flyvulcan

Today, I finished the lower rudder rib/bow gussets with the usual, draw it, cut it rough, drill it, fit it, remove it, trim it, file sand and deburr, refit it...

Today I fabricated the gussets that hold the rudder bow to the front side of the spar as well as the gussets for connecting the ribs to the bow. As usual, the gussets started as sheet that I had to cut to shape, bend, trim, file, drill, sand and mount. Then came the dis-assembly and deburring. It was a little challenging in that the plans do not call for gussets on all these joints so we did not have drawings for the gussets. Some of the joints, according to the plans, call for a dowel to be inserted into the end of the rib or bow, and then a hole is drilled through the bow to put a wood screw through the bow wall and into the dowel in the end of the rib. In our opinion, this technique is not the best to hold the frame together, hence our move to gussets on all joints. Here are the pics from today's work. Firstly, fabricating the gussets: Then mounting them:

I could be wrong and I might have the name wrong, but I recall that there was an Andrew Richards associated with Lethbridge Airpark, just north of Geelong who was killed in an accident following a structural failure of the aircraft he was instructing in at the time. It's a long shot but you might try the owner of Lethbridge Airpark who was Andrews father-in-law from memory (it was a long time ago). He may be able to help.

My pleasure GG. If anyone can learn from what I'm posting, that's great. Whilst I've only got the tailplane kit so far, I'm sure the same techniques will be used on the rest of the aircraft. It's a very straightforward build process, but it's the little tricks that I am learning that will make the process easier. No doubt, I'll find better ways to do it along the way and I'll pass those on. In the meantime, I'd better get back into the workshop!

I had a brief foray into the workshop yesterday. I share a buddies workshop and he is building an RV7. I ended up bucking rivets for him for longer than I worked on my own project, but hey, that's what this aircraft building gig is all about; camaraderie and helping each other out. I disassembled all the ribs from the spar so I could lay the spar back into its jig and confirm the marks on the rudder bow where the bow will be attached to the top of the spar. Once I had done this, I placed a 1/2" drill bit inside the cutout in the top of the rudder spar around which I could bend the top of the spar to flatten it against the drill bit (which simulated the rudder bow). I initially placed the tip of the spar in a vice with some cloth to protect the aluminium and squeezed the sides together in the vice. This worked pretty well on a rough level but left a small amount of scarring on the aluminium which I wasn't pleased about. The cloth was supposed to prevent that. After the rough flattening of the spar end around the drill bit, I needed to finish the bending of the spar sides over the drill bit. My clever RV7 builder mate suggested I use his rivet gun to tap it into shape. Well, that technique worked a treat and the top of the spar was bent nicely around the drill bit. Now I didn't make it a tight fit over the drill bit as I wanted to check the alignment of the bow through the slot, so I then placed the spar into its jig, slotted the bow into the slot in the top of the spar, installed the ribs into their slots in the spar (but without their gussets holding them in place). It was at that point that I was sidetracked into the riveting job and I didn't get back to completing my task of finishing the join of the spar and bow. There is still a little tapping to do of the spar sides to bring it in flush with the bow tube, as can be seen on the following photos. That will only be a few minute job at the start of my next session.

After yesterday's session, I decided I needed to figure out how to bend the gussets better and more easily. After a bit of thought, I came up with an idea (I should have simply asked someone experienced!). Anyway, I had a 4"x4" block about 15" long with a V shaped groove cut into it that I was using as a jig to hold tubing while I drilled it on the drill press. I used this block as a base for my "bending tool". I bought a 12" length of 1" diameter copper pipe to use to wrap the gusset around. I simply clamped one end of the copper pipe into the groove and placed the gusset that needed to be bent across the groove in the 4x4 under the tube, making sure the bend line was parallel to the pipe/groove. I then pressed down on the free end of the pipe which pushed the gusset down into the groove and the gusset formed around the pipe. To finish the bend, I clamped the free end of the pipe into the groove, then used my hands to bend the gusset further around the pipe until the required arc was completed. Here are some pics that might explain it better. Once the gusset had been radiused, I then had to put two small bends into it to complete its shape. I used two wood formers clamped into a vise with a suitable bend radius sanded onto the bending corner. With the gusset all bent up, I used the same technique as for the gusset in the above post to secure the gusset in place. I needed to ensure that the ribs were perpendicular to the spar and that all the ribs were aligned in the same plane. Here are the pics from that excercise. It was 2 more hours of fun!

I get back to Oz either twice a year for 2 weeks at a time, or once a year for 3-4 weeks. It's no wonder my Komet jet has taken almost 5 years to build so far. Between me and my able co-builders, we've put in around 800 hours labour on the build so far. If I lived in Oz, the jet would have been flying a few years ago. At least I can now work on my Fokker triplane here in the desert which is great therapy for me and helps pass the time.

Falcon900 and Global Express business jets. Both have ceilings of 51000' but there's not much fuel saving to be had above 47000' so we don't go above 47000' often. FYI, if we suffer a depressurisation at that altitude, in the Global Express that I currently fly there is an Emergency Descent Mode (EDM) function on the autopilot which puts the aircraft into a descent to 15000' and then automatically levels off. So when we pass out after the depressurisation, we can wake up at 15000'. Hopefully we weren't flying over the Andes at the time!

Pretty typical for that region Ian as aircraft divert around thunderstorms. Better to go around them than through them as they are really nasty inside. I've been cruising round there at 47000' and they still go 30000' higher than where I'm at.... China is a fantastic place to visit. I went there for 2 weeks during the SARS crisis and I felt like we were the only tourists there at the time. We were treated extremely well everywhere we went and the folks were very nice to us. We loved it, it was absolutely fascinating.

I started today with fabricating the gusset between the rudder main spar and the rib to which the rudder bell crank is mounted. This gusset is made from .020" flat sheet, about 6" x 3". I wrapped a sheet of paper around the rear spar at the rib location to determine the flat plate distance from one side of the rib, around the back side of the spar to the other side of the rib. I then marked this distance on the gusset plate equidistant from the centre of the plate. These two lines would be bend lines. I wrapped the plate around the rear spar to get the correct diameter for the gusset, then bent the gusset at the two bend lines that I had drawn on it. Once bent, I then trimmed the gusset sides to shape using tin snips. I then marked the gusset for where I needed to drill it to mount. I then clamped this gusset to the spar/rib, ensuring correct alignment of the rib and drilled the spar and rib, then clecoed the gusset in place. I next checked the location for the rudder bellcrank and drilled the mounting holes in the bellcrank. Then I clamped the bellcrank in place and drilled the mounting holes through the rib to mount the bellcrank. That was it for today. There was the usual deburring, filing, sanding etc. and it was a very pleasant 2.5 hours for me.

Who are we both kidding? With my deteriorating eyesight, I'd probably be lucky to see anyone, let alone shoot anyone down! And I haven't pulled 6g for a few years now, I'd probably black out in a 30 degree turn... Oh I hate getting old...

That's what the pilots of the opposing Nieuports, Spads and Sopwith Camels and Pups will be saying in 2 years time! In the meantime for me, it's Fokker relaxing to go out and work on it.

Today, I tidied up the four hinge fittings for the rudder. They came in the kit as pieces cut from stock and I had to file and sand the ends to remove the scarring from where the stock was cut. All four pieces are now smooth with no scarring. I then needed to cut a slot in one of the hinges that would mount to the base of the rudder spar. The slot is to allow the rudder bow to pass through the hinge into the spar. After that, I drew the gusset pattern onto the .020" sheet, then cut out the pattern using tin snips. I rounded the ends on a belt sander and then finished them off by filing and sanding the edges to remove all burrs and scarring from the tin snips. They are now ready to be drilled and bent.

We are building from one of Baslee's "kits". The kit simply consists of aluminium tubing cut to approximate length. Each tube is identified with a sticker which is referred to in the plans. The aluminium sheet gussets are cut to shape and the hinges are included. So the "kit" is quite complete, but at first glance will appear to be a pile of raw materials. An example of the "approximate" ethos is with the shape of the rudder bow. Baslee gives a rough sketch and says close enough is ok, it doesn't have to be an exact shape. In this sense, it makes things a little easier for you as the builder. Also, the ribs that you can see on my rudder above can be moved up or down from their planned location with no detriment to the structure, so he says that there's no need to measure to the .1mm to position the ribs. As a first time builder with low or no construction experience, you will pick up the skills very quickly to be able to build one of Baslee's kits. It is measuring, marking, sawing, filing, drilling, deburring, bending, assembling, checking for fit, etc.. You will find the construction technique easy after you have built the rudder to start with. The advice I would give would be to spend a day or two with someone who is building one of these aircraft and lend a hand. It will give you some experience and confidence to tackle your own kit.

I've just started a 75% Fokker Dr1 with a fellow enthusiast (ex-RAAF test pilot and multiple builder). The plans are pretty basic but adequate so far (we've only got the empennage "kit"). If you look at his YouTube videos that show his construction techniques, you may cringe a little. His techniques are not always in accordance with common practices. Also, his plans are not "exact". Dimensions can be "close enough" rather than exact. We are also doing some modifications to the construction along the way that we feel will provide a more sound structure. In places, he has pop rivets in tension, rather than shear so the pop rivets are just waiting to be pulled out... etc. Here's our rudder after a few hours (Robert Baslee only takes around one hour to do what we did in 3 hours, but we were somewhat pedantic about our holes, alignment, deburring, radiusing ends etc.. Anyway, construction is very easy and straightforward, indeed, is quite enjoyable, especially when there are two of you on the job. Unfortunately, unless you are passing through the Middle East, you won't be able to view our project...

Sorry, I was wrong. It wasn't Lockwood (that was my oil cooler stuff), it was a Grand Rapids Technologies that I got my EGT probes from. Here's the link http://www.grtavionics.com/EISandAccessories2-26-14.pdf Hope it helps. Cheers, Dave

I ordered a set of EGT probes from Lockwood for my 912ULS only 2 weeks ago with no hassles whatsoever. They were shipped the day after I ordered them.

Yes, there was a successful ejection from one in NZ. My instructor when I was a student on Macchis in 1982 was Mark Kelly (boogorah) who was one of the participants in the ejection. It occurred on the runway, during an aborted takeoff as described above.

I agree, it would be awesome to have our own little SA based WW1 squadron!

Actually, I just noticed that you are based in Sherlock, SA. The Fokker, when it arrives in Oz will be based at Goolwa so perhaps it will be Nieuport versus Fokker over Lake Alexandrina!

If we can get the Fokker built in time and shipped back to Oz, it sounds to me that we need to meet in the skies over NatFly/AusFly in 2016 to determine who is the master of the skies. The challenge is on!

Today, we spent two hours bending the rudder bow. We started by making two wooden formers, one with a 24" diameter and one with 12" diameter. We then bent up the bow, making sure we kept the bend in 2 dimensions and not 3. There was a bit of too-ing and fro-ing as we had to make some parts of the bow with smaller and larger radii. After bending up the bow, we trimmed the ends to slot into the holes we had cut into the rudder spar to secure the bow ends into. We filed a radius onto the ends of the bow so that the ends would snug up against the ID of the spar. When the bow was sorted, we trimmed the 3 ribs to length and then radiused the ends to fit inside the spar tube at one end, and against the rudder bow at the other. So after a bit of bending, hacksawing and filing, we now have all our rudder pieces fitting together and looking like it should. It's now ready to install the hinges and cleco together in readiness for pulling apart and prepping for final assembly.

Thanks Topaz and welcome to these predominantly Aussie forums. Between this site and HBA, I'm fairly busy! As for progress on the test bed Bug, Lanny has plumbed the hydraulic lines for the retractable nosegear through the firewall into the cockpit. He now needs to mount the hand pump lever in an appropriate location in the cockpit. For the production kit, we will look at using an electric linear actuator with a redundant mechanical linkage to provide emergency extension in the event of an electrical or actuator failure, rather than the hydraulic cylinder that we are using on our test bed aircraft. A custom radiator will be arriving this Friday which Lanny will mount and plumb into the system. All the oil cooler fittings arrived recently and that will also be mounted and plumbed over the next week or so. So hopefully in around 2 weeks, I will have more photos of the engine bay with all accessories in place. First flight should then be not too far away.

Hi Jake, You are correct. This is covered in another thread http://www.recreationalflying.com/threads/saaa-changes.122337/#post-441842 Cheers, Dave