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Another PA-12 rebuild-my Phoenix story

Looks familiar Doug. If you didn't have to ski 100+ days per season and travel to Iceland and Bhutan, you would be flying it by now.


We all have our individual crosses to bear, I hold up the best I can with this life that I have chosen to live-hopefully flying by July 1.
 
Thanks for sharing this with me Doug. Great writing and pics. Looking forward to a possible ride w/ you this summer. -Kev
 
Looks great. Who did the gross wt increase and how hard was it to get the parts, paperwork, and welding done? We are thinking of doing the GW increase on our 12 next year and was wondering how big an undertaking it will be?

Thanks, Jake

Sent from my SM-G930V using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 
Looks great. Who did the gross wt increase and how hard was it to get the parts, paperwork, and welding done? We are thinking of doing the GW increase on our 12 next year and was wondering how big an undertaking it will be?

Thanks, Jake

Sent from my SM-G930V using SuperCub.Org mobile app


The paperwork was really easy, I bought it from the STC holder and they mailed it to me, no hassle. Right now I am not with my books and I can't recall who that was. I bought a new fuselage from Univair and they installed it as part of the build, as I recall they charged me little or nothing to add it in since they were building from scratch. The only parts involved were the new tubes, which are listed out on the STC drawings. Sorry I can't be of more help than that...doug
 
Doug is modest. I have seen this project in progress and it is beautiful in every way. Can't wait to buy it from him. Keep up the great work brother!!
 
Well, ski season is now officially over in my world and as promised its May so time for spring time reports to begin.

After lots of puttering in a chilly hangar doing projects with no visible results such a safety wiring turnbuckles, cotter pinning castle nuts, and hanging the brakes I finally started to make visible progress recently with the install of the windshield; installing and timing the new mags, hanging the lightweight alternator, light weight starter and building a bracket and hanging the Niagara light weight oil cooler. This week found me forming and getting the engine baffling attached. Oh yea somewhere along the way this spring the exhaust system got hung too. At last visible progress, but none would have occurred without the great help of RV builder Ron Rasmussen.

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If aviation is 98% boredom punctuated with 2% terror, then building a project surely must be 98% drudgery punctuated with 2% visible progress. Today was a cradle to the plane sort of progress day, wings on. All bolts are in but its not rigged yet.

The invisible progress since my last update was plexiglass cut and installed in the door and for the left sliding windows; engine baffling rubber installed; alternator wired in; cleko's replaced with screws in the boot cowl side panels; and 2 piece Dodge shroud installed on muffler. That's all I can remember right now.

Reverse progress will be made tomorrow as the muffler will be removed as it turns out the exhaust stack is not long enough to clear the lower cowling properly-a section will be added on as soon as that part comes in.

Invisible progress will continue wiring the wings, connecting the cables, hooking up the plumbing, stubbing in the wingroot gas gauges and who knows what else. My July 1 flying goal is starting to almost seem realistic, but we'll see.

Side note furnace jack is a wing install life saver, took me an hour alone on the first wing and 35 minutes on the second wing after a friend stopped by. whew.

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Here's why the muffler must come off

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If aviation is 98% boredom punctuated with 2% terror, then building a project surely must be 98% drudgery punctuated with 2% visible progress.

ya, never do that visible progress stuff first, customer will get unreal expectations... it's all that real 98% work that needs to get done, to get it done...

I laugh at the people who cover & paint their projects first, then do all the REAL WORK.... ends up all nicked up, with patches for things they didn't envision....
 
I laugh at the people who cover & paint their projects first said:
So did someone tell you about the day I had the fuselage freshly covered and a 8 penny nail I was bending in the vise shot out of the vise, flew all the way across the hangar and gut shot the side of the fuselage at an obtuse angle (it didn't even have the decency to go in straight), argh
 
So did someone tell you about the day I had the fuselage freshly covered and a 8 penny nail I was bending in the vise shot out of the vise, flew all the way across the hangar and gut shot the side of the fuselage at an obtuse angle (it didn't even have the decency to go in straight), argh

I feel your pain, many times over. :oops:
 
Dumb questions here, so please forgive my ignorance. You mentioned that you had to spend a lot of time getting the stripe laid out correctly, including bringing in the body man and putting pieces on and then taking them back off again. Is it possible to use vinyl graphics for stripes, and if so, does it take a similar amount of time? Do vinyl graphics have negatives that make them much less desirable than painting?
 
Dumb questions here, so please forgive my ignorance. You mentioned that you had to spend a lot of time getting the stripe laid out correctly, including bringing in the body man and putting pieces on and then taking them back off again. Is it possible to use vinyl graphics for stripes, and if so, does it take a similar amount of time? Do vinyl graphics have negatives that make them much less desirable than painting?

I have no experience with vinyl for a permanent stripe but I do know folks have used vinyl for the cub lightening bolt before.

I did use a vinyl stencil to spray the 12" numbers on my last project- it worked OK but with the fresh poly-fiber products off gassing created some sort of chemical bond with the stencil glue and it was a PITA to remove. I had the same issue with the contact paper layout stencil on my VG's. this time I will wait a year before I deal with the VG's.
 
I hadn't thought about the outgassing problem. The difficulties you had with the stencil and layout pattern ,makes me think one would want to wait a long time before applying a vinyl stripe. Thanks for sharing your experience.
 
I have no experience with vinyl for a permanent stripe but I do know folks have used vinyl for the cub lightening bolt before.

I did use a vinyl stencil to spray the 12" numbers on my last project- it worked OK but with the fresh poly-fiber products off gassing created some sort of chemical bond with the stencil glue and it was a PITA to remove. I had the same issue with the contact paper layout stencil on my VG's. this time I will wait a year before I deal with the VG's.

vinyl is bad choice on fabric.... won't last many years in general... and crud starts getting in behind it because of fabric weave...

yeah I had to repaint a 172 side when the stencil for N-Number "bonded" to the paint... long time ago, but was my fault, I had to turn heaters off to paint, had ICE on my ladder by time i was done painting, paint never chemically kicked off properly...
 
Well I was afraid this day was going to come. My flying cub needed an annual before the phoenix got completed. So today was a swapping of the planes in the hangars and for a couple of hours today I was without a plane to fly at all. But no squawks on 69B and I'm back in business. It gave me a good chance to put them out in the sun and get a couple of shots. I guess I must like red.

My goal of flying by July 1 won't become a reality but it'll be close. I guess those 2 smith river floats and one on the Marias River took their toll. It now feels like i am running in quick sand to get to the finish line.

I followed Mike's advise and just added a 12" extension on my exhaust system, really the only way it could work since I couldn't have gotten the muffler in or out of the motor mount with the 12"'s permanently attached. A 12" piece of stainless was found at Spruce and a local muffler shop stretched it for me.

A couple of rivets in the bottom cowl in the morning and the FWF will be all done, ready to mount the prop-once I get the nose bowl painted. Flaps and Ailerons are ready to go on, as is the sky light once I hook up the Dakota Cub fuel gauges, at which time the wing root panels can be permanently attached. The second rebuilt airspeed indicator should be back from Century Instruments any day now-lets just say keep your high pressure air hose the hell away from any static line-nuf said. Charge the brakes and weigh it and it should be close to good to go.....barring any unforeseen reverse progress moments.

Is now the time I should be starting an empty weight poll?

Here's a couple of shots during today's hangar shuffling:

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I followed Mike's advise and just added a 12" extension on my exhaust system, really the only way it could work since I couldn't have gotten the muffler in or out of the motor mount with the 12"'s permanently attached. A 12" piece of stainless was found at Spruce and a local muffler shop stretched it for me.


View attachment 31768
Keep a close eye on the welded joint on the muffler where the tail pipe is attached. A long pipe such as that one which is unsupported can cause cracks at the weld on the muffler. There should be some support connecting the engine to the long pipe.
 
Do you ever feel like you are walking through quick sand to get to the end of your project, yeah me neither.....I made a bit of visible progress: I braced the exhaust pipe like Skywagons8a recommended; I got the fuel guages and panel lights installed and the wing root panels on; despite my dislike of vinyl letters I did order 3" numbers from spruce and put them in their original location-despite the paint scheme not being original-amazing how well their dark red matched my red. Getting closer, building wing root panels now, discovered a dead short in my nav lights I need to find and fix, put some turn buckles in the aileron and flap cables. weight it and have it inspected, get the books done and get a new air worthiness certificate from the FAA (original lost in the crash fire).

I threw in a shot of the battery relocation to under the rear seat that I hadn't shown before, tho its been done for quite some time. I think of it now because of all of the 337's that will be done for this rebuild this is the only 'field approval' I'll be getting, the rest of the mod's were all either minor alterations or via STC. I didn't move the battery any further forward because I didn't want the CG to move any further forward. I didn't leave it in its original location because the gross weight increase puts tubes where the original battery door was, and the Borer extended baggage makes the battery awkward to get to from the inside.

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Hoping for a weight under 1150, we'll see.....
 

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Keep a close eye on the welded joint on the muffler where the tail pipe is attached. A long pipe such as that one which is unsupported can cause cracks at the weld on the muffler. There should be some support connecting the engine to the long pipe.

Do you ever feel like you are walking through quick sand to get to the end of your project, yeah me neither.....I made a bit of visible progress: I braced the exhaust pipe like Skywagons8a recommended;
View attachment 32093.....
Be careful, that picture is not what I said. The brace MUST be connected to the engine NOT to a part which does not move with the engine. You have tied it to the immovable cowl brace.
 

Is that a Supercub muffler? is it a 337 field approval or?

Here is a pic of an original mount install on a -12 The tube that the orange wires are tied to goes from cowl channel to channel. The one holding the muffler is spring mounted to the engine mount.

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Thanks for the pics..... your project is looking good.

Wayne
 

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The pa18 exhaust is an option under the McKinsey stc.

What about the braces holding the down pipe to the header tubes, or is the concern that I need a brace like the spring loaded brace?
 
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Is that a Supercub muffler? is it a 337 field approval or?

Here is a pic of an original mount install on a -12 The tube that the orange wires are tied to goes from cowl channel to channel. The one holding the muffler is spring mounted to the engine mount.

View attachment 32097

Thanks for the pics..... your project is looking good.

Wayne

This is an O-235 thing. Same type arrangement on the Clipper and Colt. If you are going to install a Super Cub exhaust look at the drawing and install just like that. Pretty proven way of doing it. I have a previously approved 337 for the battery under the back set if you need it or you could use AC 43.13. Is that automotive battery cable hooked up to the battery? Probably a red flag for the Feds if you are going for a field approval.
 
The pa18 exhaust is an option under the McKinsey tac.

What about the braces holding the down pipe to the header tubes, or is the concern that I need a brace like the spring loaded brace?
You can clamp it to the header pipe. Leave the clamp loose enough on the tail pipe so that it can slide on the pipe. When the exhaust changes temperature, it expands and contracts. If the clamp is too tight when this happens the clamp or the connection tube can break.
 
More visible and maybe even tangible progress. I finished installing ailerons and flaps and they are all rigged and ready to go, that and getting the wing root panels on allowed me to install the windows. With the windows on major visible progress was made pulling the paper and cellophane protective wrappers off the windshield and door, now when I sit in it making motor noises I can see out.20170721_174208.jpg

Redid the exhaust stack brace as recommended above, following the actual piper drawings (what a concept) and looked at a couple of local 18's, thanks Steve P and skywagons for your help on that one.

Big news, I did the final weigh in today. As I said earlier my goal (based on my other 12) was 1150. This bird has an O-320, light weight starter, oil cooler and alternator; Dakota cub 23 gallon tanks; Atlee dodge heavy duty 3" extended gear with 1.5" axles; safety cables; Borer extended baggage; 8:50's; odyssey battery; and gross weight increase......drum roll please......1152# and good C.G. I'm happy with that.

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I figured the project would be close to over when my work bench full of parts was empty.....

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Break in oil went in today, maybe first ground run in tomorrow. Need to get the books finished, get a replacement airworthiness certificate and away we go.

whew
 

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