A of I Bracket etc Up-Date

[Guest TOSGcentral]

There have been a number of enquiries in recently about the revised A of I bracket, flapperons etc. This is a bit of an update on the situation.

 

 

A of I BRACKET. What appeared to be a reasonably simple exercise turned into a bit of a monster when accurate geometry was measured. Basically lowering the bracket found the boom getting in the way and we could not get enough angle reduction.

 

 

That has now been resolved and the bracket now resembles an inverted saddle over the top of the boom. One challenge was doing this but not disturbing the airflow to the tail over the centre section. The final drawings are now just about complete and I intend taking them in for the prototype bracket to be made during the next few days.

 

 

All things being equal new brackets should be available in about five weeks or so which allows time for test flying and any final refinements.

 

 

FLAPPERONS & AERODYNAMIC TRIMMERS. These are scheduled straight after the bracket but test flying the flapperon system will take time so it may be as long as three months before this kit is available.

 

 

UNDERCARRIAGE CARRY BEAM. This has now been nutted out and I am taking the design and data in for the first two to be made concurrently with the A of I bracket prototype.

 

 

The new beam will be a single piece chromalloy heavy duty unit that will replace the original two piece set up of alloy outer and chromealloy heavy duty insert. We should come out at about half the price of the original and a lot stronger/simpler to fit.

 

 

All of the new parts will be certified for 95.25 under Engineering Orders and supplied with ‘how to do it’ notes and release notes.

 

 

Aye

 

 

Tony

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Hi Sportsfans,

 

 

A quick progress report.

 

 

The prototype A of I bracket is now here and undergoing protective coating (a three stage process the way I do it as C/Moly wants to rust at any opportunity). I have also got the second prototype undercarriage main carry frame and the same thing is happening to that.

 

 

I have a spacer kit to make today to adjust the different size on the carry beam which is ½†less deep than the original, 1 kg heavier, and 1.8 times as strong as the previous factory heavy duty version. The spacer kit is less costly than having to buy different size AN bolts for the cockpit floor tube/carry beam connection

 

 

The carry beam is fully equipped with internal anti compression tubes and is more than capable of dealing with the forthcoming 450kg MTOW mod.

 

 

The A of I bracket has come out well (at last) and looks good. Not quite as much reduction as I wanted. We have lowered the leading edge by 38 mm but have a potential 56 mm available. The A frame splay angle beat us (which is what all the delay has been about) but I am going ahead and test flying this one as it is definitely going to improve things while retaining a few degrees of declage so I should not have problems down the back end.

 

 

The plot now is to start putting the T300 back together tomorrow and we should be able to do the wing fitting on Sunday. That is likely to be fun and games – we will see. Hopefully I will be test flying mid next week.

 

 

Now a plea please. There are a lot of people getting very interested in the Swift project and I already have firm orders in for both the bracket and the carry beam – and I still do not know what they will cost yet! I am also getting orders for flapperon systems and the new trimmers and none of those are even made yet.

 

 

This has all collided with a minor flood of orders on parts that are available and totally over-loaded my suppliers what with this development work going on at the same time. So clearing the backlog has taken time.

 

 

Will you cut me a bit of slack please and be patient? I AM NOT going to sell anything until I am satisfied with it and it has been correctly test flown. I want to get this done as quickly as anyone else but it is going to be done right and it will take as long as it takes!

 

 

I will post some pictures later today including the latest on the Swift Mk 3 pod that is coming up very nicely.

 

 

Aye

 

 

Tony

 

 

[Methusala]

S/steel wing to strut fittings

 

G'day Tony, do you have these in stock? If not, approximately what is the wait on these items? Keep up the good fight, regards, Don.

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

G'Day Don,

 

No, I carry no stocks - I am not a business, very poor and just trying to fill a parts gap because nobody else will.

 

All parts that I advertise are hand made to order. We are getting a bit better at it and jigging/moulding up on suitable items that can be jigged and a small amount of stock may be kept.

 

That will never include the wing brackets! They are impossible to jig for as the factory parts batching varied and you cannot go drilling out existing holes to oval on wing spars!

 

So I have to have a customer's original brackets that can be hand replicated.

 

I have a customer advice screed written and you can have this by email so you can see what is required. It is a bit of a messy performance but it works.

 

Also I have to get my finger out and update the price list. I have only displayed the price for a full set of four brackets as the project was aimed at a full set of defective brackets. But anyone will/is able to buy 1, 2, or 3 brackets at sliding scale prices.

 

I will try and get that done by tomorrow - I am a bit busy with the new development stuff at the moment.

 

Aye

 

Tony

 

 

[Methusala]

Thanks for that Tony, will try to get the bracket that I want to replace up to you this week. Cheers, Don.

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Hi Don,

 

Drop a contact email on me at [email protected] that I can reply to and I will send you the customer advice notes.

 

You do not send the bracket to me but directly to the fabricators. I need certain things and issue the serial numbers for the bracket to be made.

 

Aye

 

Tony