Workshop

 

May7, 2009

The weather in Alabama has not been cooperating with our plans to fly the plane. Here are some shots we took that show off the Auburn Design of the plane and the owner

April 17, 2009

The graphice package arrived and I spent the session getting them on the plane. It only needs the painted items and we can complete the rebuild. The plane looks sensational and I checked it for ugly and found none at all.

April 16, 2009

The session began with construction of the linkages for the elevators. The links were tested and balanced to center at the same place. The reverser has an adjustment that makes the alignment easy to do. The throw was set to the max and the elevators were done.

The trap door on the bottom of the fuse was set and the tail wheel assembly was fitted to the plane. After it was mounted on the fuse, the bracket was mounted on the bottom of the rudder and the function was checked and adjusted. This proved to be difficult in that the fuse was closed and getting behind the mounts for the bracket took some time.

Next the ailerons were hinged to the wings and the linkages were build and adjusted.

The plane was assembled and equipment checked. This is all the work that can be done on the plane at this time. Tomorrow the Graphics will arrive and they can be applied to the plane. After that step, we are in hold for the painted parts.

Once the painted parts arrive we can assemble the plane, engine test, set the CG and the lateral balance. At that point there will only be the final check list and it will be set to fly.

 

 

April 15, 2009

Installation of the equipment continued with the rudder servo and extended wiring to the fly board, The servo was mounted and the linkage built and adjusted for the max throw. For details on the construction of the linkage, see the tips and tricks section.

The wires were cabled in the equipment section and preparations made for the CG test.

The servos for the elevator were installed and mounted in place and the wires to the servo reverser were extended. The reverser was mounted so that the elevators could be adjusted from inside the equipment compartment. . The elevators were then glued in place.

April 14, 2009

The vert fin was first on the covering and it got white monokote. The left side of the fuse was then covered with the three colors to be the same as the right side. The bottom was then done in orange and the trap door was rebuilt to a higher standard and covered.

The covering and trim work was then as far as I could go awaiting the graphics package. I mounted the two main switches and the switch for the ZDZ 80.

The fuel and smoke system came next and I began with the smoke tank and the plumbing. the tank has 3 leads (1 vent 1 outlet to the smoke pump 1 inlet ) This was done to prevent the filling operation from loading oil in the muffler. The tanks were both plumbed and located on the tank mounting board that was built earlier in the process.

In the shot above you can see the tanks are padded and strapped down to the board. The smoke oil line is attached to the muffler with black silicone tubing to prevent heat damage.

In the view above you can see the smoke pump is secured and padded under the tank board and this will allow easy access to the receiver wires. The inlets are shown on top of the tank and these leads will be run to fuel dots at a later time. With the overboard lines run, the fuel and smoke system are ready for the engine test.

Next I worked on the power board. I mounted the board in the final position and then mounted the receiver on the board with the wires connected to the board in consecutive order. the switch leads will need to be extended as will some of the servo leads. In the shot below you can see the antenna tube on the left side of the picture. This tube was glued in place and exits in rear hatch.

The choke and the throttle servo wires were extended and connected to the board. The switch leads were soldered to the power input lines to the flyboard and the board was activated and tested with the receiver. The ZDZ switch was tested and worked very well. The Rcats switch was installed in the ignition circuit and tested to be sure the wiring allows the ignition to be operated from the transmitter.

April 13, 2009

Covering continued today as the detailed rudder got all the covering and striping. Looking Good The left fuse side remains to be done along with the bottom of the fuse and the vert fin. There will be some final detail work to do and the covering will be complete.

April 10 and 11, 2009

The wheel pants arrived from Carden and I set about mounting them. I use a ply block on the inside of the landing gear side of the pant to secure the pant to the gear. This is done by using two 6-32 screws through the gear and into blind nuts in the blocks. In addition, I then mount a block on the far side of the pant and the shaft fits into the block to give added support for the pant.

The wheel pants were completed and given to Bugs along with the gear so that the paint could be done.

Back on the fuse, I completed the design for the covering on the fuse and began with a layout on the side.

Once the layout was done, I covered the turtle deck with one piece of white monokote. This takes time but it is one of the most visible parts of the plane so it is worth the effort. The white covering was then applied above the line for the blue stripe and all the way to the front.

The blue stripe was added on the layout lines and the orange below the blue line completed the side

Next was the rudder and it has lots of pieces to cut and apply. The shot above shows the first side at the end of the session and the fin is all that is left to complete. There will be graphics and some black outlining that will improve the appearance.

April 7 , 2009

I completed the wood working on the stab and elevators and began covering them begriming on the bottom of each. the covering is similar to the wings in that it is blue and white stripes with an orange leading edge. It then has white and blue stripes much like the wings.

The top of one stab and elevator was covered and it looks nice with the wings

The plan is to have a white turtle deck and a blue stripe running down the side of the fuse. The part below the stripe will be orange.

April 5 , 2009

The session began with the covering of the first and second wing. The first wing needed only the ailerons and some striping and the second wing was completed with all the trimmings and the hinges all in place but not glued in as yet

The plane was set together to get an idea of the appearance of the orange and blue design. as you can see below, Bugs can pick some nice colors and the plane looks better already.

The tail assembly has the same problem with lack of throws that we saw in the ailerons. This means the elevators have to come off and the covering was not good enough to save. I got all the covering off of the elevators and the stabs. The beveling of the trailing edge will give more throw and is not a time consuming step to take since the covering would have had to come off just due to the quality I saw. The throw is shown below and will work just fine.

It is our intention to have the top side of the fuse remain white and have a blue stripe down the side with orange on the bottom. I therefore intended to keep the covering on the turtle deck and the top of the fuse until I looked at it carefully and then I knew it all had to go. There is no point in making the plane right and leaving a bad covering job on the top of the plane. It is now clear that all the covering on the plane will have to come off and be replaced.

With the stabs beveled and ready to sand, Looked at the tail wheel and decided the new one will be much better. The old fittings had been screwed in place with wood screws that pulled out. They were then glued back in place and could not be unscrewed. I drilled out the screws and prepped for the new tail wheel assembly.

The rudder was constructed and not beveled at the tail. It is thick and square on the end and, while this will not hurt the flying of the plane, I wanted to taper it a little for appearance. The construction is such that I can not taper it without exposing foam. For now, I am leaving the rudder in place and we will see what other problems we encounter in the rebuild.

The equipment needed to finish the plane is pretty well in hand and as soon as the covering can be completed the equipment install will begin.

April 2 , 2009

The wings began to get some covering starting with the bottom. The layout of colors was agreed to by Bugs when he visited the shop.

The bottom of the wing is shown above and the colors go very well together. This is a fine design and the plane should look just great

The top of the wing still needs the white aileron.

April 1, 2009

The wings were final inspected and sanded to 320 to prep the covering. Bugs and I have agreed to the colors and the covering began on the bottom of the first wing. The colors are royal blue and white stripes and an orange leading edge. The session ended with some of the stripes on the wing.

March 25, 2009

With the wings on, and the equipment plan in place, we next began on the wings. The wings were sanded and the bevel on the ailerons adjusted to the Carden specs. The new hinge locations were then drilled and final inspection of the wings completed with some filling of surface problems.

Above you can see the ailerons were beveled but the trailing edge of the wing was not. this is what limited the throw of the surfaces and I drew the lines for the beveling and then cut the wood to the lines.

Once the aileron was hinged and aligned, the throw is twice what we started with and more than enough to fly correctly.

March 24, 2009

The next step was to attach the wings to the fuse-- to do this I put the wings in place and made a small hole from the inside of the fuse in the area between the tank plate and the fly board. This is the area that will have the nut to hold the wings on. Those 2 holes were then made 1/4" in the sides of the fuse. Next the marked spots on the wing roots were drilled for dowels and the hard dowels were glued in place.

The hard points were drilled and 1/4 -20 all thread was installed in the wing roots

Below is the shot of the wings on the plane and the bolts through the fuse sides with the nuts installed. This will be a simple assembly at the field and will hold the wings on very securely. The old system in the plane included driving two bolts into the wings on each side and they were located in the bottom of the equipment compartment. This is tedious to do at the field and not at all in line with a quality plane by Carden Aircraft.

 

 

March 23, 2009

Since the inside of the equipment compartment was spring cleaned it seemed to need a little more for appearance, so I gave it a full face lift with a nice coat of metallic silver paint. With the tank plate and the receiver board in place, it now looks like we care about the plane.

 

March 22, 2009

After the tube was set up, I checked the incidence of the wings and it too was way off so I added pegs to the wing roots and they will be used to set the wings at the proper angle.

The pins were run through the fuse sides after the offending blocks were removed. The incidence was set and the new blocks were epoxied in place to support the wings.

The shot above shows the blocks in place and the open interior that was produced by moving equipment. The tank mounts were put in and the tank plate was trial fit to check position.

You can see above that the tank plate is positioned near the CG so that the fuel on board will not affect the way the plane flies. I mounted the fly board aft so that the nut that retains the wings can be put on the post with room to spare.

March 21, 2009

The throttle and choke was first on the list and they were solved by building a support for the servos that turned the servo 90 degrees and allowed me to put them in the motor box

The servos were then put in place with short links and the operation was checked by heating up the servos and operating them on the bench. The entire system fits in the motor box and will allow room in the main compartment for all the equipment we need to put in place.

The rest of the old heavy wood system was then removed and the reconstruction of the engine compartment could begin.

The gas tank and the smoke tank will need a place to live, so I made a tank platform that will allow for the velcro of one tank or two as the future may dictate. This platform was primed and painted so that it would not be ugly. The platform will be mounted on rails and they were made and epoxied to the sides of the fuse just higher than the phenolic tube for the wings.

Before the tank platform could be put in place, the phenolic tube had to be secured to the plane. I set up the wings and checked for tramble and flatness of the wings. Both received adjustments as they were off quite a bit. When the wings were correct, I secured to phenolic tube with epoxy and some reinforcement rings around the tube

 

March 20, 2009

I did further investigation on the plane and found some other items that need to be addressed in the rebuild

SIXTH - the throw on the surfaces is not sufficient. The taper on the hinged joints is not per the plans and this needs to be corrected in order for the plane to fly properly

SEVENTH - The new owner would like to add smoke to the plane and the present setup of the tank will not allow for that to happen. I will need to convert to a better system for holding two tanks in place. This will necessitate the replacement of the choke and throttle servo mounts. These changes will allow for a better and more functional arrangement.

There may be more but it was time to begin to un-ugly this bird. The theme will be that ugly is bad and even if it is skin deep, I am the guy to get some good looks and function in the plane

 

The work began with stripping all the covering off of the wings including the removal of all the aileron hinges. They will be filled and drilled in a different location later. the wings were then sanded and prepped for covering. The wings are no longer ugly and they look solid and I am sure they will be fine on the pretty cap that is to come

Next I began with the equipment compartment. It was ugly and not very functional. I heard the plane whimper as I began cutting on the parts that were not needed and I told it that things will begin to look better very soon.

After removing the tank,tank mounts and cutting off several braces that were not needed, I was left with the choke and throttle servos that were mounted on hard wood sticks from an ugly tree and they were attached to looooong rods up to the motor. These are in the way of a better layout so they had to go

The back of the compartment is shown above and there are many holes and blocks that were used at one time to hold the wings to the plane. These will all likely need to be removed or redone in order to function on the plane. So far I have removed 9 ounces of wood, timber and glue from the plane. There is more to come

Below is a shot of the front after I removed the cowl and later I removed the spinner and prop. Notice that the lower cowl retaining bolt is in the bottom of the equipment area just below the black push rod. This will be hard to get at and I am thinking of ways to change it.

the servos were removed and a plan began to come together for a better system to use on the choke and throttle

The first step was to remove the ugly servo arms that were used ---- plastic and waaaay too big to give any throttle control at all.

Next I designed a new mounting system for the two servos and the location will be up in the motor box near the engine.

March 14, 2009

I began the rebuild with an inspection of the plane and the discovery of several areas that need attention in order for this fine bird to meet the owner's needs and expectations.

FIRST - the covering has seen better days and most will need to be removed. THis will necessitate the re hinging of all the surfaces. I have a new scheme worked out and the covering arrived today

SECOND - the wing attachment system and incidence are not correct. I will rebuild the wing attachment and reset the incidence

THIRD - the cowl is a different color from the rest of the plane and is mounted in the wrong position on the fuse. We will decide later what to do about this set of problems

FOURTH the wheel pants are in bad shape and may need to be replaced.

FIFTH - the equipment will need some upgrading and the inside of the plane will be redesigned and rebuilt to function better.