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This little homebuilt wooden glider was constructed by Floyd, a
friend and extremely skilled fellow pilot. It now belongs to Sharon. The
plane hasn't flown in many years and needed a very thorough cleaning and
some minor repairs to be airworthy again. Additionally I am making
several performance-enhancing modifications, and upgrading the trailer
so that bugs (mud-dobbers especially) cannot go in.
After some debate I ended up re-profiling the entire nose cone. There
were some scratches on the belly that had to be healed and I used the
opportunity to clean up the nose aerodynamics. The plane had a high
performance (JJ mod) nosecone, but the interface between it and the
fuselage was not very good. I smoothed it out and added some blue trim.
With Pete's help we copied a G-103 wheel fairing and cut it into 4
quarters. Then I took some excess material out and re-joined the 4
quarters into a smaller, Duster-sized wheel fairing.
I also copied the existing canopy frame to produce an open cockpit
canopy for the warmer days.
Here are the photos:
First flight videos: Take off
Landing
(aprox. 18 MB each)
General shots
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Fuselage and wings in the garage.
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Fuse sticking out of the garage.
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Fuse sticking out of the garage.
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Cockpit area sans seat pan.
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Detail view of the front cockpit. No seatpan or instrument panel.
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Detailed view of the rear cockpit.
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Brake reservoir and master cylinder.
A typical Cleveland aviation unit. |
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First assembly of the plane in a looong time.
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Plane assembled on the driveway.
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Newly painted trailer.
I painted the clamshell and Sharon painted the blue. Looks spiffy! With pirate flag, of course. |
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[Back to top]
Inspection and Repairs
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Time for annual inspection and weight & balance.
Done at Jerry’s. |
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Proud aeroplane owner playing with a very cool hydraulic jack.
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Time for annual inspection and weight & balance.
Done at Jerry’s. |
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Belly scratches and bad nosecone – fuse interface.
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Belly scratches and bad nosecone – fuse interface.
Closeup. |
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Belly repairs about to begin.
This plane is more difficult to flip upside-down than most due to the 7-foot wing center section. We hung it from a tree with some straps to flip it. |
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El Chupacabras in full sanding regalia.
Self portrait. |
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Problem areas have been structurally repaired.
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A few low areas have been filled out.
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Belly / nose with 3 new layers of glass.
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A curious wild animal comes close to supervise the repairs…
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New glass layers curing.
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New glass layers curing.
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Low density filler to cover new glass layers’ imperfections.
Most of this stuff would be sanded off. |
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After the belly is reinforced, the cone-fuse interface is addressed.
It needed some filling (low density, non-structural stuff) to be aerodynamically better. |
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Tail skid area undergoes some cosmetic surgery with low density filler. Non-structural.
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Close-up of tail skid area.
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Tailskid section painted & drying.
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4 quarters of a G103 wheel fairing (minus slices to make it smaller).
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2 halves of a G103 wheel fairing (minus mentioned slices).
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All pieces together. Very rough edges, still has a loooong way to go.
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Now the edges and overlaps are smooth.
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Nice and smooth with a coat of paint.
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Preparing to create a negative mold.
After all the work of adapting the G103 fairing, I am NOT going to fly with this until I have a negative mold of it. |
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Glass and resin on the newly made wheel fairing.
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Mold is cured and about to be separated…
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Whew, they separate without much drama.
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Mold and fairing. The mold will need some touchups.
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Taking the old paint off the canopy frame.
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Trying it on for size. No-one has sit in here for over 16 years… what a shame!
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Trying it on for size. No-one has sit in here for over 16 years… what a shame!
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[Back to top]
First Flight
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The big day arrives. We start the assembly process.
Note Big Bird’s trailer in the background.
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View of the interior.
I painted the instrument panel to match the new trim colour. |
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It is a mean-looking missile without its wings.
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Tom helps with the starboard wing installation.
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Horizontal tailplane.
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Ready to hop in. Parachute is freshly repacked but will be worthless for the first few hundred feet.
Unfortunately, that is when I may need it the most. |
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A few final checks.
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It flies!!!!
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After an hour, I return for a perfect landing. (The paint on the wheel fairing was still curing at this point).
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3rd flight, and time to try the open cockpit. Note the appropriate protective goggles.
This was as much fun as I’ve had in a very long time! |
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I laughed all the way to cloudbase. The estimated performance is less than 20:1 (ouch!)
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[Back to top]
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