project update

It's been a long time since I posted anything. My wife and I have had family medical issues that had to take priority. I'm back working on my cub project. pictures are better than words so i will post a few.
We are half way through this year and I would like to have a flyable cub by the end of this year. I made some changes to the airframe. My airframe started out as a Wag Aero Cubby project with the beefed up front end for more horsepower. I decided for head room to cut off the J3 top and weld on a PA18 top. That was scary. I was thinking how mad I was going to be at myself if I screwed it up. I purchased a PA18 top deck to speed things up and so I wouldn't have to build a complete jig. it came out OK. I moved my trim system to the overhead and built a mount on the side for my Andair fuel valve. I just received my motor mount built by Jay DeRosier and test fit it. I built a side baggage door out of some 1/2 inch square tubing I had. I work 14 days on and take 14 days off flying helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico. on my last break I took my airframe to Texas to have it blasted and primed. MasterBlast of Richmond Texas did a great job using a mix of walnut shells and glass. I have another coat of primer to put on and a finish coat. I will then be ready to start bolting on stuff to turn it into an airplane. i will be using Kydex for interior panels.

Nice work. Build up your window and door next. Jay will send you a door/window kit for very reasonable. saves a ton of time with all the levers, springs, rods etc.
plus the window and door metal trim, plus the right side sliding window fuselage part.Electric trim?

Thanks,
I have the lower door and the material to build the swing up door. I may talk to Jay about a left side swing up window instead of the sliding windows. I purchased the over head trim system from Jay minus the double groove pulleys. I already had the pulleys. The kit included a dual bearing handle and all fair leads to guide the cable over head plus an indicator. I've already welded all the fair lead supports to the arches and overhead. I want to do it right but I am in a hurry to get this thing done. It's been to long already. I have the plywood for the floor boards and baggage but they need to be cut out. I also have an under seat storage kit from Cub Crafters. I'm hoping to get to the point of installing interior panels and floor this week.

Motor mount test fit

I have a few parts from Javron and I am well pleased with the quality and workmanship.

Hey Michael, glad to see you are back in the game! Remember, at least 10 minutes every day

I hope to do more than ten minutes a day. I have another week before I go back to work so I hope to get a good bit of work done. My D&E wing kit is in my storage garage. I would like to get my airframe to the point were I can roll it out of the way and on my next two week break I can build my wings. I have some folks locally that want to help so I think I can get them built in two weeks.

Michael, good to see you're still active with the Cubby. I still remember the day you drove away from Santa Paula with your family and the frame on your trailer. I'm personally happy to see that project nearing flying condition, it's got a lot of Santa Paula history in it. If you'll recall, Larry Endicott built the frame beefed up to test automotive conversion engines for Jim Kern and the WAR Aircraft replicas. Larry was a real craftsman and well liked by all. If you don't mind, continue to post your progress on this thread, I'll forward a link to the SP crowd.


I see your Dynafocal mount, what engine have you settled on?


Good on 'ya Michael.

Hi, Dave
I remember that day also. I had no idea it would take this long. As you can see I cut the top off and welded on a PA18 top. I have a hot rodded o-320 built by Lucky Louque of Air Salvage of Dallas. I welded in all supports for the extra baggage weight and the extended baggage. I have some help so I'm hoping to get this thing done as soon as possible.

Mike

Dave,
That frame looks great. I was wondering how much experience you had in welding in order to do that kind of work? I am interested in learning that one day but will leave it to the pro's for now.

Dennis

Hi Dennis this is Mike,
Dave is the Gentleman I was responding to that I purchased this airframe from in what seems like a lifetime ago. It was A Wag Aero Cubby with the Super Sport mods. The basic airframe shape was complete when I purchased it. The fittings it came with already were the torque tube saddles and the J3 top structure. The tail was set up for a trim tab when I got it. So I changed the tail to accommodate a jack screw. I added all extra tubes for a PA18 as per the Northland CD. I installed the baggage and back seat supports as well as heavy duty landing gear fittings from Airframes and all PA18 elevator fittings. I was going to finnish it as it was and it would have worked but I got to looking at it again and decided to go with a PA18 top structure. I'm tall and the cluster of tubes just above my forehead just didn't sit well with me. You can see in the old photo of me sitting in the original airframe I don't have much head room. I'm not sitting on a cushion either I'm sitting on a piece of 1/4 inch plywood. It was scary cutting the top deck off but now that it's done I'm glad I did it. Don't let the pretty primer paint job fool you. The basic airframe was very well made but I welded in most of the fittings all extra tubes and the new top structure. If you look close some of my welds are not very pretty but they are strong. I learned a lot about welding using oxygen acetylene. Don't let welding scare you. A lot of aircraft are still flying today that were welded by inexperienced people during WWII. When that war started a great demand for all types of aircraft was created over night. There weren't enough expirienced welders to make all the aircraft with welded structures so people were trained quickly and the work was inspected but they weren't all experts.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Hopefully, I will get the time to tackle that soon. For now, I am just trying to finish up my project resoration.

Dennis