Pioneer Online Builders Manual
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FUSELAGE

01RawFuse – Fuselage in four pieces, as shipped by Jim Marske. Five pieces are bottom half, top half (with fin), seat pan, wheel well, and instrument panel. Constructed dolly for fuselage to sit in, then put wheels on dolly in order to move around the shop. Ended up being very convenient during work on fuse, as well as keeping assembly out of the way when working on other things.

02 Release Cable – Structural cross-piece has been drilled and bolted to imbedded rails along canopy seat. This cross piece holds the actuating tube for the control release mechanism. The wooden sticks are notched at each end and about 1" wider than the fuselage interior, in the position at which they are shown. This allows them to wedge the release cable housing (the whitish tube in the picture) in place. Note the release mechanism is already mounted, as per the plans, on the inside bottom shoulder of the fuselage wing root. Also, note the swagged cable connecting the release cross tube and the release mechanism. I moved the tube around until there was a minimum of friction, then used epoxy and chopped fiberglass (to thicken and strengthen the mixture) to glue it in place. Also, at the bottom of the photo, you can see the wheel housing laying upside down in the fuselage bottom. This is not where it goes, I just happened to have it laying there when I took this shot! Finally, just to the right of the wheel housing, on the half bulkhead, you can see the phenolic bearing for the control stick. It has been bolted in place on the bulkhead. The three rectangular holes you can see at the extreme right of the photo are three of the four holes where the wing spar fittings pass through the fuselage side, to be attached to the carry structure which is not yet mounted in the fuselage.

03 Release cable – another view of cable housing being glued in place. I used heat lamps to speed up the cure of the epoxy when I was gluing in the winter coolness of my basement.

04 Nose well – PVC pipe glued into hole at front of fuselage, where pitot tube, fresh air vent and rudder return spring mounts are located. Contrary to plans, I mounted a 30 degree bent PVC pipe coupler rather than the straight pipe shown in the plans. This allowed me to run the fresh air duct up against the top fuselage wall, keeping it away from my feet and knees. In the lower portion of the photo you can see the rudder pedals laying down, since the springs were not yet attached.

05 Skid – As per plans, tried laminating two pieces of ash. Ended up springing apart! Tried cutting three thinner laminations of ash and gluing up in this same jig. Three layers did the trick and this is the skid I now fly with. With the stainless steel plate on the bottom this skid is fairly durable, though only a few landings on asphalt runways is enough to ruin the skid. I am considering making a kevlar skid with a small roller blade wheel in it, for use off of hard surface runways. Also, the ash skid with stainless plate is VERY heavy.

06 Instrument panel – First generation instrument panel, had basic airspeed, altimeter, Ball vario, and fresh air vent. Small hole was for home built electronic compass. I have since built several different panels, as my tastes/needs changed. Current version is shown in photo pages on Matt Redsell's website. Current panel is an aluminum sheet, shaped like the half circle face of the panel shown in this photo. This aluminum panel is bolted to the original fiberglass panel that came with the ship. In the current photo on Matt's site, you can see the reshaping I did to mount my Ball Graphics Computer.

07 Helper – Daughter #3 imitating what Dad does when he gets that imaginary stick time!

08 Shelf – Another deviation from plans. Mounted shelf on top of carry through structure. This shelf is where the BRS (ballistic parachute) and headrest are mounted. Shelf had to be removable, so you could have access to control hookups during assembly. Shelf slides forward under tabs, which are visible at right edge of plywood shelf. Then used bolts and wing nuts (not shown in picture) to secure back half of shelf to metal tabs welded onto top tube of carry through structure.

09 Fitting carry through structure – With wings attached and elevators hooked up, time to set carry through structure in place and drill mounting holes that bolt structure to fuselage bulkheads. Must be sure to align wings with fuselage wing roots, to achieve best aerodynamic fit. Once all is square and aligned, drill fuselage mounting bolt holes. Only one chance to do this right, so measure everything many times!

10 controls – Once carry through structure is bolted in place, control linkages go in pretty quick. This is side view of aileron actuating belcrank and, to the right, the green "T" shaped piece is the actuating assembly for the spoilers. Note the rudder cable housings (light blue tube with sloppy reddish glue on either side of it) glued to the fuselage side. Also visible is the bolt and wing nut used to hold down the BRS shelf, mentioned above.

11 Gluing turtle deck – All controls in place, plastic bags on ends of main and drag spar carry through tubes (to keep them free of glue), now time to glue on turtle deck. Note two layers of glue-impregnated fiber glass are already laid on mating surface. If this doesn't make sense, look at Jim's diagram on the plans. The glue joint is a sandwich of two layers of glass cloth between the two fuselage pieces.

12 Prep Turtle Deck – bottom of fin spar has to be trimmed to fit fuselage, then glue is brushed on mating surface of turtle deck. Turtle deck shown here upside down.

13 Clamped – Mixed flocked epoxy and spread on trailing edge area, then set turtle deck in place and clamped. Used clamping board to distribute pressure.

14 Rudder & cables – After mounting rudder build-up blocks, mounted rudder and strung rudder cables.

15 Pedals and Springs – Rudder cables shown attached to rudder pedals, with return springs in place. Note turnbuckles at forward attach end of cable. These allow tension adjustment as well as pedal length adjustment for long legged folks. Control stick is in place. Metal tab visible at center of carry through bar is a tab for securing instrument panel to carry through. I was afraid the panel would not have enough support by just bolting it around the perimeter, so I fabricated the tab. Proved unnecessary.

16 Rudder Cap – With rudder in place, put cosmetic cap on to align rudder top with fin top.

17 BRS – BRS unit mounted in place on shelf. Headrest is mounted to the two straps visible on the canister.

18 Stick – Control stick with seat pan hole.

19 Sealing – Top half of fuselage sprayed with sealer/primer.

20 Plate – This is a view of the bottom of the fuselage wing root, where the release mechanism extends through the fuselage. I glassed an aluminum plate in place to strengthen the mounting point for the releases. Experience has proven that I should have glassed these on the INSIDE of the fuselage. When assembling the ship, sometimes it is necessary/unavoidable to rest the lower spar fittings on the lower surface of the fuselage root, while positioning the wing for assembly. This weight would be better distributed if the plate were on the inside. I have had to do repair of the glass work because I mounted my plates on the outside. By the way, these plates were my idea and are not on the plans.

21 Texture – Found great material for finishing fiberglass surfaces, at WALMART. It is a two-part material composed of a water based sprayed-on material which leaves color and the bumpy texture. Once dried, a varnish or epoxy coating is applied for durability. The material was sold in the garden shop and was advertised as useful for decorating clay flowerpots. This material left a very eye-pleasing texture, completely hid the fiberglass weave, and was extremely lightweight. I ended up using it on all the visible interior surfaces which were raw fiberglass.

22 Nose well – Here is a shot with set pan and instrument panel in place. Note foot well is finished with textured material. Ply panels will be fabric covered and will have map pockets. The panels velcro in place and cover the area where the release tubes run.

23 Tail wheel – Made fairing for tail wheel. Bolted tail wheel in place, stuck foam blocks around it and carved them to shape. Then, with masking tape in place to keep from sticking to fuselage, glassed over foam. After cure, popped foam clear, used rotary rasp to gouge out all the foame, leaving a fiberglass shell for the fairing. Fit small screws to hold fairing in place and give access to tail wheel assembly.

24 Color – First layers of color going on. Note homemade spray booth. Used lathing strips nailed to ceiling beams and nailed to 2X4s which were taped to the floor. Stapled plastic drop cloth material to this lathing framework. At glass doors visible in picture, large fan closed off the end of the booth. At end behind where photographer was standing, is a screen door made of furnace filters. This allowed fresh air to enter the booth and be exhausted out the glass doors. Did all spraying with small compressor and spray gun, never smelled anything in the house!

25 Seat – Frame for headrest in place on BRS. Seat cushion made of Temperfoam. Have flown 6.5 hour flight and seat was very comfortable. Handle in view on left wall is spoiler release mechanism.

26 Done! – Finished cockpit with seat cushions in place. Note also, the vinyl stick boot. Stick boot snaps in place with regular dress snaps. Visible in front of the seat, to the right, is the top of my orange battery. Visible on the right and left canopy rails, hanging down alongside the blue panels are the canopy latches. The canopy is held in place by the aluminum pins at the back and these latches, which come from the KR-1 folks. The harness is a four-point system to prevent submarining, in the event of an abrupt stop.