Interestingly I couldn’t find a reference in how to do this step in the Long-EZ plans. There is a bit more in the Cozy plans buts it’s straight forward anyway. Make a foam block and cover it with 2 ply UND crossing at 45 degrees. I made a good start in the previous post and spend a couple more quite long days getting it done.

After making a few flat areas to begin my curve I finally decided it might be an idea to have some sort of template. I dug up the plans and bits of paper and plastic we used once these strakes were designed and made some cutouts for B.L.23, B.L.45 and the fuselage side. The outboard bulkhead being already formed from the wing and in place served as well. So I had 4 points to work from. Plenty.

I wasn’t looking to be super accurate as this thing was going to shape itself right? All I had to do was keep that curve consistent and match the two very different ends as well as a different middle and another different bit. Thats what you get when you blend two airfoils.

I still had my leading edge mark to work from which helped a lot.

After some time it all turned into a curve that I think is ‘correct’. The gap a the top, and yes there is one underneath, were intended as I beveled the upper and lower skin here so the glass would fit well over the front bulkhead.

I went for flox in the intersections and make flox corners at the outboard ends too. The rest of the foam was given the usual micro slurry.

This leading edge layup was a really good candidate for the foil method. I cut the UND so it had a 45 degree bias one ply opposite the other sort of making it a type of BID over the two plies. Above you can see I’ve wetted out the pieces and cut them to size. The strakes were already marked that is just visible in the pic so all I had to do was line it up in place.

Foil on and nice and straight. This is much easier than cutting dry cloth in place and trying to get it all tidy.

After a lot of application and getting it as flat and clean as I could come the fun part. Yes just a few strips of peel ply. Goodbye another 90 minutes getting those four pieces down.

As you can see it worked out OK. It you’re wondering about the colour change. The foam is that tan colour just like the strakes are but I used my regular epoxy which is clear rather than the smelly brown stuff. If fuel leaks consistently all the way down there it will be the least of my problems. This stuff is fuel resistant just not proven to use an avgas bath tub.

A straight leading edge, and exact to my ‘planned’ measurements. Now there’s a change.

Still looks like some cool delta winged thing. I’m getting close to checking if I have any leaks now. Visually, these strakes are good to go.