Spoke to Robert Baslee from Airdrome about my brake woes, and he is sending me a set of drum brakes to use instead of the band ones.
I'll have to make custom backing plates, etc., but I've been down that road and have the templates for it.
Printable View
Spoke to Robert Baslee from Airdrome about my brake woes, and he is sending me a set of drum brakes to use instead of the band ones.
I'll have to make custom backing plates, etc., but I've been down that road and have the templates for it.
Hmmm, let's try this again.
Prop hub on the crankshaft? Yep.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/engr0014.jpg
Everything all lined up and the case put back together? Yep.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/engr0015.jpg
After torquing the case nuts I stopped for the day. I was getting all scatter brained and started setting things down and forgetting where I put it and not finding things that were right in the open.
Not a good way to be when I had the task of positioning piston rings and putting the pistons in the cylinders. Better to call it a day, drink some water, and get something to eat.
I borrowed a bit from the instructions on the circle thingie that goes between the flat oil slinger and the prop hub. With it on the crankshaft I couldn't get a good view if the prop hub was fully seated or not when mounting it. It said that it could be split and the join rotated horizontally in the case once joined, so I did that.
is that a Force 1 hub from GPAC?
Great engine pics!
It's not a Force One, but it is a shrink fit hub from Great Plains.
They really are great. They went above and beyond in answering my questions, even in areas not covered by my purchase of a prop hub, crankshaft, bearings, and gasket set.
A huge plus for a guy like me is that they speak do-hickey. :)
I need a pinion removal tool to back out and re-align the distributor gear...I was off a tooth when I put the darned thing back together. It's on its way and should be here Tuesday or Wednesday.
Then it's a matter of putting the bolt into the prop hub (Dave has it to drill a hole for the cotter pin), putting the Diehl case and starter on the back of it, putting the spark plugs in, mounting it on the engine, filling it with oil, and seeing if she'll start and adjust the timing.
Getting closer....
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/engr0016.jpg
Frank, good to see your engine coming back together...it has been quite the journey!
I see one item that you might want to consider. With "aviation engines" it is standard practice to NOT have any pressure senders mounted to the engine block. The concern is engine vibration might crack the threaded portion of the sender due to the weight of the sender fatiguing the brass threaded portion. This concern is alleviated by mounting the sender on the firewall and connecting it to the engine with a flexible hose. You may never have a problem with the sender as installed, but if it cracks you may be going through this overhaul thing again. The flexible hose is good insurance and easily installed.
Here are the fuel and oil pressure senders mounted on the firewall of my RV-6:
Attachment 6352
I would also drill a small hole in the oil filler cap so it can be safety wired. More cheap insurance. :)
Best wishes for a successful engine break-in!
So engine is pretty much done. Just have to put on the valve covers, torque the spark plugs and hook them up, and mount the engine and prop.
Just to show how my "bad luck/good luck" life works, there's a little spring that goes between the cam gear for the distributor and the distributor. Once everything is lined up as it should be, one simply drops it into a hole on the gear and puts the distributor on top of it.
There is a cut in the side of the well where the distributor fits in to meet the gear, no doubt to allow oil in and out, and is about a third the way up from the cam gear. It is horizontal. The spring goes in vertically.
I know that it is the perfect size - not one bit bigger or smaller than absolutely necessary for a zero tolerance fit - for the spring to fit through. The spring fell to its side and I used my little wooden skewer to pick it up and it simply vanished. Gone. Not popped out, just gone.
The spring is in the engine. The tiny half inch long three eighths inch wide spring Is. In. The. Engine.
Breathe.
Flashlight down the hole. Can't see it. Start undoing the bolts to the plate where the mechanical fuel pump would go.
Have my two Pros From Dover gently step in and volunteer, suggesting I sit in a chair and let them do it. Apparently I looked like I was about to rip the whole thing apart with my bare hands while producing a stream of profanities that would probably take the paint off the cars parked outside the hangar.
Pump plate removed. Flashlight. No spring seen.
Oil filler plate removed. Flashlight. Silence. More flashlight. "Hand me that magnet," Rusty says, and expertly removes it from the bottom of the engine.
So fantastically terrible luck in having the spring go into the engine, but also wondrous good luck that it could be spotted and fished out.
From there things went pretty quickly, and we moved the engine onto a stand over by the aircraft, hooking up various electrical things and turning it over to set the timing. It was off initially, but thanks to the flashy flash gun and an allen wrench, we soon got things right.
I'd of mounted the engine on the plane, but it seems it's a bit bent. I don't know if I can true it up with a jury rigged press or have to make a new one, but I'm not too upset with that. It's just four pieces of square steel stock and some welds. Not to throw shade at Robert, but I can throw a bead of the same quality as is presented on the part from his how without much difficulty.
So a few pics to show that I'm not just malingering.
First, let's back up a bit and talk about the tail wheel mod I did. The Airdrome method is to take some .020 aluminum sheet, bend it into a box shaped U, and secure with some 1/8" rivets to give a flat surface for the horn to rest on.
This works okay for most, as they fly from grass.
This is the state of the grass at my airport as of yesterday afternoon, and the reason for my flip:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...alla_grass.jpg
So I took some nice thick square aluminum stock that fit snugly around the tube, cut it to fit, and over sleeved the tail wheel tube:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tw010a.jpg
There's an AN3 bolt that runs horizontal behind the vertical to take some of the stress off of the bolt that holds on the tail wheel.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tw011.jpg
Engine is mounted to the aircraft!
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/engr0017.jpg
Naturally there's a comedy of errors to go with the mounting, but not too many and I managed to get it on okay.
I was getting a bit frustrated putting the mount on the engine, as I'd line stuff up, move a bit and have something move or a washer fall off or something (I put the mount on the engine and then pick the whole thing up and mate it to the aircraft).
Fortunately, my builder's log is at the hangar and I flipped to the relevant page. There, with pictures, is a little line that said "I found it much easier to line up the bottom two mounts first and then the top."
Ah. Smart man. I did it that way and it went right on with no further trouble.
I did some work on the brakes as well, mostly just lining things up to see how they'll shake out.
I might have gotten more done, but Mike was putting the finishing touches on his KR2, having rebuilt and mounted his newly refurbished engine.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/mike_eng.jpg
I told him his baffling needs to look more crappy to meet my standards.
Back up this afternoon for re-timing and possibly firing up the engine.
Frank, Glad you are going to be back in the wind again. What tail wheel assembly is that?
Jim
That's an Airdrome Airplanes tail wheel assembly, Giger Modification.
Robert just uses a 1" steel tube that's been bent that has a bungee around it in the front, an AN3 bolt through some gussets about 2/3rds down, a flat horn, and a square bit of stock below it holding the wheel. The horn and the wheel holder are joined to the tube by means of an AN3 bolt.
The smaller hard rubber wheel supplied fell apart on the grooved pavement I fly off of, so I used a larger wheel gifted by one of my EAA brothers and made a mount for it out of a bit of square roll bar.
Making the square fitting around the tube should help beef it up against any lateral loads and end the bending of vertical bolts.
A little more progress done yesterday.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/engr0018.jpg
My camera had crapped out, so Mike, a fellow EAA'r with a lovely KR2, took this photo. Sunlight on the tip makes it look candy corned.
A few other things done:
Brake handle mounted; I need to get some more cable to fit the new location, but I like the routing paths. They aren't going to interfere with anything.
Engine was re-timed and ran well!
And more stuff to do:
In all the shuffling of stuff around my hangar, I mislaid two of my 10mm bolts needed to mount the oil cooler. Simple enough to replace, but it's disconcerting.
Go on a bug hunt. Paper wasps are in full swing, and industrious suckers. On the other side of the aircraft from me, right about where the prop tip is on the back side of the firewall one had started a nest.
I know this because I put my hand there without looking and got stung for my effort. Just three cells, so she had clearly just begun her work. But that means I've got to seriously look at each piece of the aircraft to ensure I don't have more.
So for today's "ugly but it works" picture, behold my offset brake handle:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._handle001.jpg
Just a piece of scrap 1" tubing, annealed and beat on with a hammer, and then riveted to a fuselage tool.
I discovered when removing and replacing the brake line sheaths that the old ones both had kinks in them where I had fed them through the gear legs that were pretty tight. The metal coil of the sheaths were both pinched tight.
So add yet another potential cause for why the brake locked up. When I released them they might not have completely released.
So the new lines will go along the outside of the gear legs, zip tied top and bottom and concealed somewhat by some aluminum tape that I'll paint.
Still working out the brake drum holes to fit the wheels - my wooden jig system didn't work - and the brake assembly thingy mount as well.
Here's something pretty, though:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...newprop001.jpg
Engine all put back together and runs pretty darned good:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...newprop002.jpg
Pretty enlightening day out at the airport!
Apart from a lot of non-aviation fun and games (I saw a big wreck happen on the Interstate and a guy that was tased by the police at the airport), actual stuff got done on my Bebe.
First, Mike decided to take a break from his gorgeous KR2 to see if he could help me out. This is good, as I needed a fresh set of eyes on my problems.
My build planning process usually involves several Rube Goldberg type solutions that go through a series of removing unnecessary steps or parts or convoluted ways of doing things. Usually I turn the "fabricate a multi-angle folded piece of aluminum, alter a piece of a kitchen appliance, find strips of some sort of rubber or cloth, a rivnut, three sheet metal screws, two eighth inch rivets, safety wire, and a bit of velcro into "just drill a hole and put a bolt through it, along with two washers and nut."
But sometimes I don't reduce things down as simply as they can be.
We sussed out that my brake cables were best run down the rear gear legs to the brakes (I had them going down the front ones), and how to mount the brake to the assembly I made for the band brakes. Neato! Not only does it look better, but there are fewer bends in the cables.
I did manage to get a little wink for coming up with a good swag for the brake cable ends, using some ferrules and shaping them with the belt sander. I can fabricate just about anything my plane requires with a blow torch, a Sharpie, a hacksaw, a drill, and a belt sander. It's the one skill I have learned I'm rather proud of.
He strongly suggested we correct the fitting I have at the bottom of the fuel tank that goes to my drain, as it has a tiny leak. It's always been that way, and not a huge deal, but apparently having any sort of gasoline leak near the battery is undesirable. Who knew?
Anyhow, how I had it rigged up was a 90 degree fitting with a barb end connector for the fuel line in it and to get it oriented close to the right direction it was a little loose.
We drained the fuel and after cleaning the threads on both, Mike looked at me and asked why the hell did I have that 90 degree bend in there in the first place? The line just goes down and then to the bottom of the firewall...just put the barb fitting in there without it and it can be tightened up properly.
"I dunno, I just did it that way," I admitted, "let's do it your way."
So we did.
Next time I'm out I'll bring my camera to show my work, if anyone is interested.
Getting closer!
Drum brakes installed. I had to do some thinking on this, though it looks dead simple.
My original drum brake mounts, which was a bushing welded to a bit of thick sheet steel, were just too good to toss aside, as they answered so many questions.
The problem was that the weld beads were on the outside, towards the brake. This didn't matter with the band brakes, as the drum was on the wheel and the bands went around the outside of them. With the drum brakes, they had to go flush against the steel plate, and couldn't with the bead in the way.
My solution was to take a 1/4" thick bit of poplar and oversize the hole in the center to go around the bead, and use it as a big ol' washer. It worked out really well.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/brake013.jpg
Two bolts hold the brake assembly to the steel support, one on top and one on bottom.
Happily enough, the bolt hole that had the band brake mount was in perfect position for the cable clamp for the new brake as well.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/brake014.jpg
There's some slack put on the cable to the rear of the mount to allow the arm to move forward as the gear rises in the bungees without tightening the cable.
One of my EAA brothers has the drums for drilling holes that match the wheels, and I should have that by the end of the week. I have a basic inability with the tools at hand (and lack of skill) to drill them correctly where the drums are centered on the wheel.
Some of y'all might not be aware, but the axle setup is, um, interesting in my airplane (and I think most Airdrome ones), in that the axle is a tube and the wheels rest on a 3/4" inch, 12 inch long bit of solid round steel stock that is slid into it. The bushing around it is PVC pipe.
Both of mine are slightly bent, so some replacement stock is in place. I'm going to increase the length of them by about six inches. That should be here by week's end as well.
I washed the wings yesterday evening and spotted a few things that need correcting. I cut a small inspection slot in the end of the undamaged wing to look at the spar and need to patch it, and do some touch up painting.
But I'm damned close to putting her back in the air!
At this point I guess I'm just posting to remind myself of the work, but here it goes:
Whelp, lots done today.
The axle inserts have arrived, and I took them out to the airport. Since the brake drums themselves weren't ready, no need in undoing the bungees and mucking around with the axle.
So I patched up a couple of inspection slits I cut into the undamaged wing, touched up the paint on the wings, drilled the replacement spar on the top wing, put on the side sheeting on the fuselage, and was about to call it a day.
My EAA brother called to say he was finished with the drums, so I hopped in the truck and made my way over there. Jack is a great guy and had a helluva career as a USAF pilot, so I got him talking about flying...I just sat there slack jawed as he talked about some of the stuff that happened to him in SE Asia in the '60's.
One of the tales he regaled me with was flying a Cambodian AF plane over to Vietnam to have bomb racks retrofitted to fit US munitions. His introduction to the MiG 19 was a Cambodian pilot pointing stuff out to him and going through start up and shut down procedures, gear, flaps, etc., with everything labeled in either cyrillic or squiggly writing - and the inherent hazards of flying a MiG, regardless of markings, over South Vietnamese airspace. He had "friendly aircraft is armed and will respond in kind if shot at" put in the NOTAM for it.
:)
I did a down and dirty mounting of the drums to see if he got center right on the holes and it's on the money.
But by that time it was late afternoon and I was wilting from the Alabama heat and called it a day.
Once I put in the new axle inserts, it's time to mount the wings, re-time the engine, and do some taxi tests to ensure the brakes won't do anything hazardous.
And then....
:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Okay, so brakes all good now - at least until taxi tests say otherwise!
First, those 3/4" round steel bar axle inserts were bent, the right being the worst:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/brake016.jpg
Interestingly enough, they were bent on the outside of the axle, right after the bushing that holds the brake mount and at the wheel.
New inserts cut and the plane up on blocks, bungees removed. I wonder who will spot the inherent reason for my difficulties in the picture - hint: it's a gaming joke.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/brake015.jpg
New inserts in, bungees in place, end caps to hold it all in place drilled, and just a little cleaning up of the cables needing done.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/brake017.jpg
A few notes:
Note the cable routing along the inside of the strut with an easy loop for slack as the assembly moves up and forward on the bungees.
The twisty ties are going to be replaced or hidden with some twine wrapping, which will then be painted, along with the cable. The cable is staying on the outside of the gear leg. I'm all over aesthetics at this point (not that it was ever high on the list, mind you), and since the entire aircraft is an exercise in drag, it's not like I'm spoiling the clean lines.
There were two things spotted and corrected with the hardware: One of the bushings on one wheel wasn't seated properly at the factory. A little gentle tapping put it right. Second, one of the brake shoes on one drum was proud of the assembly and had to be taken down a bit to ensure a fit. It was tight fitting into the drum before placing on the aircraft.
Hey Frank,
You are getting closer. Excuse me but my motorcycle fabrication experience still says to route the brake cables down the back of the rear legs and then loop out and down to the actuator arm. It should be pretty easy to just undo at the actuator arm and route the cable around the back. Why tighten up the radius of that cable after having a problem with brake seize once? :)
Jim
...and some more motorcycle fabrication experience..... :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Fokker Builder
While you are re-routing the cables, please consider a different method of securing the cable housing at the drum. That cable clamp is squeezing the cable housing and could result in the cable binding resulting in another unfortunate brake incident. It is much better to terminate the housing in a bracket that doesn't clamp the cable housing. Here is how I installed the O-Brien brakes on my D.VII:
Attachment 6616
This also provides an easy way to adjust the brakes.
Here is the very simple bracket:
Attachment 6617
A similar bracket could be bolted together if you don't want to mess with welding.
Time to fabricate a brake line housing stop...
Frank, one more item to consider as you refine the brakes....mount the cable so it forms a 90* angle with the brake actuator arm (see my photo in previous post). This provides maximum mechanical advantage for your system, the brake arm only moves a small amount once everything is assembled and adjusted.
Sam, it's hard to tell from the photos, but I'm really close to 90 degrees, and a bit of inefficiency is a-okay with me! :)
Here she is as I left her yesterday, wings on and ready for rigging.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...pre-rig001.jpg
Next up after rigging:
Touch up the center wing over-wrap section, repair and mount the gun, patch the access holes I had to cut for installing wires, touch up paint, re-time the engine, and it's on to taxi tests.
I'm not going to cover the wheels until I know everything is good with the brakes.
Sam, I received a letter in the mail from the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, VA inviting my aircraft and myself to their airshow, which will feature WWI aircraft. They did an FAA search for all WWI sounding planes to gain participation. I'm sure you got one, too.
Sure, it's a kind of form letter and they got my first name wrong, but I was pretty jazzed by it.
Well, that went over like a fart in church.
Turns out that when I originally cut my inter-plane struts, the front left one was a bit shorter than the other, which means the top wing wouldn't go into rig.
Why not now when it did before? Beats the hell outta me! But best to repair it and replace with the proper length. And yes, even with the lower wing having a higher incidence than the one on the other side she flew hands off in level flight at cruise. Weird.
So talk to Robert Baslee and he said he'd send one out on Tuesday.
It's Saturday and still no tube....I guess USPS is running a bit slow.
I went out to the airport with a long bit of wood measure out the new strut, as it's a lot easier and cheaper to cut down and whittle a bit of lumber than a flattened tube.
I also had a bit of a flashback. I pulled out the plans to see what the length there called for and laughed. "As Required," is the dimension listed. :)
So using the other one as a starting point, I matched it and fussed a little to get the measurements just right:
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/strut001.jpg
It's just held in with clamps, but the wing is level with a little tension.
Speaking of which, with the strut longer than the one I had originally installed, my wires are too short. At least too short to tighten without leaving threads exposed. So I get to cut and swag new cables. Hurray!
I guess my deep desire to drive my swagging tool (unaffectionately known as the M'Fer to me) to the Tennessee River and throwing it as far in as I could was a good thing to have repressed.
Heck Frank, it's looking good. Just don't wreck it again before I get a chance to come look it over next spring. :o)
-Cub Builder
LOL.
Went out to the airport today and tightened the wires on that left wing (wing strut replaced, of course), as they were too loose for my liking. Now they'll sing rather than thrum.
Center section is on, and I'm repairing the gun to go over the wing.
I am in the taxi portion again, as the aircraft is in all ways ready for flight, excepting the validation of the brakes. A LOT of taxi stuff, dialing in the brakes to ensure they won't get hot and lock up. My EAA brothers were out there and we think we have them dialed in....they stop the aircraft from taxi speed on pavement in about 15 feet when fully applied, and will hold the aircraft in place when started. It took some explaining to do on why I want "weak" brakes, but I don't need anything more than that (I don't have a run-up, for example), and it's just to slow down on a taxi way or to slow down a tad to make a turn off.
Plus every single mechanical problem I've had with this aircraft has been related to brakes. Every. Single. One. If I were operating off of grass, I'd omit them entirely.
The other thing I'm working up is a mechanical airspeed indicator, which is a blade attached to some music wire that bends against wind resistance to indicate the airspeed. My crappy Falcon ASI is ten MPH fast, and I'm too cheap to replace it or have it serviced, as it's firmly in the "nice to have" instruments. I stole Rick Bennet's plans for it off of the KC Dawn Patrol's website and we'll see how that goes.
Wife is getting a little nervous, particularly since I'm coming back from the airport with the "airplane gleam" in my eye. Such a lovely woman, she worries for the both of us - and has no idea that on the scale of "risky sh*t" I've done in my life, this is about a three. I promised her I won't fly until I'm fully satisfied it's a-okay and have a full ground crew (which I'd have anyway).
Frank,
i just wanted to wish you the best. Please be safe (and yes I did read the above post that you are taking every step necessary for your safety , but I felt compelled to say it anyway)
Rick
Yep.
I was thinking about the darned novel I'm going to have to write up for the logbooks (yes, I know, but I'm going to fully document in them anyway), and it occurred to me I'm close to needing the Conditional Inspection done. Since I've gone over the entire aircraft up close - including removing the wings, repairing them, rebuilding the engine, replacing a gear strut, putting on a new prop, etc., I think I can safely sign off on that, too. :)
Is it the gauge, or is it the static source? I put a Falcon ASI in my Fisher, and it was dead on when checked with a manometer. Getting static air from behind the panel it too was ten MPH fast, but once I put static ports in the aft fuselage it was accurate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Giger
I suppose I could move the static line a third time; but I'm not optimistic.
If there is no dedicated static source I suspect the airspeed error is static-related instead of an instrument problem. On the Legal Eagle I tried various schemes for getting static within the cabin and couldn't eliminate significant error. The final solution ended up being an easily fabricated pitot-static mast mounted on the wing:
Attachment 6655
Attachment 6656
It is simply two lengths of 1/4" copper tubing secured to a plate that attaches to the bottom of the wing. The same scheme could be used for pitot-static probes attached to a wing strut. The upper tube is plugged but drilled with several tiny holes and supplies static. The lower tube is the ram pitot source. This contraption worked so well on the Legal Eagle I duplicated it for the Fokker D.VII and the airspeed is dead on with a cheap Falcon airspeed indicator.
OK, that's pretty slick. I had seen pictures of several planes with dual pitot tubes like that and wondered why there were two. Now I guess I know. I'll have to remember that when I get to that stage on my own bipland.
I might add that if airspeed indication needs to be slightly tweaked with the pitot-static mast set-up, it is easily accomplished by slipping an o-ring over the static tube and gradually adjusting its location until airspeed is dialed in. But I didn't find that necessary with either of my installations.
the o-ring or metal washer is one of the best speed mods for the money in aviation. Of course, it doesn't really do anything but neither do many of the high $$$ speed mods.
I'd check the ASI with a manometer first. Probably it's OK but no point messing with static locations until you're sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Giger
Well, I'm calling her flight worthy, though there are a few things left.
http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...port_fixed.jpg
I did a bunch of taxi tests with the brakes, using actual testing methodology:
I took temp readings of the brake drums using an IR thermometer from cold (okay, that's relative, in the hanger, in shade, they were 88 degrees).
To see if there was drag on them (the wheels spin freely when lifted from the ground, but there's some flexing of the wheels with the weight of the plane on them moving over ground), I taxied about 500 yards at a normal taxi speed and let her roll to a stop after killing the engine. Twenty degree increase on the left drum, ten on the right. Slight squeak at the end of the roll.
Stopping required no adjustment of the tailwheel to stay straight.
500 feet taxi at normal speed, hard braking at the end, bringing me to the halt with the engine off in about 20 feet. Thirty degree increase on the left, twenty five on the right.
Braking required no adjustment of the tailwheel to stay straight.
1,000 feet faster taxi, brakes used once to slow, full brakes at the end with the engine at idle. She managed to stop in about fifty feet ( :D ), with some noise. Oddly enough, thirty-five degrees temp increase on left drum, thirty on the right. I'd of thought it would be higher.
Last test, after the drums cooled a bit, was holding from the start. She'll hold firm from idle to about an eighth of increase. After that, she'll roll - but not real well, and it's a gradual grabbing and not locking up though all the throttle I was willing to give her (about half). As expected, she did want to go left, but only a little.
One of the guys watching all this foolery brought up a good point after I got done: the drum is on the outside of the pads. As they heat up they expand away from the pads. In the band brakes, it was the other way - as the drum heated and expanded, it was into the band, actually increasing brake efficiency.
Small repairs to the gun - "heat shroud" replaced with a new bit of PVC pipe, new barrel to extend from it fabricated from a bit of spare tubing, crack in magazine glued and re-painted (it's not invisible). Everything re-painted, in fact, and I set it up to dry before I it gets put back together.
I have a small amount of oil leaking from around where the prop hub goes into the engine. This is really weird, as the spinner cup and the seal in front of it should make this pretty much a spot for casual oil. Then again, this is the first time I've really cranked up the RPM's since rebuilding her, and I need to check oil levels. I may have a bit too much in, as I had to add to account for the huge oil cooler.
In the VW, to really check the oil level one has to lift the tail to get the oil pan level.
Oh, and the airspeed indicator. As mentioned, it's wrong - reading 10 MPH too fast - and fixed it by moving the static port to the rear of the fuselage. Or I could pull out the pitot tube/static probe combo thingie and mount that...but I'm kind of enamored with the idea of the mechanical paddle-on-music-wire ASI that Rick Bennett came up with and will dink with that. Or just learn to live without one.
So it's now down to waiting for weather, a nice calm morning and a ground crew to start all over back at Flight Number One. My plan is the same as it was back then - go up, fly a close pattern, land.
But I got to say I got a huge thrill pushing the throttle forward and feeling the aircraft around me. If the winds hadn't been pushing, I'd of gone up yesterday.
Yeah buddy
Attachment 6665
Good luck Frank, second time's the charm.
I had to go out to the airport as part of helping one of my EAA brothers move airplane parts (get a pickup truck if one wants friends, I always said) to his hangar, and got a few things done.
Gun assembled and new tubing supports made and painted. Bought a Loverboy CD out of the bargain bin and just danced around waiting for paint to dry.
My vane airspeed indicator (Mark I) looks to be a qualified success. The vane is a bit too large and she's reading too far too soon. I could replace the wire with something beefier, but I think I'll just trim the vane down a bit and see if that works out better.
Just waiting for my schedule, my ground crew's schedule, and the weather to all align. I'm treating it as Flight #1 all over again, after all.
Way to go Frank! It looks great! I assume it will make it into the air this weekend. Best of luck with it.
-Cub Builder
Support crew scheduled for the morning at first light; Lord willing we'll go around the patch.
Battery is toast - something is seriously wrong with it, so I removed it.
Good news - it demonstrated its defect in front of the hangar at start-up. So no flight. Which means it didn't crap out while in flight (electronic ignition).
Bad news - it's toast. Battery charger gave an error message when I hooked it up. Zero volts across the posts. Zero amps. Yet the battery was hot. Pulled it at 0800 and the darned thing was still hot at 1100, so there must be something wrong with the cells inside shorting with each other.
Good news - it's a motorcycle battery. Very inexpensive when viewed through the lens of aviation prices.
Bad news - with Irma working its way up Florida, going into Georgia and then making a fish hook into Alabama, it might be two weeks before the weather is amiable to flying again.