Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 19:13:14 -0400 From: "Marc J. Zeitlin" Subject: COZY: Water leakage ingress points People; Besides finding a fuel leak, I spent a good part of the weekend dousing the plane with water in the nose down position to find water leak areas. I found a number of them, mostly where I expected (around the canard and elevator, as well as the upper nose door(s) - none of these have been installed "permanently", when they'll get some silicone around the seams. I drilled a few drain holes in the lowest part of each fuselage section that collected water, in the expectation that even when siliconed, a little bit of water may get in around the elevator torque tubes (and maybe one or two other areas up in the nose). Amazingly, the canopy seems pretty darn tight, at least when it's not moving at 220 mph, or when it's real cold. I tested with the canopy closed and the latch pulled most of the way, but not completely, as I figured that when it's parked, I would stress the weatherstripping less that way. Still no leak, even around the rear. However, there was one really interesting leak point that I never would have expected or predicted. I found water in the rear seat area, the rear footrest area and the area just under the control sticks. I couldn't find any leak path coming from the canopy to these areas, but there did seem to be leak paths from the ELECTRICAL CONDUIT. Danged if the water wasn't running down the firewall and entering the conduit holes. It would then run down the conduit along the wires, exiting anywhere it could. I have built up silicone dams over the top and sides of the firewall conduit holes in the firewall which should deflect any water running vertically down the firewall when in the parked (nose down) position. I'll test that this weekend. Wierd, huh? -- Marc J. Zeitlin mailto:marc_zeitlin@alum.mit.edu http://users.rcn.com/marc.zeitlin/