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1. 04:22 AM - Re: Re: Original Firestar (Robert Lobdell)
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| Subject: | Re: Original Firestar |
Richard, thanks I=99m with you. If you had a hand in making somethi
ng and
someone foolishly tries to make a change. All rules are off. Thanks
Richard.
Robert Lobdell
Waskom, TX
On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 8:50 PM Richard Pike <thegreybaron@charter.net>
wrote:
>
>
> Latex painting airplanes: one easy, one a pain in the butt, and a War
> Story.
>
> First time I did it was back in the late 80's, I had a Maxair Hummer that
> the sails were about to go bad, modified the wing so that it had a
> lightweight but sort of conventional rib structure and covered it with
> lightweight (glider) dacron from Aircraft Spruce. Don't know if they stil
l
> sell that weight or not.
> Attached it in the usual way with Stits Poly-Tak. Sprayed all the fabric
> with Sears Weather Beater Black latex paint, thinned with water enough to
> spray well and penetrate to both sides of the fabric, as that it how you
> make it stick, it has to be thin enough to be on both sides of the Dacron
.
> Used a regular Sears quart pressure pot sprayer that I had used over the
> years to paint cars with lacquer, etc, don't remember how much PSI,
> whatever it took to make it spray right.
> The parts I wanted to be yellow, I went back over & sprayed white, and
> then again with the yellow. It went pretty well, the weight was about 8
> pounds heavier than with the original slip on sails and tube ribs, and it
> was dirt cheap. I think I had $300 in it, it looked good and worked fine.
> One thing you have to careful of; the Hummer's wings folded together, you
> had to be careful not to hang them up touching, or the latex on one wing
> would bond to the latex on the other and it would pull off.
>
> The second airplane was Ed's FSII, & for whatever reason the latex we wer
e
> using (don't remember the brand) did not want to cooperate with the Stits
> fabric. Thinning with water wasn't doing quite right, tried using
> windshield washer fluid - so/so, nothing worked really great. Maybe the
> paint brand?
> We got some ex-tend (I think it was called) from the dealer as the
> preferred thinner/ drying time extender, and eventually we got it looking
> really great, but for whatever reason, it was a terrible hassle. One thin
g
> I remember was that we sprayed it with a HVLP sprayer, don't know if that
> helped or hurt.
>
> Now on a totally different and unrelated topic ~ AKA War Story
> Eventually I sold the Hummer , it got sold again, and again, and then
> ended up belonging to a guy on the coast of NC. When I sold it, it was
> registered and had an Airworthiness Certificate, but it probably could ha
ve
> been made to make Part 103, seems like it weighed about 162 pounds if I
> remember right. It still had all the original U/L structure in it.
> The guy on the coast modified it; took off the 277 & replaced it with a
> 503, and added a second seat. The wings & tail were unmodified, that was
> how I first recognized it in the video.
> I about had a cow. The fool had created a death trap, and was flying his
> family and friends around in it.
> Original gross weight was under 600 pounds, and VNE was 65 mph.
> The wings had 1 3/4" leading edge tubes, 1 1/2" trailing edge tubes, no
> internal drag/anti drag bracing, just flying/landing wires attached at th
e
> wing compression struts, two per side. No way there was proper structure
to
> support what he was doing with it, and I knew he had not modified it or
> beefed it up, because the paint job was unmolested.
>
> I found it one night on Youtube, he had a bunch of videos, one of which
> showed him taking off with a large passenger, the camera was pointing at
> the passenger from over the pilots shoulder, and during the climbout, the
> fabric in the first rib bay split fore and aft. Front spar to rear spar.
> The passenger looked like "Is it supposed to do this?" The flight continu
ed
> on for several minutes.
>
> The next day I called Southern Region FSDO and told the man what I had
> seen, and suggested that they might want to look into it. Never heard bac
k
> from him, but about a week later, all the videos of my old airplane were
> off YouTube...
>
> I'm all for minding my own business, but when some idiot modifies an
> airplane that I built in such a way that it is guaranteed to kill some
> innocent passenger, and give "ultralights/homebuilts" a black eye; naw -
> that don't work for me.
>
> --------
> Richard Pike
> Kolb MKIII N420P (420ldPoops)
> Kolb Firefly Part 103 legal
> Kingsport, TN 3TN0
>
> Forgiving is tough, being forgiven is wonderful, and God's grace really i
s
> amazing.
>
>
> Read this topic online here:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=500241#500241
>
>
> Attachments:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com//files/fallhummer_117.jpg
> http://forums.matronics.com//files/n582ef1st_211.jpg
>
>
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> --
Aviation is science. . . Flying is art. . . Get high, go fly. . .
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