Double your fun

One of the last things to do on the right wing before covering it is to re-do a repair previously made to one of the outboard ribs.....they did a less than stellar job.  I stopped by Wade's this afternoon and got a scrap piece of rib he had from which I would cut out a section to repair mine.  I got the piece fitted in place, but then realized most of my clecos and my box of assorted rivets are at Rob's place.  So, I drilled a few holes to hold it in place and called it good for today.  I'll finish it up later in the break.  Here's a few shots:

You can see the previous repair held on by

about 5 rivets.  This doubler was installed

due to a crack in the lower portion of the rib.

The other side of the rib with the doubler removed.

All of the metal shavings are from drilling out the

rivets.  If you blow up the shot, you can see

the crack in the rib.

The piece of scrap rib Wade had.  I have

removed the lower left corner to use as my doubler.

Doubler in place, but not attached other than by a few clecos.

 

Tying one on

This weekend I had a chance to get a few things done on 98K.  I re-installed the landing lights and wiring after removing it several weeks ago to install a nut plate for one of the screws.  I also used some wax string Wade provided on the left wing.  It is used to tie together the internal bracing wires.  After tying them together, I wrapped the intersection several times and several ways with friction tape.  I went all over town looking for friction tape.  It is amazing how many people have never even heard of it.  Must be a generational thing.  I finally found it at Lowe's. 

I also used the waxed string on top of where I had previously wrapped wire with electrical tape.  The waxed string will keep the electrical tape from unraveling over time.  Now I just need to do the right wing.  Here are a few shots of the process:

Bare wires before the process started.

Tied together with waxed string in two directions.

Intersection wrapped with black friction tape.

 

Gone West

Conrad Crane Shields

8/8/1927 - 11/26//2011

My mentor

My friend

My dad

Heading west into the sunset

Our last flight together in August of 2008

His first radio control airplane called the Rudder Bug.

This was in the late 1950's.  He won many contests

with this airplane.

After running out of GI Bill after WWII, Dad put

education on hold.  He went back in the 60's part time

while working and raising a family, and finished

his degree in 1970.  Like my clip on tie?  

Dad and our 1946 Aeronca Chief which won Best Chief

award at Oshkosh in 1973.

Playing basketball with granddaughter Kristin in the

late 1980's.

Flying R/C sailplanes together in Seattle in 1981.

Dad and Mon with Kala and Kristin,

summer of 1993.

Strobe & Position Light Installation

I have a few days of vacation left to use before the end of the year, so I decided today would be a good day to use one.  That gives me a 5 day weekend!  Yea! 

I received a package via UPS from Wicks Aircraft Supply mid-day.  It contained some one lug floating anchor nuts and rivets for installing them.  These anchor nuts are what the position/strobe lights will attach to.  I cut a slot for the strobe connector to fit through and then made a doubler plate.  After that, I attached 3 of the anchor nuts and then attached the position/strobe light assembly. The position light is actually several LEDs and the whole thing is made by Whelen.

I have the other wing to do yet and then maybe I'll hook up everything to some power and ensure it is all working before we cover it all up.

I also ordered a Klixon 7277-2-5 circuit breaker from Wicks just to see how it would fit in the panel.  I'll need about another 14 before this is finished.  As you can see from the photos, the circuit breaker fits well.  I also installed the phone and mic sockets, plus the socket for an IPOD to play through the intercom.

Hope everyone reading this has a nice Thanksgiving.  We are blessed in so many ways, though we often are too busy with life to stop and count them.

Rivets and one lug floating anchor nuts

Doubler plate with 2 or 3 anchor nuts installed

Completed installation....looks pretty good!

5 amp circuit breaker installed along with various jacks

Backside of panel...plenty of room still!

Tension High During Trammel Activity

Actually, the title is referring to the tensions in the wing's internal bracing wires, not our personalities!

Wade came over this afternoon and brought a few tools along for checking the squareness and internal rigging of the wing (called trammeling).  We did the left wing first and it only required some adjustments in the outer bay by the wing tip.  Everything else was pretty close.  When we did the right wing, we ended up adjusting the tensions in several of the bays, with several being too low.  We now have square wings with the internal bracing wires all at the appropriate number of ft-lbs of tension.

The pictures below should give you an idea of the process:

After marking targets on both the front and

rear spars, we measured the diagonal distance

across each bay in each direction (making an "X").

Hopefully each measurement was the same.

Using a round dial torque wrench and the special tool Wade

brought over, we checked the tensions in each bracing wire.

Adjusting these tensions also had an effect on the distance

measurements, so it could be an iterative process.

After going bay by bay, we checked the

entire wing to see if it was square.

The last step was to run a string down each

 spar and see if all the targets lined up (they did). 

Let there be light...and there was!

Nathan and I wheeled the wing over to near my car tonight and hooked the landing lights up to the car battery to see what would happen.  After getting a better ground connection, everything lit up.  Its hard to believe after 32 years of not flying, and the wings being removed from the airplane and moved who knows how many times, the filaments in both lights are still intact!

Instrument Panel Starting

I have installed the Sigtronics intercom I got for Christmas a few years back and also the Monroy traffic watch I previously had.  I also had an N-number and name plate engraved this week and have installed them (black letters on a gold background).  Hopefully with Christmas around the corner, the empty holes should begin to fill in!

Post 250...another milestone

This is post number 250 for this blog!  I have also posted 188 on the house blog and 153 on the antique airplane blog, so I am pushing 600 posts total.  I joked the other day I would have more done on the airplane if I didn't spend so much time posting stuff.  At least it is a great way to document progress and communicate with folks!

I have completed the wiring runs in the wings for the lights.  This morning I routed a spare wire (the yellow one for future reference) in each wing.  This was suggested by Wade and seemed like a good idea while it was easy to do (i.e. no covering on).  I also replaced the various wires in the landing lights.  I had ordered electrical connectors and other goodies from Aircraft Spruce which arrived mid week and allowed me to complete that task.  Maybe I'll hook up the car battery later and see if the bulbs still work after all this time.  Tomorrow, Wade is coming over to help complete the trammel activity on the wings.

I also received an e-mail yesterday from Al Folsom who owned 98K back in the 1960's.  He sent a picture of 98K in Manhattan, Kansas of all places (also where Kala and Nathan went to school....home of Kansas State University).  I believe from previous e-mails Al was based in New York at the time and had flown to Manhattan for a conference.  His son, who is shown in the picture below, is now a 777 captain!  Hopefully we can all connect at Oshkosh next summer!  Thanks again, Al, for the picture and info.

Landing light wiring.  The line on the blue tape

is one of the targets for the trammeling process.

You can see the wire run.

Another view of the wire run.

98K in Manhattan, Kansas around 1965.

Getting Wired

Nathan and I turned our attention back to 98K tonight.  We have worked a few other projects the past month including building a loft at the back of the hangar, planting trees along our north and west boundaries of the yard, and several other small tasks.....one of which was to publish a book on blurp.com of the Stinson restoration to date.  I also did one of the house construction last year.  I have not made them available to the public yet, so don't go look.  They are basically just down loads from the blogs with a lot of formatting.  I am quite happy with how they turned out.  I'll post a note if I go public with them.

We completed wiring the right wing tonight.  It was much easier to do with it vertically in the cradle than when we did the left wing flat on the saw horses several weeks ago.  We used loop-type cushioned aluminum alloy clamps on every rib and doubled looped zip ties in other convenient spots.  Nathan was busy making small aluminum brackets to attach the clamps to the ribs while I did most of the installations.

We still need to finish the ailerons and trammel the wings (ensure they are square).  Wade stopped by last Saturday and offered some good advice, so there are several things to accomplish.  We'll see how much we get done this weekend.

Proof I actually do something besides direct Nathan.

Wires zip tied to tube on right and clamped to rib on left.

Now we just need a disco ball

I ordered my strobes lights over the weekend and they arrived today.  I also ordered 100 feet each of various gage wiring; some for the landing lights, some for the position lights.  The lights I ordered are LED lights for the position lights.  They look pretty cool.  It was commented that now that we have strobe lights, we just need a disco ball to complete the look.

Nathan and I took the wings off the fuselage tonight to facilitate running the wiring for the lights this weekend.

Skeleton Crew

Kala and Nathan were at Walgreen's the other day and saw a skeleton for sale for Halloween.  They thought because the Stinson looked like a skeleton as it does not have fabric covering it yet, it needed a skeleton pilot to match.  We have some folks coming over Saturday morning from the Beech Flying Club to inspect progress.  This should be worth a few laughs!  We connected the left hand to the wheel and both feet to the rudder pedals.  We added an Indiana Jones hat, too.  Kala put another skull in the baggage compartment with a screw driver through the eye socket.  Freaky!

Stripping Right Aileron

We started stripping the paint off the leading and trailing edge of the right aileron tonight.  It was a slow process with stubborn paint requiring several application of the paint stripper.  We also picked one of the slats for stripping.  After the white top coat came off, there was burgundy underneath.  Since 98K came out of the factory blue, this is probably off another airplane.  I would not be surprised if both wings got either replaced or had major part substitutions after it flipped over in the wind storm in 1965. 

Trying it on for size

I cleaned off a lot of dust from the past year on the fuselage tonight and then decided to install the seats.   Nathan pointed out the aft support on the pilot seat was upside down compared to the co-pilot side.  We determined which was correct and changed the other.  With that fixed, they installed quickly.  I had tried to do this about a year ago and had a tough time getting the center bolt that supports both seats installed.  In hind sight, it was probably due to the issue Nathan discovered.

With the seats in, everyone came out to the hangar to take a look and see how well they fit.  The seats seem pretty comfortable, at least 5 minutes at a time!

Kala and I check the fit.

Kala looking in on Nathan.

The view with the door removed.

Left aileron underway

While some of my parts were in storage at Wade's during the move, he inspected them and indicated what I should replace.  For the left aileron, that parts list included the last major rib near the tip, the outboard trailing edge, and a diagonal brace.  I spent last night drilling out rivets and taking things apart.  Tonight I reversed that process. 

As you can see from the pictures, I have it all back together with clecos holding the parts temporarily. I could not get my rivet squeeze or the puller into one area (3 rivets where the new rib attached to a flat panel close to the leading edge), so I will have to figure out plan "B" for those.

The old parts, you can see the word "replace" on the rib.

New parts, all nice and bright.

Clecos instead of rivets in most places.

If planes could talk....

Nathan and I decided we would like to see how well 98K fits in the hangar today.  We secretly just wanted to see what it would look like with the wings on.  So, we installed them using various screw drivers instead of bolts to hold things in place temporarily.  This is the first time the wings have been on 98K in several decades.  The fuselage seemed to sit a little taller tonight.  If airplanes could talk, we would probably hear some interesting comments.  By the way, it fit with lots of room to spare.

Nearly complete on right wing

Nathan helped me epoxy prime the wing tip and leading edge panel today.  Then I started installing the aileron and flap hardware and cables.  I need to order the wingtip strobes and some wire for the landing light so I can run those wires before covering. 

Wade sent me a note about trammeling the wing, whatever that is.  He gave me a reference to some posts he has made on the Stinson Club web site, so I'll go get educated.  We are also going to check the tension in the internal bracing wires at some point.  Then we will be ready to cover.

Wing finished being painted.

Aileron bellcrank.

New pulleys, hardware, and cables for the aileron.  As

I was looking at the picture, I realized I had only tightened

the nuts/bolts finger tight, so I went back out and fixed that.

This is the mechanism for moving the flaps. 

I still need to connect the spring at the other end.