Building a Nieuport 11...

[Frank Giger]

I did a quick walk around with the GoPro for you, and will probably put the shaky video up in the next couple days.

Yesterday I didn't get a lot done, owing to a minor medical twitch, but the fuel tank is about ready for finalization and mounting.

I also put on the floor panel, as A) I was afraid it's going to get beat up getting moved around the hangar, and 2) I wanted to reward myself by seeing it. It'll have to come off for covering, but that's not such a chore. I also need to make "beauty plates" to go around the cutouts for the landing gear.

I didn't do that last time around, as I wasn't as interested in looks so much as getting her into the air, and to be honest I really didn't have the skills to make them well enough to actually improve the aesthetics. Two years of working at C&D aviation on aircraft that make magazine covers and take home trophies fixed that.

I find it amusing that my little Nieuport, as imperfect as it was, turned out to be a resume. Ron and Don Wade had seen it a couple times, and knew that I made her from raw tubes and covered her under a tent in the back yard. The first Patriot Recruit was going to Oshkosh as display (it's the EAA raffle plane in the museum waiting for a winner - how cool is that?), and they needed a hand doing final prep and gave our EAA chapter a call for volunteers. At the time I was happily retired, but I figured it was only right to see what I could do for fellow chapter members. I fabricated a few minor pieces, ran the stringers down the fuselage, and generally helped out; fabric covered aircraft aren't exactly a mystery for me.

At the end of the third day, they asked me to come back for a fourth - as an employee.

My entire aviation experience was in the Nieuport, excepting pilot training (CTLS and a Champ). I think I've done well simply because I'm ignorant as to what I can't do; Ron will say "Make a thing" or "Sort out the Garmin wiring harness" and I just dig in and do it (and stop when I'm lost and ask questions). My fabrication skills have gone way up - we needed a light bay for an Experimental aircraft, so I just used a very beat up one we had laying around, took some measurements, and made it; the highest complement came from Don, who said "Huh, you found one, and it's new old stock, too. Adding the nut plates to hold the lens bracket is the way to go."

So on the rebuild I'm applying a lot of what I learned to improve what I had before. It's naturally slowing work down, but the corollary to "Pretty don't make her fly," is apparently "but it shows craftsmanship." Or, in our business, "but it wins awards and increases the value of the aircraft."

My little Noop will never win an award, nor will she ever be worth the sum of her parts in dollar value, but she will look even better, be more comfortable, and a tad bit more functional.

[Saville]

I did a quick walk around with the GoPro for you, and will probably put the shaky video up in the next couple days.

Yesterday I didn't get a lot done, owing to a minor medical twitch, but the fuel tank is about ready for finalization and mounting.

I also put on the floor panel, as A) I was afraid it's going to get beat up getting moved around the hangar, and 2) I wanted to reward myself by seeing it. It'll have to come off for covering, but that's not such a chore. I also need to make "beauty plates" to go around the cutouts for the landing gear.

I didn't do that last time around, as I wasn't as interested in looks so much as getting her into the air, and to be honest I really didn't have the skills to make them well enough to actually improve the aesthetics. Two years of working at C&D aviation on aircraft that make magazine covers and take home trophies fixed that.

I find it amusing that my little Nieuport, as imperfect as it was, turned out to be a resume. Ron and Don Wade had seen it a couple times, and knew that I made her from raw tubes and covered her under a tent in the back yard. The first Patriot Recruit was going to Oshkosh as display (it's the EAA raffle plane in the museum waiting for a winner - how cool is that?), and they needed a hand doing final prep and gave our EAA chapter a call for volunteers. At the time I was happily retired, but I figured it was only right to see what I could do for fellow chapter members. I fabricated a few minor pieces, ran the stringers down the fuselage, and generally helped out; fabric covered aircraft aren't exactly a mystery for me.

At the end of the third day, they asked me to come back for a fourth - as an employee.

My entire aviation experience was in the Nieuport, excepting pilot training (CTLS and a Champ). I think I've done well simply because I'm ignorant as to what I can't do; Ron will say "Make a thing" or "Sort out the Garmin wiring harness" and I just dig in and do it (and stop when I'm lost and ask questions). My fabrication skills have gone way up - we needed a light bay for an Experimental aircraft, so I just used a very beat up one we had laying around, took some measurements, and made it; the highest complement came from Don, who said "Huh, you found one, and it's new old stock, too. Adding the nut plates to hold the lens bracket is the way to go."

So on the rebuild I'm applying a lot of what I learned to improve what I had before. It's naturally slowing work down, but the corollary to "Pretty don't make her fly," is apparently "but it shows craftsmanship." Or, in our business, "but it wins awards and increases the value of the aircraft."

My little Noop will never win an award, nor will she ever be worth the sum of her parts in dollar value, but she will look even better, be more comfortable, and a tad bit more functional.

Hi Frank,

Many thanks for the quick video showing the progress on the Nieuport. Looks like great work.

I have always found that the second or third version of any kind of build I ever did comes out much better than the first. Both in looks and quality of build. This was especially true of my flying model airplane builds as a kid. And it doesn't take any longer, really, to make it nice because you already learned how to do the basic construction. A lot of thinking time expended in the first build is not necessary for the second build. When I'm doing something for the first time I'm glacially slow. Mainly because I don't want to screw it up. Sometimes I screw it up anyway.

Last year I designed and made a cover plate for my fuel selector out of 0.064 aluminum. The first one I made took hours. I wasn't totally happy with it, and the second one I made took 30-45 minutes and I'm quite pleased with it.

So keep up the good work and make it as nice as you can even if it's a part that isn't seen.

The pick up stick idea is great.

[Frank Giger]

The stick was pretty high on my improvements list. To heck with historical accuracy - there's no good way to pick up the tail when built as plans. This lead to an unfortunate event when my brother-in-law, when helping move the airplane, picked her up from horizontal stab and ripped out a rivnut that held one of the supports.

This is another improvement I made - they're now held on with bolts. I'll make little circular access covers in the fabric for them.

Anyhow, the aluminum tang for it isn't enough. But cutting a broom stick down the middle and use it as a tang on a knife and it'll be more than robust.

I'm really, really, really hoping the more traditional spring gear set up is going to work out. No reason why it shouldn't, and if it keeps the tailwheel from flexing side to side like a broken shopping cart wheel I'll be thrilled. My landings won't have that unique fishtailing action at the rear of the aircraft.

For everyone not a subscriber to the channel, here's the walk around:

[Saville]

"The stick was pretty high on my improvements list. To heck with historical accuracy - there's no good way to pick up the tail when built as plans."

I think one way they did it in WWI was to lift the tail onto a steerable cart:



You can see it in action in the Youtube documentary: 4 years of Thunder, Part 1, right around the 13 second mark

[Frank Giger]

Thanks for the video share!

These planes also had tail skids, rather than wheels.

One of the many side projects is a tail wheel lift, a little device that will slide under the tailwheel and lift it into flying position. Right now I have a little table and a block of wood for those purposes, as for pre-flight I like to have it like that for checking oil, filling with gas, checking fittings, etc.

[Frank Giger]

Here's the video of completing the fuselage frame.

It took forever, but I'm actually really pleased with this video; I managed to cut down a crapton of raw video into what I think is a concise, informative video:

[2ndsegment]

Like an old acquaintance now. I can root for your sequence of fulfillments!

[Saville]

Excellent and inspirational video and much appreciated.