Floorboard Material / Installation

[lsa140]

I don't have any really good ideas. Plan A: Have my brother layup a carbon fiber sheet. He used to do carbon fiber work at Boeing and said it would be really easy but I know he is really busy with work and his family. Plan B: Layup and paint a fiberglass sheet. Plan C: Aluminum with some foam glued to the back. Think I'd use that foam all the guys on BCP are using on their Cessna rebuilds.

I wonder how Kydex would work. Mark M used it on his Pacer and the pics look great.

Do you recall what that foam was called?

[whee]

I don't know what the foam is called. They buy it from Selkirk in either 1/4" or 1/2" thick sheets.

[Battson]

Yes, I looked into fibreglass for the baggage tube and aft bulkhead panel.
I found I could save 50% the weight vs alloy, in the best case - but I am sacrificing strength so the weight saving it's really that much. Plus it's a lot more expensive and doesn't look as good.
The saving hasn't yet convinced me to "get around to it". I should though.

[lsa140]

Any good ideas on better materials for that bulkhead - weight saving materials which can't rattle are of most interest! Some kind of plastic maybe? A bare carbon fibre panel perhaps?? ($$$ Ching Ching)

Maybe rivet a couple stiffeners on the existing bulkhead and bond some vinyl fabric to the aluminum?

I built a boat that used quite a bit of 1/4" okume marine plywood. It was rigid for it's thickness, easy to find local, affordable, and quite a bit lighter than the baltic birch a lot of people use for floor panels. Looks like a 4'x8' .032 2024 weighs around 15lbs. 5 ply 3/16" Okume plywood weighs around 16lbs per 4'x8' sheet. You could possibly use 3m super 77 to bond some lightweight vinyl fabric to it, wrap the edges around to the back and staple.

I'm planing on some type of fabric. Possibly with a couple zippers to access rear baggage. (sleeping bags, etc)

I've considered using 3/16" okume for the floors with a thin carbon fiber cloth epoxied on top.

[Mark Moyle]

On the Kydex. Couple four reasons for choosing it over aluminum or pre made fancy pants and plane ole fabric in areas that will see abuse. One if Kydex is scratched by a sharp object, the scratch can be removed with heat gun. It'll take abuse from something bouncing against it and maintain its shape...mostly. With aluminum sheeting, each and every dent will remind you of what caused it....kydex is lighter than aluminum and easier to form. Can use particle or plywood forms to shape with either heat or pressure. Bend with a pan or leaf brake with a generous radius. And it loves bead rollers. The attached picture shows what can be done by a first timer. The panels are made from .028" is areas that will not see abuse...under the threshold. Everywhere else is .040"
In this picture the .028" covers the flap and aileron cables in the overhead. The fuel line covers are made from .032" 6061T6
Rear seat an cargo area is covered in .040" above the cargo area is fabric


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[Battson]

For reference - the worst that our fabric has sustained are rubs in the paint, and the soft 5052 Al I've used hasn't been dented yet.

Apart from the need to access the aft fuselage for the 100hr inspection, there would be no need for a removable aft bulkhead at all, and just light fabric would suffice.

[Rollie]

Wow Mark, that kydex interior looks great! As for what I came up with for the floorboards, I'm doing a quick build so it came with aluminum floorboards so my only dilemma was what to cover them with. I didn't want to paint them because the paint always wears off. Didn't want carpet because I will be using this off airport a lot and it will get mud inside occasionally so I eventually decided to go with roll on bed liner. Durable, fairly light (compared to carpet) and I expect to get some sound dampening from it.

[Mark Moyle]

I vacillated on the floors...paint, no paint...carpet, no carpet and the rubber floor stuff. Did paint both sides of the floor boards with the green rattle can anticorrosion paint. When I disassembled the airplane..the 64 year old flooring that was painted with the anticorrosion paint had zero corrosion. Flooring without paint...corrosion on the under side. The pilot copilot area Kydex to floor intersection is joined together with angle strips of 0.32". Pop riveted to the Kydex with aluminum backer strips, then attached using the same screws for the floor. My goal is also to prevent dirt and mud from migrating to the crevasse where the fabric wraps around the lower longeron. Did go with carpet, carpet will keep the dirt and mud more or less where it was deposited. The carpet is the really light stuff from national airplane parts association. Cleaning after a back country adventure shouldn't be a big deal....I have a commercial carpet machine with the upholstery attachment for the Bearhawk motel. The passenger and small cargo area carpet and Kydex/rudder cable covers are overlapped at the floor, secured with the same screws for attaching the floor to the structure.


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[nichzimmerman]

Any good ideas on better materials for that bulkhead - weight saving materials which can't rattle are of most interest! Some kind of plastic maybe? A bare carbon fibre panel perhaps?? ($$$ Ching Ching)

I was planning on using fabric that is attached with snaps wherever there is an attach tab on the fuselage. I figured the heavy baggage will be strapped down and with snaps around the edges and on the middle "v" structure, it would be enough to prevent stuff from falling into the rear fuselage and would be the lightest option of all.

[whee]

I was planning on using fabric that is attached with snaps wherever there is an attach tab on the fuselage. I figured the heavy baggage will be strapped down and with snaps around the edges and on the middle "v" structure, it would be enough to prevent stuff from falling into the rear fuselage and would be the lightest option of all.

That's what we did on our Luscombe. It worked well; no baggage ever got into the aft portion of the plane. One reason I don't think we are going to do the same on the BH is because there was always a draft that came from the back of the plane and I think a solid barrier would have help eliminate it.

[Bcone1381]

I came across in my notes a Supplier of composite material that may be useful for flooring if one has unlimited funds available. (Their look is at the bottom of the post.)

Comparing it against other options demonstrates the extras cost involved at making improvements beyond a certain point. I have no information on strength or durability of the product except for the manufacturers description of it being of "Strong and light" I am just passing along some reference information I have in my notes.

Their 1/4" 1 ply honeycomb sandwich product uses one layer of 8 oz fiberglass over the honeycomb core. The weight of a Patrol floor made with this would be 6.26 pounds, saving 4.0 pounds from a very durable floor made of .032 Aluminum.

The cost today for a 4x8' sheet (enough for the floor of a Patrol) is over $600 , plus shipping. I think a Patrol rear bulkhead could use a 2x4' piece for $270, but the Four Place builders would be looking at 4x4 for $416.

https://www.acpsales.com/Fiberglass-1-Ply-Honeycomb.html

[S Lathrop]

I have some of the ACP Composite panels and they are a very attractive option for flooring. Attractive until I look at the cost.

From my experience in auto racing, I would not use carbon fiber any where in the cockpit. In a crash, carbon fiber panels fracture into razor blade like fragments. The physical properties that make carbon fiber so attractive as a panel material also make it lethal in a crash. The laminates tent to separate into chards of .010 thick razor blades with very fine needles on the edges. The stuff is really dangerous to handle once damaged.

I am planning on using aluminum with "Hush Kit Material from Vantage Plane Plastic (www.planeplastics.com).

[Juan C. Casabuono]

Hello all, how about make sandwich panels of light aluminum and strips of light wood like Kiri or Paulownia?

[marcusofcotton]

Hello all, how about make sandwich panels of light aluminum and strips of light wood like Kiri or Paulownia?

Hi Juan,
Hard to imagine how that would improve upon the well proven single layer of .032 aluminum that so many have used in the past.

[Juan C. Casabuono]

Hi Juan,
Hard to imagine how that would improve upon the well proven single layer of .032 aluminum that so many have used in the past.

Well, more rigid than bare metal for floorboards, I guess.

http://www.thegillcorp.com/datasheets/Gillfab_5040_Panel.pdf