Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
more... Hangar Flying
March 30, 2009 Reflecting... 1250 down...1250 to go
Kinda hard to believe that I've been working pretty steady on the build for the last two and a half years. The first 12 1/2 years saw a total of 126.9 hours, the last 2 1/2 an additional one thousand one hundred twenty-nine point six hours. (whew !)
Actually, now that I'm reflecting on it, it isn't hard to believe that I have that many hours on the build. A lot has happened in those 2 1/2 years; most of the fittings have been cut to size, learned to weld, fuselage is all welded up, tail group ready to finish weld, ribs are ready to hang on the spars that I have, throttle quads are made, seats are fitted and welded in, rudder pedals are finished, making the torque tube controls and have everything ready to make the main landing gear.
How's does it feel for me to be at this point; "half-way" through the build ? I guess I could get excited if I thought about it... but I'm not the easily excitable type. Feels good to have this much accomplished on the build. Feels real good. Can't revel in your accompishments too much... too much to think about when building the next piece. Can't be cluttered with thoughts of the last piece you made.
What keeps me going ? My immersion in the project keeps me going; it feeds on itself; all consuming. I've said it many times before, the more I build, the more I want to build. If you understand that, it kinda sums it all up. I never thought that I could find something as enjoyable as flying, I was wrong. Building is just as enjoyable as flying.
Where do I think I'll be in another 2 1/2 years ? I think I'll have this puppy up and flying by then. My biggest hurdle will be the engine... now if I could win the lottery and have someone else do the overhaul, I'd be in business, maybe push this completion date up six months.
June 19, 2009 Hard to believe.. I've accomplished a lot.
Not actually hard to believe, but I've been working at building this Skybolt for so long I'm pleased to see that a lot of these pieces are being made and I'm checking them off my list. Just the other day I looked at the plans and decided to high light the pieces that I've made so far. I was near blinded by the brightness.
In the last three months I've put on close to 200 hours. (182.4 hours... but I still have 11 days left before the three months is up) Hmmm.... I better get started on that radial. I'll be needing to hang it before I know it.
June 22, 2009 A day in the life... of Alloway Airport.
Started off the day hanging with the guys at the airport. Well, I didn't start the day like that... but the morning ended up like that. Started off by driving over to the airport to "cap" that opening in the Jacob that I created when I took off a few components to see if the starter would fit in there with the "electric stater" contraption that Whitey came up with.
Made a pattern then cut and drilled a piece of sintra (hard plastic) using the pattern as a guide. Worked like a champ. Now all I need to do is get some grease to create a nice seal around it to keep all the moisture out.
When I pulled up to the hangar, Whitey was standing there with Tony, next to Tony's Aeronca Champ homebuilt. Tony has gone through at least four carbs on the Subaru engine he has hanging on the front of it... not happy with any of them. This one... his fifth, I believe, was purchased from Rotec, the ones in Austrailia. It's a beauitiful looking carb... with some cutting edge thinking worked into it.
I took this photo of Tony in the Aeronca firing it up, with Whitey sitting on the side-lines. I've got the Kodak moment on film... ready to get a shot of a fireball coming out of the end of the carb. You have to know Tony to understand this. : )
Tony takes a lot of razzing from the guys... he's a good hearted guy and takes it in stride.
As we're milling around, watching Tony work on his carb, we see Walt pull his Kelly D out of the hangar from across the field. Gus originally built this and put a few hours on it before heading down to Kentucky and selling it to Walt. From what I hear, Walt hasn't flown it yet. Still tinkering on it... loves to tinker. We thought he was going to go for a short hop. Turns out, he was only moving it from one hangar to another. Looks like he'll be doing an annual on someone's plane and needed the room. He didn't realize I was trying to get a picture and this is the best that I could get.
We headed out to lunch not longer afterwards. The jokes were flying across the table as we consumed some of Hopewell's finest food. We returned from lunch to find Joe Rymal running the engine up on his Cessna 170 (he owns a Cessna 180 also.) Looks like he finally sold it to a guy in New Mexico. He wanted to be sure everything was looking and sounding good before the buyer showed up on July 8th to take her to her new home.
I'm not usually around the airport on a week day. A lot more action going on today then I've seen at the airport on the weekend for months. I guess all the rain we've had for the past month hasn't helped the cause though.
I think I've found my nitch in life. Hanging around the airport with the guys. Now all I need to do is get my A and P lic. and specialize in radial engines and I'll be set.
Evening follow-up...
When I'm around the airport, talk turns to radial engines every once in awhile, actually all the while. When I spoke to Whitey last weekend he gave me the name of Joe Jenkins, down in DE, as a guy that may have a lead on somone that may know someone that knows someone that knows about Jacobs engines, or someone that has one. What I need to do is see the back-side of one of those engines so that I can get an idea of how to make this engine mount. Called Joe this morning and had a good talk with him. Gave me a few names of people to talk to. And so begins my journey of Jacobs and their engine mounts.
When the conversation turned, er, when I turned the conversation to radial engines today, I mentioned my conversation with Joe, and the names people he suggested that I call. That lead to Whitey mentioning the name of a good friend of his from a while back. A guy up in central Jersey. He had restored a Bamboo Bomber years ago, and we all know they had Jacobs engines on them. Didn't have his number right off the top of his head but would look it up and give it to me.
Day turns into night and I got a call from Whitey at about 7PM. Had the guys name and address. I couldn't wait until tomorrow, so I called Bob tonight. Real nice guy. Had a great conversation with him; talking about the bomber and my Radial Skybolt project. He has a few engines out of his bomber attached to engine mounts ! Unbelieveable ! Here I am, having problems tracking down any engine mount, and there are a few not more than 50 miles from me. Thank you Whitey. And thank you Bob !
I'll be calling Whitey to set up a time when we can take a trip up there to meet Bob and look at Bob's Bamboo Bomber, and a few of those mounts. A very productive day.
July 1, 2009 It felt like... wasted time.
It's beginning to piss me off... this searching for a tool that I knew it was just there the other day... even just a few minutes ago. Where the heck is it now ?!
I'm just too focused on spending time on the project... when I have the time. I don't even want to clean up... maximize the time by working on it the entire time that I have time. If I'm not working on it... it's wasted time. Had to toss that theory to the side today and get things organized.
I spent many hours today cleaning up, throwing out, and organizing my tools so that I'll have a place to stand, an empty can to throw more stuff out, and know where everything is (in theory.)
Started off on a bad note... I have a side room that I have a lot of old magazines stashed in it in cartons; we're talking about magazines from the 70's and early 80's. I needed to straighten things out in there so that I could put a few of the lightly used tools in there while not using them; get them out of the way. Barely enough room for my feet, let alone an unused piece of equipment. I had to slap myself after a 1/2 hour flew by and I was still browsing through the magazines. Leave that for another rainy day, after the Skybolt is built.
About 10:30 tonight I'm close to being there; close to having things clean, emptied and organized. No work on the biplane... but now things should go much smoother... knowing where those tools are.
Novemember 21, 2009 I've become the person... I didn't want to become.
Yeah, I use to look at someone that hadn't worked on their project for a few months and thought... yeah, they're finished. Well, yeah... I had become one of those builders. I was, for a few months.
Making excuses that I couldn't pick up the oxygen tank, or some other bullshit reason. I could have always worked on a jig, or did something else on the project that didn't require me going out and purchasing something.
December 19, 2009 Remembering... that first flight... in a flying machine.
I'm on facebook and I'm friends with Joe Musumeci. I saw a photo posted of a Piper Comanche and asked Joe if that was his father's plane. It was. This is the first plane that I went up in. Can still remember that day. (which one of us doesn't?)
One heck of an experience. A beautiful day in the summer (of '69.) I must have been around ten years old. Had been waiting for this ride since I was five or six. I sat in the front with Joe; Joe's dad. He let me take the controls for a little while. Flew all over South Jersey that day. Felt like
(it did) it ended too quickly.
That's Joe Jr standing on the wing; Joe's son. Thank your Mr. Musumeci for taking me up for that ride.
May 1, 2010 The Good... the bad... and the ugly.
Full steam ahead with the build for the past month - the good.
Working straight through with no clean up - the bad.
Needing help to lift a few heavy pieces of equipment and the place looking like a wreck - the ugly.
If you didn't read in a few of my previous posts... I've picked up two nice, old, heavy pieces of equipment. Moving them around... heavy and akward at best.
I'm not a clean freak (read that as organized piles - I know where everything is). When I went down to the shop in the basement I took a look around to see where I would put the "new" bandsaw and "new" jigsaw. As I scanned the room I couldn't believe the disaster it was. I was actually embarassed. Before I could/would have anyone down there to look at it I'd need to do a thorough cleaning. My problem was that I needed to get the jigsaw out of the truck. I had already lugged the bandsaw out.
Spent the next two hours of my "build time" cleaning up the shop. Still a little more to do with it. Need to get rid of those old magazine that I love looking through (on second thought... I won't be getting rid of them for that reason).
Set the bandsaw stand in place and lifted that heavy SOB into place, only to find that I had the stand on it's side and there were no cross supports holding the weight of the bandsaw. Heaved it off of the stand, re-positioned the stand and lifted that SOB for the second time into place. Walked the 14 steps out of the shop and then the 7 steps outside to ground level to man-handle the jigsaw. Lifted it out of the truck and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I could actually lift it with one arm.
The jigsaw is sitting in the living room waiting to be set into place.
So... if you forsee the need for help, and you can't stand having someone see your shop in disarray, keep on top of it each night and then it's just a matter of giving someone a call when you get home with your prize for a little helping hand. Will I be listening to my own advice... ahhh, probably not.
July 16, 2010 Moving forward... or the lack there of
Ever dabble in anything?
I feel like I've been dabbling with the project for the past few weeks... months.
I don't like dabbling.
January 9, 2012 Strategies and tactics... books and biplanes...
life
Ever since starting back on the build... I've been working
on it one night (at least trying to) and off the next. I'm
doing good about working steady on it and I don't want to
burn out thinking I need to work on it every single night
(although I should).
I'm not sitting on my ass, on the couch, watching tv... I'm
sitting on my ass, on the couch, reading a few books; Hell
Hawks by Robert Dorr and Thomas Jones, great book about
the P-47s in France during WWII, and The Art of War
by Sun Tzu... get this, here's a guy that lived 2500 years
ago, wrote this Chinese military treatise (military strategies
and tactics) that is still a must read by officer in our military
colleges, executives in large corporations and by yours truely.
Not only is it valued for it's insights in to stragies for
fighting wars, it easily lends itself to business and... of
all things, building biplanes.
It's a little bit of a strech for applying it to the build...
but I can see it's value. Ya just need to read it on a much
deeper level.
Anyway... I'm enjoying the books, and like I said, I see value
in reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu. To give you an
idea of what I'm talking about, here are the chapters:
(R.L. Wing's translation 1988)
Chapter 1 - The Calculations
Chapter 2 - The Challenge
Chapter 3 - The Plan of Attack
Chapter 4 - Positioning
Chapter 5 - Directing
Chapter 6 - Illusion and Reality
There are thirteen chapters... but you can get the jist of
what I'm saying.
I'm reading the translation by Robert Lawrence Cantrell. It's called Understanding Sun Tzu on the Art of War. In addition to translating it, he breaks it down and clarifies Sun Tzu’s philosophies on war.
A partial quote from Cantrell... "The intelligent mind will find all measure of ways to overcome even the most difficult challenges..." Maybe if more builders read Sun Tzu on the Art of War... we'd have a lot less unfinished projects. Just a thought...
Okay... back to the build.
March 9, 2012 My biplane is finished...
albiet a very small version of it
Not that I'm looking for ways to keep inspired, but... a few weeks ago, on the biplane forum, someone posted a few images of a model that he had made of his Skybolt. He called it a Briefing Stick Model; has a stick on the underside of the plane. The military use it for demonstrating fighter tactics in the classroom.
It was pretty neat seeing the resemblance between his biplane and the model. The cost wasn't bad at all; close to what a nice platic model kit would cost nowadays (not really).
I thought it'd be nice to have a model of my Radial Skybolt painted up in a paint scheme close to what I'm planning on paiting it. Contacted the company; esnako. A few emails back and forth with Cristina and they've got all the information they need to build the model with my paint job.
It's been about 10 weeks since I gave approval. The above picture is one of several that they sent me for approval. I gave the go ahead so that they could put the lacquer finish on it, wait three days, then ship it to me. I should have it some time next week.
Can't wait to get it. It'll be nice to finally see my vision take shape... even if it is in a scaled down version.
April 24, 2013 Morphing of smizo's...
Acrosport II
It's been awhile since writing something to fill this page... a recent "event"; there's a thread on the biplane forum that's been ALL OVER THE PLACE.
Chris, aka smizo, has been doing a bang up job with his Acrosport II, which only has a seat for one. He's flying through with the build and we're all enjoying his posts. A recent post was posted giving a hint of the paint job. It's been going on for a few weeks now... sometimes actually leading off of the main topic... but always making its way back.
The post that got the thread all started was a peek at the design (barely visable) on an iPad. One comment made by David was that it looked like a banana (when enlarged and pixilated)... which got me to thinking.
I just made a post last night with this "design" (designed with my Fireworks program.) The first image is the image taken from the cell phone. The second is my design and the final is professional rendering of his plane ready for a design.
May 27, 2013 Ouga Chaka...
ouga ouga ouga Chaka
I've been having this feeling ever since I started working on the turtledeck... I haven't really thought much about the source of the feeling; just a good overall feel with the project.
It's beyond "enjoying the build"; that mindful feeling I get when I'm working on it or thinking things through. It's that "thick" excitment you feel in your chest... Christmas morning as a child... the flight home from getting your Private ticket...
It just dawned on me... the turtledeck, the vertical tail... I'm putting these pieces I've made onto the biplane and it's actually starting to look like a biplane. I stated this build back in December of 1993... sure, I spent about 125 hours cutting parts for the project at that time and then put it on hiatus until August of 2006, but all during that time it's been stewing inside of me. That's twenty years folks. Damn near the same amount of time I thought of getting that Taylorcraft that I saved up and bought.
It pretty much sums up everything I've owned... there's a long gestation period before finally having a dream come true. And that, my friends, is how I've always "wanted" it; everything I have, I worked for it (that's why it's such a long gestation period). I learned that from the lessons my mother has taught me.
I remember when I was seventeen... we were at the mall for some reason and I wanted this Chevy Camaro that had some add-on kit. I would have died for it; it was one kick-ass car. I begged and pleaded with my mother to co-sign and she wouldn't. She told me... If I wanted a car like that (actually, any car) I'd have to get a job and pay for it myself. Hell, the car was way out of my earning capabilities at the time, but the lesson has never left me.