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Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 6:13 pm
by Pat Weeden
Hi All,

We're looking for volunteers to present forums at the Brodhead Pietenpol Reunion on Saturday, July 20th, or ideas for forums.

Please respond here or e-mail bpa@pietenpols.org.

Thanks!

Re: Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 12:09 pm
by donbrewer
Hi Pat, Last year I volunteered to conduct a fabric covering forum which went very well. There were some questions regarding wood, wooden structures, and adhesives. Perhaps I could conduct a forum on that subject if you think there is enough interest. Don Brewer

Re: Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 4:54 pm
by taildrags
One question that I see quite frequently from people who are just learning about the Air Camper, who are building one but have never flown one, or who are going to be transitioning into one is "what's it like to fly one?". With as many onboard video cameras as there are these days, and with as many experienced Piet pilots as there are out there, I think it would be interesting to put on a forum on "flying the Piet", with some video clips to illustrate the various phases of flight (if there are video screens available for the forum presentations). Mike Cuy's now-classic DVD on building and flying the Piet is surely the best (and maybe the first) documentary on the subject, but there are numerous other videos out there that illustrate the various stages of flight very nicely. Short/soft field approaches, operations on hard surfaces, taxiing, busy airspace and ATC operations in a 1930s-era airplane, slips, wheel landings, adverse yaw demonstration, stalls, flying behind the radiator of the Ford-powered models, saving a hard bounce, go-arounds, preflighting, boarding a passenger, lots of things that could surely provide enough for a 40-minute presentation with Q&A.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

Re: Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:43 pm
by donbrewer
Pat, Thinking about a forum on wood, wooden structures, and adhesives,,,, there may not be enough subject matter. I could combine it all with a toned down forum with added information on Stewart System and Stits Polyfiber covering procedures. The covering part would not be as intensive as last years forum, but dwell more on those two particular processes. I can do whatever you think would be of interest. I could also do the last years forum again. Just let me know. Don

Re: Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 7:47 am
by Brian Amato
I'd like to see someone talk about the merits of glue like the tried and true Weldwood "cold water brown powder glue" we've all used for years, vs T-88 vs something like Titebond-III. All very popular and proven for boat building.

Re: Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 10:57 pm
by taildrags
Brian, if I'm not mistaken, Popular Woodworking or Woodworker or one of those magazines ran a head-to-head series of tests on a half-dozen different types of wood glues. Titebond, T88, Gorilla, several others, hide glue. A good comparison test was Mark Schofield's review in the July/August 2007 issue of Fine Woodworking. They're all online in one form or another. As I recall, Gorilla Glue is the main one to avoid for our purposes, and Titebond III may be one of the best, especially since it's a one-part adhesive rather than a proportioned mix like 2-part expoxies.

You'll no doubt hear about the boiling water immersion test from old-timers, and that's a pretty serious test. Personally, for all the hot water I've been in over the years, particularly when I've been late getting home from work, I've never seen the occasion where a recreational homebuilt airplane would be faced with immersion in boiling water so delamination under those conditions may be fact, but it's also well outside the operational envelope I'm ever expecting to encounter.

It would make an interesting forum presentation if the presenter has already prepared the test samples in advance of the presentation and they are fully cured. Proper preparation is different for each, so is joint tightness, so is cure. Testing the samples live and in person would be very interesting, and so would passing around the pieces after break so people could see what glue joint failure is as opposed to failure of the wood itself.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

Re: Brodhead Reunion Forums

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:27 am
by Brian Amato
I'm with you Oscar. Back when I built the Corben Jr. Ace, the favorite wood glue at the time was FPL-16. (Forest Products Laboratories recipe number 16). Messy stuff, left white stains on anything it touched but boy did it hold two pieces of wood together! Now everybody thinks your airplane is going to fall out of the sky if you don't use T-88 and I have been severely chasiized for even thinking of using Titebond-III even tho it grabs and hold like crazy, and the wood always fails before the glue does. I built a few ribs using it and made up test samples that I tested to destruction. Wonderful stuff. But just to sleep well, I switched to T-88. THEN I read where T-88 will fail and delaminate with the application of heat like a simple hair dryer or hot air gun.
Years ago, my brother and I built boats using good old "brown powder glue" called "Weldwood". Our boats sat in the water all summer, slammed up and down on pretty severe waves, Had gasoline poured all over the joints and just held like crazy. Today...guys act like you'll die for sure if you use it.
And there was good ol' Bernard using casein glue made out of pickled milk.
Go figure.