---------------------------------------------------------- Falco-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Sun 01/15/06: 5 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 03:28 AM - gear retract - continued (Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe) 2. 03:35 AM - Attracting Warm Bodies to this list (Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe) 3. 03:50 AM - gluing on the cove ribs - order of operations (Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe) 4. 10:54 AM - Introduction (Al Aitken) 5. 12:50 PM - Re: gear retract - continued (George Richards) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 03:28:58 AM PST US From: "Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe" Subject: Falco-List: gear retract - continued Well, I guess the list won't survive if we don't answer the questions that people ask of us on the list! George, regarding the spring on the clamshell nose gear doors...The idea is somewhere at seqair.com - I just can't find it right now. I"ll describe it in the gear up position. In essence, its about a 1/8" diameter spring steel rod attached to each gear door, that goes up and over the nose gear strut. On either side of the strut, the rod has two complete "loops" in it, which create the spring effect. Upon closing, the nose strut hits this spring steel rod and pulls the gear doors up with it. The door attached to the gear overlaps the clamshells a little, and holds them up. Upon opening, the spring does its thing by trying to straighten and pushes those doors open marvellously. In theory, it could cock off to one side. However, if each of your doors operates smoothly, and the spring is "tough" and built symmetrically, that just won't happen. I was concerned of the gear failure mechanism if one door closed with the gear down, so we did visuals from other aircraft while cross controlling with full rudder. The doors are rock solid in every circumstance I can create with my lead feet! Regarding the gear down warning system. We don't have the system of mechanical indicators sticking up through the wings (I don't think many falcos actually do this). However, all of Alfred's gear mechanisms have two little tabs welded on to them, which are intended to be the mechanical strike points for those indicators. We just placed microswitches in the gear wells that struck those tabs instead, and wired them to a couple of lights in the cockpit. On the nose gear, we tapped into the down limit microswitch circuit to accomplish the same goal. Now, I actually do get "three green" when I put the gear down. Mike ________________________________ Message 2 _____________________________________ Time: 03:35:08 AM PST US From: "Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe" Subject: Falco-List: Attracting Warm Bodies to this list Any and all..I was having an offline conversation with someone the other day about this forum, and it struck me that at least two things will be necessary for its success. Forgive me if you think me as slow - many of you may have already had this "ah hah"... First, it needs to have a bunch of falco builders hanging around, and not just a bunch of falco pilots. Each of us can help with that, via our network, and hopefully the great Ing. Scotty might have some pull in this area too! Second, if us flyers get questions from builders in some other form, we should make the effort to post them here for all to see. Only my two cents worth, but the following post is intended in that spirit. Mike ________________________________ Message 3 _____________________________________ Time: 03:50:57 AM PST US From: "Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe" Subject: Falco-List: gluing on the cove ribs - order of operations Gents (I don't know any women dumb enough to build a falco, but I stand to be corrected...), I had a call the other day looking for some advice on the following topic, and I thought I would appeal to the great masses on this list for info... A meticulous builder (he knows who he is..), building from kits, is about to undertake gluing the centre section rear wing spar (the one thru the fuselage) to the bevelled surfaces of the rear "wing" wing spars. He's building in the recommended jig, wing nose up. His dilemma is, does he glue the cove ribs and cove skin to the centre section spar before attaching it to the wings as per plans, or later in construction? My recommendation was do it before, as he'd spend less time on his back on the ground trying to attach them above his head later. His concern stems from the fact that in fastening leading edge and "mid chord" ribs to the spars already, he's found a few places where he didn't get alignment as nice as he'd like between ribs and spars, and he's going to have to float sand more than he would like. IF the same thing happens with the centre section cove ribs, the trailing edge is so thin that any extra float sanding could eliminate key structure. So, he'd like the option to put these on later - more or less after float sanding the rest of the wing - in order to improve his odds of getting them aligned well, and therefore minimizing his float sanding. I can't fault his logic, and as I said he's going about this very meticulously. However, maybe a revised question is how many people did the cove ribs first, and then found themselves with excessive sanding later that compromised the structure of the centre section cove ribs? Comments appreciated. I don't know if he's hanging around the list yet, but I'll be sure to pass on your thoughts. M ________________________________ Message 4 _____________________________________ Time: 10:54:10 AM PST US From: "Al Aitken" Subject: Falco-List: Introduction Hello everyone, Having been tipped off by my good Canadian buddy, Mike Wiebe, about the Falco List, I thought I would sign up and introduce myself to all of you. Many of you have heard of me in the Falco community, as I have had the opportunity to test fly a number of Falcos, and I am of course building one. I am the "meticulous" builder Mike referred to in his last post. I think he wanted to use the word "anal", but he was kind. George Barrett, another builder suggested strongly to me that I install all of the cove ribs and the cove skin on the aft face of the aft wing spars before I glue the spars in place. At first that sounded like a good idea to me, but as I prepared to do that, I wondered how accurately I could place those cove ribs to ensure proper clearance with the aileron/flap assembly and also whether I would get the cove ribs at the right elevation on the aft spar to avoid sanding too much of the cove rib trailing edge strip away when I float sanded. So there you have it. I just joined the list and I'm already whining for help. Anybody have any ideas on this? Al Aitken ________________________________ Message 5 _____________________________________ Time: 12:50:03 PM PST US From: George Richards Subject: RE: Falco-List: gear retract - continued Thanks for that Mike... My light system is the same in that I get three greens but didn't use all three for sense purposes to keep it "standard". Re the nosegear doors... OK.. I've got the plans on that one. I was trying out the different system that was in an FBL somewhere that Ian has on his machine... Mine needed stronger springs than I tried and the doors started to close on the ground with increased power so I took them straight of.. I haven't put them back on yet.. I my get the regular spring and see how I get on. Cheers GR www.falco.co.nz -----Original Message----- From: owner-falco-list-server@matronics.com [mailto:owner-falco-list-server@matronics.com]On Behalf Of Mike & Lee Anne Wiebe Sent: Monday, 16 January 2006 12:29 a.m. To: falco-list@matronics.com Subject: Falco-List: gear retract - continued Well, I guess the list won't survive if we don't answer the questions that people ask of us on the list! George, regarding the spring on the clamshell nose gear doors...The idea is somewhere at seqair.com - I just can't find it right now. I"ll describe it in the gear up position. In essence, its about a 1/8" diameter spring steel rod attached to each gear door, that goes up and over the nose gear strut. On either side of the strut, the rod has two complete "loops" in it, which create the spring effect. Upon closing, the nose strut hits this spring steel rod and pulls the gear doors up with it. The door attached to the gear overlaps the clamshells a little, and holds them up. Upon opening, the spring does its thing by trying to straighten and pushes those doors open marvellously. In theory, it could cock off to one side. However, if each of your doors operates smoothly, and the spring is "tough" and built symmetrically, that just won't happen. I was concerned of the gear failure mechanism if one door closed with the gear down, so we did visuals from other aircraft while cross controlling with full rudder. The doors are rock solid in every circumstance I can create with my lead feet! Regarding the gear down warning system. We don't have the system of mechanical indicators sticking up through the wings (I don't think many falcos actually do this). However, all of Alfred's gear mechanisms have two little tabs welded on to them, which are intended to be the mechanical strike points for those indicators. We just placed microswitches in the gear wells that struck those tabs instead, and wired them to a couple of lights in the cockpit. On the nose gear, we tapped into the down limit microswitch circuit to accomplish the same goal. Now, I actually do get "three green" when I put the gear down. Mike