Plane Is In North Carolina

 

Yesterday Clay brought a large U-Haul truck to pick up the airplane.  His wife and son came along to help.  It took us about 5 hours to load and secure everything.  We started in the attic with the motor.  We slid it down the steps with some rope and a tow strap.

The landing gear is 90" wide and made it up the 2x10 ramps and into the truck with about 2" clearance at the door.

Out to the airport for the bulk of the parts.  Last thing in was the Stabilizer, wrapped up and strapped to the wall.

Fortunately Clay has to drive almost by on his way home from his job near DC, because I forgot that the instrument panel was on a shelf next to the motor, up in my attic.  There are a couple small parts at the airport he's going to pick-up with the instrument panel.

I'll look forward to him teaching his son to fly in this sweet little tail dragger.  This is one of the best Post War trainers.  What a nice plane to learn in.  Very Cool!

Work Stopped While I Get Our Fly Baby N4284C Back Flying

Our Fly Baby will be 50 years old this summer.  We finished it in July of 1966 and because we could not get an FAA inspection done in time to test fly it we trailered it to the Rockford EAA fly-in.  Pete Bowers (the designer) was there and we parked next to him.  He liked it and saw no reason not to fly it.  He talked with EAA and the FAA and all agreed it could be don.  The FAA did the inspection and at the end of the evening airshow Pete taxied out and text flew it without the crowd any the wiser.

I've decided to focus on getting it back in the air and flying it up to Michigan for my Dad to see it back in the sky after setting in my shop for too many years.

If I get anything done on the Cessna I'll post it but don't expect much until fall.  You're always welcome to read my Fly Baby Blog.

Wing Struts Primed

The grandkids, Rowan & Duncan, are visiting so it was a great excuse to get back to working on the plane.  We're learning how to hold the can an even distance from the part and to start and stop spraying while the can is in motion.  A light coat, let it dry 10 minutes and another light coat.  With 2 struts there was plenty for each.  The weather was warm and dry so the struts baked in the sun all afternoon.  We used the wing stands to hold the struts so we could rotate them.  It made spraying much easier.

Well done young apprentices.

Snow Damage 13 Feb 2014

 The snowstorm which came through seemed harmless when we went to sleep Wednesday night.  It was cold (25 degrees) so the snow was light.  In the morning it was still cold but what I didn't know was that in the middle of the night the snow turned to fine sleet for a while.  We ended up with about 6" of light snow, 4" of sleet heavy and some light snow on top.  About 6:20 am, while I was waiting for daylight a sudden gust of wind shook the tent enough to cause it to collapse under the weight.

 Because of the rebar I used to secure the side poles against wind, the sides leaned but did not collapse.  The wings were hanging by straps from the horizontal poles along the top of each wall.  I had also padded the poles to protect the wings from wind damage.  All of that worked to protect the wings.  In the left picture there is a bundle of poles, some plastic and some metal, above the wing.  Unfortunately when the bungee cord at the far end let go one of the metal poles struck the wing and nicked it enough to require opening the fabric to inspect and fix it.

 The right wing is just laying there on the side poles with no problems.
The fuselage is another story.  It took the full weight of the snow on the aft top skin of the fuselage.  The bent tent pole hit in the middle of it making a serious dent.

 There are 5 dented skin panels, the aft 2 top skins (0412116 & 0412117), the 2 long side skins (0412119 & 0412119-1) and the lower skin below the hit (0412121-3).

 Luckily the former (0412109) doesn't appear damaged.

It looks like about 70 hours work and $650 in materials to fix the fuselage.
There's another 20 hours and $200 in materials to fix the wing.

Bummer!

 Yesterday I repaired the tent, to protect things from any further damage, with a bunch of 1" EMT conduit and some bolts.
Fortunately I've kept hull insurance with Avemco to reasonably protect us if a disaster occurred.  Their adjuster will be here tomorrow afternoon to check it all out.  Hopefully this will have a happy ending.  I really didn't need more things to do and I had expected to fly the plane this summer.  We'll see what happens.

Roto-Tiller Delays Project

 I haven't been getting much done on my airplane projects for the past couple months because I've been busy rebuilding my wife's roto-tiller.  It's a nice heavy duty 8 HP machine built about 1978.  She got it for free and I've been promising for a couple years to rebuild it.  Between the rust and dried grease nothing moved except the engine which turned over with rather weak compression.  The wheels were rusted onto the shafts and had to be cut off and welded back together in order to get the transmission apart.  Other than the tines, tires, hardware, a couple chains and the gas tank which all had to be replace, the rest of the parts just needed cleaning and painting.  A little Marvel Mystery Oil got the rings loose, and with a rebuild on the carburetor the engine runs great.

 The good news is the tiller works great.  I still need to print a couple vinyl labels I couldn't save and make a cover for the pulleys.  The bad news is I spent $900.  Fortunately You can't buy a new one this nice for that price and it was a lot of fun.

Time to plant the garden or we won't have any peas this year.

EAA Gas Welding Workshop

I've spent this weekend in Virginia Beach practicing welding at the EAA SportAir Workshop.  It was good fun and I learned plenty even though I had to learn to weld to get my A & P back in the 70s.  I don't weld often so I've been practicing on lots of scrap and some tubing from Lowes.  I had lots of questions which I couldn't find answers to on line, in books, or in the EAA welding video.  It really was money and time well spent and good fun.  Now I'm ready to weld up the splices on my bent wing strut.

The Fun is in the Doin'

If you've read my postings for a while you've probably noticed I'm not very orderly in working through the project from start to finish.   I tend to work on what ever I have parts, materials, tools ,or ideas for at the time.   When I helped my dad build the Fly Baby back in the 60s we were very methodical.  Pete Bowers wrote the plans/manual as a set of step by step instructions.  You start on page one of a chapter and just check off each task as you go.  When every item is checked off you have an airplane, actually a very cool airplane.

As much fun as it was working with my dad on the magic of building that plane you would think I would be more orderly in my current projects.  I'm not because what I learned from that process was that each little item was a project in and of it's self.  Each had it's own knowledge required, it's own materials, tools and methods.  To some extent it didn't matter so much the order things were done as it did that each was done.

By focusing on each small task, enjoying it, and taking pride and satisfaction in it's completion building an airplane is very easy, a lot of fun, and rewarding.  Finishing and flying the airplane was great but just one more little task or adventure just as each flight in it has been since.

By enjoying each saw cut, each hole drilled, each tool made, each little assembly, each flight for all the joy it contains, the Fun really is in the Doin' Not Just in Being Done.

Merry Christmas and a Fun New Year!

Cleaning Fuselage Cabin Area

Between breaking a bone in my arm at Christmas, waiting for parts, and work, I feel like I'm going in slow motion. I have got the gear box area all cleaned and primed, very hard one handed. To spray inside the channels above and below the gear leg I needed a dog leg spray gun. I took the nozzle and tube off a can of brake cleaner and added a rubber band. I was able to spray all the hidden areas after a couple tries and checks with an inspection mirror. I love cheap solutions that work. While cleaning and inspecting the gear box area I could see rust on the float attach fittings in the belly. You really find out how much 2 hands are needed trying to get those bolts out but I got there. The parts cleaned up nicely and are primed and painted ready to reinstall when all the bolts arrive. The aluminum was mostly dirty and cleaned up well. After I primed it the weather turned back cold so I wrapped the area with rugs strapped to the belly and left a 60 watt bulb burning all night in the gear box. It stayed 59 degrees despite the freezing temps. outside and the epoxy was nicely set by morning. To get the fittings out I had to remove the control column and push tube to the elevator cable bellcrank. The column and tube looked good but there was a tiny bit of flaking in the last coat of paint. I decided to clean them and repaint. Boy am I glad I did. It appears someone long ago sanded them and painted them gray. Unfortunately they did not re-prime them first and simply covered a lot of rust. They're cleaning up and I will probably replace the push tube. I've also found, anything that should move is generally stuck. Fortunately I've also found the best unsticker in the world. Faith Olen-Glick (I'm flying her Champ) loaned me a can of Corrosion X. It is amazing. Not only did if free up the trim indicator in minutes and the universal joints in about an hour, I have a rudder bar for my WACO NINE project which has spent years being soaked with every known penetrating oil to no affect. I even checked it with a board for leverage before trying the Corrosion X, not a wiggle. Just 2 hours after spraying with Corrosion X it wiggled for the first time in decades and after a couple minutes was a free as new. It's the most expensive spray ($15.25) I've tried but it's worked perfectly. It is actually cleaning the rust off the rudder bar. The result of all this is I'm removing everything related to the controls and cleaning and lubing everything. I don't want any rust or sticking in the controls. The bolts and other parts to start putting this all back together should be here tomorrow. Unlike building new parts I only discover what I need once things are apart.

In the beginning

We bought this Cessna 140 in 1986 planning to fix it up and fly it. A friend, Bill Oliver, wanted a project so we sold it to him. He's now retired and decided to sell it back to us with much more work done on it, but not ready to fly. We're now going to post our story as we work through getting it back in the air as fast as possible. Our goal is to get it safe and flyable NOT a show plane. We'll be posting only as we actually do things so don't expect daily updates, earning the money to pay for this takes priority.