Brodhead Pietenpol Association

taildrags

Where in SoCal? Scott Liefeld is somewhere over in the Lancaster area, by Palmdale.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

Doc: still got these plans for sale?

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

14 CFR 91.205 covers day VFR flight for U.S. aircraft with standard category airworthiness certification and all it says is that an airspeed indicator is required, period. So if it's good enough for standard category, it should certainly be good enough for experimentals. I suppose you could use a kn...

taildrags

Just for the heck of it and for studying where things are relative to one another with the plane in the straight and level position, I've attached a plot of a CAD layout that I did of a conventional Air Camper pretty much by the plans (no brakes; Ford A engine mount; vertical cabanes)- except that I...

taildrags

I'll bet that fuselage frame is stiffening up nicely, what with the blocking and crosspieces and gussets getting installed. One of the most comforting things about a Piet is the robustness of its basic structural 'cage'.

-Oscar

taildrags

It's a wonder that the entire world isn't held rigidly in place with gussets. Got to have them!

-Oscar

taildrags

They don't call it "working time" for nothing. Spread and smooth on all glue areas for all you're worth... you can feel it starting to get a little tacky... get it into place... lift and shift, align and clamp, unloosen and readjust... hurry! Hurry!. Then it's past the point of no return a...

taildrags

Well come on, Richard... floor it!

-Oscar

taildrags

...and who doesn't love a nice piece of wood? Especially if it has an airplane part inside it!

-Oscar

taildrags

Now there's a forward-thinking man...

-Oscar

taildrags

"Do or not do. There is no try." -Yoda

taildrags

Wish I lived closer to you. I have the plywood that you'd need without having to scarf it. I have the plywood for the sides, too. Leftovers from the Piet project that Corky started but never finished.

-Oscar

taildrags

And yet another example of how the simple things are often the most elegant. Very nice detail.

-Oscar

taildrags

The cabane struts on 41CC are the length shown on the plans but since they are slanted aft to adjust the CG, the wing is brought closer to the pilot's head and blocks access to the cockpit just a little more than if they were installed vertically. The plane has a centersection "flop panel"...

taildrags

I think the ones on 41CC were extended a bit but I'll check. They are definitely tilted aft to improve the CG situation.

-Oscar

taildrags

I check daily to see what the latest work is looking like.

-Oscar

taildrags

Yes, I was going to ask, "Would you like gussets with that framing sir?"

-Oscar

taildrags

Richard: even the pyramids were built one stone at a time, and so it is with building an Air Camper. You can't rush this stuff and if you do it right the first time, you'll only have to do it once

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

Chuck, there are several locations where turnbuckles are (or can be) used in the plane and although most of them are for 3/32" cable, some builders use 1/16" for the tail braces (for example), so there is that.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

Wish I had thought of that nifty scarfing jig. It's nice when you have the working room for nice jigs and clamps and planes and spokeshaves to work with! It seems like anytime I need to make repairs to something, I have to work with small tools and work by eyeball in very tight spaces.

-Oscar

taildrags

Yesssss-!!! Glad it's back!

-Oscar

taildrags

That's gotta be a great feeling, Richard. I know it was a great feeling for me every time I completed a subassembly back when I was making repairs to my Air Camper. Patience and determination will eventually win the day.

-Oscar

taildrags

Looks like an airplane, from nose to tail.

-Oscar

taildrags

Maybe the turtleback ribs-? I don't see where they're called out on the plans but they seem to be about 1/4x1"

-Oscar

taildrags

Hmmm... the aileron horn detail just says #8 holes, doesn't say the spacing of them along the 2-7/8" long flats. Why not just drill new pairs of holes closer together on the strap so they land on the wood with adequate edge clearance?

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

Richard; do you plan to refit the tailspring and other fittings that require holes back there before varnishing the wood?

-Oscar

taildrags

My thoughts are that I would stick with 1" thick spars. Stress-wise and for the same spar depth and wood species, a solid rectangular 1" thick spar can take 33% higher bending stress than a 3/4" spar so if you drop down from a solid 1" spar to a solid 3/4" spar, you've lost ...

taildrags

Tailpost will be in place in a jiffy.

-Oscar

taildrags

Well, if you now have the full-size rib plan, the first thing you can do is compare the overall look and layout to readily-available rib layout plans like the one that's in the 1929 Flying & Glider Manual. Since the wing spars are what they are and they're spaced where they have to be on the air...

taildrags

Oh. I have some of that same drywall sanding screen but never thought of using it when an exceptionally rough type of abrasion is just the ticket. Great idea... thanks!

-Oscar

taildrags

Seeing no other attaboy posted here yet, I'll raise my voice with one. Nice work, Richard! And with the simplest of tools, too. Carry on...

-Oscar

taildrags

Just a comment: it appears to have a different airfoil than the Pietenpol, but since the wings aren't built yet, that's really not a factor.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Excellent! A new Air Camper joins the fleet! Congratulations!

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

"The repair area". I like that ;o)

-Oscar

taildrags

What a patient and loving endeavor, Richard. The Pietenpol community will owe you a lot for preserving this piece of Air Camper history alive and flying. What an excellent fellow you are for doing this for Ken, for the Pietenpol family, for the aviation community as a whole. You could have just chuc...

taildrags

Please! Oh, please let us keep this site going! I go to that sandbox to play every week; sometimes every day!

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

I see you've got the patient under sedation on the operating table now, Richard. The cuts will be painful to make, but the broken bones and dead skin have to be cut away before new stuff can be grafted in. My Piet's damage wasn't as extensive as yours, but it was every bit as painful for me to cut, ...

taildrags

Earl; that's the reason I asked to see better pics but I didn't want to misjudge something without evidence.

-Oscar

taildrags

The mount in the picture is the William Wynne version that incorporates a 'tray' that carries the engine, while the one in the plans uses tubes, as you mentioned. The Wynne (Flycorvair) mount is excellent and is flight-proven. If you get a photo of it, we can positively identify it because there may...

taildrags

Nutplates attach to wood with either one or two small screws, depending on the style of nutplate. Might as well use the ones that take two screws and you'll never have to do it again.

-Oscar

taildrags

I know, right Larry? Built-up spar with plywood webs and lightening holes... nice job, and interesting. The airfoil isn't a stock Piet and the spars look deeper than a Piet's, but the concept is good just the same.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Plenty of Ford people in this group. I'm sure someone will chime in.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

I generally see nutplates attached to the backside of the wood that the hinges are attached to, with machine screws going into the nutplates. There isn't anything saying you can't use bolts with nylocks to attach the hinges, but they will weigh more than the nutplate/machine screw combinations and y...

taildrags

About not being able to resist gluing some things together, I was going to reply with "OK, but just don't let it become a habit!"

-Oscar

taildrags

taildrags

I don't know about a Cub tank but here's what the conventional front-mounted tank looks like. Mine holds about 16 gallons so you can see that with just the curved top part, you could get your 5 gallon capacity. The Grega GN-1 was designed to use quite a few Piper parts, so looking through the GN-1 p...

taildrags

Richard, this part is really where the loving care comes in. Mending the bones, one broken piece at a time. Rebuilding the frame; truing it up, squaring things off, scarfing, gussetting, patient reassembly. It's like rehab after a terrible car accident, but one where you know you'll walk again. Four...

taildrags

I don't know if it's poor practice or not, but I've done it before. I've also soaked a bent or twisted piece in water, removed it, and then jigged it up on the table using weights and other means to apply corrective measures while it's wet. I then let it dry and reapply correction as needed till it'...

taildrags

I think there is agreement in saying that the jury struts should not intersect the lift struts in the middle, mainly because that just looks too much like something that could set up a harmonic vibration. Other than that, just look at photos of other Piets to see where others have placed them, espec...

taildrags

I had the same concern so I used the braid-shielded fuel line material with AN hose fittings on both ends to make it as robust as possible. However, on my plane the penetration through the firewall is around mid-firewall where the passenger's feet would be on either side of it. This is with a tank u...

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