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| Fall of 1997 |
| Doug Bryant built this much of the Fuselage, Empenage, and metal work. |
| Wing and Fuselage |
| Here is the view of the forward side of the Instrument Panel. |
| To make a cover for the shoulder harness, I made the headrest out of Fiberglass, and Polyester Resin. First, I used my homemade Hot Wire Foam Cutter to make a plug that fit the radius of the top of the Turtle Deck. I covered the turtle deck with saran wrap, then taped the foam plug down into position on top of the saran wrap. I then covered this with one ply of medium cloth and resin, with a flange around the perimeter, and let it cure. Then I popped that off, and carefully removed the plug, and fiberglassed two ribs for support. Then fit the holes for the harness, and used dacron fabric and glued the headrest down to the top of the turtle deck. |
| Here is 3 pictures of the fixed trim tabs that I installed on both flippers, when I had the Model A engine. It is light weight, simple, and has NO moving parts, and I preferred this type of trim tab, because a mechanical type is more subject to failure, and would likely pitch the nose down. |
| Waiting for the Wing and Engine |
| I came up with the size and angle of the trim tab during quite a few test flights, with the Hard Balsa Wood tabs taped in place with Duct Tape, experimenting with various angles, and sizes. When I was satisfied with the results, I replaced the duct tape with Dacron Fabric, and Paint. It has worked very well. |
| Early '05 I decided to make fairings for the landing gear, using foam cut with my Hot Wire cutter, after making templets for the three different size tubing, then covering the foam with heat shrink Ultra-Coat model airplane covering material. This was another very time consuming project. It seems everything I do takes about 3 times as long as I thought it would !! I picked up about 3 or 4 MPH cruise speed. I also used this same method to fair in the Jury Struts. |
| This is the first time that ol' Model A engine has ran in 35 years !! Pucketa, Pucketa, Pucketa... |
| This is a plans built 'Short' Fuselage. The dimensions are what is called out in the plans. There is no flop, or cutout in the wing. I am 6' tall, and 215 lbs., and although it is a bit of a challenge to get in and out of, after so much time, it is just a routine. The Longerons are Douglas Fir, and the rest is Spruce. |
The Fuselage
| YEEEE HAAAAWWW !!!! |
| Also note the 4" piece of tubing in the left part of the picture, just in front of the gear...this is the drain for the shelf that the fuel tank sits in. |
| After about 100 hrs of flight time, I had enough of the problems with getting the bunji chords tight enough, so I modified the suspension from the bunji chords, to spring gear in the spring of '04. The Die Springs are 6" long, 2" diameter, and the flat wire coil is .280" X .460". This proved to be a huge improvement in that I have Never bottomed out the suspension, and as of '07, I now have well over 300 hrs flight time. |
| In the spring of '07 I did a few fabric mods, and repairs. The leather patches on the aft sides of the fuselage, where the cables protrude, were coming loose. I used MEK to soften the oil base paint, and scraped it off with a knife, down to the fabric. I then made three layer fabric patches, stepping out about 1/4" for each layer. In the picture on the left you can see how I used a soldering iron to make the slot in the patches, to melt the fibers together, and eliminate the fabric from unraveling. I also made a fixed trim tab for the rudder. After flight tests of the balsa wood tab attached with duct tape to determine what angle, I glued and fabric covered the balsa trim tab. |