Rebuilding Flight of Passage - N4971H

I got home a day early from work this week which was nice. I used the extra day and my father-in-law to do the old fashion engine removal. First I took a billion pictures of the whole plane now with the skin off. Than we drained the oil first (thanks for the tip) and used Glenn's second storage method, but slightly modified. There it will spend some months until I decide its fate.


After dinner we tackled the boot cowl and all the instruments. Took us forever to figure out that radio has a small screw in the front that attaches it to the back of the tray. I'm assuming all do but being my first time removing avionics, some things got bent. Luckily none that goes back in. The boot cowl is in great shape except it looks like it had a static port at some point and has a patch over this. Unless someone is going to make me a free one, It'll continue to have that patch. I'm still wondering weather or not to replace the firewall or patch those two holes put in for the electrical junk.


Yesterday I picked up a used trailer. Its light duty but should hold the frame just fine for transportation. It folds up nicely in my garage. I'll probably have to add about 3 ft to the tongue for the fuselage to fit center of gravity wise. Unrelated, April and I saw the new Muppet movie last night and it was FANTASTIC.

This morning I spent quite a bit of time re-organizing the shelves that have already become cluttered. Stored many items in the boot cowl and saved a bunch of space. Then my friend Ryan came over and we wrestled all the details like peddles, floorboards and seat belts. We put 71H on Sawhorses and then I removed the legs. Pretty much all that's left is the rear floor panel, the jack screw, and the cables.



Question time:
Given the age of the elevator cables and their rustic look, do I cut the ends and remove them or keep them on there and hit them with the bead blaster or some other idea? There is no large sale rust on any of them.
1.Several pieces of the birdcage are in sad shape. I have the time, but can I repair it as nice as one purchased online?
2.Do you guys chemically strip the plane before hitting it with a bead blaster? Maybe saving blaster time.
3. Is it possible to remove the elevator cables from the frame without cutting them?

As always, a TON more pictures being uploaded as we speak to picasa.

Chris

Chris, I use my parking brake when on pavement while on Amphibs just to make sure it doesn't roll into anything between the time I prop and get into the seat. ( You are going non electric with the rebuild? ) A good less than a pound mod that makes me feel safer :roll: I think. Been busy hunting so haven't got to the pictures yet but they will be coming soon.

Stay away from the chemicals and blast it. Check your loacal area for a small company that blasts...folks that do heavy equipment and such. What they can accomplish in 2 hours will take you a week. Usually inexpensive.
John

Buy a new boot cowl and firewall. Do you want to look at those
spots for the next twenty years?
Dave

You should have split fairleads that are removable. The elevator cables will come out in one piece. Use a propane torch to burn off old dope and glue prior to blasting, saves the surrounding metal from too much abrasive. I have a jig for the bird cage and the channel roller to form the arches. I can ship you the jig and roll you some channels.

Ok, now what?


Get her ready for travel. Gotta get it blasted, painted, and then down to Texas.

I spent Wednesday packing the bearings on the trailer and then yesterday finished the frame mount. In order to clean out the garage, I decided to take the fuselage up to the hangar. Sorta a mini-road test. If you have to pull a cub on a trailer, this is the vehicle to do it with.


It was a nice afternoon so Lenny and I had to take the J-3 up.


And for the time being, they sit side by side.

The lightning bolt on the Jeep is a nice touch. Took me a minute to make the connection. I might try that on my yellow jeep. Amazing how many folks that mess with taildraggers have jeeps.

Jim

Scouter said:

The lightning bolt on the Jeep is a nice touch. Took me a minute to make the connection. I might try that on my yellow jeep. Amazing how many folks that mess with taildraggers have jeeps.

Jim

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We have an extra set they made at the decal place. Wife says you can have them for $25k.

nesincg said:

We have an extra set they made at the decal place. Wife says you can have them for $25k.

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Tell her it's going to cost $25K for me to come work on it the bird next month...

Chris, are you and April gonna be in Alabama over the holidays?

Ok, so last week was the first week home I got nothing done on the plane. I spent 5 days sandblasting, buying parts for, and repainting, a antique metal chair April had bought last year. Since I thought it would take two days, now I realize why it will take over a year to finish 71H.

We had our Christmas early due to me working all this week. My wonderful wife, in cahoots with Steve Pierce, got me all sorts of cool cub stuff. She even called up Atlee Dodge up in AK and was ordering me some STCs when the guy there realized I had just ordered some stuff the day before. I kinda ruined that one. But she did order me a supercub trim and seat belt to the floor STC which I was unsure of.

I'm hoping to get the frame all blasted by New Years and then get going on some mods.

It is always fun helping others spend money. 8)

Steve Pierce said:

It is always fun helping others spend money. 8)

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No kidding can you imagine how much fun Burt Rutan is going to have spending Paul Allens money.

Chris, If it makes you feel any better 82H is tied down in the hanger with the amphibs still on so no flying till spring for me, that should get you about 6 months closer to completion of 71H. Come spring time if you want to spend some more money (if the plane and Steve didn't take it all) just put a credit in for av gas up here in Maine and JP and I will test it to be sure it's ok for your plane when it's done. Hope everyone has Happy Holidays. Douten

Douten,

Where are your skis? Seems that someone as industrious as you would have built up a set.....and that light airplane would jump out of the snow!

Bob

Douten no skis....can I borrow your groomer then since you have decided that winter flying is not fun and not worth your time. I guess I will keep coming over the bump and lay a set of tracks to drive you nuts so no piling up by the driveway.
John

Douten, the grass is still a lovely green at Miller's Field. Unreal.

I think there may be an extra set of Federal 1500s lying around here somewhere......;-) I hear tell that there may be lots of ski adventures this winter now that FMD is a ski convert and Birddog Bob is just itching to go to Cold Stream Pond and throw a party.....:smile:

Can I have those extra set of federal 1500s?

nesincg said:

Can I have those extra set of federal 1500s?

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Sure, when Douten gets done with them (and if Jeremy can find them....)

Hi Guys, I have three sets of skis the only problem is nothing is getting done around the house so I'm going to put my avgas money into finishing my basement/game room this winter and try to get the paperwork done for the field approval of the floats. Bare ground at the house as is the rest of the State so I could fly if needed just need to do the annual and put insurance back on for flight. John the groomer is at the house ready for snow and I will keep the strip usable so if you get over the hill stop in and I will let you try it out.

Douten, send Chris a pair.

If it ever snows, I'll put them on my J-3

Wow Chris, I was just on Barnstormers site and in Milo Maine there is an 11 done in 2010 for $89,000. and one in MT I think for $125,000 without an engine. So the way I have it figured by the time you're done with the rebuild if you do a good job you can probably break even or if you're like me there won't be enough $ to buy it (not yet). Just don't let JP talk you into keeping it "classic". Need some more pics as to progress also and results of sandblasting? Hope you didn't find much to repair. Hope all had great holidays and remember you started the rebuild in 2011 and it's already almost 2012.

Hey, if someone wants to pay 150k, mine is for sale too. A quick update, I've had 4 weeks with zero progress on 71H. That whole Christmas thing got in the way.

Yesterday I finished a project putting my mechanics air compressor from inside his hangar, relocating it in a outhouse sized shed behind the hangar. They were getting splitting headaches when I was bead blasting my wife's antique chair. I could only imagine how much they'd hate me after I finished all my cub parts. So my Christmas gift to them was the relocation of the compressor. I sound proofed the back of the shed so there is just a gentle hum that comes through the black pipe providing air.

I didn't end up getting the frame blasted. I ran out of time to even deal with it and charges were ranging from $500 to $800. My thought is I'd rather put this towards Steve Pierce funds instead.

I'm getting her all loaded up for the trip down to Pierce's place in Graham, TX either Wednesday or Thursday. I have to pick up Farris Thursday night from KDAL. He will be helping me with welding, blasting, fabricating, etc. We are both excited. I'm not sure how long I'll be down there, but hopefully get her all welded and straightened out.

I'm not sure what I'll be bringing back for the restoration seminar yet. Hopefully I'll have more pictures and progress to show in the next week.

The parts have arrived. Chris is fixin' ta get real dirty. Compressor and blast pot are ready for in the morning.

I just landed on the smoker in st louis on our stop enroute to Dallas. From there I'll be getting a car and driving to graham to meet up with Chris and Steve. The captain on my flight hasn't flown a tail dragger since '86 but flew c-5s in the air force for 20 years so we'll let it slide. Nice guy regardless.. As always, this is turning into another fun cub related journey

What is a ski groomer??

Patrol Guy said:

What is a ski groomer??

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Douten. One of his many talents. Tim, on the other hand, is a snow mover.

Ok folks I'm at a decision point in this project. Farris and I are sitting in Pierce's shop listing to Flight of Passage audio book, drinking Shiner Bock and pondering. I'm pretty sure I've already made up my mind but I'll take some "constructive" input.

After blasting the fuselage, a few tubes were bent, some improperly repaired, and the punch went through about 10 places. All in all about 12 to 15 tubes look to need replacing. Most of them are up front as many of the tail tubes have already been replaced. The entire birdcage will need replaced, but I knew that already.

A new Univair fuselage, along with crate and shipping charges would cost me about 14k. Repairs to current fuse would cost maybe half as much. Any work I can do on the fuselage would deduct from that total price. The new Fuselage would take weeks of headache away but add a financial burden, but one I knew could be possible.

As we are listening to Rinker Buck's description of his dad doing the ground loop landing at the neighbors Barkley's house, I realize why I want to keep the current structural wreck. Some of the bent tubing and jacked right hand landing gear is now making sense. It is part of the actual history of the airplane. Maybe this is just the romantic in me, but that is the same reason I purchased this project.