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Building a Javron Cub

Very glad to hear you are ok Bill, and by the looks of those photos, you'll be back in the air soon. lots of positive energy coming your way.
all the very best,
Phil
 
Bill, just got my computor back on line and had this news staring me in the face. Sorry for your misfortune. Glad to see that you have retrieved your pride and joy, and are working to get it going again. God bless you. You have been an inspiration to me, and continue to be. As you already know the hurt will pass and lessons learned. Be well. Jon
 
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Bill, Your Boots may be full of water but they are Still On! You have Allot more living ahead of You. I owe allot of my Cub knowledge to your kind, yet strong instruction both in flying and building. When your return to this epic adventure is over and camp fire story's remain, I know you will be once again be fixing any damage that remains. Please know that My Aircraft Keys will always be available to you while your working on yours. Glad Your Okay. Greg
 
Folks

Once again I am humbled by your kindness and support. I am typing this on a borrowed iPad look alike thing so it is a challenge. I lost all computer, iPad, camera, and phone. Unfortunately, Ketch does not have Verizon, nor does anyone sell Mac computers here, so it took a couple of days to sort all that out, and order (online) replacements. But of course my back up "Timemachine" is at home so even when I get a phone and computer I will still be pretty handicapped. My sister and Buck have really been lifesavers. Literally and figuratively. Joe Hicks at Temsco Helicopters has bent over backwards to help and has been awesome. The first two days were all about salvage. Long hours rounding up people and equipment. The next two days were all about trying to get the engine running and dried out. Focus on the most expensive items first. But while doing all that a long way from home where you don't know anyone you must try to salvage the instruments, dry out gear, lube the shotgun so it doesn't rust, get those seats out so they don't mildew, by the way the FAA and NTSB want a good chunk of your time, find a place to sleep, get a rent a car, eat, talk to mom and family (they want to hear your voice), borrow tools (my tool kit was salvaged and has been great), just sooooo much to do and it all needs to be done NOW.
I did manage to get the Pmags working and ran the engine yesterday. Runs great. Checked for prop damage - none, rod damage, none, etc etc. As Stewart posted in another thread, the electrics will now be the biggest bugaboo.
Working round the clock so no time to post. When I get back on my feet (floats) I will post everything that I've learned to try to help others. Folks - I've lost all contacts, etc and still do not have a real phone (using a Wal-Mart by the minute thing) or computer. If you have contacted me and I've not responded please don't hold it against me. I will try to get back to you when I get back to the real world.
I refuse to quit or give up. Lord willing, I'll get back, and continue to post, and try to help when I can. There is much to share, both inspirational and informational. Equipment list, planning, survival, routes, photos, videos(depending on what I can recover) a really cool video of the helicopter lift out of the lake, etc. it just takes time, a computer, and good internet, all of which I'm lacking right now.

God Bless and Thank you

Bill
 
To Bill Rusk,
Being a fellow Air Force fighter pilot, you either come equipped with an ego or are issued one. I want to tell you, as a fellow Brother in Arms, that I feel your pain.

This transition into the taildragger world has been a humbling experience. I haven't shared this publicly. but wish to do so now.

On Nov 4 of 2015, I was practicing my short field landings at X58. Thinks were going pretty well, but being a type A personality, I wanted more.

Actually, I blame the whole thing on Bobby Breedon. Just a short time before, he had given me a demo with me in the back seat. The young man has a gift and I was trying to match it.

To make a long story short, I stood Miss P on her nose. Heel brakes have been a huge challenge for me. It is a combination of being 6'4" tall and having no experience with them. I was almost stopped and gave one last mighty heave on the brakes. I was over before I knew what happened. The engine was at idle and bent my new Borer prop as it embedded itself in the dirt.

Luckily I was fine but in disbelief. The shoulder harness did its job. It is a bit difficult to get out when you are at a 60 degree angle.

The worst thing was having to walk a mile for help to recover the plane. I kept looking back at her with her tail in the air and praying that another plane would not show up.

The damage was a minor dent in the lower cowl. Since the engine had 1700 hours SMOH, I decided to go with an overhaul and address some of the things I wanted to change.

The worst damage was to my belief that I am the finest pilot in the world!! Oh how the mighty have fallen.

In conclusion brother, you have lived to fight another day.

Sierra Hotel!!
 
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Great to hear from you Bill. It's a GoodThing that your prob's are just stuff being wet. Make sure everything works, & continue your adventure. Sounds like you got your composure back, good on ya!
 
Hey Bill! Glad to hear that you're getting things sorted out. Hang in there buddy! We're thinking of you!
 
Bill, sorry to read about your miss hap.. You are up for the task I am sure. I am saying a prayer for you
 
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Folks

Thank you again for your support, it certainly means the world to me right now. I worked pretty hard for several days, and had just a little stress, and as a result I got sick. So, unfortunately I slowed down a little. I slept pretty much all day yesterday and did not get anything done. I was able to work a little today and got most of the sheet-metal straightened out to at least serviceable condition. Day before yesterday I ran the engine a couple more times and feel good about that. I have been very fortunate that I have been able to salvage most of my electronics. To include, electric trim, nav lights, strobe lights, transponder, Intercom, radio, Grand Rapids flight display, EIS, AHARS, master relay, and the P mags. I received a new set of P mags and will exchange the ones that I fixed for the new ones and have the others overhauled. Just to make sure that I have good magnetos.
I have a few parts on order, and owe a great debt of gratitude to Buck Wyndham, Dr. Randy Corfman and Jay DeRosier for all of their help. It seems that some bills have somehow been "taken care of". To all who may be involved in this conspiracy - thank you!! I will have to go home for a few days to work and take care of business at home, and then I will return June 1, hopefully at that time all of my parts will be here, and DW is going to come out and we should be able to put the airplane back together and be flying by the fourth or fifth of June. And barring any additional problems I anticipate getting back on schedule and continuing my vacation.
When I get home and get my computer sorted out I will try to start a thread on this trip to maybe share some of the adventure and perhaps inspire a few people (in spite of the mishap) to make a journey like this.
I honestly did not think very many people would be interested in following my goofy summer vacation and so I had a fairly select, small group of people that had access to my tracker, my emails, and updates along with photos and videos.
But, as usual, I hope to post some things that will be useful, and helpful to others, rather than simply "this is my vacation".
I hope to share what I have learned, sometimes expensively or painfully, so that you can learn without the associated cost.

In other words "hope this helps"

More in a few days when I get home.

Bill
 
So great to hear your reports buddy! Keep the spirit! Just awesome your ok and full of experience!

AKT
 
Bill,

You are getting the "full meal deal" with this adventure! See you and DW in a couple of weeks, and we can do some fishing then.

Hope you are feeling better soon, and glad things are coming together for you down there.
 
Bill

Like everyone else here, I have followed this with my breath held. Hearing you were unhurt and now can talk of getting back in the air soon, we all can finally breathe! Life has lots of twists and turns, but you have shown that you know how to straighten them out. You are an inspiration to all.
Praying for you and your next adventure!

Lou
 
Folks

If you did not see it I have started a thread on the trip. I am still working on it, so it is locked while I get some pictures properly linked in and get it all sorted out, but I will open it up for comments, and add to it for the rest of the trip, which will probably end around the time of Oshkosh.

http://www.supercub.org/forum/showthread.php?50420-Floats-to-Alaska-2016

Hope you find some useful info, or entertainment, or inspiration, or all of the above

Bill
 
Bill leave your float trip locked, that was or still is YOUR trip. Look at it like a book to read. Comments or questions could be made on another thread. Just a opinion.
 
Bill,
I've followed your Javron build like it was a great novel, and it pains me to see your plane upside down in a lake. However, as many on here have expressed, thank the Lord you made it through. Planes can be replaced - people cannot. 'nuff said. We are all extremely grateful for your well-being.
John
 
"Keep enjoying that little airplane, and keep us posted as to your adventures. Your willingness to post all aspects of your travels, even the not so fun parts, is a valuable service to all pilots. Would that we were all as open and willing to share our experiences, no matter how hard earned. Good on you."
from mvivion, in the closed thread where Bill has his plane flying already.

Go Bill!!! and go little Javron supercub.
 
Thanks Bill, I'm building an Airframes Alaska wide body now, and after reading your post, and doing some research, I called Jay today and ordered this same floorboards and baggage
 
Another Javron in the air

WP_20160921_005.jpgHi Bill, my Javron flew last wednesday,...what a great feeling. Your thread has been an inspiration and I am in your debt. If you ever make it to Ireland, it's at your disposal. All the best and thank you very much. Peter
 

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Peter

Looks awesome. Glad I could help a little, but you did all the work, so a huge CONGRATULATIONS!! to you.

Great job. Since Ireland is my favorite European country I might take you up on that offer someday.

Great Job!! Congratulations!!

Bill
 
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Folks

After returning from Alaska, things have been pretty busy and I have had limited time to pursue Cub stuff much. But as I came back to this thread to respond to Peter (from Ireland in the post above) I realized this long thread had sorta died on a pretty unhappy note. I can't let that stand.

I feel a strong desire to let you fine folks know that things came out well and they are still going well. I'm sure a lot of folks did not look at the other thread so may not know things turned out just fine (PTL). Sooooo.......to keep this thread from ending on a downer......... I am going to post a few photos.

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Post flip I worked on the plane for about 7 days, then had to go back to the lower 48 to work. When I returned in the first week of June, DW came up, and we worked about another day, and she was ready to fly and return to adventuring.


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Taxi out for the first flight after the bath


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At the Big Shaheen Cabin.


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DW and I


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At the Petersburg cabin. DW had to go home and I stayed another couple of weeks in June just flying, fishing, hiking, camping, etc
Then I had to return home once again to work for a bit.

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When I returned in July to continue the adventure, my sister came up and spent a few days with me, exploring Alaska.


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Cub at Baranof lake, SE of Sitka.


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Mona at Jims Lake Cabin.


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We spent a day at Skagway. Neat little town. After a few days Sis had to go back to work so I dropped her in Juneau (with the promise that she had a seat reserved for next year) and picked up my next visitor.


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Mark on the floats in Misty Fiords on Wilson Lake


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Mark took this Panoramic shot at Swan Lake


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Enjoyed lots of Trout dinners


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On the dock at Nimpo Lake, BC


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Safely home after a summer in Alaska


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Lest you think that was, or is, the end.......I flew it to Oshkosh and to New Holstein after getting home from AK. Then gave a few rides and flew it a few more times until other life events slowed things down a bit.


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Mark and Cal came over today and helped me get the floats off for the winter. I'm on the "injured reserves" list so I provided the "supervision" and they performed the labor. Thanks gents!!

First we had to install a hoist.....


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Disconnecting everything


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Look Ma.....no feet........


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Back on wheels. I still have work to do but this whole thing was done in a little over two hours.


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The plan this winter is to do a thorough annual (Condition Inspection), make some improvements, and get it ready for another summer in Alaska in 2017, once again on floats, and at least part of the time, back in the SE.

As I work on the Cub this winter, if I come upon something that might be helpful to others, I will continue this thread.

Thanks again for following


Bill
 
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That post put a big exclamation mark on the end of your excellent build blog. Excellent post. What an adventure you have had!
 
Folks

Its been a while since I posted. After returning from Alaska last summer I had a number of life events which took a little time away from Supercubing.
I started a "extensive" annual condition inspection to include some rebuilding and some upgrades. I am getting close to being done with that and I would like to share a few things I learned along the way. Hopefully this will help.

Here is a link to my post on mounting my ELT (Kannad Integra) antennae http://www.supercub.org/forum/showt...g-a-Javron-Cub&p=625418&viewfull=1#post625418

and my comment from another post.....And therein lies the delimma. When I was mounting my antenna I called Kannad and spoke to one of the engineers (from India - hard to understand with his accent) and asked about the antenna orientation. He said it could pretty much be mounted any way you wanted, thus we have conflicting info. I do not know the "right" answer. If the airplane ends up upright after the mishap, I think Gary and Jr are correct, vertical is best. But if you go over on your back and the antenna gets ripped off or gets squashed.....?????? Who knows.....

I do think the wing root fairing or tank cover gives a better base, and planar signal surface.

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Bolting the antennae straight to a tab on the fuselage tubing did not work. The unit would not pass the self test. In a rush to get to the Idaho fly-in and then to Alaska, I just grabbed a piece of scrap .016 AL and bolted it between the base of the antennae and the steel tab on the fuselage. This gave enough of a ground plane for it to work. It passed its self test and I went to AK. And by the way it worked. One of the things I wanted to do on the Annual was to improve on this a little.

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This is my new ground plane. It seems to work fine. In a perfect world it would be a full circle and all the star legs would be the same....yada,yada,yada.
IT IS NOT A PERFECT WORLD
There is a lot of info on the web if you want to search "Antennae Ground Plane"
This is fabricated from .016 AL. I have seen where some folks have used what appears to be a metallic tape on the inside of the fabric. There are a lot of ways to skin this cat and I am certainly not qualified to tell you what to do or how to do it BUT.......I did want you to know that what I originally did (and posted) in this thread did not work, and that this new ground plane pictured above does work.
More to follow.

Hope this helps

Bill
 
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In the process of the annual, one of the things I wanted to add was wig-wag landing lights. After flying around in the SE part of AK where rain with low vis and low ceilings are pretty much the norm I decided I wanted more visibility. In addition to low vis up there, the terrain also funnels everyone into the same channels, passes, etc. The importance of being seen, and seeing others, really got hammered home.

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So I added landing lights out in the wingtips. I contacted Javron and got his "light kit". It includes the pre-shaped lens cover, the precut and bent trim, etc. That really helped. The material removed (LE) was 7 oz and the mount, trim, and lens was 14 for a net gain of about 7 oz per side. The wires were 8.8 oz and Can't find the light weight. I'll get it.


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I used the Baja Designs Squadron Pro Flush Mount LED lights. These puppies crank out 4900 lumens and are relatively light.
Link here https://www.bajadesigns.com/Products/led-auxilary-lights.asp
Then I used a switch from Perihelion Designs that controls all the wig-wag in one simple toggle switch. Link here......
https://periheliondesign.com/product/wwd-electronic-module/

It is really quite simple and light. I will edit this post when I get home with all the weights. I think, all up, including the lights, wire, mounting etc it added about 4 pounds. But......there's more......weight that is.......in order to drive this, and also the fuel pump on the fuel pod, (I'll post on that later) I needed more electrons. So I went from the B&C 8 amp alternator to the B&C 20 amp unit.

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This is the B&C 8 amp unit. It is the orange bell shaped thing. The new alternator fits with just a couple of "adjustments". See that knurled knob at the bottom of the oil filter? That is the Tac drive. Since I have electronic mags, I don't use that, as it is for the cable that connects to your tac. With electronic mags we take a electrical wire and electrical signal from the mags themselves to show our RPM. That little knurled knob is just a aluminum dust cover.

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This is the new B&C 20 amp alternator. There are a couple of these, the 410-H and the 425-H. The "410-H" is made for Lycoming and will clear that tac drive and allow you to use a tac cable. It is 6" long and is a REALLY tight fit (i.e. it doesn't fit) between the engine and the firewall. You have to either move the engine out a 1/2" via spacers that fit between the motor mount and the fuselage, or get a mount extended out 1/2" (Javron makes both the spacers and the mount, depending on which solution you opt for). My understanding is you can also get, via special request, B&C to make the wires that come out of the back of the alternator moved to where they come out the side of the alternator. This would also help with the tight fit between the firewall and the back of the alternator.
The other option is to use the B&C 425-H. The website says this one is designed for Cont, Rotax and other engines. It will not clear the tac cable BUT is is about 3/4 inches shorter so it fits into the firewall. The mount to the engine is the same so it fits into the Lycoming engines just fine. No need to put a recess into the firewall or move the engine forward. So......I had two issues to adjust. The Tac drive cap, and the oil filter (Casper Labs unit).

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The little safety wire tab sticks out pretty far. I drilled a second hole a little closer to the base. then shaved off some of the tab and thus shortened it. That solved one issue. Looks like this......

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Shorter safety wire tab

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Then I sanded off a little of the side of the tac drive dust cap. Filled the break thru with JB weld so it is still intact as a dust cover.

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This is what the dust cover goes on, the tac drive. You can see that the top part has no threads, so I felt comfortable taking just a little off there. It is still fully functional and perfectly sound.

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And now we have clearance to the alternator. Plenty of room between the firewall and back of the alternator to get it on and off and for all the wires and it fits nicely. So......you can use the 425-H if you shave the tac drive dust cover (assuming you are not using a tac drive cable) and you will not have firewall fit issues. Or you can go with the 410-H and it will clear the tac drive but you will have a tight fit to the firewall. Take your choice. They both work and have advantages and disadvantages. I am just trying to tell you what I have learned to help out.
The 8 amp alt has several components that also must be mounted and considered. The 20 amp has just one regulator and is much simpler in that respect. The 8 amp worked quite well for me and I had no issues with it. But adding the wig-wag lights, and a fuel pump for the pod, would have been really pushing the limits of that unit. 20 Amps will be more than ample.
Again I will try to remember to edit this post to add weights when I get home. Found my notes.....the 8 amp unit with all its condensers, regulators, relays, etc weighed 57.5 oz
The 20 amp with its regulator weighed 97.9 oz
Added weight is 40.4 oz or about 2.5 pounds

Hope this helps

Bill
 
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