Weight Watching

This session was a first stab at weight & balance of the Skycoupe. Although there were missing elements, notably the fuselage fabric and paint for the whole plane, we got a good idea of where we stand in regard of the Light Sport rule of max weight.
 Here are pictures on how this session wound down:

First put the wings on (Terry had to fabricate temporary wing struts - fabricating time: 10 minutes!) :

Then look at the scales:

Main Left:

 Front:

 Main Right:

Hardly visible here, the tail feathers were also installed and counted (I don't mean the tail feathers of the dog!):

This is Terry's take on the weight status:

The Skycoupe had a total weight of #428 pound using the wing attach points as the horizontal datum

Left Main #190
Right Main #208
Nose #30
Total  #428

This was with unusable fuel, full oil, with no battery, ailerons, struts, avionics, instruments, or panel.
I figured a quick conservative finished weight with 2 standard adults, 12 gallons of fuel, and all the missing parts and coverings/coatings etc. of 1288 pounds. Keep in mind LSA max gross is 1320 Pounds.
Thanks to Mike, Martha, Mike son Mark, JP, and Jim Cronin

Summary of recent work

Thanks Terry Gardner for the following summary of activities in the Aero Club the past week during my absence. Kent

Here is a brief rundown on the aviation happenings. The Skunkworkers poly brushed the left wing last Monday, good turnout for that (MM, JL, JP, TM). The rudder was recovered by Mike McCann and I last Thursday. It exhibited the same peeling problem as the leading edge of the wings. I tried a new technique and was able to do it with no darts! It looks much better too. Tim came over and we put the new mags on and timed and tested them. Tom Malechuck loaned us his timing synchronizer. They look like they function normally. The coupe is ready to run.Unfortunately, I didn't have any fuel on hand.We had a chili fest/rib stitching session on Sunday 2-8 and it started slow but went well overall. Since we had a large group(AT,MM,BE,JL,MP,AS, TM, KS) we polybrushed the other wing(1 coat).They also polybrushed the rudder I had finished Sunday morning before the group arrived. The new TIG welder arrived on the 7th it is magnificent. I picked up the necessary welding supplies at Airgas when I went over to JP's for another RV12 inspection. He is really moving along! We are ready to start figuring out tabs necessary for wiring runs and so forth on the fuse. I also found an appropriately price gem on craigslist,$150, and with a little work it works perfectly. The thought of making multiple trips to Lowes to shake paint was not sitting well with me. I figured by the time we were done with the 'coupe thru finish paint it would be a minimum 50 trips at about 20 minutes a shot. I also got a line on a 52" Pexto Foot Shear with good blades but needing a bit of work. The shear would be very nice, if it meets the price point, when cutting our new found sheets of stock.I will check it out next week. My A&P came up, on his own volition, a design using RV part and dual cylinders for the Coupe brakes. He said what we had (single heel brake operating 2 wheel cylinders) would be ineffective.Bruce Edwards came over for a stitching session Monday evening and we are 80% done with stitching on the left wing. That is all I can think of for now. I was trying to get another session for this week but life got in the way.
I also went over to Hari's for the shop visit Saturday, good turnout there as well.
Terry

RV-7 has a new home - BCAC

Terry, Mike, Andy, Joel and Kent were up at the crack of dawn today (10/30/2011) to load up our Club's latest acquisition, an RV-7 project donated by Mr. Andrew Meyers of Apex. The tailfeathers are largely complete and the wings are about 50% complete. All of the parts are now safely stored at the Skunkworks and we'll be discussing future plans with this latest project at upcoming meetings.

The images below are from the last few work sessions.














The BCAC RV-7 wings in the custom-built, roll-able cradle before being stowed in the Skunkworks.














Nathan McConnell and his father made one last visit to the Skunkworks before Nathan headed for A&P school in Portland, Oregon.














Joel, Andy and Terry put the finishing touches on the undersurface of the left wing.














Terry, Martha and Mike practice rib stitching.

Below: New tool storage cabinet, parts bins and overhead lighting underneath the storage shelves.

Work Sessions 10/26-30/2011

On 10/26/2011, the lower surface of the left wing was covered by Terry, Andy, Joel, Mike McCann, JP and Kent.

On 10/27/2011, the upper surface of the left wing was covered by Terry, JP, Mike, and Jim Cronin.

On 10/29/2011, Terry, Al Sutton, Mike & Martha, and Joel completed covering details on the left wing, and finished all shrinking. We have now both wings ready for Polybrush, then rib stitching.

Also on 10/29/2011, Kent, Tim and Andy mounted a nice cabinet, donated by Andy, that will be used to store tools and other small items from our projects. Tim and Kent mounted parts bins to the nearby wall and sorted AN fasteners. Konrad sorted a variety of small parts that were acquired with the BD-4.

After working on the 10/29/2011, our group adjourned to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Pittsboro and held a long and lively discussion on the incorporation of the Club and what sort of activities we can pursue in the future.

Larry Oppegaard's Sonerai Project

Our Skycoupe's previous owner, Larry Oppegaard, was so inspired by what he saw at the Skukworks, that he recently acquired a Sonerai project, one of John Monnett's (Sonex/Waiex) best-known early designs. Larry send comments and imagees below on the airframe and engine.

Thanks for sending the article about the Sonerai. I saw that there were a lot more items of interest in the Experimenter newsletter, so I re-joined EAA. I had been a member since about 1972, then let it go back in 1995. I’m glad to get involved again.

I have stripped my Sonerai project down to the bare fuselage frame, and will repaint it with white epoxy. I need to fabricate the front seat frame and flight controls, which someone had removed earlier. The wings need nothing, so they are just stored against my garage wall. I need to find a welding rig for borrowing or renting to weld up the steel tubes.

The engine is an 1834cc VW conversion with a Zenith carb. The wings, which fortunately need no work, are all aluminum. I flew one back in the 90’s and it was very responsive, with a top speed of 130 mph in level flight. The Sonerai is stressed for basic aerobatics. The wings can be made to fold for trailering, but mine doesn’t. There are several U-tube videos available.

Best Regards,

Larry

Work Session 10/19/2011

The Wednesday work session went pretty well. Andy, Jim, Paul, Mike, Martha, Kelly and I forget her husband's name were there. We did our last practice stitching then uncovered the wing in preparation for recovering. We got the sheet aluminum measured and put away. We started fabricating an attachment to the fuselage rotating jig to hold the wing vertical. I finished this new jig Thursday and think it will expedite the stitching process. I was interested in having two evening sessions to recover the wing next week, and then maybe one on Sat. to get everything polybrushed (temperature dependent). We can then take stock of our supplies and see how much more fabric we need.
Terry

Work Session 10/12/2011 - Rib Stitching Workshop

Due to a few small, but critical flaws in the covering of the airplane's left wing last weekend, it will need to be recovered. This was the conclusion of our Technical Counselors, Jack Phillips and Terry Gardner, with confirming input from the PolyFiber expert, Jerry Stadtmiller of BIPE Inc. in Andrews, NC. Fortunately, we have plenty of material to do this. The good news is, this provides us with an ideal means to learn how to rib stitch.

We held our first such session on 10/12/2011, which saw a number of BCAC members mastering the starter knot, the modified seine knot and the finishing knot. The images below show the steps taken. Note that in the actual rib stitching of our wings, the fabric will have first received coats of PolyBrush (pink stuff) and rib tapes will be affixed over the ribs prior to stitching. The next rib-stitching workshop will be held this coming Saturday afternoon. Anyone interested is invited. NOTE - If you have one of our four copies of the PolyFiber guidebook, please bring it back to the shop.

In preparation, please read the PolyFiber handbook (if you have a copy) and study these three short videos from PolyFiber:

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=22167622001
http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=22430488001
http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=23753223001

You'll see some other videos on fabric covering at this link, see all pages of videos as they are mixed with tube-related videos.
http://www.eaavideo.org/channel.aspx?ch=ch_hints_tubefabric

First, a rib template was made from cardboard, using the steel template that had served to cut the wing ribs. We chose a 2" distance between stitches. These are marked along the upper edge of the template, then straight lines are drawn to the somewhat closer marks along the lower surface of the template.


















Here, Terry transfers the cardboard markings onto the front and back of our flexible aluminum spline. These are used to mark the inboard and outboard ends of chalk lines for the upper and lower wing surfaces.














Joel, Nathan, Mike and Terry discuss the next steps, snapping chalk lines down the span of the wing's upper and lower surfaces at each stitch mark.














The under surface of the wing with snapped chalk lines. We then used the sharp end of the needles to pre-punch a hole on either side of each rib where a chalk line crossed. Special thought was given to internal obstructions, especially the two spars.














Martha and Mike had practiced at home and became tutors for others, along with the step-by-step procedures in the PolyFiber guidebook.


















When followed closely, after a few tries the directions in the PolyFiber manuals make sense.














While Mike pre-punches the holes, Joel drills through the outboard rib reinforcement which would otherwise block the rib stitching.


















Nathan was a quick study. The lamp under the wing really helped in finding the right place to penetrate the fabric.














Here, late-comer Konrad is aided by quick-study Nathan.


















Above and below: With practice done for the evening, we gave some thought to the placement of the new panel using the old one as an example.