Fatboy Wing

[PonoBill]

The carbon on the bottom of the wing came out a bit lumpier and more epoxy saturated than it would have if the bagging went well. Not my best effort ever, but most of the crap work will get covered with the top layer of carbon which I plan to do across most of the bottom--at least a few inches past the patches. This one has to be good, I don't want to take a chance on weakening the original wing with two much sanding. I'll do a wider layer of 2oz glass to give me a sacrificial sanding layer and take a bit more time checking the bagging stuff before I mix epoxy. The patches are three layers of carbon. The wing feels quite stiff again already--not that I flexed it all that hard.

I also trimmed back the foam on the leading and trailing edges and filled the gap with chopped carbon mixed with epoxy. A little reinforcement for the edges before I sand, fill, sand again, and glass the top of the wing.

[PonoBill]

Well that kind of sucks. I had a bit of a fire drill bagging the top layer of the fat boy wing. I'm using a medium fast epoxy hardener but my shop is cold, so I put the epoxy and hardener in a warm water bath so I'd get good adsorption. I had everything ready to go for the bagging, two layers of carbon, one of 2oz glass, peel ply, breather, bag checked for leaks, did a dry run. Mixed the epoxy and started to laminate the first layer and the epoxy started getting hot in the cup when I was about halfway done. Damn. I dumped the whole cup on the wing and spread it out to slow the reaction but didn't dare add the other layers. I just spread it out as quickly as I could. Fortunately I had gloves on so I could work it into the leading and trailing edges. The surface looked like crap, very uneven, so I put the peel ply on, used that to even out the resin. Then I flipped it upside down, laid it on the breather, wrapped i all up and stuck it in the bag. I cranked the vacuum up to max since the part is sturdy and I wanted all the excess epoxy squeezed out. I forgot about the foam in the extensions, or rather I figured the bondo on top of them would be strong enough to resist crushing. Wrong. Oh well, I need to add another layer and a sanding layer anyway. I won't make the second layer full width, just an inch or two past the extensions. And then full width with the sanding layer. I'll bondo the dips before I do the next layer.







 The wing looked fine when I left to go wingfoiling, but when I got back it had dips where the foam in the extensions got crushed.

[clay]

stoked on this project and excited to hear a ride report. 

I took one look at a GF280 years ago and was stunned at how gianormous it is, I wrote it off immediately.

The new big wings are incredible, none of that porpoising nonsense, all the lift and much more nimble.  For now a 2400 is a good wingding size for me.    I suspect you'll be stoked.

[Admin]

That is looking pretty good right now, Bill. 

[Wetstuff]

I like people who get their hands sticky. Good for you, Bill.   Failure is always an option, but not mandatory.

Jim

[surfcowboy]

Man, I vote you just fill and paint the “stripes” white. You’ve got a strong layer there. If not, you called it, be careful not to over sand.

It’s looking beautiful.

[PonoBill]

The fatboy wing is ready to test. Some folks will probably say "you need to hotcoat that first". Actually it IS hotcoated, but I sanded most of it off. My shop is cold, my hotcoat had more zits than a 14 year old boy. Smooth is better than shiny and I want to see if this thing is going to be an improvement. Wind today. It's ready to get wet. I'll make it a little prettier later if it deserves it. Picture number three is the view from my shop. Tough duty. The mountain has lots of snow on it already.

[PonoBill]

Well, the fatboy wing got a reprieve from getting wet, so I prettied it up a bit. Just don't look at the other side.

[Admin]

Well now that is looking downright handsome!

[gone_foiling]

That looks sexy . Axis better take a note.

[JEG]

new Nasih color scheme, shouldn't go red for Axis sake

[burchas]

Well, the fatboy wing got a reprieve from getting wet, so I prettied it up a bit...

I'm glad you did that I believe chances are better for it to preform now that it got a little touch of love.

[PonoBill]

Went out in very light east winds today. Fricken' cold. The new wing works really well. I only got up a few times, and then for short periods--too little wind--but I like how stable and smooth it is, comes up cleanly, no drama. I'm certain I wouldn't have come up at all with the 1020. Not without suddenly losing 50 pounds.

[surfcowboy]

Thus proving that the required tolerances on these wings are similar to aerospace specs. 😆

Congrats man. That thing looks damn good. Now you’ve got the low end of your quiver dialed.