Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

No pictures - I keep forgetting to put the camera in the truck - but lots of education to go with my recreation on the build, and I figured I'd fill y'all in.

My problem with gauges was the ground - they just weren't getting a good one. So I daisy chained it like we did the "hot" from the battery and now they all work, excepting the tach. Consensus is that the darned gauge is faulty, not the wiring. Or, on a slim possibility, I may have let the smoke out of it somehow. Valley Engineering says to send it back to them and they'll replace it (it is part of the Firewall Forward package, and so I can't send it back to VDO).

On Valley Engineering: They make a fine engine, gorgeous props (in their in-house subsidiary, Culver Props), but the documentation provided is limited to the tags they hang from the sensors. They make up for this by answering the phone and if the answer to a question isn't immediately available, they'll call one back with it in short order. I'm going to have to invest in some books on VW engines.*

This lead to some engine hilarity. The minor stuff I could suss out on my own - tightening oil line connections to the cooler, for example, but when I cranked the engine for the first time with working gauges the oil pressure shot straight up to 60 psi and stayed there. Your garden variety VW engine should be running about 25 psi oil pressure on start, so I shut it down immediately and said many, many bad things. It could be one of two things: a stuck oil pressure relief valve or the installation of a high pressure oil pump.

It's the latter, which makes sense. So it's working as it should.

I ran the pitot tube tube () through the wing after several attempts. First I went for the wet noodle approach of pushing just the tubing up along the inside of the wing. That went as well as one can imagine. Then I took some excess wire left over from rigging and tried to run that through. Slightly better than the noodle approach with the tubing, but it didn't work either. So I put the wire inside the tubing to keep it from hanging on the drag/anti-drag wires and the ribs. That managed to make the inside of the tubing a little cruddy looking, but didn't work either. Then I got a small drain unclogger wire, taped the end up to keep it from cutting the fabric or hanging, and ran it through. Hit it the first time, taped the end of the tubing to it, and dragged it through.

Now, then, the back of your typical ASI and altimeter has threaded holes. My altimeter does not. So I had to come up with a plug to fit into it securely. I'm tying the static ports of both together with a T that goes to filter. In the course of fitting them I learned that once a fitting goes into tubing it's really not coming back out. I broke the T fitting attempting it. Oh, well, that's why I bought two. Enough bad words said over that to where it's bumped down on the sh!t-to-do list.

And so begins the saga of the cowling.

The cowl provided with the kit is a spun bowl of aluminum. It's very pretty but has some unique problems with it. I didn't realize just how soft it was and it's a little beaten from moving and storage, but nothing serious. I'm going to blame that on the fact that the top of the bowl isn't quite 90 degrees to the flat. It's flared a bit. But we'll come around back to that.

With the center hole enlarged and fit onto the engine, we measured back from the seam to find that I need about 14" back from it to make it to the fuselage (being a bit generous; one can trim excess off a lot better than add to it). I have quite a bit of 12" wide 6161T6 sheeting that was intended for leading edge material unused from when I opted to buy some T3 aluminum for that instead. My plan, which I'm sticking to, is to run a 2" strip over the transition pieces from the cowl bowl and then put the 12" stuff on from it.

But first I have to put on the transition pieces that lay under the bowl, the strip, and the sheet. My first attempt saw me putting the piece too far down into the bowl, which forced a sort of bowing effect. When I got towards the end of the piece it was sticking above the end of the bowl. Sigh. Well, I may not be good at a lot of things, but I can drill out a pop rivet like a pro, thanks to much practice. Out it went. I grabbed another piece, backed up a bunch towards the edge of the bowl, and went at it again. It worked, but there was some buckling between rivets. Bah!

Ah, I need to pre-roll the sheeting. Done. That seems to work much better, but there's some slight bowing of the sheeting. It doesn't make sense. That's when I took a big step back and noticed the joined sheeting flared outwards. It's only in the bowl by just over an inch, so it's not picking up the curve. The bowl itself is flared. I cut my joining sheets down to about a foot long and ran them around. Now when I run the 2" band around I can pull it in slightly to give me a nice transition and correct for it.

That's where I left it yesterday, ready for the 2" band. I have to get a better set of snips to get a really clean edge on my strips (oh, but for a metal shearing machine!), and a little time for my aching back to recover from bending over a cowl for four hours.

* About a zillion years ago I owned a VW Bug with serious mechanical issues, so I know how to do most basic stuff on VW engines as well as some troubleshooting. But I need lots of refresher training.

[bookmaker]

Frank, if you take your aluminum to a local air conditioning shop they will probably cut you some very clean 2" strips. Most shops have 8 foot shears.

Dale

[Blue Chips]

Frank,
Your probably pretty sick of buying new tools at this point but if you have a Harbor Freight close by these pistol grip air shears do pretty well, I have a set and they cut through the aluminum sheet easily.

http://www.harborfreight.com/pistol-...ars-98580.html

[Frank Giger]

I just need to go slow with some decent hand shears (which I bought). My skill with an electric cutter isn't good enough for a precise edge; my cuts with it look like I've been drinking. Then again, I haven't ever made a jig to ensure a straight cut with it, either.

I'll give it a try and if it doesn't work out do what Dale suggested - show up to a shop with some aluminum and beg for help.

[Kyle Boatright]

I just need to go slow with some decent hand shears (which I bought). My skill with an electric cutter isn't good enough for a precise edge; my cuts with it look like I've been drinking. Then again, I haven't ever made a jig to ensure a straight cut with it, either.

If you have a decent straight edge, you can clamp that to the aluminum as a fence and do your trimming with a router.

[Frank Giger]

Okay, so some pics of the cowl, but there's only a few as I didn't take a lot of photographs.

Here's attempts one through three, but at an early (promising) stage:



The idea was to put some sheet inside the bowl and then run a two inch strip over it flush with the bowl. Then the 12" wide strip would go flush with that.

Initially it looked pretty good, but soon devolved into a bunched up mess. The problem is the bowl isn't flat at the edges, but rolls outwards. I guess I could have invested in a shrinker and spent days finding just the right amount around the edge, but my patience for that has ended.
Robert Baslee's suggestion was "well, some people run the sheeting over the outside of the cowl bowl," () and then he paused and said "that's what I usually do."

So that's what I did.



Now, then, I had kind of an idea that putting the short band in the center was not the smartest way to do things...mostly because it was my first thought on how to do it, and that's usually the least efficient and effective way.

If I put the extension on the back side, the overlap and stiffening from it will be by where it mounts to the aircraft, rather than having all that overlap at the bowl.

I could also put a little more than 2" on the end in case I measured wrong and needed more than 14" from the edge of the bowl.

So that's what I did, and it turned out okay. Not great, but acceptable.



I've got a bunch more rivets to put in to tighten it up before mounting it to the aircraft and making lines for the horseshoe cut.

In doing a trial fit to the aircraft the cowl did a half gainer off the nose and put a couple minor dents in it, so some rubber mallet magic is in order.

I'm thinking of putting a peg on the top center of the fuselage and a hole to match into the cowl to help align it when mounting. And run some car door edging on the back side to keep the scratching down after I paint it.

[Frank Giger]

To get the cut lines from the opening in the bowl to the bottom of the cowl cheeks:

1) Check level of fuselage (what are the odds? Dead on the money!).
2) Mount the cowl.
3) Use the level to make sure I'm cutting both sides in the same place.
4) Run some painter's tape from that point to the bottom of the cheeks.

Now, then, how to ensure that the angle of the tape is the same from cheek to points at the front of the bowl? Use the patented Angle-O-Matic, a bit of sheeting marked using the tape on one side, with the join at the sheeting and bowl as a straight reference.



Flip it over on the other side for a check. Turns out my eyeball was pretty much on the money.



Deep breath and cut.



On the front of the bowl, I got the transition wrong a bit, working off of memory. So it's not quite the hard horseshoe of a Nieuport 11.



But it clears the exhausts and gives the prop the room it needs.

Some minor cleaning up to do, quick fasteners to put in, painting, etc., but it's pretty much done.

To ensure that I got the clearance right, I stuck the prop on (nuts started just to the nylon). Or, possibly, because I really, really wanted to see my plane with a cowl and a prop.

[Frank Giger]

Going out to the airport later today to start mapping out the baffling. Should be an adventure!

[Frank Giger]

Here's some closer shots of that prop:



With the setting sun on it, she looks lighter (but the details stand out better).



On to work, though. Mucking about with poster board, I got most of the left side of the baffling:



There's some unused bolt holes to secure it with - one in the front and two on the block left and right of the fuel/air intakes. There's to be a bend at the back for the firewall, naturally.

I'm not sure how to block off between the Diehl case and the firewall, though. One thing at a time, I reckon.

And because I simply couldn't resist: first slow taxi today. Oooh, the smallest advance of throttle and she wants to GO!

[Frank Giger]

After getting frustrated with figuring out the engine baffling, I treated myself to a rainy day start of the aircraft and a test of the new GoPro the wife bought me as a surprise gift!