Sequoia Aircraft Corporation F.8L Falco, Construction Manual

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F.8L Falco Construction Manual 24–27 Revision 4, March 1, 2002
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Install the NAV antenna coaxial cable in the wing. The location for the cable is shown in
the wing rib drawings. At Sta. 4 inboard, the transponder coaxial cable witll be routed
with it—see next step
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Install the coaxial cable for the transponder antenna into the cockpit along with the
coaxial cable for the NAV antenna.
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If you plan to install a Loran antenna in your airplane, review Chapter 14 “Antenna
Installation”. Install ground wires as needed.
Skinning the Wing
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Install the skins for the wheel well. These skins extend from the top of the wing to the
bottom and will be sanded to the wing skin contour after they are glued in place. Cut the
openings for the screwjacks as shown on Drawing No. 102. These openings may be
enlarged as necessary later.
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In preparation for float sanding the wing, remove the side load fittings. If you have not
primed the other metal parts that are installed in the wing, this is a good time to do that.
The aileron and flap hinges may be removed as required for local float sanding—obviously,
you cannot remove all of them at the same time.
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Float sand the entire wing in preparation for skinning. You should sand the top and
bottom of the wing from Sta. 1 to Sta. 14. The center top of the wing—the seat
floor—should be sanded now. Do not worry about the wing tip at this point. If you intend
to have a mirror-smooth wing, this is where it all begins. Getting the ribs and spars
smooth for the skin is what causes the wing skin itself to be smooth.
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Fit the upper wing skin for Sta. 1 to Sta. 6. This will require a 50”x50” piece of 2.5mm
birch plywood. An extra piece of plywood at the trailing edge must be scarfed and glued to
the skin before it is installed. This extra piece may be installed with the grain direction
fore-and-aft for slightly greater strength of the wing walk.
Note: As designed, the upper wing skin stops with the little triangular strip at the aileron
and flaps. At the bottom, the skin stops at the aft face of the aft wing spar. If you are
interested in speed-at-all- costs, the skins may installed so that they almost touch the
flaps—or you can fill in the bottom with a strip of spruce or sticky-back foam later.
The geometry of the ailerons does not permit such aerodynamic tricks, and bear in mind
that if you close up the slot for the aileron, any gain in speed will be offset by a loss in
aileron effectiveness since this slot does for the aileron exactly what it does for the
flaps—turning it into a high-lift device. Closing up the slot for the flaps will have less
effect since the slot will open with the flaps' greater deflection and lower hinge line.
And what about skinning the “cove ribs” that form part of this slot? This was not done on
the production Falcos, but if you want to you may—use a 1mm birch plywood skin. Will it
make your Falco faster? Dang if we know, but it does make it look pretty.
The leading and trailing edge strings may be removed while the skins are fitted—and these
strings are not shown in any of the remaining illustrations in this chapter—but you should
use them to double check the aligment of the wing while gluing on any skins.