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Our Cub Project

tcraft128

FRIEND
St. Marys GA; GA36
For nine months now, my Father and I have been steadily working on our experimental cub. It is not a kit, but a blend of all the ideas we have read about on here or came up with staring at the plane. Here are some pictures of what we have so far.

We started by accident, we were rebuilding an PA-28-180 and we heard about a hunk of fuselage and some various pieces.

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Then came the jig

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After we had the longerons connecting the tail section to the fuselage, it was time to start cutting, and cutting.

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After two months of working, we had what looked like a fuselage finally. We used the plans on Christians site, www.supercubproject.com, blown up on a plotter.

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After the fuse was whole, we made the engine mount. An extension was welded to our floor jig and we set the enigne up for 0 thrust, 1" down. Our engine is an O-360 conical mount. We also made it a swing out.

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The engine mount came out great so it was on to the Landing gear. After looking around, I got a hold of Steve at www.super-12.com and got an unfinished gear kit from him. The price was right and it allowed us to set it up to our plane. His work is outstanding and he did not seem too upset at all my questions! They are 3" extended.

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Some where in this time the cabane V was made. It is the later model with -5 attach points.

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Finishing the gear legs.

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The gear was taken off and set aside while we pondered a suspension system. So it was on to the Firewall/boot cowl. We went with a TI firewall. We had a machine shop in Jacksonville roll the beads in it. It was pretty easy to work with considering.

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Then the boot cowl. It might look a bit different than standard, but with the two doors, it works.

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Building the supports for the boot cowl is a PAIN!!! We got it worked out and it fits quite well.

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Dad made the windshield trim out of carbon fiber left over from a Lancair build.

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Fits like a glove.

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Next we build some floor board templates out of 1/4 ply from Lowes. We are going to build the finals out of 10 ply when the time comes.

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We cheated on the Arches for the rear deck. I talked to Wayne at Backcountry and he set us up with a set of arches and the extruded stringers for a great price. Unfortunately right after our order, their entire shop got swine flu and we had some shipping delays....we also got a split 180hp nose bowl.

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Top stringers going on.

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We decided to go with the die spring gear and Marty's (Marty57) drawings proved invaluable. They are in the gallery.

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safety glasses optional!

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Complete, just that easy.

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First time on wheels!

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Back on the Jig for side and bottom stingers

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The tail was next. We cut an old work table in half and built a jig for the elevators.

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Then started making pieces.

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After an hour, poof, there was a tail :roll:

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I copied Bill Rusks electric trim system, with a few minor changes.

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While Dad made the upper baggage door.

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Torque tube and pedals in and fit.

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We decided to go with overhead flaps like the carbon cub. The nice people at CC sent me a few pics and this is what we came up with.

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That is where the picture end for now. We are building the engine right now. it is an solid crank O360, 9.5:1 Combustion Technology pistons, Performance Engines Stage 3 cam, worked cylinders and a leading edge exhaust. We are looking for a carb right now. GOT ONE to sell?
 
How cool is that.. father and son building a cub together. It looks like both of you are quite gifted with a torch. I like the part where you say "After an hour, poof, there was a tail", not sure I could do it in a week. I was a little bummed out when I came to the last photo. Please keep them coming.
 
Well done on your project so far :D
I see you are using the coil springs for suspention, I have the same stuff on my L-18 -115 replica and it works like a charm. Very little maintenance, no bungee covers and a nice smooth ride.
My MAUW is 1600 lb.

Keep going untill there are no more parts left on the floor, then you are done!

Theuns
 
Outstanding! Thanks for sharing with us! I will put a link on my web site to your photo album. Keep going, you'll get there!
 
Good job, and a nice shop to work in.
I have die spring gear on my 2+2 also. In the picture the tires look like they are straight up and down, and you have just a bare fuselage. I hope when it's a complete airplane the gear doesn't splay out. I know my tires (31s) are straight up and down with wings, fabric, full fuel, and a bunch of camping gear in the back.

Tim
 
Tim said:
... I have die spring gear on my 2+2 also. In the picture the tires look like they are straight up and down, and you have just a bare fuselage. I hope when it's a complete airplane the gear doesn't splay out. I know my tires (31s) are straight up and down with wings, fabric, full fuel, and a bunch of camping gear in the back.
Tim

Gear splay is an interesting topic. I have Larry Bauers dual spring setup. I was glad they were adjustable because I had to turn mine in quite a bit to bit to eliminate any splay. I kept fine tuning as I loaded the plane up to gross weight and now the splay is gone. For the fixed die springs, hopefully they are firm enough to begin with to counter splay.

I really like Larry's dual springs. They work excellent once adjusted.
 
We took the gear sag problem into account by making the ends of our die gear adjustable. We used the same rolled threaded ends as the struts.
We have about an inch each way to adjust. There is a sleeve welded into the spring leg that goes 2" in and is rosette welded also.

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Nice to see the lightning holes in the gear gusset, a lot of people wouldn't have bothered, but you can't save too much weight! Keep it up!
Looks like a great project. I just checked my gear splay prior to installing skis (DatumAir) I put the mains on some wheeled carts (usually used for moving snowmachines around on concrete) so they could splay out, loaded it to gross, and they were exactly 90 degrees, that's great as I have no adjustment.
 
tcraft128 said:
... We used the same rolled threaded ends as the struts.
...

you think that strut fork is gonna stand up to that??? awful small bearing area on the bolt compared to a shock strut... others use that???

or is that just your temporary thing till you figure out the right length?
 
The rodend has a busing in it that fits in the space properly and the bolt that attaches it to the gear leg is the same size as originally called for. What do you see wrong with it?
 
It looks like it will work well for a while, question is how long. I don't think a strut with a rod end gets the beating a gear gets. Who knows maybe you came up with something different that works good. Just keep an eye on it.

Tim
 
The airplane pictured has a set of struts on it from a Maule. The ends are eye bolts similar to the strut ends you have. A few months after he built it one of the bolts failed on a river bar landing putting one wing tip in the ground. Luckily he had safety cables and nothing else got damaged. The airplane was fixed easily enough, but he re-designed his ends and bought some different eyes that are 10 times stronger than what he had. My point is, yes it works, but you better make sure they are damn strong for gear legs.

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Great looking project tcraft! I have received a lot of help from Steve (steve@super-12.com) on my project too. I'm pretty sure I saw your gear kit there in his shop right before he shipped it out to you.

I think on the gear assemblies he's building he's using a heavy-duty Heim joint at the strut / gear connection. You may want to touch base with him on that. It would eliminate any stress amplification due to asymmetry in the joint, but weighs a little more. However, I'm thinking stock is just cross-drilled and reinforced tube, and yours might be better that that - - Anyway, just a thought.
 
Fantastic job. You guys are really moving along and skilled to boot.

Thanks for posting.

Bill
 
overhead flap handle

Can you share with us what cub crafters charged for the flap components that are in the photo? I am in the process of a PA18 build. Having these at a fair price would cut the build time. Thanks
 
Cub Crafters overhead system is a little tricky to replicate. The hang the flap from the Fuselage and move it with a direct link. So to bolt their handle in requires their rear flap hangar, their handle and pushrods. Also the top bar where most have the X they used a V. The pillow blocks they use wont work on a X braced top deck. The cost they quoted me for the handle, blocks, and rear pivots was almost 1300. We are almost finished with our setup and I will post detailed pics soon. The way we did it you use the factory hangars and rear pulleys so it changes nothing in the wing.
 
Here are some pictures of our overhead flap system.

The aileron cable will pass through the cross tube.
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The rear pulley is in the same location as the factory flap pulley.
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We also finished assembly of our engine.
o-360 solid crank
9.5:1 Combustion Tech Pistons
Performance aircraft engines stage 3 cam
Flowed Cylinders
LE exhaust

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And thanks to Craig at Catto for the great looking prop!

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For the aileron cable passthrough in the cockpit, are you going to connect the two sides from somewhere else? Normally the balance cable is connected in the center. I couldn't see if there is a slot or something.

Can you share the details of the prop? Size, price range?

Nice engine too!
 
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