is waiting.  I hate waiting for epoxy to cure.  I would go back to fresh layup every five minutes poking it with my dirty fingers to see if it has cured.  Of course, common sense will tell you that all you get out of doing this is messy fingers and ruined layup.  So either I need to keep myself occupied with other parts of airplane or go away.  So I will do some layup and work on other parts that can be taken care of.  Pretty soon, there is fresh layup everywhere and that's the time for me to call it a day.

    When factory quote you what's so called 'build time', they usually mean time you spend working on the plane.  It does not include what builders call 'head scratching' time.  This is time we all spend looking at the manual, watching the video, calling factory support, and going through Aircraft Spruce and Specialty catalog.  What I normally do is, during the week, I look over the manual, watch the video, and think about what needs to be done next.  I also read ahead and see how each process will come together in the end.  Then I mentally plan out work plans for the next session and have some rough idea of what I am going to do in what order.  If necessary, I would order supplies and tools I might need.  By getting the 'head scratching' out of the way, I can concentrate on getting the work done and use the limited shop time effectively.

    Enough lectures.  Back to airplane building.  On the top of this page, the photo shows the speed brake piece dropped into place held up slightly by the mixing stick job I have created earlier.  The fuselage was now laid down on its proper position.  Two ply of Triax was cut out, one in its long axis and another in short.  Using the same standard practice using the plastic film, these glass were saturated with epoxy.  As always, the receiving surface has been sanded and pre-wetted with epoxy. 

    Lay the 2ply over the speed brake panel and make sure that there is no dry spot or bubbles under the layup.  Pay special attention to the edges of the insert.  Because of the inset, the stiff Triax tends to lift up around the edges.  Resist the temptation to add excess amount of goo here.  All that is going to do is drain into the space between speed brake panel and the edge of the opening.  More things to clean out later on.

    Set aside to cure.