Brodhead Pietenpol Association

I have to scarph 2 pieces together for the floor board. Here goes nothing!

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

I appreciate the thought, Oscar. I have the sides and everything else. I just didn't have the 1/4" for the floor. I ordered 2 pieces of 1/4" x 2 x 4 because it saved me a bunch of shipping cost.

Speaking of shipping cost. I'm doing a road trip to Wicks tomorrow, for lift struts. It's 5 hours away. Shipping for the struts, from one side of Missouri to the other, was going to be $280! Over half of the price of the struts!

The second one (left) turned out nicer than the first. I'll clean up the first one and glue tomorrow.

Attempting to glue the two pieces together.

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

No X wings here! In a swamp, or otherwise!

I was mulling over a change to the engine mount brackets at the firewall. I've decided to increase the brackets bolt patterns by one bolt, both horizontally and vertically. So I pulled the existing corner gussets off and I'm gluing new ones on sized to the new bolt pattern. This is in case I decide to change the engine installation down the road.

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

-Oscar

Years ago I redrew the steel tube drawings stretched to the long piet length. My thought was to use a 60° V6 on it. I'll probably never built it. But who knows, a V6 on 34KP?

I picked up a piece of white ash today to make the engine bearers and landing gear stations pieces.

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

-Oscar

I forced myself to do something today on the Piet. I cut out the ash cross members for the landing gear and started the glueing of the forward cross piece. The floor board is ready to glue on as soon as I get the rear one in.

Forward cross piece glued in.

Thanks for taking the time to document this. It will be a good resource when I get there.

The rear cross piece is in and I'm fitting the floor board.

Well come on, Richard... floor it!

-Oscar

Glued the floor board on just now. No help, that was a busy 30 minutes!

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 and you just have to clamp and staple and figure you can shave any little overhangs and squeeze-out later. Don't you love it?

-Oscar

The glue up on the floorboard worked well. I've planed the edges flush and removed the staples. Several staples broke while trying to remove them. Glued in I guess. I'll have to think about this a little.

I wonder if you could heat the staple with a soldering iron to soften the epoxy locally?

I'm going to ignore the broken staples. They broke off flush with the plywood, and I can't get hold of them short of digging away some of the plywood.

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

Plugging along.

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

-Oscar

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

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

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

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

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

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

Test fitting the front cockpit seat back.

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

Richard; the area that I had some problems with over the years that I flew N41CC was the front seat's front face vertical support plywood. On more than one occasion it got kicked by the pilot hard enough to break the plywood free (not by me though). I finally ended up tearing out the entire assembly including the passenger's seat bottom, which didn't have adequate uprights to hold it up, in my opinion. Especially as I had a passenger over 200 lbs get in and out of the front by stepping onto the seat. It didn't give under his weight and strain to climb in, but I didn't want it to. For the front face plywood, I added a block outside the front face of it, secured to the floor.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

Glued up and curing.

Done.

I see that little wedge shim filler at the bottom Nice work.

-Oscar

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. They emailed me about it. I described the Piet, the crash, and the rebuild. I sent them pictures. So more on the crash and plane and rebuild on the radio. I'm a celebrity!

Richard; you became a celebrity the day you acquired three four kilo papa and began your Pietenpol journey. But hey, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of publicity. Back when Mr. Pietenpol first flew his Air Camper, television was just becoming commercially viable, so your radio interview this morning was perfectly in keeping with the 1929 style of news stories.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

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 in the tube where it hit the rudder bar pivot bolt head.

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.

Looks like you're going about it the right way, which is "do it right the first time and you won't have to do it again". Steady as she goes!

-Oscar Zuniga
Medford,OR

Looking good Richard! Haven't seen any FB updates on your rebuild in ages glad to see your still hard at it!

Chris

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.

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

It looks like an Air Camper rudder bar

-Oscar Z.

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!