I really should update this more often than annually. With a bit of luck and perseverance, I'l lhave something to add more than once a year, eh?
Good news - I'm (slightly) ahead of planplan - here it is only summer and I've already (finally!!) cut flight-worthy wood.
Early in the summer I got a line on some certified spruce via EAA Chapter 118. A local fellow was going to build a wooden plane, decided not to. So he's got spruce. Several emails and phone calls later, I go over to his garage / shop / hangar on a rainy late-June summer night. To determine a fair price, he pulls out an out-of-date AS&S catalog.
I round up. The man is doing me a favor.
An hour later, I leave with $35 worth of what most people would dismiss as sticks.
Sticks. Quarter-sawn. Zero runout over 36 inches. 24 growth rings per inch. Sticks? To the kids who just want to make Star Wars lightsabers and Harry Potter wands, yeah. Sticks.
But to me, it's enough Real Spruce to build the tailfeathers.
In July I took delivery of a sheet of 3mm Oukoume plywood from a boat-builder-supply place in Maryland. In retropect I think I took a bath on shipping. The 4x8 sheet was $35, but the shipping (UPS ground) was $39. I think I got overcharged. Cutting it into 2' x 4' sheets was supposed to save big bucks on UPS fees. I don't think it did. I'll compare notes with Aircraft Spruce.
Now, (early August) I have the order form for the .06x metal filled out, plus a quart kit of West System epoxy. (I plan to use T-88 for structural assembly, but West for varnishing.)
Still need to add the AN hardware to the order. It's an extra poundmaybe. Might as well include it in this order.
Way overdue for an update. Time sure flies. Many thanks to Ron Wanttaja for linking this page from the excellent Fly Baby homepage, www.bowersflybaby.com. Now I HAVE to keep it updated!
What's new. I've laminated up two test elevator bows. The second incorporates lessons learned form the first. I've also built a test elevator spar from scrap wood, and made some test fittings from 16-ga steel. Within a week or so I hope to have a sample elevator structure. It's red-tagged from the get-go, being built from scrap pine, maple, door skins, and 16-guage. But it's giving me practice at figuring out the order of operations, setting up jigs, and perhaps most importantly, showing me that I can indeed do this, and that I enjoy the process. Onward!
New digital camera; expect photos soon. Working on a new test lamination, as well as test versions of the elevator spar. I fully expect progress to accelerate as the Toddler gets a little older. If not, this Baby may never Fly. At least I'm still (marginally) ahead of the original plan...
Long time no update, eh? Has it truly been a YEAR since I reduced an eight-foot 2x12 to a few 1/4" x 6" boards and several large bags of hamster bedding? Tempus fugit indeed.
I've made progress on the project, though. Slow - very slow - but steady. Over the summer I built and laid out the workbench with the pattern for the elevator bow. There's a local fellow with a completed fuselage including rudder, so I'm starting with the elevator. He let me climb into his FB biplane; further confirmation that I can get into and out of it.
In September I bought, and in October planed and ripped, clear cedar into 1/8 x 5/8 strips for a test of the tailfeather lamination process. Yes, I know the 24-hour rule. This is a test, only a test. Besides, I scraped the strips just before gluing them up to expose fresh wood.
Here's what I learned doing the test layup the night before Thanksgiving:
The layup cured for 24 hours at 70 F (basement, moderate humidity) before being removed from the jig. The epoxy glue was still slightly sticky. Not sure if it wants more cure time or if the mix was off slightly. I measured two paper Dixie cups by placing them side-by-side with a light behind and looking at the meniscus. I filled the cups about 50% full; that wasn't quote enought to wet out the whole stack, so I eyeballed about 50 ml more. I'm using stand-in epoxy (i.e., relatively cheap, locally-available-in-bulk) for the test, so I'm not terribly concerned about that. I'll use T-88 for flight hardware.
Next step - do it again, correcting the errors I made the first time. Have to scarf some full-length strips first.
Mr. Charles (Chuck) Reed of Pheasant Run Airport graciously allowed me to try on his Fly Baby biplane for size. It fits, very well. Fly Baby it is.
Some transition! Two job changes, two moves... Yeesh! Thank God it's over. (Please, God, let it be over?)
Well. I've been toying with the idea of a Hevle Tandem Fly Baby. Be fun to give rideas and all that. At this point, though, I'm backing away. It'd be more expensive, more complex, etc. Thicker spar, more fuselage, longer horizontal tail (which could affect trailerability and garageability), bigger engine. And having only one seat means I never have to turn someone down for a ride. Also means that if something bad ever happens, I'm the only one at risk. So back to the single-seat idea.
Dang, I wish I was 25 and starting this. I'd have no problem doing a VP "for practice" and then maybe diving into an Emeraude. But at 42.5, I don't have time to build an Emeraude. Not if I want to live to fly it. So I get one shot, and I think the FB is it.
The wood I cut back in November will only be useful for practice. Oh, well. I'll need it, I'm sure. The next step is to build the first workbench. I'll use the EAA Chapter 1000 "standard bench" with a few minor modifications:
1. Particleboard instead of plywood for the top. It's half the price, more dimensionally stable, and flatter. A lot of the 3/4 ply (actually 15/32 anymore) at Lowes is warped, some of it badly. A warped main bench I don't need.
2. The support rails will be inset 2" from the edge to provide room for clamps.
3. The table will be a little larger than the Chapter 1000 standard: 30" x 8'. I need that much table to lay out the forward fuselage for a mockup. I need five feet just to lay out the rudder bow. When I get ready to do the whole fuselage, I'll build a second 8-footer and fasten them together. Leveling that puppy will be a challenge, I'm sure.
I plan to finish the whole thing with oil-based polyurethane varnish to protect the tabletop from coffee and soda spills. I'm slightly concerned about how well the particleboard will take the nails for the jig blocks; I may have to drill pilot holes. We'll see. Cutting the top will give me a nice big (18" x 8') hunk of scrap to work with. Probably make storage/tote boxes for the metal parts.
Finally got the workbench top done, except for the varnishing. Took longer than I thought it would (better get used to that, eh?) That sucker is HEAVY! Cut the 18" x 8' scrap from the top off at 5' - that should be big enough to lay up the laminated tailfeather bows.
Visited Erich's shop down in SW OH. Nice guy. He let me sit in his his cockpit mockup. Now I know for sure that I'll fit in a Fly Baby. :-)
Build the addition, garage, and shop that must necessarily precede building an airplane. Either that or move to a bigger house!
We're now in the bigger house. It's nearly twice the size, in fact. Main floor has the same square footage as the original's main floor plus upstairs, plus we get a full basement that's fully usable. Plus a two-car garage! If only it were wired for 220...
Finally make it to Oshkosh after all these years
Finalize design selection. [Already done. It's the Bowers Fly Baby.]
Order plans and start cutting wood - again, we're ahead of schedule - see entry for 11/2003.
Happy 45th birthday to me!
Have something to sit in, making airplane noises
Have something that is really starting to look like it could fly before I turn 50
In preparation for first flight, buy parachute and get jumping practice with it - up to and including a tumbling free-fall. If I have to exit the airplane before landing, I want to know that I know how to find the ripcord!
Fly it before my eldest graduates from high school - that's the goal.