Brodhead Pietenpol Association

taildrags

If I remember correctly, the mating barrels for the landing gear pivot points on the gear that is now under Ken Bickers's Piet was a very nice tight fit. I thought that set of gear legs was quite well made.

-Oscar

taildrags

I can tell you what happens when they don't align closely enough and the next size overbore leaves play, because that's what my landing gear have. When I taxi over uneven terrain, the gear clunks. It's not big clunks and they aren't loud, but they are clunks. With the plane parked in the hangar, if ...

taildrags

Walter; aqui se puede conseguir- https://www.pietenpols.org/ . Avisame por mensaje si te puedo ayudar conseguirlo, dirigido a taildrags@hotmail.com .

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

UglyElvis: the Prince prop that I have is a 68x42 and was originally built by Lonnie Prince for an O200-powered Skyote. The Skyote was designed to use a C90 engine, so that's close to what you have. I bought the prop to try on my A75 and to have as a spare. The A75 is rated full 75HP power at 2600 R...

taildrags

Is a metal prop required to keep your plane's CG in the proper location, or do you just prefer metal props? I think there are some Gregas out there that tend to be tail heavy and need the weight up front. The reason I mention it is that I have a Prince P-Tip prop that might suit your C85 but I'd hav...

taildrags

Now see-? This is how we all come to the party and bring good things! Thank you, Dan! I reserve the right to get smarter!

-Oscar

taildrags

Bobbyt; not sure where you got the weight figure from, but let's go with it. If 6 ft of it is a pound including mounting hardware, then let's say four 6" pieces are a third of a pound. Add back in a little for whatever you use as gap seals to achieve the same effect and you might be up to half ...

taildrags

I may not live long enough to encapsulate that many pickleballs.

-Oscar

taildrags

Larry, I would say that it depends on how long you want the pickleball to remain watertight. Cheap, quick, and easy would be to wrap it with packing tape or duct tape, but over time it may leak as the tape adhesive ages.

-Oscar

taildrags

One-six Charlie Bravo, this is Experimental Four-one Charlie Charlie. Uh, where'd you get that art on your airplane? Looks like we must have had the same idea. I call my Air Camper "Scout".

taildrags

Fellows, I apologize for appearing to stall for time here, but I really can't plug in the abacus and boot it up until I know if we're trying to figure out whether to float the Piet on salt water, or on fresh. The density is different. I also want to know the gross weight of the Air Camper on which t...

taildrags

Ken, it's going to be hard to beat ping-pong balls for lightness of weight and ability to fit into smallish voids. I would steer clear of anything heavier or larger. Now, if you want to we could explore the idea of helium balloons because they could be inflated to conform pretty closely to the shape...

taildrags

If I remember correctly, it was Corky Corbett who raised that interesting design question. Since I now own his plane and have actually flown it over water on various occasions, I should probably have investigated the answer more closely but I really can't remember! I'll have to consult with Professo...

taildrags

Pat: that may not have been exactly the right thing to say in this crowd. "Recent upgrade of php versions"-? Many of us think of "php" as Paul H. Poberezny, rest his soul in peace and may his version never be upgraded!

-Oscar

taildrags

Yes, I got that too, until I decided to throw my own argument instead of counting errors

-Oscar

taildrags

Just the sort of scratch-building and head-scratching project that I love! Something tells me you'll be getting requests to make and sell an ignition kit

-Oscar

taildrags

Pieters; I just finished reading the current issue of the BPA Newsletter and specifically, Richard Roller's article on how he built a crank-triggered HEI electronic ignition, with manually-selectable retard for starting, for his Ford A engine. Absolutely awesome design and execution! Beautifully cra...

taildrags

My Piet has the fuel tank up in the nose, so I can't speak authoritatively on this subject. However, from what I have read of William Wynne's writing about his experience when his Piet went down and fuel spilled out of the fuel lines from the tank in the centersection and went all over both cockpits...

taildrags

John; here's my opinion on your questions. 1)Yes, it appears that those parts are not used because the part 9 looks like it does the same job of sealing the grease in the bearing. 2) Not sure, but you do need 2 of them... one for the inner bearing and one for the outer. 3) It would have to be assemb...

taildrags

Well that makes perfect sense!

-Oscar

taildrags

Okay, so I finally got my front cockpit cover fabricated and installed. My thanks to Ken Bickers for the excellent narrative and photos of how he did his, and also the source information for where he got the fasteners and tools. I followed Ken's design but limited mine to only one cover for the fron...

taildrags

In theory, these ribs would be most likely to buckle midway between the spars... right where Ken has his X-bracing. Realistically though, I think with something like a Piet with lightly-loaded wings, once the wing fabric is laced to the ribs and tautened, the ribs would be held securely in their pla...

taildrags

The short answer is "it depends". It depends on the shape of the part and the way the forces are acting on it. Each part that you intend to make out of 4130 instead of 1025 would have to be examined for how it's loaded, how it's attached, and its shape. But in most cases on this airplane, ...

taildrags

Well since some of us are stuck on the ground due to winter weather, I figured more would have time to read stuff than go fly so I pulled out the first logbook on my plane to review the test flights, which were made by Mr. Edwin Johnson down in Louisiana. Here are some verbatim extracts for your rea...

taildrags

Lovely details, all of them!

-Oscar

taildrags

Wow, that is a beauty!!! Museum quality for sure. I zoomed in on the tail to see if maybe you used wire ferrules on the tail braces but it looks like conventional Nicopress with aircraft cable. Yes-? A sparkling rendition of a classic airplane. Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Thanks to Newsletter reader, contributor, and Piet builder Peter Jhones for putting me onto this investigation. It's great fun.

-Oscar

taildrags

I began work on a "reverse engineering" article for the Newsletter on this topic. Should appear in a 2023 issue.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Well Chris, you've described the journey I started out on with my Piet just about to a 'T'. Veterans Day 2004 my new (to me) Air Camper was being piloted (not by me) to a local school football field for a flyover at a gathering of veterans when carb ice formation began making the engine run rough de...

taildrags

That style of cover should ride out of the slipstream, so less buffeting and drumming than covers that follow the top curve of the fuselage. I'm going with the curved style since it should also serve to shed rain.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

EXCELLENT collection of photos! Very nice airplane, handsome work on it. Congratulations!

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Wow. I just viewed the little how-to demonstration video on Sailrite's site and I think I'm sold on their Loxx fasteners and method! Like you, I already have snaps around the cockpits for the non-flight covers, but I think I'll do what you did and introduce the Loxx fasteners for the front cockpit a...

taildrags

Ken, thanks for the excellent ideas and details. At the moment I'm fixated on sheet aluminum for a cover, but I haven't finalized my thinking yet. Earlier I had thought of ripstop nylon, but I can just see that diaphragm drumming in the wind and propwash and I don't want that. I'm encouraged by your...

taildrags

John, note that you can use some AN111 cable bushings through AN100 cable thimbles to secure the cable ends to the bellcrank by passing a bolt through them. Various ways to skin this cat.

-Oscar

taildrags

Browsing around Westcoastpiet, there are plenty of different setups at that bellcrank. Here's Chris Tracy's.

-Oscar

taildrags

Are you talking about the bellcrank inside the fuselage, behind the pilot's seat?

-Oscar

taildrags

Ken; and you fly the plane with the front cover in place? Secure?

-Oscar

taildrags

I'll be at the hangar this weekend and will make some sketches of my cover scheme.

-Oscar

taildrags

I'm thinking I'm going to try to shape some aluminum tubing (small diameter) into a shape that follows the outline of the front cockpit and fits snugly over the coaming. Then one or two fore & aft stiffening tubes with pulled rivet gussets, then an aluminum skin riveted onto the tubular frame. W...

taildrags

Since it's been pretty quiet on this forum and we're starting to get into the no-fly winter season (for me, at least), I thought I would reopen a thread from the past... cockpit covers. I have a couple of ideas for a cover for my front cockpit and I'm going to tackle it this winter. If anyone else i...

taildrags

I believe Kevin Purtee has that style tank on his Piet, but I don't know if he's on this discussion board. I know he's over on the Pietenpol facebook page.

-Oscar

taildrags

JimBob; they said the same as me because I'm an "old timer" too! I'm 71 years old and piloting a plane that was designed 93 years ago, sonny boy!

-Oscar

taildrags

JimBob; I'm not familiar with the Stewart System, but in the Polyfiber world, anti-chafe tape is used to put over sharp corners, metal edges, and rough joints before putting the fabric on over those. Reinforcing tape has a different purpose: it's laid down over the fabric directly on top of the rib ...

taildrags

My airplane does have vertical strip of wood running down the underside from firewall aft, which means that the belly fabric does not touch the plywood except at the longerons. Perhaps the slight 'v' shape along the belly can be seen in this pic: gear_small.jpg Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR Air Camper NX...

taildrags

Boy, now I'll have to go look at my plane because I think mine has a 'razor ridge' running down the belly, similar to the ones on the sides to hold the fabric away from the wood and turn flat panels into slightly prism-shaped ones. Stand by...

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

When you think about it, the Maule series of aircraft (one of the few fabric-covered aircraft still in current production) are covered using the *medium* weight certified fabric. The M-7s carry twice as many souls as an Air Camper, have a gross weight twice that of an air camper, use engines with tw...

taildrags

John, not sure what you're asking, but what holds the wheel assembly in place on my airplane is the shoulder on the inner end of the axle. That shoulder rides against the wheel bearing.

taildrags

I forgot to mention what I have for tubes. I have flat aluminum wheel covers on my main wheels and they help to keep dust and grit and debris out of the bearings. So, in order to get at the valve stems to check the tire pressure or add air, I either have to remove the wheel covers (3 screws each) or...

taildrags

John; just bear in mind that there are dozens and dozens of variations of these wheels out there, some take different parts for different reasons (which I found out the hard way). The parts that my wheels use may be different from yours. And it looks like you already have very decent felt rings and ...

taildrags

John: these are the parts that I used on my wheels.

-Oscar

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