REFLECTOR: Strake build with doors on or off?

[Brett Ferrell]

I vote for door off, I hear (ahem) that it's tough to get the door off 
later.  And even if you do glass them at the same time, there's some 
cosmetic work to do later, maybe not quite as much, but the doors seem to 
change shape a lot.  Maybe that levels out once they've been in the sun for 
awhile, but I feel like I've got to latch mine shut whenever I'm not working 
on them to get them from flattening out and getting hard to latch.

Brett

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Hallsten" <KeithHallsten at quiknet.com>
To: "'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Strake build with doors on or off?


> Well, the obvious disadvantage of glassing the strake to the fuselage and
> door, then cutting the strake when it's completed, it that you can't open
> the door.  On the other hand, as long as the door latches and fairing have
> been completed first, the strake alignment across the door cut line will 
> be
> perfect.  I know some builders have done it that way.
>
> I wanted to build both strakes at the same time, so as to avoid creating
> differences between the two.  However, I did a fair amount of fitting of 
> the
> baffles and bulkheads in the strakes through the opening into the cabin, 
> so
> I needed to have at least one door open.  Therefore, I took the doors off 
> as
> soon as I had the top and bottom skins fitted to the fuselage and wings. 
> I
> cut off the strake tips and glassed them to the doors after the strakes 
> were
> closed.  However, the fit of my strake tips is not perfect across the door
> cut joints.  I think a little filler will suffice to blend them in, but
> that's the risk with the technique I used.  Your mileage may vary!
>
> Keith Hallsten
> XLFG - Engine install and panel building
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
> Behalf Of gattenby at tulsaconnect.com
> Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 2:47 PM
> To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
> Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Electronic PoH for Velocity
>
>
>
> I've got the strake trimed and ready to glass on.
> Is it better to attach it with the door on or with the
> door off?
>
>
> Noel
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