Getting the first float down

I was a bit scared to hoist the float out of the window of my attic, but with a little help from my friends everything went really smooth.

fairing float no. 1

For putting on fairing putty I used the method shown on the very nice site of Henny, a builder living in the Netherlands as well. First put on ridges of putty with a candy bag, then sand them down and use the ridges as a guide for putting on the bulk of the fairing putty.

Ridges not sanded down

Ridges sanded down

Hey stupid!

My first and probably not the last mistake. I misread the plans and measured the positioning of the float chainplate from the deck glueing flange in stead of the top of the deck. Now the chainplate is sitting 1 cm too low. I'm nog going to correct it (it is impossible without doing a lot of damage to the float). I'm sure it will still be possible to attach a stay to the chainplate.
I will put the chainplate on the second float also 1 cm too low - I want the floats to be identical.

Float half no. 2 ready for sheating

Float half no. 1 joined

Starting float no. 1

NOTE: I created this blog in august 2007, almost a year after starting the building of my F22. That's why the first part of the blog is not complete.

I'm building the floats in my attic. It's a tight fit, but possible. This is a photo of the 'stripping' of the foam core of the first float-half.