Well.....Lord willing I am supposed to travel North on Jan the 18th and pick up all the weldments. Basically everything except the wings. It took a little longer than I hoped for but I am still very pleased with all my transactions with Jay and Javron. I know he has hired three welders since I ordered my kit as he is ramping up production. He had several kits in front of mine and he has at least 13 fuselages behind me. So get ready for lots of post and pictures.
Engine - After GREAT consideration and lost sleep I have decided to go with the 0-360 series. It will cost about 18 pounds on the nose not including the prop.
The deciding factor was a recently surfaced memory of my ill fated trip wherein I discovered the ABSOLUTE ceiling of my cub (loaded pretty heavy and on floats) was 10,200 feet on a cool day. Approaching Great Falls, Montana I could not go over the ridgeline but had to go South through the Rogers Pass then back North to Seeley Lake. I did not have the option to go over the mountains at 9500' because I was falling out of the sky at 10K. I think the 0-360 will help in that regard, and though I much prefer the look of the traditional round wingtip, the extended wing seems to really "work" at the higher altitudes and weights, thus I am rethinking my wing choice as well. This is, for me, a big part of the mission for the airplane....floats and mountain lakes. I will still be shooting for a empty weight of 1100 pds. Gonna be tough but if you can't handle the heat ........
Mark Rusche (MMR here) has been over lately working on his PA12 and last week we did a little more weighing.
On the Smithcub I used 1/16 2024 and contact cemented a heavy tweed fabric to it to do the interior. I really liked the look and "feel" of this but it did add some weight.
Here is a picture
1 Sq ft of 1/16 AL weighs 3.75 oz
plus cement weighs 4.72
plus fabric weighs 6.75 oz total
So 6.75 oz per square foot of interior panels. If we figure (roundly) that the baggage compartment is 2'X4' on the sides and 2'X2' on the back we get 20 square feet of area = 8.437 pounds in Fabric, or 5.3 pounds in .040 Kydex. So I can save 3 pounds in the baggage compartment area if I use Kydex. And even more if I use .028 Kydex. I like the look and feel of the fabric interior and will probably still use it in the cockpit area even at the expense of some weight. I know that no interior is the lightest and that works for some folks, (cool, go for it,) but for me I prefer a little more refined interior. But nonetheless I just found 3 pounds.
So that is where I am......waiting for the 18th.......like a kid waiting for Santa........
Thanks for asking
Bill