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Thread: Robin Ultralight

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    Merry Christmas.

    I am finishing up the final few jobs before I start to cover her. I anticipate, I will be covering by Tuesday of next week. I updated my blog with more pictures. http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/



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  2. #12

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    covering part 1 (Tail Feathers)

    I started covering the tail Feathers, There was a bit of a learning curve, but by the time I started the second surface, everything went smoothly. I posted more pictures and an update on my blog. http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/


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  3. #13

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Nebraska
    Posts
    2

    Robin Ultralight and your Holland, MI shop

    Your Robin ultralight airplane is a very attractive aircraft, ultralight or not !
    Thank you for sharing your build.
    How tall of a pilot is it designed for? (I'm 6' 6" tall)
    Do you sell plans for your shop from Holland, MI.
    It is right along the lines I have been thinking but didn't know the footings could be in top of insulation.
    I thought that might lead to settling of the foundation.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    shop in Holland

    Hey Tom. There are Styrofoam concrete forms that are used for the footings, that's what I used. I used 2" thick Styrofoam sheeting for the floor. The process starts with a level grade of sand, the grade is set 2 inches deeper than usual. Rebar standoffs are driven through the foam and square mesh is set on top of the foam (spaced off with small stand offs). This insulates the pad. Concrete is poured normally on top of the foam. If the sand base is level, workman can walk on it without breaking it. The rest of the shop is a straightforward 40' x 40' design. I used cathedral trusses in place of standard trusses. The only difference was to scarf on an additional 10 feet to form the clerestory windows. The windows are framed in in a conventional manner. The windows were nitrogen filled double paned without E coat. On the opposite side of the windows in the clerestory space is the heat sink wall. The thermal mass i used was scrap drywall. It ended up being one foot thick. this is a tremendous amount of weight, around 30,000 lbs. So a really massive 7 foot deep truss was built into the upper trusses. Basically there were a number of 2 x 10 x 16' plates that were overlapped and acted as upper and lower spar caps. A network of 2 x 4 trusses joined the upper and lower caps. The one problem I had with this design is on the front side of the shop at one of the doors. vertical columns had to be designed to take the load of the trusses. On the back wall this is a straightforward problem, there was 6) 2 x 6 plates that supported the end of the truss. At the door, the problem was that I needed to build and additional redistribution truss to beam the load around the door. I could draw all of this up for you, but a good structural engineer familiar with your local codes could also do it based on my description. If you look at some of the pictures, you will see a dry walling nightmare or dream, depending if you are doing it, or paying someone. Closing out the exposed upper space with the exposed trusses is quite a job. believe it or not, i did all of the work by myself including hoisting the sheets. I would definitely encourage you to copy my shop design, I really miss working in that place. The eaves by the way were 12 feet. One of the modifications I was going to make, but didn't because I moved, was to add a 40 foot x 10 foot green house along the SW wall. I was going to remove the vinyl siding and add a false brick wall. besides allowing me to grow vegetables and flowers year round, the space would double as a passive solar collector called a Trombe wall. I was just going to extend the roof truss 10 feet and re shingle to match the existing roof. its a really good idea to tray and take advantage of existing greenery, to the west of my shop there were 90' maple trees, they had the advantage of offering shade during the summer season when no heat was needed. in the winter, late fall and early spring, they were bare and allowed the sun to collect on my thermal mass. for the rest of the readers who may be confused, here is a link to the shop project. http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/...-projects.html if you actually decide to build a shop like mine, you can e-mail me at planebuilder@yahoo.com i would be glad to answer any questions you might have.
    Last edited by Mark Calder; 01-02-2012 at 02:08 PM.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    pilot height.

    6' 6" is no problem. take a look at this blog in the archive, my friend Mike Lafrance tried out the adjustable rudder pedals http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/...1_archive.html Mike is 6' 3" and the pedals had another 5 inches of travel. I am 6 foot and for me the pedals are mid adjustment. I asked my Friend Pete (5' 6") to sit in her and there was an addition 5 more inches of rearward travel. Adjustable rudder pedals are required because th pilot can weigh as much as the airplane (in my case)

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    New Paint schemes

    My Friend Bill Dale http://www.billdaledesign.com/ came through again with a beautiful Design for my final paint. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do a thing for the last 2 weeks, work and work travel keep getting in the way. I am attaching a picture of my final design, but on my blog, http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/ I posted the other options Bill designed. I love the Yellow and Orange designs, but that's really been done before.



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  7. #17

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    Wing Walk and wing retest

    I just updated my blog http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/ I just added a wing walk to the L/H wing and I also added some photos of a wing retest. Check out my home made load cell!!!

    Mark

  8. #18

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    45
    Mark,

    I have been following your blog and really enjoy your watching your little bird come too life! I dig the proposed paint job too. I am a little SE of you in Athens- lemme know if you ever need a hand.

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    Athens

    Dave, that's the airport I used for one of my cross countries. If you ever want to come up, just e-mail me at planebuilder@yahoo.com I will be gone this coming week end however, my friend and I bought an ultralight project. He gets the complete plane, I get the Ballistic parachute.

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Midlothian Texas
    Posts
    62

    update to the Blog

    I spent a week traveling and driving to Phoenix AZ to but a Mini Max Project so I could get the Ballistic chute.

    http://robinultralight.blogspot.com/

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