1. The airplane kit arrives and is unpacked, pre-fabricated stands are attached to fuselage immediately upon uncrating to prevent damage, 3 twin tube flourescent lights are installed and wired, new shelving unit specifically for Tango II parts, epoxy components, and related safety equipment for building. Parts inventoried and stored.

2. First Fiberglass applied! (Using KISS principal, Keep It Small Silly) 2 layers of bid over front part fuselage seam.

3. Applied 2 layers of bid over rear part fuselage seam.

Sanded and profiled top fiberglass layers, ready for Gelcoat.

Prepared bottom of fuselage for 2 layers of fiberglass.

3. Applied 2 layers of bid over bottom fuselage seam.

4. Cut both Main Spar holes, set incidence to 2 degrees, set Dihedral to 6 degrees and measured level top of main spar. measured level on fuselage lines, measured main spar tips to elevator hinge pin so that both were equal, water leveled fuselage front to back, and spar tips. Tabbed spar to fuselage to main spar in three spots with Aerosil/Epoxy inbetween.

5. Fillet both Main Spar holes and bond main spar to bottom of fuselage with Aerosil/Epoxy. Sand fillets on all sides and sand and radius all areas to get fiberglass reinforcement.

As seen from front.

As seen from back.

6. Getting all the necessary supplies together to glass the front part of the main spar and vacuum bag it.

7. Initial 3 layers of BID Glass on floor to front of main spar using vacuum bag technique.  (3 layers of 45 degree oriented fiberglass, lots of resin, perforated polyester peel ply, polyester batting, sealed with plastic and vacuum nipple and hose attached.. I used my air compressor intake to pull this down tight!)

7. Initial 3 layers of BID Glass on floor to rear of main spar using vacuum bag technique.

8. Just look at how nice and flat the layers of BID laid down and conformed to the fillets. No air pockets, and you can lightly see the weave of the fiberglass just like a perfect resin/fiberglass ratio layup should look like. Nice and smooth with a bit of texture from the peel ply so if I needed to lay up more layers I'm ready with minimal sanding! No pools of resin as I had in test hand stippled layups.

9. Prepare outer fuselage by removing gelcoat for 4 layers of fiberglass reinforcement from spar to fuselage.

9. Four layers of BID on a 45 degree bias applied on outside to reinforce fuselage to spar.

10. Four layers of BID on a 45 degree bias applied on inside to reinforce fuselage to spar.

11. Measure bottom wing skin and mark for placement on spar. Applied three thin coats of resin for sealing.

12. Bottom of Spar, area between lines on bottom skin are roughed up with 80 grit, resin is mixed to mayonaise consistance with milled fiberglass, applied to bottom skin between lines. Two helpers hold skin, four other helpers assemble jigs, put in aluminum tubing and shim so that resin squeezes out on both sides of spar all the way down. 

13. Rear spar is fitted to fuselage and wing. 8.5 degrees is the setting as designated by the instructions to verify correct wingskin and rear spar alignment. Factory cut rear spar hold had to be lowered about 1/2" to make it the right level.

14. Rear spar is bonded and again measurements are taken. I checked with the wingtip rib to verify alignment as well.

15. Left lower skin starts the same process with the three coats of resin to seal the skin from the fuel.

16. Prepare wheel fairings and tail fairing by sanding back to good gelcoat and removing mold flash.

17. Ooops, a bit short on building space for the wings. Always wanted to put a double door to the garage anyways. (GRIN!!!!)  But now I DO have plenty of space to work on the wings.

18. Here I am glassing 3 bias layers from the wing skin to the main spar and vacuum bagging it all up. What a nice finish you get with bagging.