Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

A lot of times when building there is stuff to be done that doesn't warrant pictures and doesn't look like a lot is happening, but one just has to do it.

It includes revisiting things and correcting or improving them, which is where am at for this last week.

The piano hinges I used on the pedal just aren't robust enough for my liking. I was showing them off to the wife (poor thing, 90 degrees with 80% humidity and she's out there watching me move a rudder and making airplane noises - and didn't complain about it) and noticed they flexed on the hinge a little bit. Uh oh. Zero time on them and they flex, which means at some point they'll crack and fail....which is a very bad thing in a regular airplane, but in one without a vertical stabilizer simply disastrous. So out they came and big horking hinges put on - now they're rock solid, and I moved them closer by about half an inch, which is just right for me.

I had to remove the flooring so I can mount the firewall, and added a couple holes for bolting it to the frame - which meant I had to varnish the new holes. Failing to properly varnish the first one's mounting holes was how it got ruined and a second one made!

That and I cleaned up the disaster that is my work area!

[pittsdriver3]

When I drill holes through plywood I step drill it to just undersize. I then soak the hole with thin cyanoacrylate glue. After it dries I drill it to size with a reamer. This really makes a strong crush proof hole and the bolt fits perfectly. I drill all the holes in anything I'm building undersize and use a reamer to finish. All the holes then line up perfectly with zero slop. Kind of anal but it doesn't take that much longer to do. I also line up all the crosses in all the phillips head screws so I probably belong in an institution. Don

[Frank Giger]

You only need therapy if you line them up in places that aren't visible once assembled. Otherwise it's just a crazy attention to detail, not an insane one.

[pittsdriver3]

You only need therapy if you line them up in places that aren't visible once assembled. Otherwise it's just a crazy attention to detail, not an insane one.

Call me crazy. I think it is an OCD thing I did it when I built the Super Cub and just automatically line everything up when I do the final assembly. Don

[Frank Giger]

As long as they're tight enough when aligned I think it's actually kind of cool.

I think every builder has a bit of OCD, though. I was reinstalling my control column and lined up all the bolt heads to where they're level to the fuselage, so I guess I'm a bit crazy, too. It didn't take any effort to do so, so why not?

And yeah, I pulled my control column out and took it apart. The front bolt had the tiniest play in it, and that meant that either I hadn't torqued it tight enough or had failed to put washers behind the locking nut. Tiny play will either develop into a lot of play or elongate the hole in the aluminum cup the bolt goes through, and with controls "gooder enough" doesn't cut it. What a huge PITA - those aluminum cups are a super tight fit into the control tube and I wound up putting the bolt head on one end into my little vise, putting it on the floor, and jerking it out with a mighty tug. The other (the one with the loose bolt) had to be removed by putting a piece of tubing inside the control tube and whacking it on the table. Of course I had to take out the bolts that held the aileron control horn, which shifted them out of place when I did it...and then wrestle them back into position.

Turned out that I just hadn't torqued the nut enough. New nuts, of course, and I redid both of them since I could. Put some muscle into them and they're good now. I even managed to line up the holes so I didn't have to re-drill the cups.

[Frank Giger]

Since I'm still kicking gravel and mulling over how to do those rudder stops, I've fallen back to my method of keeping the build going when hitting a road block - work on something else.

My very crappy attempts at making the leading edges to the ailerons are documented ad naseum earlier in the thread, an the prospect of of having to wrestle with short sections of T6 sheet on the wings was too depressing to contemplate. Like most problems in life, the solution was more money.* I bit the bullet and bought a 20 foot length of 12" wide T3 aluminum leading edge material, but just one, as if it turned out to be as disastrous my efforts with the other stuff I'd only be out a little more money rather than a lot.

Since I don't have anything to roll a sheet that long, Plan A was to:

1. Measure to center and rivet the edge to the top ribs, starting at the top (closest to the center of the wing), going across, and then work my way down it to the spar.
2. Then I'd put rivets on the center of the spar to start the curve really going.
3. Flip the wing over and, using a long board clamped to the end of the sheet, bend the leading edge down, clamping it to the ribs.
4. Rivet the leading edge to the bottom ribs, starting from the spar and working my way up (er, in).
5. Once it was locked in place, remove the board and complete the bend.
6. Trim the ends of the leading edge.
7. ???
8. Profit.

Plan B was to fall to my knees at the next EAA Chapter meeting and beg for mercy.

Plan A worked! I'll put some pics up later, but the results weren't bad....none of the few "smiles" will show when covered, and it's consistent along the wing. I cut a "window" in the leading edge for the forward lift tang and the wire by drilling holes in the corners of my square and cutting the lines between them with a dremel tool cutting wheel.

T3 is fine stuff.

I also found a new way to leak the red stuff. I had the bright idea of wearing shorts when working on the aircraft, as it's still pretty hot here in Alabama. Shavings from drilling then fell into the top of my shoes, where they neatly stood in my socks pointy ends level to the ground, which means I had a lot of little aluminum needles sticking into my ankle. Move around enough and they'll cut one enough to bleed, and hurt about like a yellow jacket sting.

Anyhow, I prepped the wing for covering. One of the things I learned in the tailfeathers is that if you think a piece might need some cloth tape on it, it needs some cloth tape on it. Measured and cut the fabric - lucky me, the lower wings are narrow enough that one piece will wrap around the whole thing.

* Thing problems. People problems aren't always solved by more money; indeed, sometimes more money only makes them worse.

[planecrazzzy]

I ran into this problem before I bought my English Wheel...

Changing the Big steel wheel with a Rubber wheel would curve your leading edge...

Whatever the length...
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Since I didn't have the English wheel yet...

I did it the way you mentioned...
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(Page two)
http://www.wingsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=320&t=15970




English Wheel Modification
http://www.wingsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=325&t=23279
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Gotta Fly...
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[Frank Giger]

Hey, that's pretty sexy...and it looks perfect!

My way was a lot less sophisticated.

So here's some pictures of how I put on a leading edge!

First I took some time to get all the crap off the floor to give me some trip-free space to work in, and cut the leading edge material with some overlap on the ends.



I started on the top of the wing, riveting first across the top and working my way down.



I took a long board and used a lot more clamps than this pic shows to keep it in place on the leading edge material and bent it over.
I initially thought I might bend it off of the wing, but starting making "smiles" and dents in it.



Tada! Okay, that sounds flip; it took an afternoon of sweating and going slow to make sure it was tight all the way across.



When it doubt, put tape on it! Note the window in the leading edge. That's where the lift tang for the forward landing wire is.



The lower wings aren't very wide, and one piece of fabric folded over it with plenty to spare. I decide to use the "blanket" method with just glue at the trailing edge.

[Frank Giger]

Either this piece was waaaayyy easier due to the lack of complex curves or I'm getting better at this covering stuff!

I started at the bottom of the wing. That way the seam is from going over the top and is underneath on the trailing edge. The less I show of my edging tapes the better!



I took up the slack and held it in place with some clamps and then flipped it over.



To make it look perfect, one draws a perfect half inch perimeter around the edge and keeps the glue perfectly inside it.

I've given up on perfect. I used the width of the brush as my guide with better results than when I try to stay in the lines.



So I pulled up the slack again and used some clamps to keep some tension up. Once I ran an iron over the material to make a "glue clamp" they were ejected from the piece to become trip hazards.



All glued and tensioned!



I did paint the interplane strut mount before covering (that's why it's Horizon Blue in this picture but not the others) and put a reinforcing patch around it with some stiffening material before putting the heat to the fabric.



To make sure I didn't warp the wing, I shrank it in rib sections on both sides, standing it up on the leading edge and hopping from one side of the wing to the other.

The kinda cool thing about doing it this way is that I think I had some room for error. I couldn't see any evidence of it (the fabric threads are straight along the wing), but I think there was a chance for it to shift and slide along the leading edge, since it's only held together at the trailing edge.

Tomorrow is rivet tape, rivets, and edging tapes. Man, I hate edging tapes.

But maybe I can knock that out in the morning and prime it for paint in the afternoon!

[Frank Giger]

I won't bother y'all with pics of priming the wing; let's just hop to the good stuff.

Top of wing done.



Here's what I call the "sunshine test." Working in the somewhat blue indirect light of the tarp tent, sometimes colors details can get lost - plus it's often hard to inspect when a piece is flat and one is so close to it.



So this morning it was time to do the bottom of the wing. It had already been painted my pale CDL over primer, so I'll be adding a bit more to clean up the color from the top of the wing, and putting blue around three of the edges.



I got some of that wavy edging tape for the front of the wing because I'm lazy and couldn't think of a good way of doing it otherwise.

Note that I haven't cut out the ends of the spars or the slit on the top of the wing in front of the rear spar where the flying wire attaches. I'm slow but I catch on...I shouldn't have cut out the spots with the lift tangs near the interplane strut mount. It worked out okay, but would have been easier if I didn't have to tape the lift tangs and paint around a friggin' hole.



Behold the Thirty Foot Roundel.

Looks pretty good from here, right? I know, real craftsmanship!



It actually doesn't look half bad close up, and this in direct sunshine. There was a super secret technique to getting those red border edges cleaned up that I will not reveal.

And oh, I dug up my big ol' Harbor Freight compass, drew circles, and free handed that darned thing using foam brushes. Impressed? You ought to have seen those paint-by-numbers clowns I did as a kid.