Rebuilding Flight of Passage - N4971H

[On Patrol]

So the part about running out of parts to clean was dead wrong when it came to the ribs. I haven't posted much because all I've been doing is cleaning ribs. It honestly took me several hours and several cleaning per rib. That doesn't include the compression struts false ribs and all the other aluminum parts.



Also a setback was the unavailability of more Alumiprep 33 that I ran out of from Wicks aircraft. I waited several weeks and then gave up and paid the hazard shipping from Spruce. I now have hundreds of clean parts scattered around my guest bedroom and under our bed. Its official, this project is taking up living space.



View attachment 10420 Snowboard hard side tube makes excellent transportation of ribs. Airline safe.


I was able to make it down for to Texas and work on several ribs at Pierce's seminar. Rib repair is a rather simple process when you have some wood jig and several experienced people showing how fix stuff correctly. I brought with me a rib repair kit from Wag Aero (I know farris, but they had them and Univair didn't.). I got in late Sunday but by Monday I had 4 or 5 people working away on rib repair.

View attachment 10421 View attachment 10422View attachment 10423

By Tuesday I was working on the small outside ribs repairing them, thinking I would never be able to get to them. I also used a new/old stock nose repair kit on one of my ribs which worked GREAT but later found out was part of Steve's sacred “don't you even F*&$ing think about touching this stuff” stash. If you find some they are a great way for repairing whole section in front of spar. After a big backlash, and Steve's help, I was able to find 3 and send them to Steve. I now have all original ribs except for the butt ribs which I will replace dues to the amount of holes.

Because of an impending snow-storm in STL on Thursday, I left on Wednesday but happy I accomplished all my goals. I was a bit sad about not being able to help somebody else on another project. I was ready to start fitting pipe on Chris Pierce's 18 but needed to leave for DAL to catch my flight. I was also not able to bring my ailerons to be worked on because they don't fit in checked baggage. There might be a possible short trip back to Graham to work on them, by car (Driving is for the birds).

View attachment 10424Steve's simple but very useful rib jig.



Just before I left, I bartered with Steve and got a pair of new landing gear, shock sets, and a horizontal stab. All mine were bent or pitted and unusable. I might had a good short strut but they were well used and I felt I didn't want to risk gear collapse. At least for the first few years, I won't have safety cables on my gear so this was some added insurance vs the well used pieces. Bill and Yvette dropped by for the night on their way back from TX and delivered my new goodies. Unfortunately, I forgot to get two compression struts and some N brace parts I badly needed.



Thanks again for everyone that helped me down there. Too many to name. Also thanks for dealing with my retentiveness and me watching over your shoulder.

I guess I need to ask what this means....retentiveness....... Were you obstinate with your free help!!! or am I being obtuse Keep the faith man this plane is in the right hands I have come to learn.

 

[nesincg]

Since i had gotten all my ribs repaired in Graham, I was itching to put my wings together. But I was really nowhere near. There was some aileron work to be done, a bit more blasting, and a ton of painting.

I decided that I was going to take the wings down to Charlie Aaron for assembly. Since he will be doing the cover and paint and has the know how, I thought it prudent just to get them down there. Besides I really didn't want to risk trailing fully assembled wings 500 miles.

Not much room to work when I have my Jeep pulled into the garage.

So, a week ago I was welding up what looks to be a trident for the front and back of my Jeep. I didn't want to put 17 foot spars on an 8 foot trailer because how far they stick out and the beating they'd take riding the light trailer load. So Saturday I enlisted my friend Stewart's help and we carefully sandwiched all spars together. To keep it rigid, and waterproof, we wrapped the spars in plastic wrap and put 8 foot sections of 1x6 pine to stiffen it more. Just fitting the length of my Jeep, it looked like a giant joust.

Strapping the front trident. My welds held at 80mph no problem.

Last Sunday was spent wrapping and packing everything else into the inside of the Jeep. It is amazingly light but bulky stuff. April mentioned it looked like we were being evicted because of all the junk in the yard. Poor Lenny was quite unhappy there was no room for him. Besides I had to go straight to work and would be upset at me for leaving him with strangers.

Looking like being evicted from the house.

Staying the night on the road, I got to RM Harris airport Monday morning. I quickly wasted the day away unpacking, eating Mexican, and listening to Charlie and the Donald stories. Donald and Becky had come out in the afternoon to help me with my project. We cleaned up some compression struts, touched up some ribs and alodined the aluminum repairs getting them all ready for paint. Thanks to Charlie and Steve Pierce, I now have all aluminum drag and N struts getting rid of the heavier steel ones.

Tuesday and Wednesday I was up to a number of things around Charlies hangar. One task was cleaning up the right aileron getting it ready for re-assembly and disassembling the right aileron hinges. If you don't do this during your recover, this an eyeopener for you. Those steel hinges look real ugly on the back side. Luckily my aileron spar was serviceable and we'll be putting them back together soon.

Front and Back. Drill rivets from the back require a bit of drilling.
Taking off trim and removing trailing edge allows access to drill.
The whole reason you take these apart. Both these parts cleaned up fine but leaving them as is could be a disaster. The middle hinge with the control horn is even more difficult to disassemble.

Thursday ended up being crazy paint day for Charlie and I in the hangar. Each wing consists of 7,340 parts, all of them that should be painted on these older wings. I might be a little off on the parts count but it sure was 4 paint booths FULL and a long ass day of hanging parts. After each would dry, we'd search around the hangar for any space that they could hang to cure for the night without being damaged.

Parts hung all over the place

During the time that he would paint, I devoted to finish repairing his blast cabinet. Charlie is a very busy guy with projects recently and hasn't had the time to fix it. Since he was painting my parts, it was a great time to work on it. Other than cleaning the glass, putting on new sheets, and installing a new light system all it needed was a new gun. I had ordered a new one from Amazon and after lunch I was in business blasting the remaining aileron hinges.

April mentioned this looks like an art installation and I should photoshop out the bucket.

Friday was a shorter day as I had to leave at 4pm. I placed a hefty order with Univair for all the wing parts that I still needed. We ended up doing the forth paint booth spray early afternoon after I'd hung up all the parts. The drag wires, and all their intricate pieces just take forever to get hung up.

I had to leave with a few items I really wanted to get done, but had gotten most pre-assembly items completed. I left NW Georgia with a nice stockpile of wing parts ready to be put together. After the Univair parts come in, I should have all the pieces for assembly. I hope to get back there a week from now and start that process. Super excited.

Everything ready to be put together. Well almost. I had a paint booth full of parts I didn't get a chance to put away.

 

[nesincg]

We are live again on Ustream, for a short time before dinner. Don't tell charlie.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

My new plane, 4971H

Got a link?

 

[sj]

http://www.ustream.tv/embed/10198913

 

[Darrel Starr]

This is a very worthwhile project -- I loved the book. Please keep at it and return this iconic plane to the air.
http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0697/buck/interview.html

 

[royevansii]

Looking great Chris! We're about at the same steps on our projects! This week we're rebuilding the left wing/aileron.

 

[nesincg]

Looking great Chris! We're about at the same steps on our projects! This week we're rebuilding the left wing/aileron.

Looks like you got your frame all done. I'm still months (or maybe years) away on that. I do need the motivation.

Ustream is on and off over the next couple of days. Charlie is under the weather so can help when he can. Actually, Charlie comes out and gets more done in 1 hr then i do in 5.

 

[nesincg]

March 19[SUP]th[/SUP]


Well, if I could find my camera, I'd post some pictures. In the mean time, some narrative. Maybe I can throw in some camera phone pics.


Saturday I got in after lunch and met Charlie as he was getting out of the paint booth. It was a beautiful day and I had the top back on my Jeep for the first time this year. That was exciting. I had some aileron work to do but Charlie asked what I wanted to do. “I want to put some wings together!!!” I answered.


So out came the Left spars from their plastic wrap. Starting with the N strut and the two spars, we quickly added my numbered ribs and formed the base look of the wing. This was simple and it looks like you are getting so much done in such a quick time. Charlie started putting in the tiny #4 screws into through the ribs with lightning speed. I could get one done in the time it took him 5.


Charlie then started adding more compression struts not forgetting the drag wire attachment fittings. Check back on my pictures we had to double check pulley locations to make sure things were going together.

Wing quickly takes shape.

Another reason I wanted to start the wing was to check that I had all the parts that I needed to get the other wing started. I'm not sure why I was in a hurry. Take any good plan in cub rebuilding and easily double it. I might could start putting the other together but I'd be taking up more room than is needed. Time to keep the focus on the Left wing.


Sunday Charlie woke up with an awful cold and looked as well as sounded bad. I could tell he really wanted to help me but he needed the rest more. He came out a few times during the day to find tools for me and give some pointers.


Since I was pretty well into the aileron repair, and that is a single person job, I kept at that all day. I had to replace one leading edge skin because of a hole that had just been taped over. That along with the steel hinge rehab, I had LOTS of work to do. By 9pm, I was building a jig of sorts to hold the aileron at all the proper points and by 1am I called it quits.


Monday Charlie felt ok in the morning and worked for a few hours with me. Becky and the Donald were suppose come by and help out but Donald decided to sleep in and not bother. Charlie was able to give Becky work putting on false ribs and wing bow attachment fittings. I was there helped some but mainly kept to my corner working on the DARN ailerons.


The afternoon I was solo again and did some work on the aileron cove but really needed to return to my aileron table. I needed this left one and soon so we could attach it too the wing and place all the hinge supports in place and line everything up. Quite a bit of stuff depended on it being done.


The center hinge and control horn were just a disaster to get back together. This took hours. They are very tough steel rivets and take a lot of work to get in. I finally was able to get them in but not without lots of cuts, bruises, and swear words. Then goes the re-assembly of the rest.

Good as new.

I could hear Steve Pierce saying “I told you so.” all day long. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably order a new set and sell the old. If you find a lot of corrosion, best know what you're doing and have a lot of time to do it correctly. At some point I wanted to toss them out the door but I'd come too far, and needed them on the wing. At 1:30am, I finished the left one and hung it on the wing and cam in side to do the update. I imagine it'll be a later start in the morning after copious amounts of coffee.

 

[nesincg]

As it turns out, it was a good thing I stayed up until 2am to finish my left aileron. On Tuesday, Donald and Charlie had to have the aileron to move forward on my wing assembly. You need to have it on to line up the aileron hinges before you attach them to the fast spar (aileron cove). This makes these pieces amazingly rigid. You also need the aileron to line up and space the ribs at each end of the aileron. Cutting the rib tip bow to the correct length also requires the aileron. While is as an amazing amount of work, Farris pointed out I did save at least 2K that I can put towards my engine fund.

Installing drag wires and drilling for aileron brackets.

By Tuesday evening we had gotten the drag wires trammeled and tight. We had gotten all the way to starting on the leading edge. Never throw away that outside compound curved leading edge. Charlie was able to work magic getting all of the noticeable dents out because this aluminum is so soft.

Wednesday Charlie worked a bit in the morning and then again had to retreat due to sickness. I really felt bad that he would come out when I know he really needed the rest. We got the next two sections of leading edge done in reasonable time. We spend the extra time making all the cuts and using sheet aluminum instead of the Univair leading edges. This is stronger T3 and I can't give away Charlie's secret for getting the curves just right.

Mark and I cutting out and bending compound curves at fuel tank.

After lunch, my friend Mark, whom I've know since childhood, drove over from Alabama and was able to lend a helping hand. He had recently read the book and, as many, wanted to contribute to the rebuild. He is an engineer by trade and was the perfect person to assign the last leading edge skin what has compound curves for the wing tank.. It took him a while but was perfect in the end. Donald was again a no-show but Becky stopped by and I put her to work screwing in many of the braces that are in the tank bay area. Mark and I worked pretty much until 11pm finishing up the leading edge and getting it ready for cover. We celebrated our accomplishment with a bit of Tennessee water from the Lynchburg area.

The finished edge, after Mark and to clean it for the picture.

Thursday morning we were able to able to start prep for fabric. Actually, Charlie worked like mad and we stay back watching with awe. Mark and I are trying to watch but any help is really just getting in his way. We were trying to weld up a wing rotator for Charlie while trying to soak up his style for covering at the same time. The Donald was back just before lunch and assisted him better since he had prior experience working with him. By the evening, Charlie was brushing on coats of dope to the top cover.

Charlie brushing on one of the MANY coats of dope.

Thursday evening I stayed up until about 11pm finishing up the right aileron. This one required no leading edge repair and I'd learned how to assemble it faster. I guess its a toss up weather to buy new ones now but it sure was good for my budget, but not for my time.


Friday morning was mostly clean up and go home day. I left Charlie in the middle of prepping to put on the bottom fabric. I really wanted to stay but I had to see my Wife at home for a few days before proceeding off to work again. Donald and Becky promised to return next week to help Charlie with any more duties and hopefully soon I'll have one finished wing. It is amazing the amount of work that goes into assembling one wing.

Charlie standing on a bucket to reach the middle of the wide part of the wing. He tried for days to con me into installing flaps.

I hope to return on April 15[SUP]th[/SUP] . The plan is to start putting together the right wing as well as do a LOT of rip stitching. I hope to finish down there for the time being so I can focus on the fuselage. I have some guests coming for a work party in May that expect to get a lot of stuff done.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

My new plane, 4971H

Wow at that rate, you will be flying by summer.

 

[Charlie Aileron]

Got fabric on bottom of wing. Ready for Chris to rib stitch.

 

[nesincg]

No pictures here, just an update.


Well this week was not quite a airplane rebuild oriented as I'd of hoped but I did get some important things done. Some other things were done without me even contributing.


Last Sunday was spent with April and friends celebrating Easter with a wonderful brunch. Easter is always a great excuse not to be productive. We did manage to take down a neighbors tree and start hording firewood for net winter. I think I'm the only person in the city limits that has a chain saw and log splitter. Gotta feed that wood stove.


Monday was do the taxes day and other importatant items day. About 14 hours worth. Good and bad, they are all complete which allows me to go on the 15[SUP]th[/SUP] back down to Georgia. Tuesday was similar but I started focusing on ordering parts for the build. The expensive part. I also started cleaning up the garage. With only a one car garage to work with, things need to be reorganized many times. With all the wing parts out, it is time to focus on the Fuselage.


Sometime while I've been gone, Charlie and Donald were up to plenty good down in Georgia. As posted, the bottom of the wing got covered. Later the whole wing was rib stitched. I can't say I “missed”this portion of the build but I'm sure there will be other stitching to do. They finished up the entire wing, glued all the tape, and added all the inspection grommets.


Wednesday was organizing remaining parts in the garage. In the afternoon, I got my handy folding trailer out and picked up the fuselage. There was somewhat of a panic as I seemed to be missing many parts that need painting. I searched where I blasted the parts and searched my rather empty hangar but to no avail. All was solved when the wife got home. “Hon, you put all those parts in the guest bedroom.” Saved again by my better half.


Today I made a pretty simple dolly with casters for moving the fuselage around my tight garage. I got the old boot cowl out as well as my new instrument panel. I checked to see how it fit and to aid in the construction and fit of the new boot cowl I've yet to make With my pre-made firewall from Clyde, I don't expect too many hassles. But then again, I should have finished this part a year ago.


So floorboards and lot of parts from Dakota Cub should be on their way soon so I can start getting interior done. Mid May I have a work party scheduled in STL. Farris and Ford, the “youngons” that probably know more than me, are coming out to lend a hand on 71H. My wife April has graciously taken off 3 days at the end of April to help me on the Hotel and get ready for this party. I hope to get the boot cowl complete and the floorboards cut out. Maybe a bunch of nutplates installed. Anyone else that wishes to come out and lend a hand, just let me know, however I'm all out of Southwest points.


I've decided to keep my C-85 as the Buck boys did, but do the 0-200 crank STC. I always loved the performance of the C-90 but they are just too rare and pricey. It'll be nice at the airshows to say it still an “85”. Ford will be here a bit longer so I he will probably get assigned the job of looking into the needed parts and maybe even start the overhaul process.


I'm spending the next few days with only the wife on a short get-away. This is much needed alone time since, with work requirements, I'll be away for most of the next three weeks. Probably no more updates until I get back to GA sometime on tax day.

 

[kevin]

Chris, I've got a friend here who has a C85 with O200 crank WITH a lightweight starter and battery in his J3. That set up is real nice. Consider installing a starter and battery. If you do it right, you can hide the starter button and battery and you will still look stock.

Kevin

 

[nesincg]

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to make the simple mod that will allow the install of the lightweight starter and leave the brackets for the battery. That will be for later in life, but for now, I don't have problems with the hand prop.
Chris

 

[nesincg]

Flight of Passage is now available on your favorite ebook. Available for download.

 

[nesincg]

Anyone want to pick me up in STL and fly down to 4GA4 next week to work on a wing? So not looking forward to this drive.

 

[nesincg]

So last Monday morning, I woke up at 4:30am and started the long process of getting to Eton, Georgia where 71H is being assembled. My goal for this week was to build my right wing up and finish Charlie's wing rotator I had promised him. I had decided to bring someone with me to keep me company on the long drive, instead Lenny snoozed in the back seat the whole way, waking only on the pit stops. As was my first goal, 7 hours later I pulled in behind Charlie, Janice and the Donald just as they where getting back from lunch.

Lenny "helping" me in the hangar.

Charlie had already cleared some room and laid out the Spars in order to facilitate some progress. I had 3 parts that needed to be cleaned before Charlie could prime them and this wing could be fully assembled. I got to working on those while Charlie speed cut grass on his runway that had been growing vigorously since my last visit. He painted the pieces when he was done and we hung them to dry.

Charlie got this much done without any of my help.

Charlie then said “Get to welding.”, my indication that I need to get with finishing the rotator. In all reality, I probably would slow down Charlie as he assembles a wing from scratch. My numbering of the ribs did help with that portion and I'm glad I kept re-numbering them through the disassemble, cleaning, and painting progress. Charlie is a wiz with the long number 1 flat head screw and can have all eight #4x4 screws in one rib in no time.

Pre-fitting the hula hoop

I spent the better part of the first 48 hours working on the rotator while Charlie put my wing together. Working off my memory an two pictures of Steve pierces rotator, I started welding the pieces. We had gotten a local shop to bend the the large ring that holds the strut end. It is pretty amusing calling around and asking people if they can weld up a 7 foot steel hula hoop. They did kind of a crappy job, but it turned out that not perfectly round was not a big deal.

I was shopping the local Tractor supply searching for idler pulleys for the hula hoop to rotate on. Always looking to save money, I found that for ¼ of the price I could buy a 8” utility type wheel. I cut the hard rubber off and had a perfectly round pulley with ball bearings for smoothness. I had used some slightly larger steel than required because Charlie had wanted it on castors to move it in and out of the paint shop. After about 200 bucks in parts and two days worth of work, I had all the pieces come together.

On Wednesday I was a nervous wreck when we mounted my finished left wing into the rotatory. “What if I didn't do it right? What if my welds don't hold?” I questioned myself. There was a small learning curve for both Charlie and I on the first mounting of the wing. I had to make some “adjustments” but once it was together, it worked flawlessly.

My finished left wing. While moving it on casters, I didn't trust it jumping out and "locked it down" with wide vise grips

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday I used the time to mount leading edge skins that Charlie had completed for me. With him assisting me in strapping them down, I would put the skins on individually screwing in 7 billion more #4 screws. That freed some time up for him to work on his Super 17 wings which cheered him up a bit. He has a lot of projects going on right now and doesn't get a lot of time for his own work.

8 wings, some not visible, in various stages. Looked like a small Lockhaven.
My right wing completed and ready for cover,

Lenny and I left Friday morning. Having completed all I needed to do, I was somewhat happy, but always wished I could have done more or have more time to spend there. I managed to get a lot of fuselage parts blasted Thursday night, but had to leave before painting them. April has taken time off starting the 29[SUP]th[/SUP] and we hope get these parts ready to go back together.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

looking good, going to have a lot for us do do in a few weeks?

 

[nesincg]

I'm working on how to get a lot of interior parts painted so we can do some assembly. I plan on painting these parts flat black. over the epoxy primer.

I'll also have aluminum to start working on the cowling. Floorboards should be all cut out too.

I was hoping to get in some engine parts for me and you to work on but they might be economically unreachable at the moment. I'm going to send off the case and cam and see what comes back. Cylinders, 0200 crank, STC and such will come later.

 

[1934A]

Looks like you're making great progress! I just got done reading the book and would recommend it to anybody that hasn't already read it. Another interesting thing, my grandpa's PA-11 4970H, is listed as a 1949 model, but 4971H is listed as a 1948. 70H has the serial number 844 and 71H is 845. How can 70H be a year newer than 71H but still have a lower serial number? Maybe it's just a typo on the registration.

 

[nesincg]

You got me to wondering, while sitting around Bridgeport airport doing nothing. 11-842 is a '48. 847 and 848 have disappeared from record. 849 and 850 show manufacturing date of 1948. I'm guessing the paperwork on your grandfathers cub got mixed up.

I did order the build sheet from Clyde but forgot to pay attention to the actual build date. Also my first logbook is missing.

 

[1934A]

I kind of suspected a mistake in the paperwork also. I think there were about 1,540 PA-11's built, so going from serial number 844 to 1540 in one year would have been pretty tough I would imagine

 

[nesincg]

April and I got to work Last Monday cleaning and organizing the garage...again. I had gotten several more parts in and there were too many things scattered around. We spent the better part of 5 hours fixing things up.

The next day April and I dragged all the engine parts to my mechanic Kent and figured where to send what. The case went to Divco The cam, lifters, and gears went to Aircraft Specialty Svc. While this seemed like an easy task, it was not. Too much time had passed between engine disassembly and packaging, so organizing all the parts was a pain. We had left the lifters at home and had to go back for those. With the price of a C-85 overhauled cylinder around 500, I've decided to spend the extra 400 per and get all new and leave my current ones alone for now. We pretty much spent the whole day on the engine.

Wednesday I went blasted some more parts. I didn't have a blasting cabinet big enough for the control surfaces so I was just doing an outdoor blasting, wearing good protection. Well it was slow going and a lot of media flew away in the wind but managed to get both elevators blasted. I also did several more small parts in the cabinet. I decided the rest could wait.

I was spending a lot of time not really on the right stuff, since I have a work session scheduled starting the 11[SUP]th[/SUP]. I needed to have things for them to do. I decided to start painting some interior parts on Thursday morning. I was desperate to paint and just fashioned my own spray booth outside my house. Other than making a mess while mixing, the spray process went a lot better then I imagined. Especially with my crappy $15 spray gun.

Temporary Spray booth.

Because of some incorrect initial mixing calculations, I had much more primer than anticipated so I had a second round in the afternoon. While it started out a beautiful day, rain was threatening by early afternoon and it was a race to use up the primer. Unfortunately the rain started an hour too early and I was forced to cut my priming marathon short. Luckily everything was under the sheet and no water got on my primed pieces.

Saturday and Sunday morning I spent measuring and creating floorboards. Since I have purchased very expensive wood (at a great price), I am cutting templates out of crappy plywood. That way I can mark all over them, make mistakes, and not have to worry about it. By Sunday morning both floors where completed and ready to transfer to my good wood.

All the parts hanging all over my garage/workspace.

Saturday afternoon the temps warmed and I got some black paint on the interior pieces. Almost everything is set for the work party next week. I would like to have finished the boot cowl but figured we could do a lot of other interior work anyway. Finished floorboards would have been nice to but hopefully that transfer process won't take long. All in all there should be plenty to do.

 

[nesincg]

So there has been a ton of progress this week being made on 71h despite Farris and Fords best efforts to not look busy. JP has managed to get a lot of work done despite staying busy online. They have been taking some pictures. I'd love to type up an update, but we always seem too busy to break for that.

We have found time for a break today. Having time to write this short update while waiting on the Budweiser brewery tour. After our two free beers, back to work.

Posted Using the Free SuperCub.Org Android App!

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Chris and Jeff


Floorboards


Brakes going in


Rear rudder pedals and seat going in


Front pedals and new cables


Front brakes in and floorboards almost done


We ran out of parts so we have been waiting on them today.

All the floorboards and stuff got done once he left ..

Ha ha. But that's because they wern't dry yet.

 

[cubdriver2]

Farris is alway asleep, Snert where your famous Farris sleeping photo.

Glenn

 

[Amy]

This one?

 

[cubdriver2]

This one?View attachment 11485

Your bad

Glenn's

 

[nesincg]

So half much of the way into the big work week, progress while slow at the start, is picking up. I can tell you that if you plan on having a big work week in the future, have the floorboards finished and have a large selection of 25 different washers required. There are shim washers for the rudder pedals, 5 different ones on the jack-screw (see recent cub clues), washers that fit tightly over pulley bushings, a few that fit loosely over some smaller. We are working on parts that don't require these and otherwise. Having to shim the rudder pedals more than expected, I ended up just making some out of aluminum.


I had gotten home a day early and had cut the floorboards out from the templates that I had made using a pattern bit in my router. This is a process suggested by Wayne in the recent floorboard threat and it worked wonderfully. I took my time and didn't have a single splinter. The cuts looked great. I used the rest of the day I should have been putting on varnish this day but mistakenly painted some more pieces that I still haven't had time to deal with because of waiting on the floorboards.

Floorboard assembly line

Saturday I picked up Farris and Ford at STL and after an early lunch, we got back to the garage. Since I had been working, and the space is that small, we spent much of the first afternoon taking stock in items to be done and then moved quite a bit of non essential garage items out to the driveway. It has looked like a garage sale all week and luckily has not rained.

Ford checking fit of the new Dakota cub jackscrew.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I spent getting 4 coats of varnish in addition to a sanding sealer on the wood floors. This was stinky stuff and gave us headaches. The first coats were taking a while to dry and could not be set outside without risking a bunch of gunk getting into the finish. For the final coats, I commandeered my neighbors small garage to finish them up. This kept the smell away and we could not stir up dust on to them. Unfortunately this was the better part of the time that Farris was in town, but we still managed get some progress made including painting parts of the fuselage that had to be black.

Farris and his safety glasses sanding the paint out of the jackscrew hole.

Sunday Jeff Russell made it into town and we had a full workplace. The small garage is a tight space but we have manged to make use of every ounce of space in it. On Tuesday, after dropping of Farris, the floorboards started going in. Nothing like progress, but DAMN those rudder pedal springs.


Things have not been without snags, such as the lack of washers and other technical problems requiring parts manual reference and other drawings. Having much of the controls upgraded to supercub type, there was a lot of items that were new and I had no parts for. The latest was installing small Dakota cub pulleys on the supercub trim. They are a very tight fit and understanding how they work will take references from other people and probably Dakota cub.

Referencing another picture, do you tighten down these bolts and then have the pulley rotate around the bushing, or do you leave the bolt loose and have the bushing rotate at the bolt? With the lose bolt way, the whole thing is wobbly since it only attaches at the bottom.

We are coming to a grinding halt as I've run out of AN3 castle nuts. This is actually feels good since we have made enough progress to actually run out of stuff like this. A trip out to mechanic's place, not without stopping for a nice lunch again, will get us moving. Ford and Jeff leave over the next few days so progress will once again be slowed