Routing Willy Nilly
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 6:51 am
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.
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.