Now the seat components are assembled I added the side and rear cockpit pannels.
hmmmm, Looks a bit like a cross between a coffin and a bath tub....
Another shot from the front of the craft.
After a lot of cralling around under the craft I fitted the plaining surfaces around the edge of the craft. It now looks huge and is harder to work on now as it takes up most of the space in the garage.
This is the front of the craft, the pannels are braced with scraps of plywood to hold them at exactly the right angle.
The bottom of the skirt will be cable tied to the loops hanging out of the craft. They are made out of one continuous piece of stainless steel cable. The plans called for solid steel wire bent into shape. These would have taken me weeks to make, cost a fortune and should I crash the craft as they do not flex they would shatter the wood around them whereas the stainless cable flexes slightly.
The bottom of the air duct around the edge of the craft was covered over with plywood and the cavity was then filled with two part expanding foam.
This process is fine but if you accidentaly put in too much liquid and leave it to expand it can make the wood bulge and crack. Luckily I only had a minor problem with this but was on hand with a big drill to make some more holes to release the pressure...It could have been messy.
Another shot of the bouyancy compartment at the bottom of the air duct (plenum).
The next challenge is to make the deck fit. It looks like it wont be too tricky as the hull is no more than 6mm off the specified dimensions. Im very happy with that.
Once I have test fitted all the deck (apron) pannels and are happy with them, they will all be removed, and strengthened.
After struggling for about 15 mins I managed to get a vaguly acurate measurement of the weight of the hull as it stands. It is currently 98kg (216.05lbs). The plans say the hull should be 217lbs so by the time I am complete I estimate that I will be 5Kg over (11lbs) as far as I am concerned this is no big deal especialy as the extra weight is due to the extra strength to carry the monster engine.
The final craft is on course to be about 250Kg which is what I had origionaly calculated for. The engine should be able to cope with this plus a couple of people but if i dont watch the weight very carefully from now on I am going to be in serious trouble.