Sunday work

I managed to spend about 4 or 5 hours in the garage today and made quite a bit of progress. First things first I finished putting the casters on the work benches. They turned out great and even sit on the floor without rocking. Either the tables actually ended up being square or they are just as crooked as the floor. I've already put them to good use and am really glad I spent the time building them.


With that finished I got to work on the glider. One of the first things I did was cut out a piece of balsa for a new cap on the vertical stabilizer. Leah sanded the top of the vertical down last night so it is ready to be glued on. I just need to get some Epoxy and glue it on. Next I started removing some hardward and miscellaneous stuff from the fuselage. First was the seatbelts and the bottom of the seat, then the static and pitot lines, along with capacity flasks. I also removed the fresh air intake.

I discovered some more damage tonight that will need to be repaired. It looks like I inadvertantly broke some wood when I removed the Rudder, way at the beginning of this process. I didn't even think about it at the time, but there are a couple of pretty massive return springs behind the rudder pedals. When I removed the cable from the rudder the tension in that spring pulled the pedal forward and smashed the pedal into a frame. This broke the frame on the right side pretty good, as that was the first side that I removed.


As you can see the wood is pretty wrecked. I was bummed to see this but it can and will be fixed. Also I noticed that one of the connecting pieces between this frame piece and the longeron, just above the break, had cracks in the plys, although it doesn't show up really well in the picture:


There is some corresponding damage from the left rudder pedal. It is not as bad but will still require repairs to the wood.

Finally I noticed that one of the scarf joints on the longeron on the right side seems to be slightly separated. Should be pretty easy to re-glue the joint though.

So that is what I accomplished today. Also, I made a bunch of updates (again) to the Roll Call post. I just keep finding more pictures and info. I added pictures that are included in the file with old Cherokee II Newsletters and build info from Stan Hall. Check out N9191Z, this Cherokee was built "Flat Topped" with a Jetson's style bubble canopy. I think that some old LK-10's were modified into single seaters and looked similar.

Making Dust

Leah and I started sanding on the fuselage tonight. About 3/4 of the longerons are now sanded smooth.

I need to pick up a few more screws to get the rest of the casters attached and then the work benches will be finished.

The Soaring Magazine index from 1937 to 1967 is now searchable and indexed online at soaringweb and I've updated the Cherokee II Roll Call post yet again with more pictures and magazine articles that I was able to find. Enjoy!

I'm Back!

Leah and I are back from our honeymoon. Arrived in Wichita about noon today. We more or less went right to work on the workbenches when we got back and made good progress. Didn't get them finished completely thanks to me killing cordless drill batteries faster than they can charge. Here is what we've got:

The only thing left to do to this bench is screw down the 1/2" plywood that makes up the lower shelf. The other bench behind Leah needs has three of the legs started but needs doublers and the shelf built in. Tomorrow. I'm going to put the bench on casters as it is a bit heavy and that should make it easier to move around. I'm glad that we decided to assemble the benches in the garage instead of up in the apartment like originally planned. Although if we would've built them in the apartment I could've gotten a corded drill and they would be done now...

Harry stopped by this evening and took a look at 373Y's fuselage. He seemed to like what he saw. There are a few areas that will need attention. I did find a crack in one gusset that connects the lower longeron to the box structure.

Even in this picture it is hard to see. Either way it will need to be replaced but shouldn't be too hard. I need to go over the frame with a moist towel and get it good and cleaned up so maybe that will be tomorrow nights project.

Still nothing from Stewarts. I need to call them on Monday and see what is going on.

I got some more info on N10124, the original Cherokee RM, and will update the Roll Call post accordingly.

Building a workbench or two

Today I saw plans for the famous EAA Chapter 1000 workbench. So simple and sized right. Right at the moment the garage does not have electricity so building a workbench in the garage wouldn't work. But I do have electricity in my apartment and since the finished bench is only 2 feet wide and 5 feet long it will fit out my front door. So after work I went to Lowe's and for about 100 bucks bought enough lumber to make 2 benches. Did some measuring and cutting before my lesson tonight. Now its too late to be running a circular saw in an apartment complex.

Here is the link to the EAA Chapter 1000 Workbench:

http://www.eaa1000.av.org/technicl/worktabl/tablefig.htm

This is what Leah saw when she got home tonight. Incredibly she hasn't even mentioned the pile of sawdust AND she helped me carry up the 3/4" X 4' X 8' piece of plywood. That sucker is heavy!



Leah and I are headed out tomorrow for our honeymoon so this is what I'll be looking at next friday when we get home. It really shouldn't take more than a few more hours to get a couple of good workbenches down in the garage. On that note, probably won't have any updates for a week!

More work tonight

First thing tonight, Leah and I took the rest of the fabric off the fuselage. This involved removing the nose skid and the tailwheel. The fabric came off with no problems and as far as I can tell the wood underneath is in fine condition.

Then I set to work on the vertical stabilizer. Like the rudder it has (had) a Balsa cap on it and like the rudder that Balsa had taken a beating. So I cut it off! Sanded down to the varnish finish underneath and did some work on getting that varnish up so I can glue some new balsa directly to the wood underneath. I did get a little carried away and gouged into the wood a bit but its not the end of the world and can be repaired. Here is a picture of the vertical, sans balsa, before gouge:


I ran out to Harry's tonight and picked up the Rudder. He had been nice enough to unclamp it for me and had a sanding block, chisel, and plane ready for me to shape the balsa up. It looks great! I did end up with one small chip on the trailing edge but a little filler will take care of that no problem.


Still nothing from Stewarts, hopefully tomorrow...

I added a picture of N14ET to the Roll Call post. Forgot I had that one laying around. Also, I've got copies of old Cherokee II Newsletters along with some of the instructional writing and photos that were sent with the original Cherokee II plans, on a monster PDF file. Most reasonable way to distribute this will be me burning it onto a CD and mailing it to you. So if you are interested, let me know! Email at abcondon@gmail.com

New Balsa

Tonight I took the rudder out to Harry's and we glued on the new piece of Balsa. It was pretty easy, worked it with some sandpaper and scraper to get the rest of the finish of the wood. Used the West Epoxy system. Right now it is clamped down curing. tomorrow I'll go out and pick it up and start shaping the Balsa.

Forgot my camera so you will have to wait for pictures. Today I took the N Numbers in to get framed. I had been careful to cut them out. I think they will look great hanging on the wall.

Going flying right now so I doubt I'll get time to take more fabric off the fuselage. Maybe tomorrow...

Baby Steps

Tonight I finished sanding on the rudder. All the old glue is gone. I will need to do some touch up varnishing. Going to take the rudder out to Harry's tomorrow night and have him take a look at it, then we will glue the new balsa block to the top.

Stuff from Stewart Systems didn't show up today, hopefully tomorrow. Leah and I took the instrument panel, seat back and some other miscellaneous stuff out of the fuselage tonight so the only thing left in there is a few stray wires and tubes. Maybe tomorrow night if the weather is more pleasant I can remove the rest of the fabric.

Received an email tonight from a guy looking for Cherokee II plans or maybe a Cherokee II project to work on. If anyone knows of any out there, let me know!