Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Richard Roller

A couple of new pieces for the rebuild.

Richard Roller

So, I decided I wanted the rear seat bottom removable. Measured and measured. Cut out the pieces, glued in the spacers and fit the seat bottom. Looks good. Hmmm. I clamped plywood to the sides. The seat bottom won't clear the diagonals. So rework the seat bottom. Clears now! 20251001_075440.jpg ...

Richard Roller

N34KP, as built, has elevator deflections of 25° up, and 20° down.

Richard Roller

This is what was used on 34KP.

Richard Roller

Fitting the pilots seat bottom. It turned out pretty good!

Richard Roller

Oscar. It was notched because I couldn't get the torque tube out when the frame was assembled.

Richard Roller

Test fit of the plug and reinforcement of the pilots seat frame.

Richard Roller

Gluing in a couple of rear seat supports.

Richard Roller

Two vertical pieces gluing into the the rear seat structure.

Richard Roller

Another piece of the rear seat.

Richard Roller

Impressive how much those two seat backs stiffen up the structure.

Richard Roller

Pilots seat back glue up.

Richard Roller

Pilots seat bottom cross brace.

Richard Roller

Trying to get re-motivated on the repair. So, rough cut out and test fit of the rear seat back.

Richard Roller

That is my fix to reading the print wrong and screwing up the pieces when I cut them. The glue lines and fits were so good, I didn't want to tear everything out and start over.

Richard Roller

Center seat support glue up.

Richard Roller

Gary Boothe used poplar on his fuselage and, I believe, the wing, except for the spars, which are Douglas fir.
My Piet, N34KP, is Douglas fir. I've been doing the repairs, post crash, in Spruce.

34KP's original empty weight (weighted with Model A engine, prop, oil, water) was 656 lbs.

Richard Roller

Richard Roller

Over 23 years of flying N34KP was damaged a couple of times when the copilots seat front plywood support was kicked. I've decided to reinforce the edges during the rebuilt. We'll see if this helps. It is much stiffer. Of course, I may have made it easier to kick off the glue line!

Richard Roller

Test fit of the rudder bar and aileron/elevator controls.

Richard Roller

Just searching brakes on this site comes up with hundreds of hits. And as Oscar suggested, West Coast Pietenpol. As far as pedals go, they have been used in Piets. BUT, it's an easy way to damage your wooden rudder. People get excited when landings get crazy and shove on both pedals trying to stop ...

Richard Roller

Okay. I've been in Ireland on a memorial trip for my late wife, Lisa. I promise to get restarted on 34KP when I get home.

Richard Roller

A scout would be interesting. Any thoughts on what you might want to for an engine?

Richard Roller

I finished welding the repair into the aileron torque tube yesterday. Today I drilled the mounting holes, using a guide block and backup wood blocks.

Richard Roller

A test fit of the control torque tube after cutting out the bent part. The new tube is just tack welded at the moment. Nice fit and no binding (yet) when I move it left to right. It appears to have bent where it hit the rudder bar mount when the front end collapsed in the crash. There is a nice dent ...

Richard Roller

On 34KP they were screwed to the longerons. No nut plates.

Richard Roller

I've been mentioned on the radio! I donated this morning to my local Kansas Public Radio station during their fund drive. I mentioned (online donation) that I listen to the classical broadcast while rebuilding my airplane in the dining room. They used it on air, wondering if it was a model or what ...

Richard Roller

Richard Roller

I have no idea where he came up with the static buttons.

Richard Roller

Sorry Douwe! I didn't realize who I was replying to until I was finished!

Richard Roller

My Piet was built without static ports originally. It has "static buttons" on the airspeed indicator and the altimeter. It works.

Never the less, I don't like it that way. It can be erratic at times. The pilots instrument installation in the Piet tends to trap air (pressure) which messes with the ...

Richard Roller

I'm glad to see you are making progress.

Your questions.
1. 34KP has a 0 to 30 psi gauge. It'll show 15 psi at start up, I use Valvoline 20w50 detergent oil. By the time I taxi out and take off it'll show 5 to 10 psi and then drops off to showing 0 psi in flight. I'd love to find a 20 psi gauge ...

Richard Roller

Done.

Richard Roller

Glued up and curing.

Richard Roller

I glued a wedge into the area of the seat back to the gear/liftstrut carry though. Also cutout the torque tube opening.

Richard Roller

Test fitting the front cockpit seat back.

Richard Roller

The Piet doesn't have floorboards, as such. Your feet are on the bottom 1/4" plywood. Which is a structural member of the fuselage truss. If you plan on using carbon fiber panels, you need to do some load calculations.

Richard Roller

Test fitting cabane attach fittings in the upper longerons. Nice fit.

Richard Roller

Test fitting rear cabane attach fittings in the upper longerons. Nice fit.

Richard Roller

The tank would be in the magneto bay.

Richard Roller

While test fittings controls today, I discovered the aileron torque tube between cockpits was bent a little in the crash. Always something.

Richard Roller

No. Already had a pin vise and bits to clean out the ends. Used a deep socket to set the ferrules.

Richard Roller

Piets tend to be tail heavy. On 34KP the engine (model A) was moved forward 7" to balance the a/c, short fuselage to the plans. This may be an attempt to help the tail heaviness. The main issue is not the pilots distance from the firewall, but his distance related to the wing. If the dimensions from ...

Richard Roller

We bought bulk Slick plug lead and made to fit.

Richard Roller

Yes. It's getting pretty sturdy even without the side plywood.

Richard Roller

Richard Roller

I decided to block the corners of the firewall station truss.

Richard Roller

Richard Roller

Plugging along.

Richard Roller

Slow progress. I've flip the fuselage back upright and started the last gussets. Currently glueing the last two inboard splice doublers.

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