First lttle job to check off the list today was to drill the panel behind the windscreen to take the GPS and Comm antenna. Strictly these are too close together but hopefully with a notch filter on the GPS input it should be OK. Also, the ground plane for the comm antenna is not really big enough but with rag and tube fuselages this is always a problem. I'll test the standing wave ratio (SWR) once everything is installed to check it's OK, otherwise it may be necessary to glue some aluminium foil to the inside of the fabric to extend the ground plane. Next job was to trim the main windscreen back to the outer screen supports. This was done with a cut-off wheel in the angle grinder, then reducing grades of abrasive were used to get smooth edges. Next a piece of 2mm lexan was cut to make the side window and drilled to the tabs underneath the top stub longeron. The window was also then drilled to the window-frame pieces made earlier http://tailwindbuild.blogspot.com/2008/10/19th-october-2008-left-side-window.html. Finally a piece of 0.025" thick aluminium sheet was cut to overlap the bottom of the windscreen and match drilled to the windscreen support tabs, the door frame support tabs, the lower longeron support tabs and the firewall edge. The rear edge of the sheet was bent to a right angle to wrap neatly round the back of the door frame and slots cut out for the door hinges. Eventually the front of the cheek will be riveted to the firewall and the bottom riveted to the under side panel http://tailwindbuild.blogspot.com/2008/11/22nd-november-2008-fuselage-bottom.html
