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Building a Javron Cub

Folks

Been making pretty steady progress tackling all the little details (and a few big ones). First I will share a little goof in the hopes that I can spare you making the same, or a similar mistake. I'm sure you have had that little inner voice talk to you when you are about to do something dumb. Like when you set an open paint can on the sawhorse, then the voice says......."don't do that, you are setting yourself up to knock it over and make a big mess". Or perhaps it is something like....."don't leave that tool there, it will fall off and damage the paint" etc. What I am reminding you of now......is try to get REALLY GOOD at listening to that little voice. I try, and on the whole I do pretty good but I had a lapse and I failed to listen and sure enough I paid the price.


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Aileron cable the way it should be.


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I left the cable hanging down, and as I walked under the wing it caught on the back of my shirt collar and I ripped the fabric about 8 inches. I think I can make a pretty good repair but it has cost time and a great deal of frustration. Nothing like damaging the airplane before I ever fly it. But this also brings up a point. Building a Cub is a BIG project and it will not (at least for me) be perfect. So try to brace yourself for things to go wrong, for they most certainly will. You will recover and it will all be good, but I recommend you not believe you are going to tackle this project and have everything always turn out perfect.


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My good friend Cal is a bit of a metallurgist and he moulded up some weights for my variable CG program. 2) 10 pounders and 4) 5 pounders.


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They are about this size and......


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They will bolt into the fuselage on top of the "C" channels I had Jay weld in. It will be very interesting to see how this works out.


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My good friend Jim, helping with the install of the magnetometer.


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I used my neighbors paint booth as an experiment and it was certainly nice. Much better than my booth. I have been getting a lot of dirt in the paint. I think I have narrowed it down (just when I am about done painting) to the intake filters. It's a long story.......


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If you pay better attention than I did to exactly where your stripes are running you can save yourself a lot of time. My window frame just catches a little of the stripe. If I had run the stripe just a little lower, it would have made no difference but I would not have had to take the time to paint this little bit of red on the frame. Same for the wing tank covers as Steve Pierce pointed out above. THINK.... man...... THINK. (something I don't do enough of)


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Masking the stripes......


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I played with the computer and printer, trying different fonts and sizes to get the decals looking the way I wanted. They have beed ordered. They will be red and match the stripe. Like the last build.


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I will put a little bling on the floats as well......


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Finally....the tail # will be something like this.......


So not a lot to share from a lessons learned point except to say LISTEN TO YOUR INNER VOICE

Also, just a heads up to you Javron kit builders. Jay used the FAA form "Aircraft Bill of Sale" to give the receipt for the kit. You will need this to register your plane....BUT.....I got mine back from the FAA and they wanted me to line out the word Aircraft and write in "Kit" so it reads "Kit Bill of Sale". So, if your receipt from Jay says "Aircraft Bill of Sale" line out aircraft and write in kit. I have told Jay about this and he will correct it for all future kit buyers, but if you already have your kit, there is a little heads up to save you some time.

Hope this helps

Bill
 
Folks


It is pretty bad when your friends come over to visit and the first thing they say is "I'm not here to work." But then after a few minutes...........








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Buck and Jim working the Vans Baffling kit.


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Picture of the wing root rubber gasket. Univair # in the shopping list post. This picture is for Greg. I did have extra. Its on its way buddy.


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One more for Greg


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Picture of the panel rocker switches.


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So I have been really working on this thing. And it sometimes was getting to where it was not so fun. So I had a little fun today. This is the cargo door in the closed position.....


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I shot a little paint on the inside of the door...........Ya can't get toooo serious. :)


Hope this helps

Bill
 
Thank God you didn't paint the inside white... or you'd forget to close the door.... ;-)
 
Thank God you didn't paint the inside white... or you'd forget to close the door.... ;-)

Irishfield beat me too it: And with such a beautiful touch as Bill's paint stripe on the INside of the cargo hatch door, on preflight I'd miss that it's open. The voices in my head usually are arguing, so I try to ignore them. Bill, once again thanks for sharing all this, and especially for the thought process behind it all.

Thanks. cubscout
 
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Final version of the cowl decal.


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Float decal - made by same sign shop as above decal


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Tail Number decal - folks there are very specific rules on the size, font and spacing for the N number. Don't just create something out of thin air - you will get rejected on inspection - follow the FAA guidelines for this one


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That is an insane amount of wire for a Cub. I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided to go basically all electric. Had a lot of help today from Jim, Buck and Bernie. Lots of progress but all pretty small stuff.


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More wire.....sigh.....


Bill
 
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Looking good, are you doing all the wiring now or did you do it before you put the boot cowl and engine on. One thing I will say is it's nice to have a removable boot cowl so you can hang the engine and still have access to behind the panel.
 
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the photo of all the wires; It's helping me to move closer to conventional instruments.

How are you labeling the wires? Somewhere I read about a method to label the wires with markings printed on the wires. It would help when just grabbing a wire from a bundle, the label would appear all-along the wire. I don't recall how to re-find that information.
 
Tom - Yes, all wiring at the end. I just run everything to the cockpit then do it all at once at the end. Thank heavens for friends that actually understand all this stuff. Most of it goes over my head.

Keith - Yea, I think I got carried away. Just because you "can does not always mean you should". Thank heavens I don't have an autopilot. But, when you go electric, like Dynon, GRT, Garmin there will be LOTS of wires, fuses, relays, diodes, over voltage modules, etc. You just can't have one without the other. However; I will also say it is REALLY easy to get carried away with all this stuff. Shoot for the Tony Bingeles wiring diagram, not the Bob Nuckolls one. The good news is it is still relatively light and when it all works it is great. One of my favorite sayings....

A LUXURY ONCE TASTED BECOMES A NECESSITY

Keith - here is a link to a quick post on how I label wires. It is only on the ends but it is easy, cheap, long lasting, etc.

http://www.supercub.org/forum/showt...ng-a-Smith-Cub&p=466620&viewfull=1#post466620

Thanks again to all my friends that have, and are, helping. It makes it a lot more fun.

Hope this helps

Bill
 
It's no longer years, months, weeks, it's down to days for the sign off.....awesome job Bill. I know many of us are awaiting that first flight.
 
Thanks DW. Not really much to post right now just lots of small chores that sometimes turn into major events when you find out something does not fit right, work like it should, etc. Working 12 to 14 hours a day right now. I have been Blessed to have lots of good friends that have helped. Thank you. That part is of the build is the best part. Friends getting together and helping, visiting, etc. Good fun.
I'll post soon when there is something helpful to post. Hoping to do the Weight and Balance on Friday. That will be interesting.

Bill
 
Folks

Soooo much work and so little to show it seems, but a few comments for other Javron (and cub builders in general) that might help someone and save time, money, frustration or all three.

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Again a big thanks to my friends that have helped. Buck and Jim working here.

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I ordered my brake lines from Chicago Connection at 773-229-0655. They are Earls lines and are pre-made braided stainless, with female ends that fit into the #4 an fittings commonly used on brakes. The number you want to order is EAR 641919- XX XX = length in inches from the nipple to the nipple. Not the length of the hose part and not the total length. (it will be about 1" less than the total length) I used a 6" line from the fitting on the lower gear leg to the brake caliper and a 12" line from the brake master cyl to the top of the gear leg where it joins the hard line that runs down the gear leg.

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A new friend and relatively new neighbor here at the airpark "Shaker" (from being an ex-fighter pilot = his callsign) came by and before he knew what happened he got put to work. Shaker just completed a STUNNING Steen Skybolt. You will see it at Oshkosh and it will be a winner. At any rate we were getting some interference between the brake torque plate and the inside of the wheel/brake disc. I have not yet spoken to R. Grove about this but I will. I think this is a new torque plate design or perhaps just a compatibility issue. The grove wheels and brakes are really really nice. This is probably my issue not theirs. At any rate Shaker and a belt sander fixed the problem.

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So another friend stopped in to check up on things and he too ended up with a job. Starting to see a pattern here? This is a very active airport with lots of really great folks and it is a lot of fun. At any rate Rick here ended up making some inspection cover plates. They turned out perfect. Rick is a pretty active floatplane guy.

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It is just a series of problems to be solved. I think the throttle arm/lever is too short. The ruler represents the top of the throttle box (throttle cover that is about 4' long and 6 inches wide. I call that the throttle box. You can see it better here.......

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It might be a little hard to see but the thin silver line right through the center of the ball is the ruler and where the top of the throttle box would be. Bottom line is the throttle ball hits the top of the box before you get full travel. I called Javron and Jay was all over it. New throttle levers in the mail same day. Can't say enough good things about Jay. Apparently there is some variation here, so you other Javron guys will need to check this and if necessary call Jay. He will make it right.

So.....lowering the mount 2 inches creates some issues....


1) the lower tube coming from the bottom left mount now comes really close to the gascolator (hits it on the standard firewall position)


2) the same lower arm interferes with the cabin air box


3) it interferes with the cowling/Sutton exhaust as previously reported


4) the throttle cable ends up being too short


5) the standard throttle and mixture clamps no longer fit or work right

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In order for the gascolator to stay under the motor mount tube it must be positioned as low as possible on the firewall. The fuel line coming from inside is the limiting factor. You can see that mine here is right on top of the floorboard.



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This is your basic standard cabin air box. Note the flange is in the center of the box with about 1/2" edge clearance. This will NOT fit if you lower the engine like I did.


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So first I lowered the flange to the very bottom of the box. Then I moved the front of the box back to the edge of the bottom flange.......basically I am shrinking the box....

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Then I slanted the top of the box down to the edge of the flange again.


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This was still not enough.....I had to cut the corner off and ...........

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And capped it like this. Now it fits. A lot of unexpected work. I would still lower the engine 2 inches but it will be easier for you because you have an idea of where it is going to cause problems. Lower cowl with the Sutton exhaust, gascolator, cabin air box, throttle cable length, throttle cable and mixture cable clamps, and there may be others I am forgetting.

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Jim helped me with the firewall forward last time, and also helped fly off the 40 hour test phase, here he is at it again. Great guy, A&P/ IA, and like my friend Buck, has forgotten more than I'll ever know. We spent HOURS trying to figure out why the oil temp probe would not fit. Finally called the Grand Rapids tech rep and found out they had a bad batch of machining and they sent a new probe......BUT......that has been happening a lot the last few weeks.....a simple 15 minute job turns out to take several hours or even a couple of days (like fitting the cabin air box). Arrrrggggggg...............

Well, hopefully some of this will be of help to someone out there in Cubsville......."say goodnight Johnboy"............ back at it tomorrow.........

Bill
 
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i don't think their is a builder who hasn't gone through those type of issues, i know i did, BUT all the frustration is forgotten the first time the wheels leave the ground! keep trudging brother
 
Congrats Bill! It's clear the push is on. I'm in the detestable Chi town now and had hoped to come by before or after the meetings. Not only do I think I'd be in the way now, you may be scaring actually qualified would be helpers off :smile:. I really hate being so close and not having the chance to come out, feel a little cheated here brother.

On one hand it seems like yesterday you were covering the wings. On the other it's very hard to comprehend a full year has passed, seemed so close to the push then.

J/C looks more doable with every post. I have some ideas on the heat distribution box, but too much to do at this point, I know you have a few things you want to rework or redo later as time allows. I think it would more evenly distribute heat and make it comfortable for both, front and rear seater. Get'er flyin' and we'll talk later. Please tell Buck Hi for me, he, like you, seems like a brother from another mother.
 
Bill - I hope you will find time, even if it is a working visit. It would be my pleasure.


We will do the weight and Balance tomorrow. And the final inspection is tentatively scheduled for 26th of May.


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Man it sure sits tall. Love it.


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Jim on the left and Jim (Shaker) on the right. Thanks gents!!


Tomorrow will be pretty interesting. We will see how we did on the weight.

Bill
 
Looks awesome Bill! Can't wait to see it at JC. Before the weigh-in, how about posting the W&B "guess board" for all to see?

Andrew
 
That's one big smile there Bill you should be proud of your self. Nice job, looks sharpe, congratulations.image.jpg
 

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