Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

She's in rig!

It's been a tough winter for all of us, but with things improving she came out of the tent...

First, I need to back up a bit. One of the things I don't like is that the wires on the fuselage end go right onto the wing at the compression strut. I just had nightmares about trying to cover a wing with eight feet of wire attached at the inner compression strut, especially since my swagging tool (which I refer to as "that M-F'er") has a hard time fitting in tight spaces.
Yes, gentle reader, I have gone through many yards of wire and nicopress fittings due to the unforgiving go-nogo gauge to the point of embarrassment.
Here's my solution - two small extension plates made of mild steel for each end that will fit around the fixed mount and attach just like the turnbuckles.
I used one that I bought from Aircraft Spruce as a template.



All cut out and ready for some trim and drilling:



Ready for sand, prime and paint:



Each gets labeled on the aircraft with the appropriate mounting position. It worked really well and I couldn't find any extra play in the wires when I tried it both ways. Drilling in pairs ensured they were matches per wire.

So it was back out onto the grass under the frames I made from the boards for my build table, put into flying configuration, and leveled up. Mounting the wings was a fun thing by myself - my neighbor across from me, who has an unhindered view of my back yard, could be heard snickering at a couple places.
To ensure that things remain true, I double side taped some spirit levels to the wings. These were double checked from time to time to ensure the tape wasn't giving a false reading - but they were true the whole time:


The wings are held together using a thick aluminum plate that's bent to the required 14 degrees in the middle. This was a pain, as the bend needs to be centered. Again, the right curse words and they were locked down with a few bolts. It was nice to see the wing level over the joints.

The cabanes were easy as well. Using the Baslee "Just thread the bolt, mount the wires as tight as you can and then tighten the bolts" technique is genius.
Mounting the wing struts was surprisingly straight forward; I just put the lower wings on, checked the dihedral a couple thousand times, and propped the ends up with a lawn chair to hold them in place.

Then came the hell of wires. The video says to leave a couple threads on the turnbuckles, tighten as hard as one can, swag, and then tighten the turn buckles. This is both true and false. True in that it will make the wires tight enough.

False in that "as tight as one can" is subjective. Based on my anger level, I found I could put A LOT of tension on the wires to where it took the box of the wings into a trapezoid when tightened. One must think happy thoughts of circling clouds with the sun dappling on the river below; at least that worked okay for me. I pulled using a set of pliers and locked it down with some vise grips, then did the swag.

Also, order matters. Rear lower wing, rear upper wing (both sides), front lower wing, front upper wing - and she didn't warp up.
Suddenly, she's in rig as the light was fading!



Happiness is a spirit level on a wing showing a center bubble!



Loads more to do before she can get taken back apart, though. The wires need trimmed (I left the excess dangling), and with the upper wing mounted I can put in the aileron controls.
I didn't tell of all the hilarious errors, like crossing the wires the wrong way so that they bent around each other, getting it right and level to see that I had put the turnbuckle on the wrong end (do over!), or the hour I spend looking for the end of a turnbuckle in the grass (hint- they're ferrous and rare earth magnets are one's friend).

[Frank Giger]

With the wings mounted and in rig, time for the controls (yea!):

The ailerons and the elevator are push-pull rods, with the control column being a tube supported by two bolts that go through the lower wing carry throughs.

The ends of the tube have these hand spun aluminum cups that fit into them. Naturally, they were just a few [censored] hairs too big to fit. So a little work with the sander to squeak them to fit:




Almost a fit...just a touch more around...







When they were to the point that they went in snug (and I mean snug!) I stopped.

For once I had the foresight to drill the holes and mount the hardware BEFORE attempting to size to fit. No way that nut is going on once the cup is in the tube!

Measuring the carry-through distances, I did some maths that were eventually ignored, as the cups add their own to the length.

And yes I know it's a French plane being built by an American, but my HB coffee mug is one of my favorites, and I don't mind the bier, either.





Looks pretty good to me when it's in. The thickness of the walls of the cup weren't really compromised, and the whole thing to the dome of the cup goes in about two inches or so.





To measure the length of the tube, I took a piece of wood, measured the 16" that are needed - center to center of the carry-throughs - drilled some holes and put bolts through them.

I mounted one end that's in the tube, mounted the other cup, and see how they lined up. Deep breath and cut.

Note the super crappy cheapo miter box; only way I can cut clean with a hacksaw, though once the build is done it's destined for the trash, as I've slowly taken it out of true by sawing through plastic as well as metal!





Remove the floor of the plane, drill holes at the mark (incredibly, I managed to make them both perfectly perpendicular to the frame and where I wanted them), and mount.







A few notes:


The aileron control thingie needed minor work as well, as the hole in the center had to be enlarged. Robert changed the plans to a bigger tube for the controls but didn't change the hole in the control plates - no big deal, that's what hole saw sets are for! I just riveted them together and enlarged the holes for both as one piece. Then drilled out the rivets and enlarged those holes for the hardware at the end.

One of the plugs that fit into the tubes that go to the aileron (those silver bullet looking things) isn't threaded. I could fuss to Robert about it and get him to send me one that's threaded, but a tap costs 1.35 USD and I needed to order some tubing for the seat anyway - I'll just thread it myself.

The flooring is toast. It's 1/8" ash plywood, and after I bent it to fit went after it with spar varnish. Then I drilled holes to fit onto the frame. I did not then remove it and varnish the holes. Between the leaky tent and being in a few downpours outside, water managed to get into the core and warp it in some spots.

Lesson learned and not only do I have enough plywood left over to make a new one, I can do a better job since I now know how to measure and cut the floor piece. It weighs about a pound and a half and is near the CG point so I'm not worried about W&B; since I'm a little guy I can add a little weight. Plus it does look sexy, even on an uncovered frame!

[edit]

Oh, and I haven't locked down those cups to the tube yet - I wanted to make sure they were in the right place and fit before doing so. The whole thing will come out to get firmed up once I know where the aileron control will go on the control column....it's a custom fit job, after all.

[Frank Giger]

Control column is mounted! It was easier than I thought it would be in some ways, much more difficult in others.



First, though, my hand tap drill for the mount piece for the aileron came in, and when they say "hand tap" they ain't joking. Aluminum is soft stuff, and I gingerly screwed it down into the piece using very little force with a pair of pliers to turn it.





Happiness is a threaded AN4 bolt.





The control stick is one inch aluminum; the control column is two inches. The gussets have to be bent to do the transition.


My poor breaker bar and set of plans have been toasted pretty good when the roofs to the Wonder Tent were torn off, letting in copious amounts of rain.


Note the scrap pieces used for measuring to see if I got it right.






I'd like to say I really measured well and planned out the bends. Instead I just TLAR'd it with surprisingly good results. Very little tweaking with a ball peen hammer was required.







This picture actually is more about getting the mounting gussets on opposite sides than fitting to the column. The piece of zip tie marks the top of the gusset on the bottom as a guide for when I set the top one.





Moving onto the column proper, I did some subtle marking to show where the aileron horn should be on it.


This puts it both where there's a natural path for the horn to go up and down, but it will be right below the bend of my knee when I'm seated in the aircraft.

[Frank Giger]

Time to put it on the bench to work on it. I used that board I had drilled holes to fit with as a mount, clamped to the work table.



First I locked down the rear cap in the tube with an AN3 bolt - probably overbuild, but that's okay by me.


Next I locked down the aileron horn using AN3 bolts to mount to the column and big rivets for the rings to the aileron horns.



Then I leveled the horn and kept it in place using blocks and a drill battery.






That 2x4 scrap is zip tied to the stick to keep it steady as I worked it into the right position, using a level to schmooz it into the right position.






Then it was just a matter of drilling it forward enough so that the bolt goes through the column and the end cap for strength.


With a washer between the gussets and the column it all moves smoothly with no binding at all.





Took it all apart, primed and painted, and then mounted on the aircraft.






You'll note a few things:


1) I used a slightly longer bolt than in the plans and shimmed it up with washers to give the aileron horn a little more throw.
2) I bent the stick in two directions to move it back about an inch - it was a bit too far forward for my liking, but is more natural now. I just squatted with my feet on the carry throughs to use as a guide.
3) A bird landed on the wet paint on the forward end of the column and I had to make a bad thing worse by trying to fix it. Oh well, in order to see it one will have to be standing on their head when the plane is done.
4) With the column in place, the stick moving the horn and forwards and backwards and I seated in air in the right position, it was the first time I really made some good airplane noises and looked around for Jerry.

[Frank Giger]

One other thing I did was work on the inner lower wing, or more specifically, the left one.


Following the plans, the rear bow doesn't come close to the fuselage, as shown on the right wing.





I had put a splint into the bow on the left previously, and removed the temp plug I had put on it to check fitness.





Trim a piece of scrap tubing, insert, and now it goes up to the fuselage.





There's still a gap, but that's by design. I wanted some room for when I tape and cover the inner rib that I'll have to modify to fit over the lift tang later. Any gap I can fix with some tape after its mounted if it comes to that.


Oh, and I forgot to mention the crappy tarp under the fuselage. Mandatory if using little washers and bolts and stuff on the lawn.

[planecrazzzy]

Good looking project... Since I've made a post... it should update me when you add to your Log...
.
Gotta Fly...
Mike & "Jaz" the Flying Dogz
.
.

[Frank Giger]

Thanks for your response! I worry sometimes that I'm engaging in narcissism rather than helping another builder by showing my mistakes!

A few words before I get into things:


1) My first approach of leveling the horn and locking the ailerons in neutral position was overly complex. Is the horn level? Will the rod clear the fuselage gusset at full deflection? Let's guess! Or not.
2) Putting the floor back on gave me a nice horn stop. Heck, it's the floor, and I don't want to go past that!
3) Full deflection up horn (down aileron) worked best, as it showed me I was clearing the gusset okay. Doing both with up horn at the limits of both makes it center well.
4) When I bent my control stick I also bent it sideways. Sigh. When the horn is level (ailerons at neutral) it's thirty degrees to the left. Oh well, that's why I bought a little extra 1" tubing when buying for the seat.
5) TLAR worked wonders for the two 45 degree bends. I think if I'd of tried to get too sexy with calculations I'd of messed them up.
6) My fears of rudder cable problems were for naught. I mounted the rudder and eyeballed where the pedals will be and at full slip the cable won't hit the horn.

I have to say I'm getting really excited about the build again, up from a "this is cool but frustrating" feeling I've had with all the rigging woes.

Okay, a few things about this next series of pics and narrative - there's a whole lot of stuff I did wrong and had to re-do. So pay attention if you're doing something similar, no need to repeat my boneheadedness.


I will have to say I was pretty upbeat, as my Tent Lizard made it through the winter and though he looked a little bummed that he didn't have the fuselage in the tent to crawl around on:





So the methodology was that I'd work from max down deflection on the aileron and the horn to equal things out.


First I elevated the horn and used some duct tape to hold it in place. Note that I've choked up on the aileron horn to give me more throw.





Then I used the duct tape again, in a slightly different technique, to hold the horn down on the opposite side.





Bend the tubing to match up to both, measure, and cut. In hindsight I got really lucky here. I didn't really measure it - I just eyeballed, went into the tent with the tubing and a conduit bender, made four bends looking to make both tubes the same, and came out to find it was just right.





I took a break here, needing some water and to check on the wife, and when I came back forgot where I was in the order of things and almost had a heart attack - the right aileron rod is too short!


No, idiot, the horn is down on that side. It's supposed to be too short if the aileron horn is up and the control horn is down.





Too easy to switch sides on where the roll of duct tape is to the other side, match it up, and make hole for the bolts.





A quick word on drilling the bolt holes through the solid aluminum fitting thingies: it sucks. Loads of patience required as it's a long drill time and stress factor is high because one only gets one try.

[Frank Giger]

This is control stick number two.

Remember the pic of me putting a 2x4 next to the stick with a level? Okay, that didn't work. It was a utter failure, and the stick was actually 35 degrees to the right of level.

I dinked with the stick itself, making it a bigger ugly mess than it already was and then realized that no matter how the stick was bent the darned thing was 30 degrees off and it needed to be no degrees off. I threw out the stick and made a new one with just one bend in it.

This was wrong as well, but we'll get back to that.

Anyhow, the solution, since I couldn't make another hole in the front of the column (they'd run too close together), was to remove the bolts that held the aileron horn in position to the column, rotate the stick to 90 degrees to level, make sure the ailerons were level, and re-drill them.

I should have waited to drill the holes for the stick until after the aileron control rods were done and I could confirm level.





No pictures of that nutroll, as I was too busy fixing my mistakes and really excited about the next part.

Tailfeathers back on the bird! Wait, wait, wait: fuselage, wings in trim mounted, and tailfeathers....holy crap, it's an airplane!



That thing with the terrible red line drawn on it is the elevator control rod. Optimally, one would put the hole through the elevator itself at a hinge, but it didn't work out that way for me - it just won't fit that way with the fuselage frame tubes.



The problem with this 1" piece of tubing is that it is as long as 75% of the fuselage and it kinda bendy. I spoke to Mr. Baslee and he said it needs a bushing. Bushing...bushing....oh, another tube inside it. Well, I didn't get the C9 part, which is a three quarter inch tube about the same length as the aileron control rod, but I just happened to have some left over from when I got some for repairing my mistakes with the fuselage.

The problem was I had two pieces that were long enough - if I spliced them together.

Here they are laid out next to the aileron control rod.



What I need is a long dowel to hold them together in the tube until I can get some rivets in them and to stiffen up where they meet.

They don't make a tube for that, but they make a three quarter inch dowel/stick/whatever it is supposed to be used for at the corner hardware store.

I just needed to sand it down a bunch a little at a time while making sure not to take too much off.



That's the stick in one of the tubes up to where I stopped sanding. I needed a handle to rotate it on the sander, and the dowel for a splice was already too long at 24 inches.



Pull it out and cut it with a hacksaw.

[Frank Giger]

I used a little wood glue on one side to hold it steady for the push, using a mark to make sure it didn't shift.





Fits perfect! Having to splice stuff far too much has made this easy stuff.





Slide it in the tube, making sure it's not too far to either end to allow for the fittings.





Let's get back to that control stick, shall we?


Well, that one bend stick is nice, but it won't work. The stick, at level where the hand is at is actually full up elevator (back) so there's no room for it to travel.


Meet my latest nightmares - thick walled 1" tubing and a conduit bender.





I thought about scratching the idea of using tubing with two 45 degree bends and make one out of wood, but then got mad and just bent and cut some tubing, confirming it one the template I drew out for a wooden one.


It's an ugly sucker, but it's the right length and everything. I cut an angle at the bottom make sure it wouldn't interfere with the elevator mounting hardware.





Rivet the stick to the control gussets, mount it to the column, bring it to 90 degrees, drill a hole in the elevator and mount that hardware, line up the elevator control rod, mark, cut, and done!


I didn't take pictures of me putting rivets in the elevator control rod to keep the inner tubes from shifting around or the hardware on the elevator end of things (which is weird, I was so happy to hit the cut on the mark I usually take a photo of stuff like that).

[Frank Giger]

So, stick centered and the elevator is at neutral.



Stick back and the elevator goes up!



Stick forward and it goes down!



I am pretty danged pleased with myself at this point, to be honest. Controls are in and work as advertised. The nice thing about using rods is that one just can't reverse the controls on anything.

And that ugly stick? Well, I wrapped it in twine because I happened to spot a spool of it I had under my workbench and thought it might look better that way. Pretty cool, huh?



Oh, note the three holes between the stick and the column. They're attempts to find the right spot that gave free movement through the fuselage. Lower is better - the seat height is dictated by the rod - and it turns out I could use the lowest one.

Naturally I had drilled it high to begin with, but I think I'll throw a bolt through it to make the assembly more robust.