A final message for the year?

I know we're not quite at the end of the year yet, but it looks like there won't be much more progress until the New Year.  However!  Good news on the engine mount front as you can see - all painted up and fitted in place ready for the next phase of trying the engine for size.  (NB. The oil tank is there just for show - need to drill a few holes in the appropriate places.) We also need to work out where all the extra bits'n'bobs fit and whether the whole lot will slip into place without further surgery.  We know some will be required for the engine instrumentation cables to flow through to their appropriate gauges.

Rex meanwhile is making good progress on the wing and we're hoping that once it is completed the next one will go much faster now that he has all the necessary jigs available.

So finally I'd like to wish all my readers (all 2 of them) a very Merry Xmas and a satisfying New Year.

Cheers,

Eric

Clear the Decks for Action!!

Having cluttered up Rex'a lovely table for the past few months with bits of spars, ribs, packets of nuts'n'bolts (appropriately marked whence they came), tins of paint, paint brushes and the odd tool or three, while we waited for the appropriate sheet of metal to be delivered from which to make the compresion ribs, the day has now arrived when Rex can get to work on doing what he has been champing at the bit to do for so long -get on with the job of building those ribs and getting the wings into shape. (Sorry about the long sentence but I think that is what Rex has been feeling for the past few months.) Must really find time to take some photos of the fittings he'd had made - they really are quite pretty.

Our friends at Rotec who supplied the engine have graciously allowed our project to head their list of projects on their own website. (The only reason we're heading it is because we're the latest and least completed -but, what the heck - we have a moment of fame.)

I know these blogs are somewhat irregular but they'll be even more irregular come next month as I head off to the Northern hemisphere to attend my youngest's wedding in Sussex. Not by the Sea but underneath a tree.  There must be something in the blood as a grandfatehr of mine was a carpenter by trade, I've dabbled a bit on carving and said son is carrying on the tradition.  My current wood project is to build a replica Lewis Gun for our mentor's N11. If I ask nicely he might arrange for the Moreau mounting to be made for ours as well as his......

Plans? Who needs plans?

An interesting disovery about the wings: we have plans drawn up by the Germans of a captured N17 plus plans of a scaled N27, neither of which match our wings!! Believe it or not but this does constitute a bit of a problem since we don't know where certain vital pieces of internal stressing need to go. However, having gone through some of the correspondence which came with the goods, I happened to come across some drawings which now explain all. Well, I think so; I have still to discuss them with the others to see if I'm right. If so, we can start to look at what fittings will be required where and therefore dimensions, etc. Plus the engine supplier is in contact so that other piece of the jigsaw can get underway. And the welding on the fuselage is now complete so we can start to get rid of the surface rust and prime it. The weeks are going to start to get busy!

Flying has come to a temporary halt as I await the return of my doctor to give me my medical clearance for the next 2 years. So it's time to do a bit more swotting for another exam. Just one more after that and I can rise to the dizzy heights of "Intermediate" and therefore be allowed a bit more licence about where I can stray to.

Advice from the Experts

Had a good meeting the other day with a couple of guys, who have built their own aircraft, on what the next steps should be as far as the wing construction goes. So today Rex and I made a start on assembling one wing with its two spars and ten ribs. Just as well as we found that I had located one particular rib in the wrong place! Also found that the rear spar was (more than) a bit of a squeeze so Rex's experience with files and wood came in handy to make it that much easier to get the ribs back on again. All good experience!




The next step will be to work out what fittings need to go where, and who is game enough to manufacture them. It's all rather exciting! In fact there was an odd occurence last Sunday: I had taken home some original photographs to scan them and had put them in my folder to bring them back. Once in the hangar I couldn't find them. Even cursing didn't bring them to light. However, shortly afterwards a gentleman came wandering over clutching the aforesaid photos enquiring if we were missing them. It transpired that he was an acquaintance of Graham's who had been doing circuits in his own home-built Jodel the other day. After viewing the fuselage and what we were up to, he promptly volunteered his (unskilled) services to the project. In fact I think the other two guys might have offered to join as well had they not already been committed to building their own aircraft. So it would appear the project is gaining some momentum!