Building a Nieuport 11...

Okay, so let's summarize the damage:

Prop:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...prop_broke.jpg

Gear:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...gear_broke.jpg

Left upper wing:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...w_broke001.jpg

Right lower wing:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...w_broke001.jpg

Bonk to the rudder:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie...dder_broke.jpg

So, order a new prop, buy a decent dial meter for the engine, get some oval tubing from Robert for the gear, strip the two wings, replace the spars, strip, un-bonk the rudder, recover, paint, write it all up in the logs, and take back up into the air.

Now that's it's two degrees cooler than Hell, let's get to work!

First up, the good news! The engine dialed out at .009, and turned over fine without plugs in (in case there was oil in the cylinders), and then gave a brief bark of life when they were put back in. Since I drained the oil I didn't let her run.

I'll mount the prop once the gear is repaired and see if it tracks okay. If not, well, gonna have to tear it down. Oil was clean, though, so fingers crossed.

Anyhow, let's get on with stripping that lower wing! For those who have never had the life experience of skinning a catfish, well the starter version of that is pulling fabric off of a wing! It even feels like catfish skin!

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair001.jpg

It was simple as could be, after I drilled out the rib stitching rivets, sliced along the inside edge of leading edge, and just peeled it down over the rear bow, worked it down the leading edge, and off.

Fabric is a kind of leathery stuff and folded up nicely.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair002.jpg

Drill rivets, drill more rivets, and then some more and the leading edge comes off. The wing is great shape over all, but it's not hard to see where the bend is, just at the compression strut.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair003.jpg

So my plan to detach the ribs, cut the drag/anti-drag wires, pull off the spar, make identical holes in the new spar, slide it in, lock it down, put the leading edge back on, cover and paint looks doable.

Other great news - guess what came in the mail today!

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

I think it looks even better than the first one!

Good to see you are back !

Between a bunch of "life issues," which included an awesome vacation and the temperatures in full Alabama mode, it's not like I'd of done much flying regardless.

This week is going to be dedicated to wing and rudder repair, and ordering the ovalized tubing for the gear.

The only delay is that with the notion of leaving the ribs and bow in place on the rear spar, I'll have to go to turnbuckles on the drag/anti-drag wires....which means I need to order some.

Quote:

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The engine dialed out at .009,

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nine thousandths of an inch is a lot of runout for a crankshaft. How much would be not acceptable? Where did you take your measurement?

The thing is that there isn't a published tolerance for VW's.

For either Lycombing or Continental (I can't remember which), the allowed run out is .005 at the hub, .008 at the flange.

I talked to Valley Engineering, and they said that VW's are pretty loose and that's not too bad; if it runs with normal temps and the prop tracks within 1/8th an inch it's okay.

The engine's a bit down the road, though. Lower wing's spar removed, and I'll work on the upper wing next.

Then the gear.

Once the gear's repaired I can mount and track the prop to see how that works out.

If you believe .009" runout is acceptable and you are convinced the crank is otherwise good, you can shim the prop to track true. That was pretty common on the old tapershaft Continentals as very few of the flanges would actually track true as most had suffered a prop strike and needed some help getting the prop to track properly. Manila envelope paper works really well as a shim.

-Cub Builder

Manila paper works really well That's what we used on my friend's Formula One racer and he won the Gold at Reno this year. Runs 4200 RPM during the race. Don

I bit the bullet and bought replacement spars from Aircraft Spruce, as none of our local places had what I needed.

A very long drive, but now work can seriously commence.

Let's get to work!

So that spar was only slightly bent; I am being just nit-picky on the decision to replace it.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair005.jpg

The advantage of putting all the plan stuff onto the MDF boards I bought is that they can come in handy for repairs:

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair004.jpg

So mark, drill, slip back between the ribs, drill, rivet, and spend far too long figuring out a way to tighten the drag/anti-drag wires.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair006.jpg

For the leading edge, I used copious amounts of rubber mallet to get any of the big creases out, riveted down the bottom (the rivet holes matched up!), and used a specialized aviation tools to hold the top down into shape.

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair007.jpg

Ready for cover!

http://www.darts-page.com/images/Nie..._repair008.jpg