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Routing Willy Nilly

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 6:51 am
by danoliver
I'll be starting my fuselage here as soon as glue worthy weather hits Cincinnati. I plan to ad the passenger door per Keri Ann Price's plans. One thing I noticed on her drawings is that she includes instructions for routing lots of places in the struts, braces, and longerons throughout the fuselage structure. The purpose I suppose is to offset some of the extra weight added to strengthen around the door.
I've often wondered how much routing a person could get by with on an AirCamper without compromising strength. It seems like the aileron beams would be a good place to start. The leading edge looks like some nice juicy low hanging fruit. What about some of them beams in the tail section to counter a little of that aft cg everyone is always talking about.
I like to sometimes envision myself going crazy with a router carving nooks and crannies willy nilly eveyhere! Then I snap out of it and remember that I don't know a darn thing about structual design, or aircraft design, or math.
Anyway my question is how far have folks gone with routing and how much weight do you think it saved and what are the pitfalls? I realize a Pietenpol is considered an experimental aircraft but I'm not one to do much experimenting so this is mostly a hypothetical exercise on a cold winters day.

Re: Routing Willy Nilly

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 10:26 pm
by VincentDunn
I routed my Western Hemlock wing spars and saved weigh with little strength penalty. I’d be cautious routing in the aft fuselage as a hard landing could really stress the routed parts back there.

Re: Routing Willy Nilly

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:39 pm
by danoliver
In the end I chickened out. Routing the entire fuselage seemed like a lot of work and a lot of risk for very little gain. I only routed the 3 major pieces that strengthen the door frame, similar to routing a spar.
Incase anyone is curious my port fuselage side weighs 11.4 pounds while the starboard side with the added door structure weighs 16.2, a 4.8 pound difference. That’s not to mention the added weight of hinges, latches and fairing to come.
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Re: Routing Willy Nilly

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:50 pm
by Richard Roller
Ken Perkins routed the leading edge, between ribs.