Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

After some consultation with other builders, putting the engine on as an assembly with the mount attached to it is technique I'm going to use.

The starter is going to poke through the firewall, so all sorts of misadventures were at hand. I had thought to mount it with the selenoid on top, as it looks cleaner to me and kept the footprint of the engine. So I made this great template of cardboard that used the holes on the mount and told me exactly where to make the hole. Then I checked it against the firewall, and the cross brace for the fuselage intersects. Since that's Station One (or is it zero?), starting and setting the square for the front of the fuselage, there's no monkeying around with that tube.

So the selenoid has to go on bottom, which meant a new template. And confirming its measurements. The hole is cut - if I did everything right after I mount the engine the starter should go through it nicely and the bolts in without fuss. Oh, I'm leaving it off while mounting the engine; since it stands past the mount, playing Keep The Starter In The Hole And Don't Bang It Around seems like a funny story I'd rather not share later on.

Tomorrow's weather looks amiable - no rain (we don't mention that at 8 a.m. it's to be 78 degrees with 90% humidity and then thankfully gets warmer so I don't have to be bothered with the nuisance of mittens or a thick coat), so I plan on mounting the engine.

First, though, the engine had to come out of the crate and onto a dolly for transport into the back yard.

Now, then, in the crate the engine sits on a wooden cradle and is held in place with some retaining straps that are screwed into the floor of the crate. My plan was to lift the engine off of the cradle with my shop crane, pull it up, and place it on the dolly.

Except the cradle sits on a bit of plywood that is set on the floor of the crate. The cradle is screwed onto this, and the plywood is screwed down with lots and lots of wood screws.

So lower the engine back down and get to work with a drill and bit to take them all out.

Then lift the engine, put the cradle and the board on the dolly, move the crate out of the way, and then lower the engine back onto the cradle.

The last bit was sort of adventurous, as my ropes weren't quite evenly tight and there was some stretch, giving the prime mover a decided tilt to one side.

But she's ready for transport and mounting!

[Frank Giger]

I have to say that mounting the engine was pretty anti-climatic.

Not to say there wasn't the usual drama. It started when I pushed the dolly out of the garage and onto the driveway. Things went katywhompus and in very, very slow motion the engine slid off of the mount. I had a scrap bit of plywood handy and slipped it under where one of the exhaust pipes was about to hit the pavement.

So take the shop crane and lift it up, take the mount off the base piece of particle board, put the mount directly on the dolly, and lower the engine back down.

Then it was just a matter of using some of the sides of the shipping crate to slowly - really creeping - to the back yard:



No, the camera's not tilted - that's the slope of my back yard. Note my Bebe pulled out and the cinder block chalks to keep it from rolling down into the fence.

So it was move it forward from one piece to another, taking into account the slope of the yard and the right hand turn I had to make. I used one of the plywood sheets for a ramp onto the concrete and it worked really well.

The airplane's out from under the tent because it's slightly longer than the concrete patio slab I've "entented" as a work shop. I needed the shop crane, engine, and aircraft nose all over that concrete, so I had to pull the plane out, turn it around, and put it back in.

My front "wall" tarp pretty much fell apart when I removed it - more on that later.

So with the plane reversed and my nifty one hundred dollar Harbor Freight shop crane (gotta love those sales and coupons), it was time to lift the tail of the aircraft, put a couple ropes on the engine, and lift it.

Go figure that I just winged the ropes and it lifted level - had I of measured anything it probably would have taken a couple hours.



Note the cheap folding table, the recycle bin, bit of plywood, and block of foam hold up the tail!

The tricky thing of the bolts that come out of the longerons is that the bottom ones are actually tilted upwards. So while the engine mount was vertical, I put a little back angle on the firewall...and the bolts slipped right through the holes.

Then I lifted the tail a bit to make it vertical and the top bolts slipped in.

Couple washers and some bolts and done. No muss, no fuss, on in about fifteen minutes. I was pretty shocked.

My behind-the-mount-bushings for the lower engine mount bolts cleared the firewall just fine.



A few extra notes - my hole for the starter looks dead on. I'll put it on tomorrow to make sure.

Note the extra bit of sheeting on the firewall. That's some light steel for insurance I put over the aluminum. It's a little more weight but I think it's worth it in piece of mind.

My wife wasn't surprised at all that the engine just slid onto the bolts without issue - I had done all the hard work up front so that mounting it shouldn't have been a problem. I guess she was right.

I also took the front wall tarp and draped it over the engine to keep the weather off of it. It's time to replace all the tarps, as I'm at the point of water resistance instead of water proofing.

[planecrazzzy]

Another "Milestone"... Looks nice Frank !
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Gotta Fly...
JAM

[Geezer]

Something to make real airplane noises with!

[Frank Giger]

Let's build a box out of a sheet of steel!

Note that while I made a sort of plan in PowerPoint it needed some scribbles on it to make it work.



Looks like my measurements and bends worked out okay. Time to make some reinforcing tabs for the side and paint it.



Mount the starter...



And mount the box with some metal screws into some nut fittings.

After priming it I hit it with a can of gold paint I had on the shelf. The reason for making it a gold box? Because GOLD BOX, that's why!





And now a problem. I couldn't see this while mucking about with the engine in the crate, but now that it's mounted the starter shaft seems to be too short, and the teeth don't mesh with the fly wheel.



The starter is mounted correctly - flush with the case - so I think there was supposed to be some sort of mod done to it in Missouri that didn't happen.

I shot an email to Valley Engineering, as I spotted this after they had closed for the day. I'll follow up with a phone call tomorrow.

[Frank Giger]

Okay, so I'm a bit dense - the starter gear should be retracted, as it moves forward and turns when engaged.

So yet another "sorry, I'm stupid, please ignore me" email will be sent to Valley Engineering.

[pittsdriver3]

I've done that a time or two. It's always after you've sent the email to the company that you realize you're a dummy. Don

[Geezer]

Did you wire that beauty before you put it in the "Gold box"?

[Frank Giger]

No, no electrical work has been done.

In fact, one can easily reach the connection from the engine side, and the box is in place by metal screws and can be easily removed.

[jdanneel]

and make sure the electrics stay far away from that firewall, once the engine starts jumping around ...
fireworks due to the firewall cutting the isolation is not something you want (I guess)

well, you 're almost there, good job