Building a Nieuport 11...

[cub builder]

Your buddy Mike says the AWOS wasn't updating the data properly, so you were getting old AWOS data. Caught him by surprise as well.

-Cub Builder

[Frank Giger]

Oh yes, "190 at three" is a lie burned into my memory for life!

[Frank Giger]

Here's a video of the landing portion of that flight.

I carry a GoPro so that I can pick out things I do wrong - and there are huge areas of improvement as a pilot I can make - but in this case the decision to go around (and around) was the right one.

[Floatsflyer]

Here's a video of the landing portion of that flight.

I carry a GoPro so that I can pick out things I do wrong - and there are huge areas of improvement as a pilot I can make - but in this case the decision to go around (and around) was the right one.

And the joint was a rockin', goin' round and round...

You did real good Frank. Much, much better than Clark Griswold on the London round-a-bout. And much, much better than Charlie on the MTA.

[Frank Giger]

Well, unlike Charlie there is a very slim possibility my wife could hand me a sandwich when I got hungry.

[waltermitty]

Poopie air, I love it.

[Frank Giger]

I stole that from Dick Starks, actually.

I went out to the airport a couple of days ago to install a pitot tube (since I paid all that money to put it on the panel, might as well have it read something other than zero!).

Normally, something like this would be full of adventure, not a few swear words, and a couple drops of blood. I'm sort of hexxed that way.

I had to put a stiff wire from the cockpit through the wing and hit the wing strut dead on. Got it on the second try - no expletives needed.

I needed to anneal and custom cut both ends of the aluminum tube the nylon hose would go through that gets riveted to the wing strut to hold it in place. It went perfect first try.

I needed to paint it all without drips. Awesome.

I needed the nylon tubing to snake up the inside of the cockpit, though a hole in the panel, and into the airspeed indicator. Not an issue.

Why the "no fuss, no muss?"

Because I flew with Mike in both of his aircraft, the KR2 and the Cessna 150.

First up in the KR2. The air was super poopy, two men and full tanks of gas make the CG at the very aft end of acceptable, the winds became gusty on landing, and, as a bonus, his headset crapped out.

Then up in the Cessna 150, where almost immediately the intercom system stopped working. We discovered after we landed that the power cord had come out of it.

I need to fly with Mike more often when I'm working on my airplane, as it seems I can transfer my minor difficulties onto his aircraft instead of my own.

[cub builder]

Yeah. I'll bet Mike really appreciates the Giger hex.

[rwanttaja]

Yeah. I'll bet Mike really appreciates the Giger hex.

I always thought this was the Giger Hex:

Or is that the Giger crescent?

Ron "Where's that 20-foot breaker bar" Wanttaja

[Frank Giger]

Spoke to Robert at Sun N Fun about random stuff and the Nieuport as well.

Typical Robert Baslee conversation:

On pitot tube placement: Why even bother with one? But if you want, put both the static port and pitot tube right together; there's no good place to put a static port anywhere in the fuselage.

On the axle inserts bending: Better than something breaking! But you could make metal bushings to use instead of the plastic pipe insert.

On coaming: I suck at that and have other people do it; whatever works for you is best.

On the build process: Well, how I did the leading edges is in the instructional book that came with the plans. You didn't get a book? Oh, yeah, we put that together after you got yours.



I talked to Blake about his Nieuport and got his take about coaming (both the Nieuport 28 he built and the Sopwith Schnieder's are just excellent.

He said the foam is evil, and they went with just a big fat garden hose instead, as it's easier to wrap the leather around a firm surface. He also implied that I really should get pieces of actual leather that can stretch to fit.

I'm going to have to manufacture a setup to hold two 1/4" tubes side by side if I'm going to run both the static and pitot tubes in the same location.

There are two easy ways and one hard one:

1) Simply use another 1/4" inch piece of aluminum tubing to hold the plastic tubing and place it along side the one for the pitot tube line up the wing strut (easiest). It's also the least aesthetic; yeah, yeah, I know, now I care about looks!*

2) Drill holes into the side of the strut itself at the top and bottom and run the tubes down through it. A big PITA to run the tubes through it, and that's holes in the side of the wing strut. Okay structurally, but I don't like holes in struts. Its the most aesthetic, though.

3) Ovalize a piece of 1/2" tubing and run both through them. Most difficult, as I'd have to make a jig to do that and my track record on that account isn't the best.

Oh, and hey, look here's me with a Camel!



* "What about additional drag? I give two hoots about drag. The whole aircraft is as if someone made a bet on how much drag one could design into an aircraft and still have it fly.