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0. 10:57 AM - Reminder (Matt Dralle)
1. 09:43 PM - Re: Pic of pic of Dan's airplane (taildrags)
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Dear Listers,
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| Subject: | Re: Pic of pic of Dan's airplane |
I always hate to waste an opportunity to look closely at a photo and pick out interesting
details. Since the list has been so slow lately, I'll pick out a few
things that I see on the pic of Dan's beautiful airplane and post them here
for comment.
First, the prop. It's not at all evident from the magazine photo (all you see
is a black blob where the prop is), but Dan's Ford swings a really nice hand-carved
semi-scimitar with a dark wood finish. Beautiful piece of work and I'm
sure that the rest of you who have hand-carved and flown your own prop can agree
that it's a very satisfying feeling to fly behind what used to be a bunch of
glued-together boards and have it pull you through the air as pretty as you
please! I would encourage you who have (Gary Boothe has made several, for example)
to write about it in the BPA Newsletter. It's something that can be done
in a relatively small and warm work space during the winter and the result is
pleasing whether it goes on the plane or on the wall.
The fuel level indicator on Dan's plane is pretty obvious, and there has been quite
a bit of chatter on this list about different ways of constructing a sight
gauge for a centersection wing tank. Dan seems to have a Stearman-style gauge
sticking out the bottom of the tank but I don't know the particulars. He may
have made his after the fashion of Larry "Top Curmudgeon" Williams's and in
fact, I seem to remember something about Dan taking over the lofty perch of Top
Curmudgeon himself. I couldn't find a specific photo of Larry's gauge on Westcoastpiet.com
but boy was it fun going through the photos of Larry's plane
to see if I could find them! I guess I never realized that Larry's centersection
flop is offset to the port side by about a foot, but take a look:
http://westcoastpiet.com/images/Larry%20Williams/images/43_overhead_compartment.jpg .
He could stash a couple of bottles of iced tea up there in the wing along with
a jumbo order of hot wings, some napkins, some jelly rolls for dessert, tie-downs,
a quart of Aeroshell 50, and (for you Ford flyers)- some bottles of engine
coolant.
Now take a look out near the wingtips. There are a pair of inspection covers out
near the ends of the wings. Hmmm... what are they for? No pulleys out there,
no pitot tubing, nothing adjustable. Aha! The wing internal x-brace cables
are attached out there, and you need to look at those points at annual inspection.
Don't forget those!
Wing tie-downs. Dan's airplane doesn't seem to have them, I know my airplane doesn't,
so we just loop the ropes over the ends of the strut fittings and snug
them down. However, I would hate to have to run tiedown *chains* over my strut
ends! A good thing to add to your wings if you're still in the planning and
building stage! Anybody seen good ways to do wing tiedowns? Write it up for
the BPA Newsletter!
Back at the tail, the picture gets a bit muddy but there are the elevator cables,
touching the leading edges of the horizontal stabilizers just like a good Air
Camper should. My A&P still winces when he looks at mine, but I showed him
the pictures and he agrees that it's normal for the bottom cables to go slack
and the top ones to touch the leading edges ;o)
Back up to the engine, I think Dan said he had to experiment with the coolant lines
going to the radiator, but maybe I'm thinking of somebody else. The steam
relief line from the top/front of the head is essential, which is obvious when
you view the airplane in the 3-point attitude and realize that the top of the
engine is well above the level of the hose going to the radiator from the rear
of the engine and that steam (and air) will get trapped at the top if a second
line is not provided. I can't speak from any experience about coolant, thermostats,
overflow recovery tanks, or anything having to do with water-cooled
engines on Piets but considering that they've been flying for 85 years on hundreds
of Air Campers, it can't be a complete mystery...
--------
Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC "Scout"
A75 power
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=449512#449512
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