My first EAA project

[beaky]

Finally decided to stop being one of those EAA members who just renews his membership for the Airventure ticket discount or occasionally cadging a free lunch, and get involved.
I had heard from John Price, secretary of Chapter 1333, about a wing project and a champ restoration in his hangar at 47N... I had assumed we'd be working on the Champ wing, but it was just a practice model- sort of a 1/2 scale L-4 wing.
 But it was fun and educational- some of the materials (like the wood) are not proper spec for flight, but the techniques are by the book according to regulations.
Drove over to 47N on this lovely moonlit evening, and met 5 members I didn't know, and of course Herb was there; it was good to see him again.
Here's the frame, which I wish I'd been in on building... mostly pine, with dental floss for the rib bracing lines. Came out very well.

     

We snapped a chalk line where the front seam will be, then primed the aluminum parts to receive the adhesive dope that will bond the seam.

     



Bottom skin is on... this is Dacron, and a much lighter weight than would be used for a flyable airplane, but it behaves enough like the real thing for learning how to do this.

There wasn't room on John's bench to lay out the fabric for marking and cutting, so we strolled two hangars over to Herb's and laid it out on the wing of the RV-4. It was good to see the "Silver Bullet" again, too.

     


All covered up, and ready to be shrunk next week after the dope cures. After that, we'll add reinforcing tape and start stitching the fabric to the ribs.




A look at the Champ fuselage, which is coming along nicely... very elegant innards this thing has.
The wings are ready to go on, and the engine has been brought up to snuff and is ready to be bolted on. Obviously the fuselage needs to be covered before all that happens.
The headliner was jobbed out to an interior specialist- it has a few clever zippers for inspecting pulleys and cables. Very nicely done.
I didn't ask about the timetable for all this or if J. wants any help, but it would sure be nice to see it fly (maybe from inside?)... it somehow ended up on its back about the time I was born, and hasn't flown since.
That wing you see is J.'s L-4, which he finally has time to fly now that he's not running the flight school.  I didn't get a good pic of it; maybe next time.

     



Anyway, it was a pretty good use of 3 hours of my life, and I decided I really might enjoy restoring airplanes.

[Willit Run]

Now that's cool, Sean!!

It may be work but, it's fun work and a good use of 3 hours!!!

[Mobius]

Awesome Sean. 8-)

I had a chance a few years ago to spend a couple weeks working on a Sonex kit aircraft, and it was really cool to actually build an airplane (at least part of one).  Hopefully you get to spend a lot of time with that champ, both on the ground and in the air.

[flyboy 28]

Nice stuff there, Sean. On a semi-related note, I visited the County College of Mercer last week, for the Aviation Flight Technology program. My dad and I included a trip to TTN to talk with the flight school there (by the time you graduate with your associates, you'll have a Commercial rating as well), and the guy we talked to is a pilot/aircraft restorer for the Collins Foundation, and helped rebuild the B-24 "Tondelayo". He says he loves it quite a bit and wouldn't spend his days any other way than around aviation.

[Willit Run]

Nice stuff there, Sean. On a semi-related note, I visited the County College of Mercer last week, for the Aviation Flight Technology program. My dad and I included a trip to TTN to talk with the flight school there (by the time you graduate with your associates, you'll have a Commercial rating as well), and the guy we talked to is a pilot/aircraft restorer for the Collins Foundation, and helped rebuild the B-24 "Tondelayo". He says he loves it quite a bit and wouldn't spend his days any other way than around aviation.

Go for it James!!!!!!!!

Psssssssst...James, "Tondelayo" is a B-25

[flyboy 28]

Psssssssst...James, "Tondelayo" is a B-25

Whoops! My bad.

[MrRooney]

good to see some pics of a wing restoration after a fairly long time for me
did you use clear dope or monokote after you'd fitted the wingbags to the aircraft? from what i can rememeber you usually do a few coats of the dopeing substance when prepping the wings ready for the "stringing" (which is quite a major part to do).

thanks for sharing these.

john

[beaky]

Nice stuff there, Sean. On a semi-related note, I visited the County College of Mercer last week, for the Aviation Flight Technology program. My dad and I included a trip to TTN to talk with the flight school there (by the time you graduate with your associates, you'll have a Commercial rating as well), and the guy we talked to is a pilot/aircraft restorer for the Collins Foundation, and helped rebuild the B-24 "Tondelayo". He says he loves it quite a bit and wouldn't spend his days any other way than around aviation.

That's a great idea... maybe I should go back to school...  ;D
What's the NJ-resident tuition like for that program?

[beaky]

good to see some pics of a wing restoration after a fairly long time for me
did you use clear dope or monokote after you'd fitted the wingbags to the aircraft? from what i can rememeber you usually do a few coats of the dopeing substance when prepping the wings ready for the "stringing" (which is quite a major part to do).

thanks for sharing these.

john

This is not a restoration (the wing, anyway)... just a "dummy" for learning how to do it.
I forgot already the brand name of the two chemicals used... and it's not a bag-type skin, we did it in two halves (upper and lower).
The wood is raw, as far as I know (but it may have received a thin coat or two), but the aluminum leading and trailing edges got a thin coat of the first product so the second product would stick to the metal better. To make the seam, the edge of the fabric is laid on a fresh coat of dope, then the brush is used to work it into the fabric. When the next piece is laid on, the process is repeated.

[Hagar]

This is very interesting & brings back a lot of memories for me. Fabric covering was one of my favourite jobs in the old days. We used traditional methods, the fabric covering being Irish linen hand-stitched along the trailing edge. Then, after taping & stringing, several coats of red tautening dope were applied, hand brushed & rubbed down between each coat to seal & tauten the fabric. Finally a couple of coats of aluminiun tautening dope were sprayed on prior to the colour finish. Many of the jobs we did were left in their aluminium finish. These methods would only be used now where an authentic finish is required on a vintage aircraft.

Nowadays most fabric covering is done with modern man-made heat-shrink fabrics like Ceconite attached to the airframe with special adhesives & tautened with a hot iron. The fine weave makes a high-quality gloss finish possible. Materials have changed a great deal but I suppose the basic principle is much the same.

[Ravang]

I recently got to work on a 3/4 scale P-51 (made by Titan Aircraft), and its a lot of fun to build a plane and when its done I'll get to fly in it as it will have two seats

[flyboy 28]

What's the NJ-resident tuition like for that program?

It goes by county actually. Per credit if you live in Mercer would be about $100 plus flight training. But since I live , it goes up to around $200 plus flight training. The admissions guy said I may be able to swing in-county costs though, since there's no school in Hunterdon that offers this sort of program. My other option would be to go up to the County College of Morris, which flies out of both MMU and CDW.

Either way, I'm very excited about it.