Monday, April 29, 2019

Cub Scout Day at the Airport


 Saturday we hosted the Cub Scouts at Gordonsville airport.  My granddaughter Rowan helped me in the morning to get the Fly Baby and the WACO NINE set up to help the Scouts learn about airplanes.  She had to leave before the scouts arrived.

The weather was great and a good time was had by all.

 We set up the WACO so all the parts were arranged in their proper location.  I think it was hard for some of the kids to appreciate that the Motor is over 100 years old.

We had the planes setting at the front corner of the hangars where they couldn't miss them.


 On the other corner of the taxiway Bill had his Fly Baby in WWII British camo.

All the bolts are in the wings and the Machine Gun installed.  I still have a few things to hook up and do a new weight and balance.

Friday, April 26, 2019

At the Airport


 The trailer was originally made when we had 6.00 x 6 wheels and tires.  The current 8.00 x 4 wheels and tires are wider and rub on the side rails of the trailer.  The 2x8 raises the tires so they don't rub and provide an easy place to screw down the wheel chock.

The eye bolts are to tie down the landing gear.
 It all worked well for our 15 mile trip to the airport.  George and Dave helped with the move and putting the wings back on.  Unfortunately I left the bag with the bolts for the upper wings at the house.  I'll get them installed and everything safetied.

Looking Good!


Monday, April 22, 2019

Airplane On The Trailer


 I bolted the deck boards to the frame with 4 galvanized carriage bolts (1/4") for each board.

The treated bottom board for the tail wheel track is bolted to the frame in the same way.

I split another board to make the side rails.  The angle at start of the track side is more so I don't rip on the ends so easily.  There were 2 studs at the front where the winch was attached.  I used them to bolt down the front end of the track.


 I pre-drilled holes for the side rail screws from the top down, so they would be in the center of the rail boards.  Deck screws were used to screw the side rails to the bottom board.  I used 2" screws about every foot.

I need to put the plane on the trailer to work out stops and tie-downs.



 I got some ramps at Tractor supply, on sale.  I think they're a little short.  I would have liked a shallower angle.

I used the come-along to pull the plane up the ramps.  I think the winch might be hard to control going down.

 I knew the fenders would get in the way of the axle ends.  I've marked the fenders to cut some notches.  The plane will sit about a foot further back towards the van when I'm done.  I still like the fenders.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Rudder Stops Installed, New Upper wing Fittings & Upper Wing Hand Holds

I discovered a small problem when I installed the tail surfaces so I could locate the Nicopress stop on the cable.  My Nicopress tool won't squeeze the round stops, I thought it could.  I had to redo the cables with regular oval Nicopress sleeves.  They're designed to squeeze around 2 pieces of cable so you need a short piece of cable, about 2" to properly squeeze them as a stop.  I carefully cut 2 pieces of cable with the Dremel tool cut off wheel.  They worked fine.
 You need to position the short piece of cable so it doesn't stick out past the end of the sleeve where it hits the wooding block.  You want the sleeve hitting the block not the end of the cable.  This all would have been easier before installing the gas tank and center section so you can undo the cable from the rudder and rudder pedal to squeeze the sleeve.  The Nicopress tool handles open too wide to use inside the fuselage.  Fortunately I had an old manual tool from my hang gliding days.  It was awkward but it worked.

The plans call for a 1" gap at the trailing edge of the Elevator when the pedal is pushed to the stop.

The other problem I ran into was the lack of a hand hold on the upper wing center section.  Once I had the wings on I decide to sit in the cockpit for a picture.  My foot snagged on the edge of the cockpit getting in.  I lost my balance and landed on the ground on my injured hip, major pain, and cracked a rib, more pain.  I had removed the old machine gun mounting system without realizing I had used it as a hand hold to stabilize myself getting in and out of the cockpit.  I hold onto the cabane strut with my right hand but I'm tall enough I can't reach the other strut under the wing with my left hand.  The hand grabbed wildly for something on top of the wing which was no longer there.  Even if the gun was installed with the new mount there would have been nothing to hold.

 Before installing the hand holds I removed the wings and moved them to the airport.  With the wings off I could see the Upper Wing Attach Fittings were bent at the center hole.  I decided to remake them from 0.125" steel instead of the 0.095" on the plans.  The bending had to do with a slight compression of the wood on the center section due to tightening the bolts.  This made the fittings closer together on the center section.  When the wing panels were installed the outboard ends of the fittings bent up slightly.  It didn't seem like much with the wings on but looked much worse with them off.  I've put some washers under the fittings to shim them up to prevent the bending and feel safer with the thicker steel.  Only the top fittings seem to have bent.

The 2 small fittings on the left are for attaching the hand hold to the inboard bolt on the wing fittings.  I carefully marked the wing fittings and duplicated the hole locations so the wing bolts should all line up properly when reinstalled.

 The hand holds are made from painted door handles, big enough to fit my hand.  One end is bolted to the fitting which attaches to the wing with the fitting bolt and the other end is screwed to the trailing edge wood.  I used 2 #8 stainless steel wood screws 1 1/2" long.  There are some washers under the handle to screw holes to carry the loads to the wood and the fitting rather than the edges of the handle ends.


 There is room under the fitting for the bolt heads because the fitting sets on top of the wing attach fitting.  They shouldn't press into the fabric since you pull up on the handle in use.

OK the are a little odd looking but they work.  I don't need them pulling myself up out of the cockpit.  The cabane struts work fine for that.  They're just for stability getting your feet in and out of the cockpit.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Pitot Tube Cover


 Because I made a new Pitot/Static probe I needed a new cover to keep the mud daubers and rain out of the tubes.

The cover is just a piece of boat cover material folded in half and hemmed around the edges.  I printed a Fly Baby version of the 30" x 3" Remove Before Flight streamers we sell at our Web Store.  The streamer is just sewn so it's sandwiched into the lower seam along with the Velcro to hold it to the strut.

I wanted the streamer at the nose to help keep people from walking into the probe.


 I used 1/2" wide 2 sided Velcro.  We use it in our shop to keep rolled materials from un-rolling.  We buy it in rolls of Red, Blue, Yellow & Green.

The first strap wraps around the strut with the fuzzy (loop) side out.  The second strap crosses it with the hook side in to lock onto the first.

It was simple to make and it works.