Sonex flight testing complete. Building a Super Cub clone, check it out at www.facebook.com/piratecub
That is exciting news, Ron! I've always had a soft spot for the Fly Baby - I have fond childhood memories from what must have been the early 80's of seeing N500F drop in to the airstrip where I was living at the time (my dad's still there) southeast of Seattle.
Hal Bryan
EAA Lifetime 638979
Vintage 714005 | Warbirds 553527
Managing Editor
EAA—The Spirit of Aviation
Won't be at Airventure, but will be in your neck of the woods at the end of August for that FAA/NTSB course.
Re-doing the plans has been a slippery slope. I'm working from a set I bought from Pete Bowers twenty years ago, and they're pretty dog-eared and the text hadn't copied perfectly, anyway. Fortunately, one of our Fly Baby crew had done an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the plans ten years ago, and I still had the text files. They aren't perfect, but they beat retyping it in. I've picked a font that is larger than Pete's original, but keeps approximately the same pagination.
The drawings are tougher. Pete included full-scale templates for most things, but copier error over the years had distorted the templates. Doesn't make a difference for most items, since Pete included detailed dimensions. But the rib templates were different...few dimensions. The current rights-holder had combined two 11x17 template sheets to one 8.5x11 sheet, and the only dimension provided was the width at the spar.
So... I'm redrawing the rib templates. I still won't include them full size (because of the copier-distortion issue) but I've drawn the templates on a set of 1" grids so they can be easily scaled. The Fly Baby community has also generated CAD files for most items.
Those with high-speed connections can view some of the product so far:
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/seca.pdf
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/secb.pdf
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/sec1.pdf
The first one is ~12 megs in size, the second one is tiny, and the third one is the Fuselage construction plans and is about 32 megs in size.
I'm hoping to be completed in a month or so. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Fly Baby winning the EAA design contest, and I'd like Pete's plans to be available by then...
And Hal, the user interface for composing messages on the new forum is lovely, just lovely....
Ron Wanttaja
Very cool stuff Ron! Looking forward to seeing this all come together!
Chad Jensen
EAA #755575
Last edited by MADean; 07-22-2011 at 06:52 AM.
I am building ribs for a Bearhawk, after my wife wanted more seats than the Tailwind I was building!
Just picked up my tail kit for a Sonex yesterday. Building in sections due to shop size- can't store all the parts and have room to work too. Now I've just got to get organized and finished building shop cabinets so I can change from wood to aluminum.
i AM BUILDING A MODIFIED Double Eagle. I call it a Tri-Eagle.Tail wheel is on the other end.That's what I have been told.
Engine is on backwards.Maybe we can get it right.
Pics are on yahoo eaglersnest under tri eagle.
This is my 99% done project. It's a Tango that had it's first flight in 2005. Currently have right about 300 hours on it now.
This is me making airplane noises with it...
And this is it being used as a static display at Oshkosh...
It has and XP-360 engine in it with Aerosance FADEC. The prop is from Aerocomposites. The panel has an Advanced 4500 EFIS with their branded Tru-Trak autopilot. Also have a Garmin 430 and an SL-30 radio.
Someday I'll come up with something profound to put here.
This is my current project. At least, this is what it'll eventually look like if I ever complete it. It's a U-2 that was designed by Don Mitchell in the 70s and marketed in the early 80s. I always thought it was neat design and bought a set of plans a few years ago when I found out they were still available. When the day eventually comes to get a DAR to look it over, I'll certify it as a powered glider.
BTW... Just want to mention that this picture shows a U-2 that was modified from the plans. I'll probably modify mine to have the sleeker pod/fuselage, but my gear will be fixed.
Right now, this is as far as I've gotten. These are the aft ribs for all four wing sections. I made these in my room while flying in Afghanistan. Kinda looks like a boat with them all stacked up like that...
This shows them layed out. It shows a bit more of the size. The rock is the center point.
Last edited by Anymouse; 07-24-2011 at 03:17 PM.
Someday I'll come up with something profound to put here.