another piece of the jigsaw

Having dealt with the cowling (which still has a few minor items to be completed) the final(?) piece of the engine jigsaw has been put in place -the air filter.  There were long hard looks at where it could be located since there was not much room for it immediately behind the engine, particularly from the viewpoint of having to remove it at some stage in the futre.  However Dan of JEM Aviaton has come up with a great solution which is that not only is it accessible but it is also for the most part not visible from the frenot or side.  Great job, Dan!

The cowling progresses

The last post showed the first phase of the process of getting it to the right sort of shape.  So here it is in its (more or less) final glory.  Some of you may wonder whether the frontal view is right or not.

But here are some photos from the period that suggest we could be on the right lines:

The trouble, of course, is the need for a longer cowling to cover the Rotec engine and the need to follow the curve of the lower longerons..  Apart from which there's a reasonable airflow over the cyclinders!

The slow march of progress



Almost a month since the last post and what do we have to show for it? A cowling, for a start; one finished top wing (wood only); and a start at covering the ailerons. There is an ad here about cheese: "All good things take time". Not that cheese features anywhere in the construction of course -unless you count lunches in that bracket!

So here is the cowling, well the start of the process anyway.  This was merely to get an idea of just how much needed to be cut off the full round and where it needed to be aligned with the fuselage to get the right curves (not necessarily those belonging to our two 'ladies').

Here is Dan Frew, our welder extraordinaire, putting it in place after some more surgery.  Unfortunately because the Rotec has a deeper depth than the Gnome rotary, the cowling has to be longer than the original.  Which tends to make it look a bit like the FW190 D series compared with the A series.  However perhaps some judicious paintwork may help to disguise it just a tiny bit.  Why the comparison with a FW190? Well, it just so happens that sitting in an adjacent hangar is a FW190 A series........

A companion aircraft in the form of a Sopwith Pup took to the air for the first time last week so the Omaka WW1 fleet is starting to grow.  It is also an impetus to make sure we don't slack off during the winter months!

Second hand jigsaws

You know the ones, those that have a nice box -but are missing some vital pieces.  Well, I'm afraid "Never Been Kissed" (work that one out!) is in the same boat.  Whoever originally built it had decided that he'd be operating off asphalt runways and therefore needed brakes and a tail wheel.  The latter has been constructed with a rather nice bunch of pulleys and cables to swivel it with the rudder.  At the other end he'd also built some nice little brake pedals sitting atop the rudder pedals complete with the necessary adjustment arms.  As for the brakes they're motorbike wheels with drums as opposed to discs -I suspect that at the time disc brakes weren't that easily come by and would probably been very expensive. All well and good so far.  The missing bits, however, are a) the means of holding the drums still (there not being any sort of locator or bolts so to do); b) the cable itself; and c) the routing of the cable from the brake pedal brackets to the brake drums.  This might perhaps be self evident were it not for the fact that the positioning of the brake/rudder bracket suggests that it wasn't going to follow the undercarriage legs at all but head backwards with some curvature somewhere to get it back to the brakes themselves....

What to do? This has yet to be decided but as we anticipate it just flying out of Omaka with its grass runways, we might just replace the tail wheel with a skid (but still connected to the rudder) and dispense with the brakes entirely.  In fact our resident WW1 pilot experts suggest that that is much the preferred method as there is a higher likelihood of ground looping with a tail wheel than without. The things you learn.

I've written off to the last known addresses of the two principal players in the hope that some of the thinking can be revealed.  One has been returned as "unknown", so I live in hope that the other one (the guy who actually built it) might still be around.  The main reason for the writing, however, was to let them know that all their efforts had not gone to waste and that "Never Been Kissed" was still alive and, if not kicking, at least wiggling a toe or three.

This week the engine arrives so we really must get those undercarriage legs back in place.  And that's another story: he'd used ordinary hardware roundhead bolts to connect the undercart to the fuselage.  Our resident mentor (and sign off inspector) says that's a 'no-no' so we have to use the proper stuff complete with castellated nuts-which won't fit in the undercart legs.  Hence a bit of surgery is required to enable them to fit in place.  More learning taking place which goes to show that you're never too old to learn.  You might just need a bit longer time. Like me.