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Having dropped the rear of the seat down to get my reclining angle, I had a lip of sheet hanging down.
Why didn't I trim this before I started riveting? I suck at measuring stuff like that out, and it was easier just to rivet the back to the seat following the natural curve and some spring clamps!
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat015.jpg
Electric shear and some work on the sander cleaned it up nicely so that now the seat is flush across the bottom.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat016.jpg
Here it's sitting in the airplane with the front two one inch tubes (they're thick walled; I bought a length of it just for this purpose) fitted into the seat and cut to length to the carry through (and coped to fit it).
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat017.jpg
You'll note no holes in the back, which is how the N11 seat is in reality. I am passing them over, as this is sheet, not wood, and I could see bending it as I climbed in and out as holes would weaken it. Plus making borders around each one to keep from cutting myself on them (if I didn't put a kink in the metal to gouge me every time I sat in it).
What I'll do is cover the back in fabric on the inside and paint it on the backside. The seat itself will get a nice two inch thick piece of memory foam for me to sit on.
Gussets will firm up the supports front and back and a special gusset setup will hold the front ones to the carry-through.
You might notice a piece of twine over the aileron control thingie - it runs to the rudder. Incredibly, rudder cables are clear of all this stuff by my calculations!
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I like that seat Frank, looks like it will work out great.
BTW, how did the foam/gas test end up?
Ken
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Three days in gas and no change in structure or condition...it's a winner!
I finally got the chance to download and resize the photos from over the last couple of days - poor PC needed some new parts - so let's back up a bit before we get to today.
I had built the lower wings to how I interpreted the plans, which meant the rear bow was about six inches short from reaching the fuselage. Sigh.
Well, breaking long pieces of tubing I can't easily replace is something I do very well; the longer and harder to replace the more fun it is to do it. Expands the vocabulary and if one does it right the heart rate will accelerate and remain elevated for at least twenty minutes. Got to get that cardio workout one way or another, says I.
Anyhow, I'm sort of an expert on making splices in quarter inch tubing by now. This technique works really well on the little stuff, and I only splice on things that aren't load bearing.
First we need the replacement or additional piece and the piece used for the splint. I don't label stuff like "S" for splint and "E" for end piece for y'all's benefit; I idiot proof just about everything like that for my own needs.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint001.jpg
My technique which is only one way to do it, is to take a dremel tool cutting disk and put a cut along the length of the splice as straight as I can.
Then I use my tiny vise to crimp one side down a little bit so it's inside and then slowly rotate the whole thing and tighten it a smidgen, rotate it a bit and tighten a smidgen ad nauseum trying to keep it as round as possible.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint002.jpg
Do it slowly enough and it'll eventually just fit - I want it to be difficult to insert, but able to do so by hand.
Here's what it looks like in the tube.
I like the lip inside the splint as it gives it strength.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint003.jpg
I always make a mark at the halfway point of the splint so it's even between the two pieces and try to put the seam along the stress (so if it's up and down stress, the seam is on bottom or top) or away from where the rivets will go.
Ideally one would rivet in at least two places on different sides. For this little piece on the end of the bow where there's not a lot of stress, I'm only riveting on the inside because of covering.
But it's clean and neat and looks like this when the pieces are together.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint004.jpg
Now the bow reaches to the fuselage (less a little bit).
Note the inside rib didn't need a lot of adjustment.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/lw059.jpg
Here's something scary!
I was preparing to put the wings up after taking the plane apart and was shocked to see my "parts pile." That tubing is extra (it'll be used for mounting the fuel tank, the panel, firewall and the seat). The rest is sheeting and the cowl. Covering supplies are kept in the house for climate control and staying out of the dirt.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/sheeting.jpg
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As I was taking apart the aircraft I at least had the presence of mind to label each wire at the lift tang I made and the lift tang on the fuselage.
It's numbers on the right side of the aircraft and letters on the left.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig009.jpg
I also put another bolt to the left of the rear cabane mount. This hits the blade inside the wing and keeps in place. Aligning this sucker before I could put in the bolt holes was not fun. This little bolt is worth half an hour of messing it with again.
Oh, and I'm grabbing it like this because hanging on the side of the fuselage on one foot with a camera in one hand..
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig010.jpg
Frowny face.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig011.jpg
But I can't justify exposing the aircraft to weather and wildlife, so the wings had to come off and get put away.
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Back to the seat...
After measuring and coping the front two tubes that go from seat to carry-through, I worked up some gussets to go on the seat end to keep the tubes up and down...
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat018.jpg
And then I started scratching my head. The tubes came down from the seat and matched the top of the carry through....and get held there by, um, magic I guess. Peter Pan used soap to reattach his shadow with mixed results, so that's out...
What I need is some tough gussets to hold it on the carry through. Something robust. And then I remembered I had a piece of quarter inch poplar board for another project I did (but never used).
A template from paper, a hole saw, a jig saw, and some sanding later...
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat019.jpg
Tada!
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat020.jpg
Two coats of urethane and one of Krylon and it sure looks pretty.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat021.jpg
Here's another view that shows the gussets from the start of this post mounted.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat022.jpg
She won't shift forwards or backwards, and won't come up once I'm in and seat belted in.
Lateral motion ain't gonna happen either once the rear supports are in...or it least if it is I will have much bigger problems than it shifting two inches one side or another.
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Frank, The seat should be bolted securely to the airframe. In a hard landing or some moderate turbulence I can see it shifting around or breaking your wood brackets. Don
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Yep, you're right. I'll work up a secure mount to the carry through to lock it down.
I'm not so much worried about turbulence - I'm a very fair weather pilot and she's not much of a cross country bird, but hard landings are something I'm very familiar with!
:)
Thanks for keeping me straight- this is exactly why I put this thread up in the first place
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Today I did a test for how to make the hole for the seatbelt in the sheet metal into something other than a slow razor blade. I bought some automotive door edge trim and after making a hole in some scrap worked to see if it is flexible enough to curve inside it.
It worked! As one can see, I cut it too short, which surprised me as I thought originally I had it overlapping.
Note the gusset there....it was one of the spare pieces that Robert threw into the kit. I think he knows a couple extra of them are needed for other stuff.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat023.jpg
Moving on to the seat, I annealed the end of some of my super thick one inch tubing, whacked on it with a ball peen hammer until the end was flat, bent it to match the bottom of the seat, and coped the other end to match the tubing at the fuselage joint.
Then I gusseted it in, measured where the bent part hit the tube of the seat, drilled a hole in the support tube, put the seat on it, marked the hole, removed and drilled the seat, and ran a bolt through it.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat024.jpg
On the left side I couldn't use a gusset like that, since it already had one there for the cross member of the fuselage, and the angles matched too closely to put rivets in.
But I had a nice three quarter inch tube gusseted in and seated well.
So I worked backwards after annealing and pounding the end flat and coping the other end to mate with the tubes. Drilling the flat end and then mounting it to the seat, I made sure it was tight to the tubing and took a deep breath.
I drilled a hole through the cross fuselage forward through the gusset and through the seat support tube in one go, somehow managing to hit center through both.
An AN-4 bolt from my random Bag of Stuff (I had purchased the "homebuilder's hardware assortment from Aircraft Spruce) fit pretty well with a couple washers and shazam, it's secure.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat025.jpg
I even managed to hit center both sides in the seat tube, and the AN3 bolt heads won't bother me a bit.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat026.jpg
Here's a view from the front; things are tight in the tent on the nose end, so it's hard to take good ones.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat027.jpg
I also drilled the holes in the back of the seat for the seatbelt to go through.
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On to testing my work.
What I need is a real world sort of weight and test, simulating a pilot getting in by standing on it and then shifting down to sit on it and then move about.
My wife came into my work area and grabbed the camera as I performed the test.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat028.jpg
Any simulated airplane noises were entirely necessary for what I considered a very serious and grim task.
And yes it was a vital part of the test that I work my feet like there were pedals installed as I moved the stick about.
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2 Attachment(s)
Holes
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Nothing Lighter than a HOLE !
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Gotta Fly...Attachment 3863