Building a Nieuport 11...

Having dropped the rear of the seat down to get my reclining angle, I had a lip of sheet hanging down.

Why didn't I trim this before I started riveting? I suck at measuring stuff like that out, and it was easier just to rivet the back to the seat following the natural curve and some spring clamps!

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat015.jpg

Electric shear and some work on the sander cleaned it up nicely so that now the seat is flush across the bottom.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat016.jpg

Here it's sitting in the airplane with the front two one inch tubes (they're thick walled; I bought a length of it just for this purpose) fitted into the seat and cut to length to the carry through (and coped to fit it).

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat017.jpg

You'll note no holes in the back, which is how the N11 seat is in reality. I am passing them over, as this is sheet, not wood, and I could see bending it as I climbed in and out as holes would weaken it. Plus making borders around each one to keep from cutting myself on them (if I didn't put a kink in the metal to gouge me every time I sat in it).

What I'll do is cover the back in fabric on the inside and paint it on the backside. The seat itself will get a nice two inch thick piece of memory foam for me to sit on.

Gussets will firm up the supports front and back and a special gusset setup will hold the front ones to the carry-through.

You might notice a piece of twine over the aileron control thingie - it runs to the rudder. Incredibly, rudder cables are clear of all this stuff by my calculations!

I like that seat Frank, looks like it will work out great.

BTW, how did the foam/gas test end up?

Ken

Three days in gas and no change in structure or condition...it's a winner!

I finally got the chance to download and resize the photos from over the last couple of days - poor PC needed some new parts - so let's back up a bit before we get to today.


I had built the lower wings to how I interpreted the plans, which meant the rear bow was about six inches short from reaching the fuselage. Sigh.


Well, breaking long pieces of tubing I can't easily replace is something I do very well; the longer and harder to replace the more fun it is to do it. Expands the vocabulary and if one does it right the heart rate will accelerate and remain elevated for at least twenty minutes. Got to get that cardio workout one way or another, says I.


Anyhow, I'm sort of an expert on making splices in quarter inch tubing by now. This technique works really well on the little stuff, and I only splice on things that aren't load bearing.


First we need the replacement or additional piece and the piece used for the splint. I don't label stuff like "S" for splint and "E" for end piece for y'all's benefit; I idiot proof just about everything like that for my own needs.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint001.jpg


My technique which is only one way to do it, is to take a dremel tool cutting disk and put a cut along the length of the splice as straight as I can.


Then I use my tiny vise to crimp one side down a little bit so it's inside and then slowly rotate the whole thing and tighten it a smidgen, rotate it a bit and tighten a smidgen ad nauseum trying to keep it as round as possible.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint002.jpg


Do it slowly enough and it'll eventually just fit - I want it to be difficult to insert, but able to do so by hand.


Here's what it looks like in the tube.


I like the lip inside the splint as it gives it strength.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint003.jpg


I always make a mark at the halfway point of the splint so it's even between the two pieces and try to put the seam along the stress (so if it's up and down stress, the seam is on bottom or top) or away from where the rivets will go.


Ideally one would rivet in at least two places on different sides. For this little piece on the end of the bow where there's not a lot of stress, I'm only riveting on the inside because of covering.


But it's clean and neat and looks like this when the pieces are together.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/splint004.jpg


Now the bow reaches to the fuselage (less a little bit).


Note the inside rib didn't need a lot of adjustment.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/lw059.jpg


Here's something scary!


I was preparing to put the wings up after taking the plane apart and was shocked to see my "parts pile." That tubing is extra (it'll be used for mounting the fuel tank, the panel, firewall and the seat). The rest is sheeting and the cowl. Covering supplies are kept in the house for climate control and staying out of the dirt.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/sheeting.jpg

As I was taking apart the aircraft I at least had the presence of mind to label each wire at the lift tang I made and the lift tang on the fuselage.


It's numbers on the right side of the aircraft and letters on the left.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig009.jpg


I also put another bolt to the left of the rear cabane mount. This hits the blade inside the wing and keeps in place. Aligning this sucker before I could put in the bolt holes was not fun. This little bolt is worth half an hour of messing it with again.


Oh, and I'm grabbing it like this because hanging on the side of the fuselage on one foot with a camera in one hand..


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig010.jpg


Frowny face.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig011.jpg


But I can't justify exposing the aircraft to weather and wildlife, so the wings had to come off and get put away.

Back to the seat...


After measuring and coping the front two tubes that go from seat to carry-through, I worked up some gussets to go on the seat end to keep the tubes up and down...


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat018.jpg


And then I started scratching my head. The tubes came down from the seat and matched the top of the carry through....and get held there by, um, magic I guess. Peter Pan used soap to reattach his shadow with mixed results, so that's out...


What I need is some tough gussets to hold it on the carry through. Something robust. And then I remembered I had a piece of quarter inch poplar board for another project I did (but never used).


A template from paper, a hole saw, a jig saw, and some sanding later...


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat019.jpg


Tada!


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat020.jpg


Two coats of urethane and one of Krylon and it sure looks pretty.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat021.jpg


Here's another view that shows the gussets from the start of this post mounted.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat022.jpg


She won't shift forwards or backwards, and won't come up once I'm in and seat belted in.

Lateral motion ain't gonna happen either once the rear supports are in...or it least if it is I will have much bigger problems than it shifting two inches one side or another.

Frank, The seat should be bolted securely to the airframe. In a hard landing or some moderate turbulence I can see it shifting around or breaking your wood brackets. Don

Yep, you're right. I'll work up a secure mount to the carry through to lock it down.

I'm not so much worried about turbulence - I'm a very fair weather pilot and she's not much of a cross country bird, but hard landings are something I'm very familiar with!

:)

Thanks for keeping me straight- this is exactly why I put this thread up in the first place

Today I did a test for how to make the hole for the seatbelt in the sheet metal into something other than a slow razor blade. I bought some automotive door edge trim and after making a hole in some scrap worked to see if it is flexible enough to curve inside it.


It worked! As one can see, I cut it too short, which surprised me as I thought originally I had it overlapping.


Note the gusset there....it was one of the spare pieces that Robert threw into the kit. I think he knows a couple extra of them are needed for other stuff.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat023.jpg


Moving on to the seat, I annealed the end of some of my super thick one inch tubing, whacked on it with a ball peen hammer until the end was flat, bent it to match the bottom of the seat, and coped the other end to match the tubing at the fuselage joint.


Then I gusseted it in, measured where the bent part hit the tube of the seat, drilled a hole in the support tube, put the seat on it, marked the hole, removed and drilled the seat, and ran a bolt through it.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat024.jpg


On the left side I couldn't use a gusset like that, since it already had one there for the cross member of the fuselage, and the angles matched too closely to put rivets in.


But I had a nice three quarter inch tube gusseted in and seated well.


So I worked backwards after annealing and pounding the end flat and coping the other end to mate with the tubes. Drilling the flat end and then mounting it to the seat, I made sure it was tight to the tubing and took a deep breath.


I drilled a hole through the cross fuselage forward through the gusset and through the seat support tube in one go, somehow managing to hit center through both.


An AN-4 bolt from my random Bag of Stuff (I had purchased the "homebuilder's hardware assortment from Aircraft Spruce) fit pretty well with a couple washers and shazam, it's secure.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat025.jpg


I even managed to hit center both sides in the seat tube, and the AN3 bolt heads won't bother me a bit.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat026.jpg


Here's a view from the front; things are tight in the tent on the nose end, so it's hard to take good ones.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat027.jpg


I also drilled the holes in the back of the seat for the seatbelt to go through.

On to testing my work.


What I need is a real world sort of weight and test, simulating a pilot getting in by standing on it and then shifting down to sit on it and then move about.


My wife came into my work area and grabbed the camera as I performed the test.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat028.jpg


Any simulated airplane noises were entirely necessary for what I considered a very serious and grim task.

And yes it was a vital part of the test that I work my feet like there were pedals installed as I moved the stick about.

.
Nothing Lighter than a HOLE !
.
Gotta Fly...Attachment 3863

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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/ctr039.jpg


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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/ctr040.jpg


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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/ctr041.jpg


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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/ctr042.jpg


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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/ctr043.jpg


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.

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:


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat030.jpg


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:


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat031.jpg


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


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat032.jpg



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.

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

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.

Frank,
Your camera have a flash ? :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 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.

---

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

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.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat033.jpg

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.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat034.jpg

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.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/seat035.jpg

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

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank006.jpg

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

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank007.jpg

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

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank008.jpg

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.

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.
.

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:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank009.jpg

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.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank010.jpg

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.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank011.jpg

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!

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/tank012.jpg

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.

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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/floor001.jpg


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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/floor002.jpg


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.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/floor003.jpg


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.

Frank,
That looks like it is going to be a blast to fly, are there many built like it?

Ken

I'm not sure at the exact number of Graham Lee Nieuport 11's are out there, but I'd say over 20, but that's just in the USA. Of the Airdrome Airplanes N11's, mine is number two.

On flying characteristics, the pilot reports all confirm they're fun to fly. Since they're representative aircraft, not replicas, lots of pilot friendly features are built in, namely a fatter airfoil, twin spars on the lower wings, gear moved back closer to the CG for easier ground handling, takeoffs and landings. Most have named the Champ as a good analog for how it performs.

With a few exceptions. First, it's ground trimmed, so no trim adjustments in the air. Second, with no vertical stabilizer it's very easy to get into uncoordinated flight while attempting straight and level flight.

From the KC Dawn Patrol page:

Quote:

---

All its got is a full flying rudder which,since it's not fixed and just kinda floats in place, gives you no built-in directional stability at all. What do that mean? It means that if you relax pressure on the rudder bar while flying, the plane can go into a skid or slip without you knowing it. In fact, torque will automagically do it for you if you're not on the bar and ON THE BALL (so to speak.) We all swear that we've been able to hear that "click" when we really get outta whack in a turn and bury the ball on one side or the other of the tube. If you don't pay CONSTANT ATTENTION to that little booger... It'll quickly and without warning, sneak up and bite you right in the ass.

---

Here's the link with the full quote: http://www.kcdawnpatrol.org/question...and Advice....

After looking at a lot of different options, all miserable, at how to put in the center ribs on the wings, I opted to simply put them just out from where the rear cabane meets the rear wing spars. The middle 8" gap will be filled with sheeting as is done with the Graham Lee Nieuports.

Anyhow, here's the center ribs in place:


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/iw006.jpg


Way back when before I committed to the idea of building a plane, I bought the rudder ("ruder") kit from Airdrome and built what could possibly be the lowest grade of acceptable ever achieved in a part - if I had remembered to mount the horn for attaching the rudder cables to it.


I also had the Poly starter kit. I decided against the Poly system in favor of the Stewart system after reading the words "respirator," "gloves," and "hazard." But it did some with some fabric and tapes. Rather than digging into the Big Box of Covering Supplies, I figured I'd use that stuff (along with some of the water based glue Robert included) to learn something new.


It's not quite enough fabric to properly cover it, but the high points of going around tight curves and around tubing was what I was after.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr001.jpg


Here's the tubing with the glue on the insides of the rudder. The glue on the bottom gusset is one part stupid and one part realizing that the fabric won't go all the way round down there. I didn't need to go all the way across like that.


I used a Harbor Freight Special brush and wasn't really pleased with it. I dug into the giant Box of Stuff I have and went with a foam brush from there on out with much better results.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr002.jpg


Fabric worked into the initial glue by hand and a little iron magic, tacked with 200 degree little iron.


The lesson learned is that when going around bends that I was working too close to the tube with the iron to shrink the fabric slightly to make it tight. Backing off a bit to the excess and drawing the fabric there kept puckers to a minimum. I still have a couple, but they're tiny and wound up not really showing when the other side was put on.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr003.jpg


Flipping it over, I was pleasantly surprised to see it looked a lot better than I thought it would!


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr004.jpg


I put some passes at 250 degrees to take out the folds and tighten it slightly to make a smooth surface for the other side.


The piece of remaining fabric was too small to reach all the way across the rudder. I decided to truncate the covering to the main spar and cover around the big curve in the back.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr005.jpg

Driving on...

Here's the other side being glued on. Note the excess is wavy further in - nothing but one or two minor puckers past the glue line. I was pretty happy with myself.

However, I should have extended the glue on it just past the glue line on the other side's fabric for making a clean cut of the excess cloth when I was done.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr006.jpg

Here it is trimmed, but the fabric is still loose.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr007.jpg

I worked up to 300 degrees to make it tight. It's like magic watching the folds and stuff disappear.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr008.jpg

I put in an inspection ring and taped for the inclusion of some rivets. Why an inspection ring on a rudder? Because I'll be putting them on the wings and fuselage later on and needed to see the level of PITA involved. It's not a great job...I mucked around right after placing it and it's not as tight around the ring as I'd like.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr009.jpg

Putting the tape over the rivets was pretty straight forward.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr010.jpg

A couple notes:

1) I had bought the Stewart System instructional DVD set and aped what the man did on them as best I could. He proves that while the basics of covering really are pretty straight forward, to get really good requires practice.
2) I had covered my work table with a tarp over night, as my tent is getting leaky again. It was dirty, and even though I wiped down the table after removing it, I still got dirt on the fabric. So I'll be covering the table with something clean before covering from now on out.
3) I'm undecided on the edge tapes; I might put them on later, but it seems pretty straight forward and I don't want to dig into my supplies to practice with. Plus it's getting hot outside and I'm feeling lazy.

So the fabric is sealed using some exterior latex primer:


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr011.jpg


Finding the right mix of floteral and a dash of windshield wiper fluid was fairly easy, and only the first coat needed some light sanding. The others didn't and there isn't a trace of "orange peel" effect on it.


I'd of painted it to final coat but it's been raining and windy, meaning my tarp roof sheds little bits of fabric; hopefully the roof will last until I get back from Kansas, as it's beginning to fray with the thunderstorms.


One of the things I absolutely had to get done before the trip to Gardner, Kansas this weekend* was mounting the firewall so that I could get a template. Turns out it was a great idea done for a different reason! Here's the firewall on a big piece of cardboard:


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/fw001.jpg


In figuring out where to drill the holes for the firewall it dawned on me that marking and fussing with a big metal sheet was a lot harder than working with a cardboard template - I could just punch holes in it with the scissors for where the engine mount bolts are.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/fw002.jpg


Made for quick work!


Here's the firewall on with the engine mount over it.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/fw003.jpg

* This weekend is a big airshow focusing on WWI replicas at Gardner, Kansas. Not only will it be a great time watching airplanes, it'll be a huge wealth of information on questions I have on how to do some stuff. The guys from Valley Engineering will be there as well, and I'll be negotiating a price on a FWF rig and ordering it from them.


With wind and rain picking up, I tabled mounting the firewall for when I get back.

Can you elaborate on this as to what you are referring too?

Finding the right mix of floteral and a dash of windshield wiper fluid was fairly easy, and only the first coat needed some light sanding. The others didn't and there isn't a trace of "orange peel" effect on it.

Thanks
Ken

Sure. If you walk up to a wall in your house that's painted, chances are it's not smooth, but has little ridges and valleys on it, kinda like the surface of an orange - hence the term "orange peel."

Floteral smooths out the paint so that it flows even and gets rid of brush and roller marks. The directions for it say 8 ounces for a gallon, but for the tiny amounts I was using it was some guesswork. I won't bother trying to describe the consistency, but it isn't hard to spot when it's right - it's just smoother than paint from the can.

The windshield fluid is a thinning agent, and I found that it wasn't that much to add to bring it down to a little more liquidy consistency. The idea is allow thin layers of paint that don't need sanding that are thick enough to seal the weave without saturating all the way through it.

Clear enough, thanks

While I might sound all expert-y, I watched all the Stuart System videos on YouTube, then ordered the DVD's, and watched the EAA webinar on it.

The webinar replay video:

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=2735032127001

I'm not going for the high gloss he achieved - mine is a fake warbird - the techniques are exactly the same excepting for a bunch of the sanding....and I won't be shooting any of it with a gun.

Last weekend I went to Gardner, KS for the annual airshow that features WWI aircraft. First, how cool is an airshow just for WWI aircraft replicas? Second, if one shows up the day prior to the show on Friday the opportunity to help assemble the aircraft as they come off of trailers can't be missed. Everyone there is really friendly and happy to have a hand from another builder - we tend to understand how things go together, that fabric can be damaged with objects that can poke through them, and not to jumble bolts together randomly when helping taking them apart.

I also learned I had rigged my own plane incorrectly! So after coming home I got to work fixing it...naturally there was some drama involved.

First the plane had to come out of the tent and onto the grass for re-rigging.

I had the rear top landing wire coming from the first compression strut to the right of the aileron horn, as there's a lifting tang there and the plans are less than verbose on rigging points.

Not a problem, making steel lift tangs is nothing for Dixie Fabrication D'aéronefs!

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig012.jpg

The front flying wire was originally located at the forward carry-through because A) a lift tang shimmed it perfectly and B) since the rear one is at the carry-through (no other place to put it) it made sense.

Wrong. It goes forward, mounted on the bolt that holds the engine mount per Robert Baslee and Jeff Given' AA Nieuport 11.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig013.jpg


There's a fifth wire per side that goes from the front of the aircraft to the interplane strut to reinforce the lower wing due to the sweep. It's not in the plans and served as a nice "oh by the way" bit of information while I was at Gardner. I can either make tangs or use the eye ended AN-4 bolts that I bought extra; I'm agnostic on either way to do it and haven't decided.

And then the hilarity set in, as I should have expected since rigging the right side went without a hitch - everything going smooth and the bubbles in the center.

I had put all my wires on small lift tangs to allow me to completely remove them; covering will be a lot easier that way, and I won't have wires dangling from the parts when disassembled. I had not, however, tightened the turnbuckles when I put them up in a nice set of coils.

Two of the barrels and forked ends came off in the twenty feet I carried them from hook on peg board to the chair I set them on. I found one pretty quickly, but the other remains at large.

When I was at B&B Aircraft supply in Gardner I bought some turnbuckles for that fifth wire, plus two more for either the rudder cables or whatever. Maybe I could use those spares...but alas, they're too small.

Quick call to Robert Baslee for the part number for the turnbuckle - this is day two of scouring the shed I stored the cables in and going over the grass with a magnet on my hands and knees like a mine sweeper - and he informed me of not only the part number (which he knew off the top of his head), but that I needed to use them on that fifth wire. He recommended calling B&B supply for them.

But I want it over nighted, so I fire up the Aircraft Spruce site and plug in the assembly number. Fifty five dollars each. Cripes! Time to pull out that B&B business card and order three of them for forty-eight dollars. Yep, I think I can wait until Friday or Saturday for them.

So there's some other stuff I'll be doing on the aircraft until then.

So the turnbuckles arrived and I jumped right into finishing the rigging. Left landing wire in place, and time to figure out how to make the lift tangs for that infamous fifth wire that goes from the front of the fuselage to the interwing strut mount.

Let's gather our supplies - steel for making the tangs, check. Wire? Check. Swag tool (known by other names, all unprintable)? Check. Swages? Uh, wait a second. I've got three in my little bag where I keep them. Start tearing through everything looking for that fourth one; darned things tend to get away. Maybe one is in the shed where I store all the aluminum parts for the aircraft.

The wife actually came into the backyard to bring me some water, and innocently asked "what's that for?" as a large diameter bit of tube that's two feet long rolls out from behind some plywood. She said it was scary to see me just stop, stare at it, and then go pale.

S21 is the label on the part. It goes into the main spar at the compression strut where the interwing struts go for reinforcement. If I've failed to install one of them, the whole wing - ribs, drag/anti-drag wires, compression struts, everything - will have to be taken apart. I had put on the build table each of them in a check list and made a mark as they went in to ensure I didn't forget them.

It's a slow march out to the aircraft, where I look down the spars.

One each in both spars for the left wing. Breathe, I tell myself, as I walk around the aircraft to the right wing, and peek with one eye down each spar.

One each in both spars - all four are in.

That darned Robert Baslee stuck an extra one into the kit materials; normally I sing his praises for putting in extra stuff in the materials kit, but that was just cruel. I called him about another question and mentioned that he was trying to kill me with good gestures, and we chuckled about it.

Anyhow, until I either poll my EAA Chapter members for a swage, find one hidden about, or knuckle down and order some, the wire thing is put on hold. Again.

Might as well cover the "real" rudder, the one I'm actually going to use on the aircraft. Breaking the seal on the bag that holds 32 yards of Ceconite was another building rite of passage. I decided to use the wrap method, since A) that way I can use the full with of the fabric with just one cut to the roll, and B) why not, the shape is amiable to it!

Pics either tomorrow or Monday, but I was very pleased with the first side's efforts. I made the tight ninety degree bend without so much as a pucker, though there is a tiny glue ridge underneath that won't show when the other fabric goes over it along with a tape. I even managed to make the cut in the fabric for the control horn in the right place! I won't say covering is fun, but it certainly is rewarding - instant visible results to one's work.

With the 1915cc VW engine and prop a couple months from delivery, I'm going to put covering as part of the build process, splitting the time in half.

I don't know if you plan on putting the swirling "Engine Turning" in the Firewall or out side Cowl...

I have some examples ... I tried to explain how I did it...

(It's a PDF hidden at the bottom picture...)
.

Gotta Fly...

Another example on my First Plane.
.
http://www.wingsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=4466

Hey, that's sweet - I always wondered how that was done.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cowl. It's got big spin marks, so polishing it down would be a long process; I like the burnished cowls I've seen, that's for sure.

While I wait for the custom made lift tangs for the infamous fifth wire to dry from their paint, might as well show off the rudder.


Apologies for the blue tint of the pics - the tent tarps make everything blue, and it was too light to make the flash go.


Laying out the rudder on the fabric - it was just right for folding over the rudder in one go, so I only needed to cut the end off.


Wrapping around the angled bottom and keeping the warp of the fabric horizontal and vertical to the top presented less of a challenge than I thought.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr012.jpg


Here's that 90 degree turn without a wrinkle or pucker. I would later ruin this with the nightmare of edging tapes, but not too bad.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr014.jpg


Some reinforcement where the rudder horn cuts through the fabric. Oddly enough, I cut the slit for the horn on the numbers, which I was sure I'd get wrong. The trick is to allow for the tenting of the fabric over the end of the top of the horn; in other words, TLAR method and don't think about it too much.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr015.jpg


I bought some of those covering rivets, which are much flatter on the top, and they worked better than the standard domed rivets. But I still got some tenting over them in the covering tape. I'd be super frustrated, but it seemed that most planes at Gardner had the same effect.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr016.jpg


This is the end of a long saga involving the fickle nature of painting tapes.


The sealing of the fabric with primer went really well, smooth as a baby's bottom. I painted the white center first, and when I pulled the tape up it made a really clean line.


Waiting overnight, I taped the sides of the white and painted the red and blue at the same time. Of course they both bled under the tape, particularly the red.


So I got some Frog tape and then re-edged it in white; it seemed to work better with me than the other colors - I think I got the mixture of floteral and windshield fluid more right with it than either the blue or red.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr017.jpg


I couldn't resist sticking it on the aircraft to see how it looked.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/cvr018.jpg


On to that fifth wire on each wing later this afternoon.

Read through the whole thread! I am building my plane (Thatcher CX4) in a dirt-floored shed. Us shoestring fellers have it goin on!

Rudder looks great! If you don't want to have to worry about paint bleeding under masking tape, use 3M Fine Line Vinyl tape. Expensive but it works. You get what you pay for with masking tape, as you may be noticing...:)

*Blush*

Thanks, y'all - it sure is nice to see a part taken to final, that's for sure. Makes me feel like I'm in the home stretch of the build. Loads to do yet, of course.

On to those infamous "fifth wires."


The problem is that when I put in the bolts that hold the interplane struts, I went pretty far down in the mount, where they're actually below the rib line. It's a good place to put them, if one doesn't know there's supposed to be a wire leading from the forward bolt on the wing to a tang where the gear are pinned into the longeron as an additional anti-drag wire on the lower wing.


A few options:


A) Run the wire down from the upper engine mount bolt. Tempting, but the point is that the wire is an anti-drag wire to the lower wing, holding it forward. Having it run up and forward from interplane struts changes the force line to where it's pulling the wing up as much as forward.


B) Put in another bolt higher up on the interplane strut mount and run the wire from there. It won't hurt anything and will just be another thing holding the strut in place.
So I went with option B. I had a couple extra AN4 bolts with one end as an eye and the slightly smaller turnbuckles I bought at B&B fit them like a dream.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig014.jpg


For the fuselage end, I just made a lift tang out of some steel stock I made for the lift tangs on the wire, bent them to the right angle after putting holes in them, painted them for rust and dissimilar metal phobia prevention, and mounted them.


http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nieuport/rig015.jpg


I was sort of concerned about pulling those bolts out, as the plane is resting on the gear. But they came out and went back in without a grumble....especially when I had a rubber mallet and a bit of wood to threaten some persuasion with.

Dave, it's both humbling and a point of pride when I visit other builds and see these immaculate workshops and hangars with all sorts of tools and machines without any rust or dirt on them. Humbling in that I think they can work faster than I can with all the room and organization space; a point of pride in that I'm managing with what I got.

That painted tail installed really begins to bring it all together, and looks great.

I've got to adjust the elevator control rod one more time, bringing the pivot point back by about six inches and lowering the rear of the seat by about three inches - it's canted forward a little and in flying position is uncomfortable - and then I can remove the horizontal stab and elevator for covering.

So there really is a point to climbing in the aircraft and making engine noises. Well, climbing in it, anyway.

The lower wings need leading edges and the left one the pitot & static probes mounted, as well as some bracing of the inner ribs to keep them from bending inwards during covering, and the upper wings need a lot of refinement.

At the rear of the ribs at the ailerons I made some angles out of sheet aluminum, and did a poor job of it. They're not only ugly, they're too flimsy to hold up to the tension of the fabric (something I learned on the rudder), especially if I ratchet up the heat on them.* So I'll take a cue from what I saw in Kansas and get some aluminum angle stock and replace the nightmare I made. I'm also going to extend the end bows on the upper wings as well as the ailerons. The transition from main spar to end bow is far too abrupt; not only is it ugly, it's actually blocking the ends of the aileron.

The options are to either cut back the spars to give them a taper to the end bow or to extend the end bows by about four or five inches and make a transition funnel like piece. Making any cut in the main spars, even at the end, seems like a bad idea to me, and I'm going to avoid it.

* The rudder fabric was taken up to 325 degrees instead of the full 350, as it's one big loop of quarter inch tubing - there's a lot of ultralight type covering practices used on this bird.

I believe airplane noises are an integral and important part of any build!