Today's Message Index:
----------------------
1. 07:53 AM - Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening (Rob Housman)
2. 08:48 AM - Re: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening (Christoph Both)
3. 09:32 AM - =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re=3A_Europa-List=3A_Mod_72_-_Undercarriage_?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?mounting_frame_strengthening? (Carl Pattinson)
4. 09:44 AM - Re: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening (Rob Housman)
5. 10:14 AM - =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re=3A_Europa-List=3A_Re=3A_Europa-List=3A_?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mod_72_-_Undercarriage_mounting_frame_?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?strengthening? (Carl Pattinson)
6. 10:47 AM - Re: Re: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening (Rob Housman)
7. 01:03 PM - Re: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening (Christoph Both)
8. 06:44 PM - Re: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening (Martin Tuck)
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Subject: | Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening |
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did not
go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72 there is
more of that wonderful English understatement: "Insert the tubes - they will
probably need a light tap to fit them" it says in the procedure. English
hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than American hammers (or
16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because "a light tap" does nothing.
After pounding away for entirely too long, and peening the ends of the tubes
where the hammer repeatedly struck, I finally fabricated a steel spud to put
between the offending pin and the hammer. This made it easier to keep
pounding with less damage to the pins, or to the adjacent smaller diameter
tubes to which the engine mounts attach if I were to miss the target. The
steel spud is starting to look like a mushroom from all of those "light
taps."
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of painted
tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than 16.5mm, but no,
I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried this procedure.
Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a peaceful
Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of resuming
mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work. As of
yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching the frame to
the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot..
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening |
Rob,
I can really feel with you, having just completed MOD 73. The manual
falls short to say that you ought NOT to insert the tail planes so deep
into the torque tube that the two retaining pins would contact or even
insert into the bushings fitted to the tailplane root.
I was lucky on the first one which refused to insert because the layup
is performed on the opposite side. It was EASY to crack the torque tube
to retaining layup by TWISTING the tailplane against the torque tube.
Came right off no problem. I was not worried either as the inner tube
was greased.
What compelled me with my second tailplane to push it that far in to
allow the pins to insert I don't know as I should have used my head, not
the description in the MOD manual. Next morning wanting to separate the
tailplane from the torque tube turned out to take several hours. Yes, I
admit I showed up with a hammer, pry bars etc, but after initially
starting to damage a bit of the root layup by prying I decided not to
proceed. Instead I disassembled the entire torque tube which had been
there for years and took all out. Took me 2 hours. From there it was
easy as the pin retaining welded part could be removed and the tailplane
cracked loose by a twist.
In hind sight I am glad I did not use the hammer. This can be extremely
damaging to internal parts in the tailplane like hair cracks. My
recommendation is to just insert the torque tube sufficiently into the
inner tube at time of layup so that pins stay out of the way. This
should be added to the current MOD 73 instructions.
Best,
Christoph Both
@223
Wolfville, Nova Scotia Canada
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Rob Housman
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:52 AM
Subject: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame
strengthening
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did
not go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72
there is more of that wonderful English understatement: "Insert the
tubes - they will probably need a light tap to fit them" it says in the
procedure. English hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than
American hammers (or 16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because "a
light tap" does nothing. After pounding away for entirely too long, and
peening the ends of the tubes where the hammer repeatedly struck, I
finally fabricated a steel spud to put between the offending pin and the
hammer. This made it easier to keep pounding with less damage to the
pins, or to the adjacent smaller diameter tubes to which the engine
mounts attach if I were to miss the target. The steel spud is starting
to look like a mushroom from all of those "light taps."
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of
painted tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than
16.5mm, but no, I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried
this procedure. Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible
to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a
peaceful Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of
resuming mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work.
As of yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching
the frame to the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot....
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re=3A_Europa-List=3A_Mod_72_-_Undercarriage_?= |
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?mounting_frame_strengthening?
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Rob,
Unfortunately the factory failed to mention that the reamer supplied (as with
most reamers) is tapered at the end, whereas the supplied inserts are not.
The tapered portion of the reamer is about 1 inch long, the rest being the
correct dimension.
This means that no matter how big a hammer you use, the F****ing things will
never go all the way in.
The easy solution which will only work if you do it before jamming the insert
in the tube is to file down the end of the taper so that it fits all the way
- you will need a lathe or drill to do this.
I didnt bother pre priming the inserts or tube, simply coated everything with
red lead primer before assembly and hammered the inserts into place. Once
the primer sets there is no way anything will ever come apart.
If you have a situation where the inserts are jammed halfway into the tube,
your only option is to saw off the protruding end (of the insert), as I
believe many builders have done. The inserts are of such a length that they
go all the way up to the bolts which attach the frame to the fuselage. As
long as there is no more than about an inch protruding from the end the
inserts will be doing their job and sawing off the excess should not weaken
the finished job.
As a disclaimer I guess I should say clear this with your inspector or the
Europa folks first (before reaching for the hacksaw)
Good luck,
Carl Pattinson
PS: Hopefully all that pounding hasnt damaged the fuselage surrounding the
frame or the alloy plates bonded into the structure. Ideally there should be
somebody holding a large lump of steel (EG: a big hammer - American or
otherwise !!!) at the other end of the tube (within the frame) that you are
hammering on. This should speed up the insertion process and minimise any
damage to the surrounding structures. You may need a midget with long arms
to hold the hammer.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Housman
To: europa-list@matronics.com
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 3:51 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did not
go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72 there is
more of that wonderful English understatement: "Insert the tubes - they will
probably need a light tap to fit them" it says in the procedure. English
hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than American hammers (or
16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because "a light tap" does nothing.
After pounding away for entirely too long, and peening the ends of the tubes
where the hammer repeatedly struck, I finally fabricated a steel spud to put
between the offending pin and the hammer. This made it easier to keep
pounding with less damage to the pins, or to the adjacent smaller diameter
tubes to which the engine mounts attach if I were to miss the target. The
steel spud is starting to look like a mushroom from all of those "light
taps."
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of painted
tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than 16.5mm, but no,
I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried this procedure.
Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a peaceful
Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of resuming
mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work. As of
yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching the frame to
the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot..
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening |
.and I can assure you, Christoph, that the hammer and pry bars would not
have worked. When brute force failed I took the more drastic approach - I
cut the added glass with a Dremel driven abrasive, sort of like a dentist
drilling a tooth, and still needed a bit of heat from a propane torch to
release the bond. The surprise was how well the epoxy bonded to greased
metal and that gave me a lot more confidence in my structural bonds
elsewhere, where I did a thorough job of cleaning and roughing the surfaces
to be bonded.
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Christoph Both
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 8:47 AM
Subject: RE: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame
strengthening
Rob,
I can really feel with you, having just completed MOD 73. The manual falls
short to say that you ought NOT to insert the tail planes so deep into the
torque tube that the two retaining pins would contact or even insert into
the bushings fitted to the tailplane root.
I was lucky on the first one which refused to insert because the layup is
performed on the opposite side. It was EASY to crack the torque tube to
retaining layup by TWISTING the tailplane against the torque tube. Came
right off no problem. I was not worried either as the inner tube was
greased.
What compelled me with my second tailplane to push it that far in to allow
the pins to insert I don't know as I should have used my head, not the
description in the MOD manual. Next morning wanting to separate the
tailplane from the torque tube turned out to take several hours. Yes, I
admit I showed up with a hammer, pry bars etc, but after initially starting
to damage a bit of the root layup by prying I decided not to proceed.
Instead I disassembled the entire torque tube which had been there for years
and took all out. Took me 2 hours. From there it was easy as the pin
retaining welded part could be removed and the tailplane cracked loose by a
twist.
In hind sight I am glad I did not use the hammer. This can be extremely
damaging to internal parts in the tailplane like hair cracks. My
recommendation is to just insert the torque tube sufficiently into the inner
tube at time of layup so that pins stay out of the way. This should be added
to the current MOD 73 instructions.
Best,
Christoph Both
@223
Wolfville, Nova Scotia Canada
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Rob Housman
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:52 AM
Subject: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did not
go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72 there is
more of that wonderful English understatement: "Insert the tubes - they will
probably need a light tap to fit them" it says in the procedure. English
hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than American hammers (or
16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because "a light tap" does nothing.
After pounding away for entirely too long, and peening the ends of the tubes
where the hammer repeatedly struck, I finally fabricated a steel spud to put
between the offending pin and the hammer. This made it easier to keep
pounding with less damage to the pins, or to the adjacent smaller diameter
tubes to which the engine mounts attach if I were to miss the target. The
steel spud is starting to look like a mushroom from all of those "light
taps."
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of painted
tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than 16.5mm, but no,
I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried this procedure.
Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a peaceful
Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of resuming
mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work. As of
yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching the frame to
the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot..
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re=3A_Europa-List=3A_Re=3A_Europa-List=3A_?= |
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mod_72_-_Undercarriage_mounting_frame_?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?strengthening?
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The easy solution which will only work if you do it before jamming the insert
in the tube is to file down the end of the taper so that it fits all the way
- you will need a lathe or drill to do this.
SORRY, I just re read this. I meant to say taper the end of the steel insert
using a file or similar so that it matches that of the reamer. What I
actually said doesnt make a lot of sense - probably still doesnt.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carl Pattinson
To: europa-list@matronics.com
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 5:29 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Re: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting
frame strengthening
Rob,
Unfortunately the factory failed to mention that the reamer supplied (as
with most reamers) is tapered at the end, whereas the supplied inserts are
not. The tapered portion of the reamer is about 1 inch long, the rest being
the correct dimension.
This means that no matter how big a hammer you use, the F****ing things
will never go all the way in.
The easy solution which will only work if you do it before jamming the
insert in the tube is to file down the end of the taper so that it fits all
the way - you will need a lathe or drill to do this.
I didnt bother pre priming the inserts or tube, simply coated everything
with red lead primer before assembly and hammered the inserts into place.
Once the primer sets there is no way anything will ever come apart.
If you have a situation where the inserts are jammed halfway into the tube,
your only option is to saw off the protruding end (of the insert), as I
believe many builders have done. The inserts are of such a length that they
go all the way up to the bolts which attach the frame to the fuselage. As
long as there is no more than about an inch protruding from the end the
inserts will be doing their job and sawing off the excess should not weaken
the finished job.
As a disclaimer I guess I should say clear this with your inspector or the
Europa folks first (before reaching for the hacksaw)
Good luck,
Carl Pattinson
PS: Hopefully all that pounding hasnt damaged the fuselage surrounding the
frame or the alloy plates bonded into the structure. Ideally there should be
somebody holding a large lump of steel (EG: a big hammer - American or
otherwise !!!) at the other end of the tube (within the frame) that you are
hammering on. This should speed up the insertion process and minimise any
damage to the surrounding structures. You may need a midget with long arms
to hold the hammer.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Housman
To: europa-list@matronics.com
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 3:51 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did not
go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72 there is
more of that wonderful English understatement: "Insert the tubes - they will
probably need a light tap to fit them" it says in the procedure. English
hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than American hammers (or
16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because "a light tap" does nothing.
After pounding away for entirely too long, and peening the ends of the tubes
where the hammer repeatedly struck, I finally fabricated a steel spud to put
between the offending pin and the hammer. This made it easier to keep
pounding with less damage to the pins, or to the adjacent smaller diameter
tubes to which the engine mounts attach if I were to miss the target. The
steel spud is starting to look like a mushroom from all of those "light
taps."
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of painted
tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than 16.5mm, but no,
I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried this procedure.
Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a
peaceful Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of
resuming mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work. As
of yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching the frame
to the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot..
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | Re: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame |
strengthening
That midget with long arms would have been useful for work in the
tailcone.
Having had a bit of experience with cutting tools I know that a hand
reamer
has a 1 degree entrance taper to facilitate getting the cut started
(whereas
a chucking reamer has a 45 degree chamfer, but that is suitable only on
a
machine driven reamer, not one turned by hand). I had my reamer
fabricated
by a local toolmaker with about =BD inch of taper, enough to allow the
thing
to get started but not so much as to make it impossible to fit the pin
all
the way in. It turns out that the forward bolt through the landing gear
frame is not far enough aft to allow the first pin I have inserted to go
all
the way in, but it does not project enough to interfere with the engine
mount.
Also, the Europa supplied pins do have a 45 degree chamfer on one end,
not
that such a small chamfer helps much in overcoming the taper on the
reamer.
Your suggestion to avoid priming per the procedure is, in retrospect, a
very
good one. Inserting the pins with wet primer is probably the best
approach
since the primer will provide some lubricity while wet, and corrosion
prevention when cured.
Lacking a friendly neighborhood midget, I hammered under the assumption
that
engine vibration would contribute more fatigue cycles, although at lower
amplitude, than hammering.
I did comprehend your suggestion about modifying the pins, and I do have
a
full machine shop at my disposal, but decided that since I expected
(fool
that I am) a fit with clearance, modifying the pins was not necessary.
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Carl
Pattinson
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 9:29 AM
Subject: Europa-List: Re: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting
frame
strengthening
Rob,
Unfortunately the factory failed to mention that the reamer supplied (as
with most reamers) is tapered at the end, whereas the supplied inserts
are
not. The tapered portion of the reamer is about 1 inch long, the rest
being
the correct dimension.
This means that no matter how big a hammer you use, the F****ing things
will
never go all the way in.
The easy solution which will only work if you do it before jamming the
insert in the tube is to file down the end of the taper so that it fits
all
the way - you will need a lathe or drill to do this.
I didnt bother pre priming the inserts or tube, simply coated everything
with red lead primer before assembly and hammered the inserts into
place.
Once the primer sets there is no way anything will ever come apart.
If you have a situation where the inserts are jammed halfway into the
tube,
your only option is to saw off the protruding end (of the insert), as I
believe many builders have done. The inserts are of such a length that
they
go all the way up to the bolts which attach the frame to the fuselage.
As
long as there is no more than about an inch protruding from the end the
inserts will be doing their job and sawing off the excess should not
weaken
the finished job.
As a disclaimer I guess I should say clear this with your inspector or
the
Europa folks first (before reaching for the hacksaw)
Good luck,
Carl Pattinson
PS: Hopefully all that pounding hasnt damaged the fuselage surrounding
the
frame or the alloy plates bonded into the structure. Ideally there
should be
somebody holding a large lump of steel (EG: a big hammer - American or
otherwise !!!) at the other end of the tube (within the frame) that you
are
hammering on. This should speed up the insertion process and minimise
any
damage to the surrounding structures. You may need a midget with long
arms
to hold the hammer.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Housman <mailto:rob@hyperion-ef.com>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 3:51 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame
strengthening
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did
not
go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72 there
is
more of that wonderful English understatement: =93Insert the tubes -
they will
probably need a light tap to fit them=94 it says in the procedure.
English
hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than American hammers
(or
16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because =93a light tap=94 does
nothing.
After pounding away for entirely too long, and peening the ends of the
tubes
where the hammer repeatedly struck, I finally fabricated a steel spud to
put
between the offending pin and the hammer. This made it easier to keep
pounding with less damage to the pins, or to the adjacent smaller
diameter
tubes to which the engine mounts attach if I were to miss the target.
The
steel spud is starting to look like a mushroom from all of those
=93light
taps.=94
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of
painted
tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than 16.5mm, but
no,
I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried this procedure.
Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a
peaceful
Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of resuming
mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work. As of
yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching the
frame to
the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot=85.
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening |
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Rob Housman
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 1:44 PM
Subject: RE: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame
strengthening
...and I can assure you, Christoph, that the hammer and pry bars would
not have worked. When brute force failed I took the more drastic
approach - I cut the added glass with a Dremel driven abrasive, sort of
like a dentist drilling a tooth, and still needed a bit of heat from a
propane torch to release the bond. The surprise was how well the epoxy
bonded to greased metal and that gave me a lot more confidence in my
structural bonds elsewhere, where I did a thorough job of cleaning and
roughing the surfaces to be bonded.
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Christoph
Both
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 8:47 AM
Subject: RE: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame
strengthening
Rob,
I can really feel with you, having just completed MOD 73. The manual
falls short to say that you ought NOT to insert the tail planes so deep
into the torque tube that the two retaining pins would contact or even
insert into the bushings fitted to the tailplane root.
I was lucky on the first one which refused to insert because the layup
is performed on the opposite side. It was EASY to crack the torque tube
to retaining layup by TWISTING the tailplane against the torque tube.
Came right off no problem. I was not worried either as the inner tube
was greased.
What compelled me with my second tailplane to push it that far in to
allow the pins to insert I don't know as I should have used my head, not
the description in the MOD manual. Next morning wanting to separate the
tailplane from the torque tube turned out to take several hours. Yes, I
admit I showed up with a hammer, pry bars etc, but after initially
starting to damage a bit of the root layup by prying I decided not to
proceed. Instead I disassembled the entire torque tube which had been
there for years and took all out. Took me 2 hours. From there it was
easy as the pin retaining welded part could be removed and the tailplane
cracked loose by a twist.
In hind sight I am glad I did not use the hammer. This can be extremely
damaging to internal parts in the tailplane like hair cracks. My
recommendation is to just insert the torque tube sufficiently into the
inner tube at time of layup so that pins stay out of the way. This
should be added to the current MOD 73 instructions.
Best,
Christoph Both
@223
Wolfville, Nova Scotia Canada
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Rob Housman
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:52 AM
Subject: Europa-List: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame
strengthening
Having been working mostly on those factory mandated or recommended
modifications of late, I now realize that it is much easier to build an
airplane than it is to repair one. Mod 70 (Mass balance arm) was merely
tedious, working deep in the tailcone, one handed, through small access
holes, but Mod 73 (Tailplane retention) and Mod 59 (Shimmy damper) did
not go well when following the written procedures, and now with Mod 72
there is more of that wonderful English understatement: "Insert the
tubes - they will probably need a light tap to fit them" it says in the
procedure. English hammers must be considerably larger and heavier than
American hammers (or 16.5 mm reamers must be a bit larger) because "a
light tap" does nothing. After pounding away for entirely too long, and
peening the ends of the tubes where the hammer repeatedly struck, I
finally fabricated a steel spud to put between the offending pin and the
hammer. This made it easier to keep pounding with less damage to the
pins, or to the adjacent smaller diameter tubes to which the engine
mounts attach if I were to miss the target. The steel spud is starting
to look like a mushroom from all of those "light taps."
I should have retained my initial skepticism regarding the fit of
painted tubes, which after painting with etch primer are larger than
16.5mm, but no, I foolishly believed that the factory had actually tried
this procedure. Well folks, the paint makes the pin almost impossible
to fit.
Fearing complaints from my neighbors about so much hammering on a
peaceful Sunday afternoon I finally quit pounding with the intention of
resuming mid-day today when most of my neighbors will be away at work.
As of yesterday afternoon one pin was snug against the bolt attaching
the frame to the fuselage and the other was still barely halfway home.
Now, if I could find one of those English hammers at Home Depot....
Best regards,
Rob Housman
Irvine, CA
Europa XS Tri-Gear
A070
Airframe complete
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Subject: | Re: Mod 72 - Undercarriage mounting frame strengthening |
Didn't someone suggest leaving the pins in the freezer overnight to
shrink them enough to make insertion in the mounting frame easier?
Martin Tuck
Europa N152MT
Wichita, Kansas
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