Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

New prop came in!



She put stickers on the new one, which I was very apathetic towards either way. One can't see them when the engine is turning it and I'm at 1,000 feet AGL.


Naturally I idiot proofed the torque order:



Why all the fuss? Culver cut the replacement prop at 60" instead of 62".



I'm building up the gumption to do the wiring stuff, but the weather is just crap.

[Frank Giger]

Today was a 50% day.

I moved the master switch over to the right side, and routed the wires for the starter switch - well, one of them - back around the firewall to where no wires cross under my compass.

Why only one of the wires? Because I was a bit, um, creative when I ran the wires and one of them, the one that goes to the starter itself, was already going down the left side. The other crossed behind the panel mostly because all the other wires to the gauges ran on the right and I just did the same with it. But it was plenty long enough and not a problem.

On the radio switch I got a bit of the stupids.

Cutting the switch out of the alternator to where it just goes straight to the battery was simplicity itself.

I had plenty of heavy gauge wire left over, so I connected one end to the ground terminal, one to the positive, and then put one on a side of the switch, one on the other, then did the same with the cigarette lighter plug in thingie.

Flip the switch on and the wires instantly became hot. Switch it off. Hmmm, that's not good.

By this time the sun was going down, so I left the switch off, buttoned up the hangar, and drove home, musing about what I had done.

Fifteen minutes later it dawned on me - I had just wired up a short between terminals, no different than just running a wire between them directly. Gaaahh!

"Positive in on one side of the switch, positive to the plug in accessory on the other, ground wire independent and running to a ground, you dipsh*t," I exclaimed.

So off to the airport tomorrow to fix it.

[Frank Giger]

So here's my mighty fine radio power connector!

First, the wiring job:



All the connectors were taped up, and one can see the in-line fuse on the far left. Yesterday's learning curve experience showed me just how important it is.

The plugger in thingie also has two USB outlets, so that if I need to I can charge my phone or tablet.

I had thought about running it through the master power bus, but ruled that out on the basis that I usually listen to the weather and stuff before cranking the engine, and it might be better to have this on a unique circuit.

I like the fact that it has a light on it showing power is being applied. It's a warning that I need to turn it off if I've been using it during maintenance or something.

Second, the installation itself:



I feel all fancy having a switch labelled RADIO (Mike says it should have been labelled AVIONICS to reach full hubris), that's for sure.

Yes, that is indeed yet another appearance of industrial Velcro holding it in place. The stuff is incredibly solid. I hooked the radio's power connector to it and pulled mightily. The plug came out of the thingie rather than give loose of the Velcro.

So now, with the battery replacer on the radio, I don't have to worry about not having enough juice to transmit on it. I'll still carry a battery pack (one with the AA batteries in it to be sure it's fully charged) with me in the aircraft, though.

I also moved the antenna from the windscreen back as far as I could into the fuselage and still reach it. I need to find a spare rubber duck antenna, as in order to use the radio as a handheld I have to remove it from the extension cable on the aircraft...a real pain in the tail end.

From inside the hangar I could send and receive to the FBO. What I haven't done is pulled the airplane out, cranked it, and see if there is any electrical interference. I may try that today.

[Frank Giger]

So the mad geniuses of this forum are in fact geniuses.

While slightly different in application, my radio configuration worked a treat! Everyone said my radio was loud and clear* and there was zero squealing all day.

Moving the radio into the fuselage as far back as I could get it (Yet again, industrial velcro to the rescue!) also improved my reception to the point I had to adjust the squelch to get rid of some very distant folks hissing at me. But that one guy waayyy up in Fort Payne was sounding smooth as he did touch and goes.

The mental additions to the checklist were pretty much automatic. Starting up - Radio switch on, radio on, check weather and adjust altimeter, radio off, radio switch off, Master on, pump the throttle a couple times, press starter, when RPMs settled, radio switch on, radio on. Shutting down - Radio off, radio switch off, master off.

No weird noises from the charging system, either.

I did clip a battery pack (the one that uses AA batteries) to the outside of the seat out of the way as a backup, though.

The new prop performed wonderfully. While an extra two inches in total length isn't much and I wasn't looking for huge differences, in fact it just felt better. It could be that I trained myself to it, as the original was a 62x27 and the replacement was a 60x27 - and when Culver heard they shorted me (literally), they replaced it gratis, or the fact that it was such a great day and I was in an outrageously good mood, but I pretty much greased every landing - and using different profiles on landing.

With the shorter prop it seemed like I was always too fast by a tad, but the extra drag of the larger prop put me right where I need to be.

The nice thing about piloting an aircraft who's design is dedicated to putting as much drag as possible by throwing wires all over it is that one need never slip to drop altitude. Just reduce the throttle to idle and ride the down elevator. The fast one.

* A friend's KR2 has an odd antenna arrangement and can't receive over anything but mid range distance and handhelds not at all, and one fellow said it sounded like I had my head stuck out of the window.

[cub builder]

So the mad geniuses of this forum are in fact geniuses.

* A friend's KR2 has an odd antenna arrangement and can't receive over anything but mid range distance and handhelds not at all, and one fellow said it sounded like I had my head stuck out of the window.

Your friend's radio came out of my KR and went to his. It was removed from mine for good reason and may need a trip through the radio shop for some TLC. However, when I removed it for replacement, I did find a problem with the antenna coax, so assuming that may have been my problem, I sent it to him to use. When I talked to him on the radio in September, it sounded good on my end.

If he has the Dipole antenna arrangement, that is awesome. I've always been able to transmit and receive very long distances with that arrangement in my KR.

[Frank Giger]

He does not, in fact, have a dipole antenna arrangement, something we discussed at length late in the day.

Mike's issue is that when he flew with you in loose formation is that he could hear and transmit to you without problem, but you were talking to folks he couldn't even receive.

This is one of the very cool parts of the home building community - we get to learn about stuff not just on our planes, but other's. Indeed, many is the time that someone will go out to the airport to work on something on their plane and spend all of the time helping someone else out on theirs!

It could be a combination of issues, of course, but that's where the real fun begins!

[Frank Giger]

One of the things that has kind of bugged me about my build was the combing around the cockpit. To be honest, at that stage I was just about sick of building and just wanted to fly, and threw together the most inelegant solution possible.

My neighbor was throwing out this sort of toybox thing covered with faux leather and I claimed it as my own, carrying it up to the hangar and skinning it like a catfish.

Weather was impossible for flying, so I decided to start tackling it. Things were going pretty good until a parade of "helpers" started showing up to ask questions, make random observations, and generally slowing things down - with the exception of one of my EAA brothers who was up there and dove in to actually help.

The material is big enough to double over and reach around, so no sewing! I just ironed a seam in it, threw in the eyelets every two inches on one side, spray painted the inside black (the inner cloth backing was silver), put some 90 spray adhesive on it, and folded it back.

I didn't put eyelets all the way through because the only decent size I could find were still fairly large, and I wanted to disguise the holes where the leather boot lace went in and out of the sheet metal.

The weather was turning to total crap and I was beginning to flag, so here's where I left off with the initial fitting of one side:



The top around the cockpit isn't smooth, as one can see, and I have some ideas on how to make it so....but then again, I kind of like the folds, too.

The join is now at the front, and the piece is big enough to go all the way around. The center piece at the back is held in place with - what else - industrial velcro.

[Frank Giger]

Gasp in amazement at the conservative take off!
Tap your feet to the sounds of Bill Monroe!
Marvel in the application of both a GPS and a paper sectional map on a knee board!
Swoon at the affection and emotions as only a man wearing a leather flying helmet can feel!
Try and contain yourself through the thrills of a gentle left turn!
Witness the changing of a radio frequency!
Watch as the flying machine descends to the Earth with majestic grace!
Hear the grinding action of grooved asphalt onto a solid rubber tail wheel!



Pretty thrilling stuff, if I say so myself.

Okay, seriously, this is from a week or so ago when we had a rare break in weather. While the wind wasn't too bad, it was bumpy as all get out - but I was going through pilot withdrawal.

And sense I can't remember if I shared this one or not...

[rwanttaja]

Gasp in amazement at the conservative take off!
Tap your feet to the sounds of Bill Monroe!
Marvel in the application of both a GPS and a paper sectional map on a knee board!
Swoon at the affection and emotions as only a man wearing a leather flying helmet can feel!
Try and contain yourself through the thrills of a gentle left turn!
Witness the changing of a radio frequency!
Watch as the flying machine descends to the Earth with majestic grace!
Hear the grinding action of grooved asphalt onto a solid rubber tail wheel!

Whimper because the embedded Youtube says, "This video is unavailable....."

Ron "keeping us in suspense" Wanttaja

[Dana]

"This video is unavailable." and "This video has been removed by the user."

Edit, I see Ron beat me to it.