Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

Holy holes, batman! That's actually a thing of beauty, but my seat weight is in ounces and the back sheet metal will be compromised and just warp a bunch with a lot of holes in it.

My seat was too high. The shoulder straps would have to bend up from the turtle deck mount and would be a question mark if the unfortunate happened. But I can't lower it with the elevator rod in its original position. The solution came from another WWI replica builder with the same problem. He simply moved the mount point for the elevator control rod to the end of the column, which lowered it quite a bit. I borrowed from him liberally, as I have no shame.

Okay, here's the quick and dirty of how I adapted Bill's excellent modification for my own benefit, which was actually pretty straight forward.


Moving the elevator control rod back over the rear carry through lowers the clearance quite a bit - note the seat supports (the unpainted tubes) are now far above the control rod.





I had originally thought to use some big lift tangs, like Bill did, but they turned out to be too short for clearance; I think my aileron control horn sits higher than his.


But I had some extra blades used for the lower wing mounts, and they were more than longer enough (and quite thick and robust).


To keep them the same height as the control stick, I used the stick itself, drilling the hole for where it sits on the column and then using a AN3 pencil to mark where it hit the original elevator control rod mount point and drilling there.





I used the piece of the elevator control rod that was cut off originally (never, ever throw anything out!) as it was the right thickness and length, drilled a couple holes in it and shazam! the control rod is on a hinge in a solid linkage.





Trim, sand, and paint, and it looks beautiful.


What isn't shown is the fact that when I put that tube inside the elevator control rod as a sleeve I had riveted it in several places to make it to where it didn't slide around inside. So I drilled all those rivets, slid out the inner tube, measured it back, cut it to allow for the elevator control mount to slide in the main rod, and re-riveted it.


Then I cut the elevator control rod to fit after locking down the elevator in neutral position with a board and zip ties and putting the stick in center and re-drilled it. Amazingly I did all the above without messing it up.





Here's the seat with the new configuration with the front legs on the floor board...it clears the elevator control rod with a little to spare at this height, lowering the seat about four and a half inches. A squat test on the carry throughs without the seat puts my shoulders right at the top of the turtle deck, which was the goal.





Tomorrow I'll modify the seat to fit this, including mucking around with those rear supports - yea, more rivets to drill out - and hopefully finish it up.

[Frank Giger]

Seat finally adjusted and fixed in place.


I removed the gussets holding the forward seat legs without incident, which really surprised me - not elongating a single hole after drilling out eleven rivets in a row is a new record for me.


From there is was simply a matter of measuring how much to cut off the front legs, re-cope them to fit the carry-through, and re-do the rear supports, moving them down a bit.


The last bit was much, much easier than I thought it would be. Not a lot of adjustment in coping the ends for a new angle to support moving it down, and it went too easily for my comfort.


Usually when things go smoothly it just means that I'm screwing up in a way that won't become apparent until I'm almost finished.


The problem of the front legs of the seat just resting on the carry through had to be solved as well, as they can't just rest on it. They need positive attachment.


My solution:


First I took some quarter inch tubing I had ordered back when I was scaring myself with some of the repairs I was making (about three more and I'd of run out of things to patch with), annealed it and pounded it into a strip. This gave me a nice thick piece of aluminum that was flexible and strong. For once my maths worked out and not only was it long enough, it came out at one inch across.


Then with a ball peen hammer, some thick PVC pipe and some colorful language I made it into a circle with tabs sticking up that were an inch apart.


I used a piece of scrap I took from Robert's after the HOP that matched the carry through and some one inch stock laying around as a guide:





Gussets to the front and side of the seat re-cut, holes drilled for the wooden "feet" (which, again went scarily well), wrap tight around the carry through and rivet:





Now I'm in a much better position when seated!






The wife came out back tonight to ask how long I'd be, to which I replied "as soon as you take another picture I'm done for the day."


"Good, I have a surprise for you!"


Having been married some twenty years now that could mean anything from the garbage disposal on fire to an invitation to some "special time." Today, however, it was a 7" Android tablet with built in GPS.


"Maybe you could put this in the airplane with one of those programs."


Man, did I ever talk the right one into becoming wed to me.

[pittsdriver3]

I like your seat attach a LOT better now Frank. Don

[Frank Giger]

Thanks for keeping me out of harm's way!

The seat is rock solid, but I think I'll put a reinforcing bar between the rear mount tubes just to beef it up. The front mounts worked out better than I thought they would, that's for sure.

[Blue Chips]

Frank,
Your camera have a flash ?

[pittsdriver3]

Thanks for keeping me out of harm's way!

The seat is rock solid, but I think I'll put a reinforcing bar between the rear mount tubes just to beef it up. The front mounts worked out better than I thought they would, that's for sure.

If it will clear the elevator linkage you might want to put two tubes from the seat to the middle of the cross tube to make a truss. Don

[Frank Giger]

Hmmm, I'll look at it, but I don't know if that's just overbuilding for the sake of it.

Well, I'm moving on from the seat, as she's only needing the seat cushion, which I'll make on a rainy day in front of the TV.

But there were a few things to tidy up...

First I laid out some fabric on some plywood and traced loosely around the template for the back seat, making sure I went the extra length on the ends.

Good excuse to try out my Florian Shears I got for covering, and I'm glad I did. The thing is the cat's meow, but does need some getting used to.



Some 77 spray cement and a little work with some scissors and she looks pretty good. This was actually a neat exercise as covering is coming up real soon and I got a feel for manipulating fabric to get all the creases and crap out of it as I worked the bends.



And then I learned some chemistry. Just raw cotton is going to get dirty and yucky pretty quick (heck, I got some spots on it dirty just touching it with my working hands), so I Scotch Guarded the fabric for dirt resistance.

Scotch Guard and 77 adhesive use the same solvents.

Suddenly the fabric wasn't attached by anything but water adhesion. Gulp. Then it hit me that the glue isn't gone, but probably just in solution - if there was a reaction with the Scotch Guard I should have seen some change by color or participate (or smell or heat). So I simply smoothed the fabric down to the seat and waited. The solvents evaporated and the seat adhered to the fabric just as before.

Worked the automotive door trim around the edges and at the seat belt access holes and it looks okay to me.



Back to the fuel tank! Coped the cross beams for the back of the tank and lined them up on a tight fit.



The center was a monster to get right for a smooth fit. Lots of fiddling work with the sander.



Big gussets left and right and now there's something for the tank to hang on!



To test the strength of this, since that's a kinda spider web junction, I stood on top of the cross members I put in. Not so much as a dip or bend. If it can take my ever growing mass, eleven or so gallons of gas won't be much of a strain.

Oh, and the foam that I soaked in gasoline? Four days submerged in petrol and no deformation or tackiness. It's a go!

Now I've got to work up a scheme for holding the tank up to the cross members front and back. I've got some ideas and will see today if they work.

[planecrazzzy]

It's easy to sew upholstery with a regular sewing machine...

You need an upholstery needle and upholstery thread...

You may need to "Help" the sewing machine through thicker folds.
.

[Frank Giger]

Very sexy. Since it's just a seat cushion I plan on just sewing mine from hand. It's two seams, after all. And I can't tell you how good it is to know folks are reading this thread to keep me straight. It may very well literally save my life.

Back to the work - I didn't want to waste y'all's time on my plan for mounting the tank in case it didn't work out.

But it did!

Okay, the notion struck me that I had made a strong strap for the forward seat mount out of tubing that I flattened, and the idea was a sound one for mounting the tank. After all, it's a metal strap like a lot of people use, and I'm too cheap to buy a metal strap stretcher and clamper for just one application.

So I flattened some tubing and took measurements as I went to go around the tank, bending at the corners:



The hook is for the rear tube; I had to make the other loop for the front in situ.

Here's the rear strap tightened up around the tube and riveted in. That's a curve in the strap you're seeing, as I learned that unless one hits the thing to be flattened from the top it'll do that. For the other I flipped the tube regularly when flattening to prevent this. But it's solid enough not to do over; if the tank suffers so much G that it straightens the wings have fallen off and it'll be the least of my concerns.



Here's the front of the tank where the strap goes around the tube.

I put some aluminum sheet between the strap and the tank for chafing prevention. I don't know if it's needed or not, but seemed like a good idea.



Once the straps were in place I put in the tube covers to help with vibration and to make things even tighter.

The funny thing is that I was originally concerned about the tank shifting left and right, but without the tube covers it's rock solid; I could probably do without the tube covers at all!



One thing that should be noted is that the tank Robert made is a bit dent-ish...maybe from the heat of welding? Anyhow, it took me a minute to figure out that it's not a perfect cube and has high and low spots on the sheeting that makes up the edges.

Anyhow, the tank is in!

Tomorrow is making a new floor, then securing the running plates for the rudder pedals and making the pedals themselves.

[Frank Giger]

I figured that before I got too far ahead of myself I'd go ahead and replace that floor, as when I put in the plates to hold the rudder pedals it will be a PITA to take out and put another back in.


I opted for a different wood - the oak plywood I had before isn't that heavy, but the new one is even lighter. One can see the old one in the background.


This is after coat one of urethane varnish. Two more went on.





The picture doesn't really show, but the back side of this stuff is primed flat wood, but I streaked it with the urethane to make it look like it has a grain.





This is a view from the front looking at the bottom. This time I was smart to drill the holes first and then varnish, so they're resistant to moisture.





It took a couple of days of putting the stuff on, letting it dry, sanding it, and repeating the process but now I can move on to putting in the pedal plates and then returning to the wings.