There is a saying in Southern California, you're either a wannabe or you are not.
I was a wannabe but now I am not. I think this is fantastic! More importantly I was a wannabe for years over a Tailwind. Now I have one! I also built it in Southern California and flew it back home to Toronto, Canada.
I don't know if this wannabe thing works elsewhere but it was a wonderful feeling when I escaped the bonds of wannabe into the area of this fantastic satisfaction.
This being noted, I thought I would like to build a Tailwind for years but two things got in the way, kids and I had not the foggiest idea how to do it or the confidence.
I built the Tailwind while living in Irvine, California while my wife was working in the advertising business. About the second year we were in California I had acquired an instrument rating, had done a lot of traveling and flying to keep myself occupied. Just after Christmas, Judy and I rented the 172 that I regularly fly out of John Wayne / Orange County Airport and headed to Tucson for a few days. At dinner one evening she asked me if I was ever going to build the Tailwind. Judy said if I was going to do it, I had better get at it because we are not going to be here for ever. She also made a point, if I was going to do this, don't skimp, do it right.
When we returned home I started to work. It was January 1. Two weeks short of three years later, it went to Chino Airport for the final rigging and hopefully soon for the first flight.
To make a long story short I did all the grunt work and left the odd specialty item to those who knew what they were doing, like the final welding and the wiring of the panel, since I wanted it IFR.
I told myself every day, Earl, if you do not go out to the garage and do some work it won't get done. There is nobody around to do it for you. So every day I made an effort, I produced something, be it ever so little.
I started out my project with building a 4 foot by 15 foot table. A 4 by 16 would not fit in my garage, hence 4 by 15. It worked OK.
Level table. People say you have to have a level table but they probably haven't tried to level a 4 foot by 15 foot table and keep it level for over three years. There are earthquakes in California you know.
I decided it was a wasted cause and went the shim route. Don't get me wrong, the table was level, it was just not perfect.
Everything on my plane is straight as can be. It will fly hands off but not rudder off for long. This is typical of any short coupled plane.
About the time I started to build, I was talking to a friend who was rebuilding a Cessna 182. I told him about my concern when I build the metal wings for my plane. Where the skins overlap it would not be a smooth transition. He said the way to solve that problem is to shim. He mentioned the Mustang wings, he had rebuilt a few of them over the years and the skins were all shimmed on them to make them come out right.
I kept that in mind, used it where possible and my wings came out perfect.
On the table I penciled out one side of the fuselage, drawing the exact size of the tubes in their place. Next I cut out a lot of wooden blocks, out of 1 by 2s, about 2 inches and 3 inches long. I then laid out the exact size of tubes, in their place in the table, starting with the longerons. The wooden blocks were then tacked to the table on each side of the tubes, forming the shapes. Anyone who has seen Jim Clement's photos know the routine. His pictures helped me immensely and saved me many hours trying to figure this out on my own.
I tack welded everything in place and soon had one side of the fuselage. After removing it from the blocks I started again with new tubes and repeated the process I soon had two sides of the fuselage completed.
I then put new marks on the table representing the bottom of the fuselage, and moved the wooden blocks to capture the bottom longerons.
At this point I cut 1 by 2 wood lengths, a little wider than the fuselage and nailed wooden blocks on them to represent where the top of the fuselage would be. I popped them down over the top longerons and they held the sides the right distance apart. I then pulled the two ends of the fuselage in and tied them, this gave the fuselage shape but still with no cross pieces. My problem at this point was how to keep the sides vertical and straight while I put the cross pieces in place.
After a short period of stewing I discussed my new brain wave with my dog and since she didn't say it was a bad idea I went ahead.
I got two long straight 2 by 4s and clamped them to the vertical wall studs. These 2 by 4s were positioned horizontal over the two fuselage sides with little wooden blocks nailed to them to hold the upper longerons in place. The longerons were then clamped in position and this gave me a rigid jig for the top of the fuselage.
I had drawn a center line on the table to make sure the sides would be equal distance apart.
The next step was to cut the cross tubes and insert them in their place. The cutting and fitting of the tubes were done with a hacksaw and one 12 inch round file. A friend who had built a couple of tube and fabric planes told me that it does not take long to get good at fitting tubes with just a hacksaw and a file, he was right about that.
In a short time I was making perfect fits and all the cutting and fitting went really fast.
I made plumb bobs from welding rod and thread.
On the top cross pieces I marked the center of the tube, tied the thread with the plumb bob rod on the center mark and made sure it lined up with the center line on the table. It just took a little adjustment with the 2 by 4 clamped to the wall to make everything straight and firm.
After all the cross and angle tubes were in place and every cross tube had a plumb, I tack welded it all together.
At this point I analyzed my welding and realized it would take me about two years to learn to weld to the standard I would like to have in my plane. Not only that my ass was going to be in the sling and if I welded it I would be forever listening for a creek, groan or ping of a weld coming loose. So I went looking for a welder to do the finished weld. I got lucky! Dave Cox who worked for McDonnell Douglas put a large Tig welder in my garage and would come by on weekends to do the finished weld.
This man is such a fine welder that word got out and soon I had people coming by my house just to inspect his welding.
While looking back over my pictures I had forgotten how I had accomplished certain things. If I mention them maybe they will help some new builder along the way. First, those tubes that run on a angle that are above your head when you are sitting in the cockpit; I drew them on a wide piece of plywood and clamped the plywood to the bottom of the longerons right behind the front door post. This gave me an exact pattern to cut and fit the tubes in place. They needed a little shim with a large piece of thin metal and this also saved the plywood when they were tack welded.
The horizontal stabilizer was built right in place on the plane much the same way. The end of the stabilizer was drawn on a board and the board clamped into place. The tubes were cut to fit the drawing and tack welded in place. Think about it, it makes it easy.
When I think back, the whole tail assembly took as long to build as the rest of the fuselage.
I put the Clement door opening on my plane with one exception. With the Callbie Wood wings that I built, the back spar pickup is one inch farther back which makes the door a touch larger.
I had put in the Clement cross piece above and behind the head, and then realized I did not need to do this, so I took it out and put back the straight tube.
Be patient; I will explain.
I might not have built a Tailwind if it were not for the Callbie Wood metal wings. As a matter of fact, I had not intended to build a plane until I saw Callbie's ad in Sport Aviation.
I called Callbie and after a chat I was sold. That said, these wings would change a lot of things about the plane that I did not like; namely having a large gas tank inside and then having little room for the instrument panel or yourself.
I acquired the plans from Steve, the wing plans from Callbie and after looking them over, I knew I could build a plane that would suit my needs.
After a discussion with Callbie about how much fuel I could carry in the wings, it was agreed I would put 18 US gallons in each wing in four bays a wing; that is between five ribs. I would have no header tank, even though Callbie thought I should. Now getting all this fuel out of the cabin ( 216 lb. ) into the wings presented a weight and balance problem.
Another call to Callbie and we decided to move the firewall four inches forward to account for the fuel pretty well over the CG. ( I did not realize what this did till I performed my first landing by myself and dropped it on the tail (going too slow) and bent the tail wheel rod.) When I tried to pick up the tail I found out it was tail heavy on the ground only. You don't have to worry about it nosing over. It has nothing to do with the flying characteristics or the weight and balance or the handling on the ground. Actually this is the best ground handling plane I have flown and I have flown a few.
Moving the firewall forward four inches allowed me to move the instrument panel three inches forward of the front door post. I then put the seats on tube tracks so I could move them in a range of four inches.
With the tube behind the head back one inch because of the rear spar pick up and the seats that move up to four inches, I had no worry of my head touching the cross tube. With all this rearranging inside I ended up with a large interior. My knees do not come near the bottom of the instrument panel and the passenger is able to stretch his legs out straight. As most of you have probably seen my plane on the Tailwind web-site, the inside does not resemble your average Tailwind.
My first sets of seats were made of round tubing but I discarded them because they would not be strong enough. I then went to 5/8 inch square tubing and did it ever make a difference. I made them much like Jim Clement's seat frames and they worked out great.
The landing gear / motor mount - that was really something. Those who have been there know. The landing gear was built on the plane; I don't know how you would do it otherwise but I bet some people try. I built it without the engine in place and it came out as it should. I have heard of people who say you have to have the engine in place and the weight on the landing gear to do it right but that is not so.
I ran across an old article in Sport Aviation on how to assemble the landing gear, and followed the instructions to a point. My welder, Dave, and I have had a bit of experience jigging up things so this actually came very easily for us to take it one step further using materials we had on hand.
Once we had all the markings on the floor and plumb lines in place, we put a long 2 x 4 crosswise under the plane and clamped the bottom of the gear legs to it with the necessary angles, then used a 1/16 welding rod spacer for the toe in. The tubes that hold the landing gear legs in place had already been cut to size and when in place were tack welded. The basic frame that attaches to the firewall was all assembled by this time and tack welded. At this point we had the landing gear assembly but not the engine mount. Dave did the finished weld on this part and we planned our attack on the engine mount.
Now it pays to have a welder with a garage full of everything. He came up with a piece of half-inch aluminum that was a little wider and taller than the firewall. Now you are wondering what we are going to do with that.
We measured out on the aluminum the landing gear mounting holes, the ones that attach to the airframe.
Through these holes we ran threaded rod and attached the landing gear to the fuselage and the aluminum 1/2 inch plate the appropriate distance, 9 inches from the firewall. This is where the engine will attach to the motor mount. On the aluminum plate the engine mount holes were drawn and the holes drilled in place. This gave us a simple working jig for the motor mount.
We made the motor mount as per plans, then through the week I tried it on the engine for size. I realized I could not fit on a vacuum pump because of one of the cross pieces, so Dave and I found a good way to change it and still keep it as strong.
The flap handle was made to plans and welded in place, then was moved and moved again. Its place now is in front of the seats, attached to the cross tube that the seats sit on. Instead of a half round circle tube the handle rides on, is now a quarter round tube that is made of stainless steel so it won't show scratched paint.
I had the center stick fabricated and in place for a few months when I said to Dave, "I always wanted dual sticks." He said, "Let's put them in." That took four months and a lot of engineering. The sticks are very fluid because they ride on nylon bearings and they also look great. I made nylon bearings wherever I could.
The rudder pedals, the flap tubes and the center bearing for the push pull tube to the elevators all ride on these bearings.
The sticks are three-quarter inch stainless steel; as a matter of fact the whole dual stick setup is stainless because Dave had a lot of it sitting around gathering dust. He has a friend who bent them for us to our liking and we tweaked it to make it work. Sounds easy but it was not, but then again it was worth it.
There are a lot of tabs on a tube and fabric plane. To make it easy I had some strip one inch wide .025 and .032 sitting around so I took my tin snips and cut the lengths I needed. When it came time to fit them to the airframe I held them in place with vice grip pliers and Dave tacked them in place. This went fast. I left the drilling to later when Dave was not around because I wanted to put nut plates on some, clip nuts on others, and some have rivnuts in them, which all take different size holes.
To jump ahead a little, we built the wing struts on the plane with the wings in place. The streamlined tube for the strut was cut a touch long and we fabricated the top attach piece not like the plans; Dave has a few better ideas how things should be welded together for strength. The bottom end was not done like the plans either. I had some streamline tube that is one size smaller than the strut tube that I decided to utilize.
About a six inch piece was welded in place, as per plans, with a strap for re-enforcing. The strut tube slid down over this short tube for a tight fit. It was then secured with a horizontal bolt that ran through both tubes. Inside the short tube there is a tube welded in place for the bolt to slide through.
The actual strut tube has a two foot round tube rosette welded in the center for strength in compression.
I had the airframe powder coated since I had no desire to do the sandblasting and then paint it in my garage.
As it turned out I found a small company that builds truck racks and he fit it in as a filler job for $275.
All the bits and pieces. Not bad I thought!
Everybody loves my doors; they are .75 inch square x .125 aluminum and we built them right in place. You wonder why the aluminum is so thick? It is all I could get at the time for a reasonable price and I also wanted to tap them for screws. The skin is held on by screws and all the screw holes around the window are tapped. I wanted a door that just clicks shut when you close it and to accomplish this I used a MD 90 washroom door lock. I even kept the handle and cut it down to a stubby lever. There is no handle on the outside of the doors. I cut a one inch finger hole in the skin and riveted a Camloc access door in place, (the Camloc used for wheel pants.) This is a small spring loaded item and all you have to do is stick your finger in the hole, push the little door aside, then push the lever and presto, the door opens.
I covered the plane and painted it in one month, all by myself. It was a lot of work but rewarding.
A chap, Norm Douthit who worked for Ray Stitt for years, came to one of our EAA Chapter 7 meetings and gave a talk on covering your plane using the Poly Fiber process. He made it sound easy and he also said he would give us a 35 percent discount if we bought from him. Norm has his own little business selling Poly Fiber Products.
I had a chat with him, mentioned I was ready to cover and I would take him up on his offer. He said, "When you are ready call me on my 1-800 number every morning and I will walk you through what you want to do that day." Some days I called him four times and it was like having an expert right with me.
The Poly Fiber Process is easy to use, even for someone who has not done it before. I put this in the category of, even my wife could do this.
By the way, when covering be sure to start with the vertical stabilizer.
The instrument panel and radio panel are 1/8 inch aluminum and the panel on the right which holds the fuses is .032 aluminum. A friend of mine had punches for the instrument holes so he punched them and also cut out the panel for the radios. The instrument panel is shock mounted, the others panels are not. There is a 3/8 x .035, 4130 angle welded in place to give the shape for the top and to fasten the shock mounts. The bottom has 1/2 x .035 tube running from side to side with a 1 inch x .035 strap welded along it to attach the bottom of the panel. I painted the panels with a spray bomb and could not believe how well they came out. Most people seem to like the panel with what I have in it. I have enough stuff to go cloud busting which I like doing now and then. I have had a few people ask me what do I want all that stuff for, my only comment is, "If you don't know how to use it you don't need it."
I used 3/16 Lexan for the windscreen and it runs all the way back behind the head.
The three pieces it attaches to are 1/2 x .049 square aluminum. To bend these to fit and all other tubes I needed bent, I used the Y in my bending tree in front of the garage. The Fica tree was only too happy to help.
Into the 1/2 x .049 aluminum pieces I drilled and fastened rivnuts, then used flush screws to hold on the windscreen. All other windows are 1/8 Lexan. The back windows are held in with 3M double sided tape, the tape that holds trim on the sides of cars. There are no other fasteners.
Looking over my photos I realize I had the airframe completed, but not with all the details, when I started the wings. I built the wings while waiting for my welder to come and do all the little welding jobs that needed to be done. After the wings were completed he still had not finished everything, even though he came every weekend and worked hard.
I must say this - I love my wings because they allow a lot of important changes to be made. The big 15 foot table came into play again. I could build the wings on one end and still have a work space on the other.
You start this project by making wooden form blocks for the ribs. You have to make two form blocks for front ribs and two form blocks for the long back ribs. You also have to cut out a back plate of wood that is just 1/8 inch smaller all around, then the four form blocks. These two sets of blocks and back plates are to make two different, front and back ribs that have the flange going opposite ways. With me so far?
There is a full size shape of the ribs on the plans and they are the exact shape of a Tailwind rib. Transfer the shape to some wood and trim out these blocks. Be careful to keep the exact shape.
Now that you have the blocks you will want to make a right and left rib, meaning opposite flanges.
To do this you stand the blocks on edge horizontally and together. Now looking at one end of these blocks you file a 3/8 inch radius the length of the blocks but only on the inside edges where the two blocks touch. OK. On the other side of these blocks on the outer corners opposite the 3/8 radius draw two lines down the side first 3/16 and second 3/8 of an inch, full length. Now you file from the 3/8 radius, but not cutting into the radius, down to the first line. Make sure these filed down pieces are going in opposite directions on the two blocks. When you bend aluminum over these form blocks these filed down angles on the blocks allow for spring back of the flange. At this point if you bent aluminum over these blocks it would go all wonkie and not lie down right. So to fix this problem you file flutes into the wood where you use a dowel to force the aluminum down into the groove. But first you file these flutes into the wood 1 1/2 inches apart using a big round file.
They should be filed down to the second line you put on the block and only up to about 1/4 inch from the top, being careful not to cut into the 3/8 inch radius. The flute closest to the pointy end should be 2 inches from the tip. Now how does that look? Not bad! This is easy.
You now have the tops of the ribs finished with the flanges going in opposite directions. I hope. Well, turn them upside down and do the bottoms the same way. You will be finished in no time. It is important to make these right as you will see when you start banging out ribs. Next you should take one of these blocks and trace it on scrap aluminum leaving more than 3/4 inches all around, Draw a line the shape of the block at the 3/4 inch line and trim out this piece nice and neat because this will be your pattern for your rib blanks. You now have a piece 3/4 inches larger than the form block all around. The 3/4 inch is the flange when bent over. But wait; you still have to trim the front a little because it has too much metal to bend over for such a sharp curve. You do this by drawing a line around the tip 1/4 inch out instead of 3/4 inch. This line will come back from the tip 1 1/4 inches top and bottom and curve up to the 3/4 inch line and blend into it with nice curve. Trim the excess piece of aluminum off, then sand the edges and Bob's your uncle. ( An English saying.) Where the ends of the ribs bend around vertically, in the corner where the horizontal edge and vertical edge meet, drill a 5/16 inch hole and snip out the corner. This is so it won't crack when you bend it.
Go to it; cut all the rib blanks out, file and sand up the edges so there are no nicks to start a crack. This takes more time than banging out a ribs.
All the ribs are .025, 2024 T3 aluminum except for the two ribs that are on each end of the fuel tank. They are .032, 2024 T3 aluminum. Form these four ribs last because you will want to file down the form block a little more for the flange to bend a bit further so the spring back will be the same as the .025 ribs.
Whew, I am getting writers cramp, but we are moving right along.
You are ready to make ribs now and this is the fun part because it looks like you have accomplished something.
Take a form block and place the back up block over it so it is centered; then drill two 3/16 inch holes about 3 inches from each end. It really does not matter where, it's just to hold everything in line. Place a rib blank centered between them and drill the hole in the blank so the three line up, then place a nail in each hole.
Put this in a vice and now you are ready to bang away.
You have to have a rubber mallet, a must!
Start by tapping the aluminum over the form block, not the backup wood. At first you are not sure about this working and then it starts to take a little shape. Wow!
Once you have it banged down and it's all wonkie, take the dowel and lay it on the flange above the flute.
Bang the dowel with the mallet hard and force the aluminum into the flute. Neat eh? It takes the shape of a rib. Can't wait to turn it over and do the other side.
Soon you come to the little tip. It needs a little work tapping the metal around it. It goes wonkie but don't worry, play with it. When you get it off the block you can tweak it with pliers, trim a little off and do some filing. It only needs a bit of curved flange to give it strength.
Now you have formed a rib and you know it is a pretty good rib if you have to pry it off the form block.
Get to it and bang them all out but keep in mind equal number of flanges, right and left. One thing I should mention, it is imperative that they are all the same lengths and that goes for right and left flanges.
There are a few other things to know about building the ribs like joggling and the inside rib being shorter but they are well described on the plans and easy to do. The hard part is finished.
The spars were made on top of two recycling crates that sat on top at the edge of my table. They were easy to build this way after I got a few holes in them to hold it all together with clecos. Oh yes, you need a lot of Clecos, number 30 and number 40, 40 being the smallest.
With every hole in the wings I started with a number 41 drill and that hole would take a number 40 cleco. When everything was lined up and I was ready to rivet I would re-drill with a number 30 drill and put in a number 30 Cleco; also, this hole would take an 1/8 inch rivet. This way if the holes were not quite lined up you could adjust a little.
Every rivet inside the wings is a solid rivet and every rivet on the outside is a flush 1/8 inch Cherry Max.
Remember not worrying about leveling the table? Well, this is why. I assembled the ribs to the spars and also skinned the wings while they were sitting on four one gallon paint cans. The spars sat on the cans at their ends and only needed a small bit of shimming to two corners to make both of them level.
Riveting all the ribs to the spars is fun because you are assembling something and it looks like your accomplishing something. You are but where do you put these big things?
Next it was time to bend the wing skins. I phoned my friend Tom Griffith to see if he would come over and add a little input. The idea was to bend them on the table, that is what Callbie said to do but you know some of the old timers make it sound so simple or they miss telling you one little key item and you flounder around forever like in a bad dream, saying to yourself, "Why oh why did I ever start this thing."
NOT SO!
Tom and I clamped a folded over skin to the table. I got up on the table with a flat board and forced the skin down so the leading edge would bend.
Tom was at the edge of the table and when he thought it was bent enough I would let up and he would try a rib in the fold. We kept doing this till it took the shape of the leading edge rib. I was surprised! Really Surprised!!
There are only three skins on each wing and they go from the back spar around the leading edge to the back spar again. Out of the six skins we bent for both wings the first five worked out fine; then we blew the last one. It ended up a little caddy wampus so I had to make another trip to Spruce for a replacement skin, It bent fine, thankfully.
It took most of a day to put one skin in place, drilling through the skin, the ribs and the spars, then clecoing.
For this operation the skins were held in place by long straps, like the ones people use to tie down their planes.
Tom came each day I was ready to put a skin on, because I needed the extra hands to hold things. The two outer skins were put on first, clecoed only. The inside skin over the fuel tank is .032 and the outer skins are .025. All the aluminum on the wings are 2024 T3 except the spar cap.
I gave Tom a rest for a few days while I did some shimming. I riveted aluminum .025 strips to the top of the ribs and the tops of the spars so that when the center .025 skin was assembled it would flush right across with no dips. It worked.
After all the skins were drilled and clecoed to the 1/8 inch rivet size and everything fit perfectly it was time to think about sealing the tanks and doing the final riveting.
Pro Seal, have you heard about this sticky stuff? Tom knows all about it now because he had it everywhere!
This is what we sealed the wet wing with.
My friend Brandon, an engineer on the C-17 project, told me this is what they use to seal the wet wing on the C-17, your average airliner and also a bunch of fighter planes.
Pro Seal is a two part item with a fairly short working time frame. First you clean everything with MEK and then mix this sealer, 1 part to 5 parts on a piece of cardboard. I put marks on the cardboard that represented 1/4 inch and 1 1/4 inch with the hardener being 1 part, and the sealer 5 parts. I then mixed it up using a tongue depressor. Mixing this small amount allowed me to use it all before it set.
We put the bottom skins on first with the sealant between the skin, the ribs and spars. When that was done we turned the wing over, and propped up the top skin so we could work inside the tank. We sealed everything inside the tank and then went over it again. I wanted to do it a third time but Tom thought it was overkill.
You cannot mix this stuff enough. The more you mix it the less chance of having a pin hole leak. Just a little bit of air left in the sealant will work its way to the surface and presto, you have leak.
I had three small leaks on each wing that were easily fixed.
I finally bit the bullet and agreed to close up the wing. We put the sealer on the tops of the ribs and the spars, pulled down the top skin and clecoed it in place. Then we went to lunch.
Brandon first said to clamp it down then he said, probably clecoing it will do since we had no way to clamp it. At McDonnel Douglas they have clecos that work as clamps but we did not have that luxury.
The idea is to let it set for a bit so the Pro Seal will squash down and spread out if it is going to. You don't want this to happen after the rivets are shot. In California it seems they shoot rivets, elsewhere they do other things.
After lunch we started the riveting. Tom inserted the 1/8 flush Cherry Max rivet and I used and air puller. We got pretty fast at it but boy there is a lot of rivets. The great thing about Cherry Max is they all break off flush and every hole is plugged. I did not have to drill one out.
We eventually had both wings finished, so it was time to do a leak test.
Another call to Brandon to find out how the Big Boys do this.
This is what they do but on a different scale. Take your vacuum cleaner, hook it up to blow air, and blow air into the gas cap hole, assuming all other holes are taped over. Go over all rivets and connections with soapy water on a brush and any leaks should show up. And they did. Next step, you are almost done, reconnect the vacuum cleaner to suction and place it back in the gas cap hole. You should have the sloshing compound stirred up and ready to use; then you take a small clean screw driver and put a dab of compound on the spot where the leak is and the suction from the vacuum will pull it through the hole. After about three dabs it won't suck through any more and the hole will be plugged. Is that any good!
It took me about five minutes to do each wing.
The wing tips are from a Thorp S18 and had to be tweaked a bit. Closed up at the front about 1/4 inch, then they fit the airfoil nice and snug. I also had to trim about two inches from it to match the trailing edge, but all in all they work great. These tips are 11 inches wide and this allows for the aileron to be 16 inches further out toward the wing tip, It also allows for a wider flap.
My flaps and ailerons are fabricated much like Clements. They are larger than a normal Tailwind and very effective. Inside the flap and ailerons there are skin stiffeners little aluminum angles every 5 inches flush riveted top and bottom. The torque tubes ride on nylon bushings and are very fluid.
The indent faring at the root end of the wing was fiberglassed right in position. It was pulled off, cleaned up, trimmed and put back on with soft rivets. I will have to take this off later to cherry it up.
The engine is a Lycoming 0-320 with only 500 hours on it. It had sat for many years in the desert so I had it top overhauled.
The cowling is an Edge Concept and so is the spinner. The cowling needed a lot of work. I had to cut the top sides apart to fit my fuselage and also change some of the shape around the front to match the spinner.
I had to make three carburetor heat boxes before I got one to fit, That seemed to take forever.
The exhausts are stainless steel and made to fit the cowling, It would be cheaper if you could buy a set but you have to make them. They have cracked four times but I think I am getting a handle on it now. That is another story.
Everything on my plane is new and most everything is aircraft quality. I tried to keep in mind how certified planes are made, for safety reasons, such as my fuel system, It is very close to a Cessna system and that is not all bad.
The electrical wiring was taken right out of a tried and true diagram in a Bingelis Book.
At weigh in, the plane came in at 968 lb. Not bad for everything I have in it.
I blame the extra weight on my friend Skip who helped me wire it . He kept adding all these wires and I don't know what they are for.
Not much more to say other than I love my plane, and I'm happy I am one of the wannabes who finished their project.
