Tuesday 23 May 2017

Su-27 Flanker nose job

After performing so well in the clean, steady lift on the Cloud, I unfortunately managed to donk the landing a bit.  The rotor on the back of the slope managed to catch us all out at one time or another, and where this wasn't a particularly hard landing, it was straight into a large lump of heather, and the plastic nose caved in.
Flanker in her element - photo courtesy of Phil Cooke
This is what I was left with - oops!


Back in the workshop, it's time to laminate up some medium-hard 1/2" balsa sheet around the original undamaged centre plate, using Tite-Bond wood glue and two large clamps :


As I know she was carrying about 4 ozs of noseweight behind F3, I took the opportunity to hollow out the blocks a little and add 2ozs of lead into the nose.  This should result in an overall lighter aircraft, which is a good thing :


Stuck on with thickened epoxy, the airframe was protected with a few layers of cheapo masking tape, and the initial carving began :


A quick splodge of lightweight filler and a fine sand, and she's ready to be re-glassed :


 Hopefully I can get the glass on this week, then the primer and top coat done at the weekend.

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