Saddle up!

I have been using a 15 foot storage unit about 4 miles from the house for the past 9 months to store the wings of 98K while I "worked" on other parts. I finally decided I should save 90 dollars each month and bring the wings home to my garage. Then I could work on them when I wasn't working on the fuselage or other parts. I have been waiting on the cold weather to be almost behind us so I could park my car outside and not have to scrape the windows each morning. Of course, the prime directive is to keep Debbie's car in the garage (I understand priorities).

I needed a way to be able to keep the wings out of the way when I wasn't working on them. I have seen various stands to hold wings, and decided to build my own. I probably over did it a little with the structure - I used 4x4 posts mostly. It can support my weight at each end (I tried it), so I know it can hold 98K's wings. The straps on the ends will take the shape of the wing's airfoil, as the wings sit in these "saddles" in a vertical position on their leading edge. The unit is on wheels so I can roll it out of the way if a hail storm comes calling this spring and I can then bring my car inside. I hope to bring the wings home in the next week or two, depending on time and weather. Then I can start getting the fabric off of them and seeing what needs to be fixed.

The whole set up including all the wood, hardware, and wheels cost about $120. So, I should have this device paid for within a month or two of canceling the storage unit. It also kept be occupied a few nights this week building it - and that is a good thing!

Soon to be a riveting experience

My order from Aircraft Spruce came yesterday. I ordered various items for doing the riveting repairs on 98K. Debbie had been saving various pill containers, so I used those to store the various sizes of rivets. I also have clecos, cleco pliers, and a rivet squeezer now. The only item on back order was a rivet cutter. It should ship mid this week. Yea!

You're number 5 for landing

Yesterday afternoon we flew to Johnson County Executive (OJC) airport just outside Kansas City in a Bonanza. My niece was playing in her last basketball tournament of the season and we had not made it to any games yet this year. It was a beautiful day for flying and a plane was available, so why not. The 2.5 hour car drive in done in a mere 50 minutes in the Bonanza.

I filed IFR so I would also have the controllers keeping an eye out for traffic, since it was a beautiful flying day. As we approached OJC, I was on a perpendicular path to the extended runway center line (localizer for those in the know) and about 3 miles out. Traffic was landing north on runway 36. I was handed off from approach to the tower controller, who instructed me to fly through the localizer, and then turn south (away from the airport) - he would inform me when to turn back toward the airport, "you're number 5 for landing."

Wow, I thought - busy day at the airport! I flew south for about a minute before being turned back north and worked into the flow. There was a Cessna 172, Aerona Champ, Sting Sport, and a Diamond all in the pattern besides us. We proceeded with an uneventful landing and the controller thanked us for the help. It probably only added about 5 minutes to the flight.

As I thought about it, I decided this small detour was fantastic. It is great to see general aviation thriving with a full pattern at the local airport on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I remember when I was learning to fly and also working at the Marion airport (back in the 70's), there were airplanes in the pattern all the time on nice days. It is great to see people out and flying, especially given the economy. Since two of these airplanes, the Sting and Aeronca, qualify as Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), maybe the FAA's recently relaxed attitude toward this sector of aviation is paying off. Time will tell.

We enjoyed 2 basketball games and then a quick bite to eat, before launching for Wichita at 9:30 PM. We had a nice smooth night flight home and were in the garage by 11:00, which included fueling the plane, putting it in the hangar, and driving 10 minutes to the house. Life is good!

Pound to fit, paint to match

"Pound to fit, paint to match" is a saying I have heard several times at Hawker Beechcraft, usually tongue in cheek. I got to witness the pound to fit part of it today. I took a day off and went to Halstead, Kansas to assist in some work being done on the fuselage of 98K. As I previously showed in posts from last spring, I found a lot of corrosion in the steel tubing in the lower part of the fuselage. It took awhile, but I finally found someone who still has the skill to do welding repairs to FAA specifications. Mark has been busy with a lot of other projects, but accepted my offer to come up and "help" today. I am sure he is as anxious to clear this out of his hanger as I am to get it back.

We started out replacing one of the upper fuselage tubes that had been previously repaired, probably when the airplane flipped over in the wind storm in 1965. The previous repair, while strong enough, was just plain ugly. Above are some before and after shots. The previous repair consisted of a split tube around the original tube, with a long welding bead the length of the split. We cut that all out and welding in a complete new piece.

Mark is definitely an artist when it comes to welding. He showed me how to use the hand cutter / grinder and turned me lose. There were several places where we patched some of the existing tubes. Mark had me fashion the patches and he welded them in. On a few under the main cabin, the original tubes had been flared (flattened) where they joined other tubes. To get the patch to fit on these perfectly, Mark used the torch to heat them up and then pound them to final shape. It was everything a guy could want - fire and hammering!

More Welding Fun

The shot on the left is the artist at work. The pictures do not do justice to the welds Mark made today. He is a very talented man! Mark and I spent the whole day working on 98K. There is a lot left to do, especially at the aft end. I am planning to take another mental health day next week and go assist some more. The shot on the right is of me grinding a weld off so we can remove a piece of tubing. I was really tired when I got home, but it was a good tired!

Drilling Out Rivets

There is an area on the horizontal tail which has a crack. We will be adding a doubler in the area. I drilled out the rivets on the horizontal tail last night and stop drilled the crack, as seen on the left. I think it turned out OK, though I'll let Wade be the judge on that.

Today I drilled out the rivets on the vertical tail to replace the tip. As seen in the right picture, the old vertical fin top cap is off and the new one is sort of in place to give you an idea where it goes.

I did find a few other cracks in the horizontal, so I'll need Wade's expert advice on what to do. Probably yet another doubler. Nice to have another Stinson guy close by!

I plan to take Wednesday off this coming week and go "assist" with some of the welding activity on the fuselage. I know I'll learn a lot in the process - I hope I am an actual help to Mark.

Valentines from Univair

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I received my order from Univair today that I placed earlier in the week. Included are the top skins for the tip of the vertical tail along with a new top rib and spar. I also got a new tip for the rudder and the steering arm that connects the rudder to the tail wheel via springs. The small boxes each contain a new bearing for the controls, a total of 6. The Westie was not included in the shipment - that is Willie. We are semi-permanently watching him for our daughter who lives in Atlanta. Willie likes to hang out with me and has the makings of a good airplane dog, though he is a work in progress.

I looked through the Aircraft Spruce catalogue the last night or so at rivet squeezers, rivet cutters, and many more items I need to get. Then I found out tonight the bank had to close my credit card account yesterday due to fraudulent activity they detected, so now I have to wait for my new card to arrive before I can by more toys, I mean tools. Glad the bank is watching even if it is a little inconvenient for a few days.

In the meantime, I'll go find some #30 and #40 drill bits locally and start drilling out rivets.

Kansas Aviation Museum

We went to the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita yesterday afternoon for a meeting of the Mid America Antique Airplane Group (MAAG). It included a chili feed and then a short meeting, where I was crazy enough to volunteer to be secretary/treasurer for this year. I figured it would be a great way to get to know everyone. Afterwords, we had a behind the scenes tour of the museum.

They really have some craftsmen working there. One area was called the "Rib Cage" and inside we saw where many wing ribs were under construction to support various restoration projects. The picture shows some of the completed ones. The museum is in the airport terminal building that once supported the airline traffic at Wichita from about 1935 until the early 1950's, when the airport was taken over by the USAF and a new airport built for commercial operations on the west side of town. At one time in the 1940's there was a takeoff or landing every 90 seconds, making Wichita the busiest airport in the country at that time. Given the range of the airplanes back then, having a stop in the middle of the country was a necessity on the coast to coast flights.

The museum is in a really cool art deco building. While it has survived to this point, it definitely still needs some TLC. Here is their web site:

http://www.kansasaviationmuseum.org/

In the late afternoon, Wade came by to take a look at the tail pieces of 98K now that they are paint free. He gave me a lot of good ideas about what to do next, including some parts and tools I'll probably need. So, I have the Univair catalog out looking at various parts I need to get. I probably also need some stuff from Aircraft Spruce. Good thing I finished my taxes Saturday night and e-filed. I'll use part of the refund to get some more stuff for 98K.

In other news, I saw Mark at the MAAG meeting. He is the person who will be doing the welding on 98K's steel tube fuselage. I told him I had some vacation to use up in the first quarter of 2009, so the current plan is for me to go up to his shop a week from Wednesday. I'll cut tubes and do whatever else I am directed to do, so all Mark has to do is the welding. He can then work on other projects in parallel. Should be fun!

Hopefully a rare sight

I had lesson number two today on my multi-engine rating. It is a beautiful day in Wichita, near 70 and light winds - a perfect day for aviating. This shot is about 4000 feet above the Kansas countryside. The left engine is shut down and the propeller feathered. Cool, huh? The Duchess is a nice flying airplane. Like most twins, its a real hot rod with both engines running.

More Mice Evidence

I have been trying to vacuum out the baking soda from the insides of parts as a result of last week's paint strip activities. I was having a difficult time with the horizontal tail, as the holes along the training edge are fairly small and its hard to get a Shop Vac attachment in there. I had also tried shaking the baking soda out of the parts, but that didn't seems to be working very well either. I finally had the idea to get a piece of rubber hose and connect it to this conical device in the Shop Vac. I stopped at the car parts place after work and got a few feet of rubber hose.

I tried the hose tonight and it worked well. I would stick the hose in one hole, shine my flashlight through another, and then try and see what was going on through a third hole. It was working well until I was about 2/3's done. Then for some reason, my flashlight was not making much of a difference. That's when I spied yet another mouse house. It was made of the same insulation and carpet materials from the cabin, yet was all the way back in the horizontal tail. Those guys were obviously everywhere and also had a gymnastic gene! With the help of a screw driver and Shop Vac, I soon had this removed and finished getting the baking soda out as well.

Other than the crack I already found and some interior surface corrosion on the horizontal upper surface, things look pretty good.