Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How to laminate carbon fiber to plywood

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!


In our Belite ultralight aircraft, we occasionally make and use a carbon fiber / plywood laminate.  This makes a very nice looking and strong panel, yet is very thin.   It is capable of holding a lot of load when suspended across a frame, for instance, a seat bottom.  (Double sided applications would probably be used with other cores than thin plywood.)

I recently made some of this magic thin carbon fiber / plywood.  I documented the production steps so you can see how we do it.

In order to do this, we'll use some thick beveled glass, tacky tape, a vacuum pump and some vacuum tubing, bagging film, peel & ply film, fluffy cloth padding, epoxy, and of course, -- carbon fiber and plywood.

Let's start with a nice sheet of beveled plate glass.  We've cleaned it thoroughly (I mean it, thoroughly!!!) and have lined the edges with tacky tape.  It has been waxed, then the glass has been sprayed with film release, and I've run some plastic vacuum tubing along one edge, secured with tacky tape as well.

Warning:  carbon fiber and epoxy and glass can be nasty stuff -- always use breathing protection, along with protective gloves.  Use these instructions, as always, at your own risk.

Let's get going...

Plate glass, cleaned and prepared for use.


Monday, January 16, 2012

Mile High

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!


This morning, I'd had no hope for flying today.  I called the airport weather line, and it reported that the wind was gusting to 26mph.  In a crosswind, making takeoffs and landings insanely impossible.

Come along with me, I have a story to tell.

I had wanted to fly this plane today:

Yellow Ultralight Aircraft from Belite

So, I went about my work in the shop, and felt badly that I couldn't fly due to the crosswinds.

Afternoon crept around, and another phone call to Jabara weather showed a much more favorable wind:  crosswinds had reduced to 15mph.  Improvement, for sure, but still well above my limit of 7mph crosswind.

Another hour later, and the winds were down to to 8mph.  With the ability of our huge grass runway to angle into the wind, either on takeoff or landing, I was now safe to fly.

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The gas tank was not full, but I didn't care.  I wasn't planning to fly for more than a few minutes.  I wanted to check out some engine mounts that I'd been experimenting with -- which type would produce the smoothest engine, in conjunction with the new, amazing propeller we'd been trying out?

Last week, I'd tried the new propeller/engine combination for the first time.  On another aircraft, it had produced some fairly eye opening takeoff and climb performance, as documented in this video:  (Click on the picture, and go for a ride!)

Belite Ultralight Aircraft takeoff video
(Click on the CAPTION, and the video will load and play....)

Today, I was trying the same propeller/engine combination on the yellow aircraft, along with some slightly different engine mounts.

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I'm off the ground easily and quickly, and the altimeter has passed 3000 feet in the climb.   (Ground level is 1400, so I'm plus +1600 over the ground...)  I'm kind of amazed that I'm not cold.  I have just my winter leather coat on, a hat, and some good gloves.  Normally, for winter flying, I wear coveralls.  But not today.

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And now the altimeter has reached 4000 feet above sea level.  The views are beginning to be a bit surreal:  Jabara airport is now a long ways below me to the west; I can see Hawker Beech field to the south, and Benton (Stearman Airport) is just 4 miles to the west.

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Still climbing; the altimeter passes through 5000 feet.  I no longer am doing anything other than having a good time.  For some reason, the idea of climbing is just a lot of fun.

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The views are very, very good.  I am able to take off my gloves, and retrieve my phone from my pocket, and take some pictures:

Hawker Beech field to the south (left of center in this photo)

Jabara airport to my right

Looking towards the southeast

I keep considering the feel of the engine.  It sounds strong.  I make a note of the squawks to be corrected before customer delivery of the airplane, later this week:

  a)  the control stick is a little right of center in straight flight -- adjust rod end bearing setting to fix
  b)  (maddening)  the EGT/CHT is inop -- must fix!!!
  c)  midrange roughness in engine -- adjust belt tension to ensure no slippage and adjust carburetor mixture
  d)  the floorboard is made from beautiful stained wood (hey, we've always done it that way) but I've decided to change this airplane (and all future airplanes) to aluminum, for safety sake.  The muffler is below the engine and ahead of the floorboard, so putting in a floorboard firewall seems like a good safety idea.  We have some 2024 clad aluminum for this application.
  e)  the brake cable on the left side is skewed.  It needs fixing.
  f)  the radio still does not have the antenna installed, and needs to be tested thereafter.

I think I'm forgetting one squawk, but I wrote them all down and gave them to Gene after the flight.  

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While the ground winds were 6 knots when I took off, I can tell that the winds aloft at my altitude are very fierce, yet very smooth.  I am pointed into the wind, yet I am hovering in place over my home field.  My ground speed slows to literally 10 knots.  (With a slight bit of work, I could have moved backwards.)  (And this is really no big deal.  I've done this kind of thing before in other aircraft.  I remember hovering over a wheat field many years ago, in a Cessna Cardinal.)

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The altimeter has reached 5,200 feet ASL.  Just about one mile above sea level.  While I'm nowhere near the maximum ceiling of the aircraft, I'm running out of time, gasoline, and warmth.

I've been higher in a Belite before, but this flight was a little better documented.

Do you remember my old blog post,  What Altitude Did James Reach...?  I certainly flew higher that day.

Panel of Belite Ultralight Airplane at 5200 ASL!

Time to go down.

One more picture of me ---

James in Belite Ultralight Aircraft, really really high off the ground...
Really time to go down.

I push the nose over, and the airspeed indicator shows 70 mph.  (Redline is 80mph.)  I put in a couple of notches of flaps, and it helps reduce the fairly significant elevator forces, as the plane does not want to go down.  Of course, I work in some power reductions.

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And I land.  Back on the ground.  Gene comments on how I'd been a hovering spec in the sky.

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I've been recording the flight on GPS Essentials, on my DroidX phone:


The proof is in the flight profile.  Climb to 5200 feet; ground speeds below 10mph (and nearly 100mph); turning into the wind and with the wind.  Climbing at a steady rate of about 180fpm. 

(looks like someone made a move in Words with Friends)

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Thanks for sharing this flight with me.

James Wiebe, @jamespwiebe on twitter, please follow me
James is the EAA 2011 August Raspet recipient


Saturday, January 14, 2012

World Class Takeoff and Climb

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!


Our Belite ultralight aircraft is now demonstrating world class takeoff and climb performance.

This is our new aluminum airplane design.  The propeller / engine combination has been tweaked for optimum performance and smoothness.

We've got some great new video which proves it ---

You can see the video here.

(Thanks to friend Jim Loewen for providing the video.)

Make sure you are following James on twitter:  @jamespwiebe

-- James Wiebe, EAA 2011 August Raspet recipient

Monday, January 9, 2012

Gorgeous Skies; First Flight; Video

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!


Hey Everyone,

Please remember to follow me on Twitter.  @jamespwiebe  I'll be twittering from Sun N Fun and Oshkosh later this year.

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It was a gorgeous afternoon in Wichita, KS -- temperatures in the low 50's, calm winds, blue skies.

I was scheduled for a first flight in a new airplane.  I've done this a fair number of times, and it is always a process which is cautiously approached and ultimately thrilling.

This particular plane is equipped with a 45HP MZ-201 engine.  I ended up flying it with a couple different propellers (none of which was quite right) and I look forward to flying the plane the correct prop later this week.

But this flight was still pretty cool.  I attached a high definition portable camera to the wing, and took video of the flights.  You can see one of the videos here on Belite's YouTube channel.

Gene captured some great pics of the maiden flights -- and a couple of them are just spectacular.

The new owner is in California.  We look forward to shipping this plane in a few days.

You might enjoy reading the following details:

1)  The windshield still has the plastic film in place.  We pulled it away only on the left side of windshield, and held it in place with tape.  I couldn't see out the entire windshield.

2)  The fuselage frame is a welded version of our new aluminum framework.  The entire frame is constructed from aluminum.  The wings utilize carbon fiber spars (which you can't see in the picture.)

3)  The paint is just UV resistant primer from Stewart Systems.  We expect the customer to finish covering and painting the airplane, but it's up to him.

4)  The engine is a 45HP MZ-201 from Compact Radial Engines.

5)  First flight was just smooth and easy.

6)  You can see the camera (from GoPro) mounted under one of the wings. 

7)  This aircraft has the big 5x5 tires.  Note the white tire labels are still on.

Ultralight Aircraft from Belite, aluminum frame

Ultralight Airplane from Belite, aluminum frame

Ultralight Aircraft touching down

Ultralight Airplane from Belite pulls in

-- James Wiebe, EAA 2011 August Raspet recipient