So it has been two months since my last update. Despite my lack of words, progress is being made. I'd even started an update a month ago and never posted it. My pictures have also been lacking since my Panasonic camera died. I loved its quality photo but I keep finding more important items to buy instead of a new camera. I'll start this update with the update I meant to do a month ago.
June 16[SUP]th[/SUP]
This last weeks work, I decided to take it real easy. I had severe back pains all last week perhaps as a result of working in odd positions on the cub all the week prior. I had a nephew and in-laws during the first of the week for a surprise visit. Cracking a rib while challenging your newphew to basketball did not help me want to do any work on the cub.
By Tuesday I couldn't resist any more and despite doctor's orders, I did some work. Besides my nephew had really expressed interest in working on the cub. My father-in-law, nephew and I went the to garage and started installing the floorboard and back panel for the baggage compartment. This was easy for me to supervise and I didn't have to be directly involved.
We worked about 3 hours up until dinner time. I wanted to use nutplates instead of tinnermans in the floorboard. I showed them how to install these, using the solid rivets. They couldn't believe the amount of work required to install these but enjoyed learning the rivit squeezer (Thank you Bill Tracy) and other tools used for this. Once they got the hang of it, things went faster. Between my back and my father-in-law's knees, we couldn't wait for dinner to be ready.
New boot cowl resting on the turtle deck ... to keep it safe. notice my wonderfully clean and spacious garage.
Thursday and Friday were spent re-making the boot cowl. I had picked up several items including more aluminum from Wicks in the morning and by Thursday afternoon had them all cut out. On Friday I went out to my mechanic's hangar and did the bends on the cowling. What took me several tries and practices the first time, happened the second time with ease. Pierce was right, you get a lot better. We were in and out of there in 20 minutes.
July 17[SUP]th[/SUP]
After a crazy work week mid June, and my lingering back pain, I decided to take a leave of absence. I wanted to work on the plane more, but I also wanted to fix my back. Chronic back pain, while inevitable, seemed all too often at age 39. I did a smorgasbord of treatments, from drugs to acupuncture, and things are really looking up. I'm back at work today, with a little down time during a break to write an update.
A problem nagging me for a while was fixing one of my stabilizers that I though had a fully been repaired. When Farris was here, he pointed out that my tailbrace wires had previously been installed incorrectly. At some point previously, a mechanic had decided that he'd rather have AN4 bolts in the stabilizer instead of AN3. When he drilled the hole bigger, he also drilled the sleeve that keeps the trailing edge of the stab from collapsing. Luckily that never happened but I decided to fix it correctly. With the correct size tubing from Wicks, I was able to weld back in the sleeve and it is good as new now.
New tube and welded insert.
Having the extra week off work allowed me to get caught up around the house but also get some light work done on the plane. Late June I was able to finish up the new boot cowl details like the strengthening members and fine tune the cuts. I decided not to rivit it to the firewall just yet as I wanted to have access to install the firewall items.
I then turned my attention to the firewall attachment points and ran into several stumbling blocks. 1[SUP]st[/SUP] problem being the cowl attach points that came with the plane, that I'd already painted, turned out to be not original. With no reference in the parts manual, I needed more info. With the help of SC members and Clyde Smith, I was able to figure what items I needed, or make.
Practice fitting the old cowl.
Turns out I needed the two upper attachment point members, which were the same as a supercub. Those were easy to make and available digitally. I also needed one lower member. I had one good one that I used to make the other. Turns out the one of the aileron attachment brackets I was unable to reuse had enough good length, and the correct size, that I was able to copy my good bracket. Now that I have a Tig welder, I throw away no metal.
I then started to look at my cabin heat box. While this box is the universal one from several cub types, including a supercub, I decided it wasn't for me. Installed in the correct way, the cable had to be on the bottom and the hot air bypass was pointing right at the gascolater. The original box allows a cool air duct to attach to the same box and gives that extra option for summertime venting.
After that I attached the cowling brackets and then the old cowling to check the fit. It is good that I did that as several items did not fit per the new 71H standard. If I'd of copied the old ones, I'd of been unhappy. Even my top cowling, which I had hoped to use, had a ¼ inch gap on one side. Since the holes in it had already been drilled, it must have been there to begin with. Being such a compound shape, I probably can't make the top cowling or bottom cowling, but I'll sure give it a try.
All the control cables have now been run to the back. I had to grind move a rudder fairlead due to some rubbing issues, twice. But now I got it right, or so I think. I made some nice brake pedal tie rods out of welding rod and feel those came out real nice.
New fancy brake tie rods.
At the end of the build weeks, April and I went through and really cleaned up the garage and work area. Many missing parts started to appear. My next sets of weeks off I hope to work on the cowling and engine area but I'll really need the engine installed to do a lot of the finish work. I should have the engine ready in the next month or so. I'm also going to work on the nut plates for all the windows and skylight as well as fairing attachment points. I should have my control surfaces back from the blast/paint guy so I'll consider rigging those as well.