June 23, 2009
I've finally started..
                               yeah... the landing gear.

I ain't lyin'... I really have. Finally finished the fittings and finally started fitting them... notching them so they'll fit flush with the fuselage. (what's with all these f's ?)

July 1, 2009
Just like every other part of the Skybolt..
                               I hesitate when it's something new.

It's not so bad to get all your ducks in a row and then move ahead... knowing that there may be some additional learning to be learned; aka... a few screw-ups. But when that learning (aka screw-ups) is on a part that took many hours to build... you want to be sure that you're not going to need anymore learning to get it right... the first time.

Sometimes you make it hard on yourself... unknowingly; starting/doing the task in an otherwise more round about way. But, all you need to do is think about it a little bit longer; trading time for speed. We're in no hurry (are we?).

Tomorrow... I'll be taking that step, hedging my bets from re-reading my reading and re-thinking my thinking... pretty confident that I'll get it done right the first time. If it turns out that I'm wrong... I have a load of re-work to do before coming back to this page with a successful session. I'll let you know either way... tomorrow.

July 2, 2009
Houston..
            we have a small problem.

Everything was fine, until I went to take the 3/8" "jig" tubing out of the back fittings. All hell broke loose.

OK... let's back up a few hours. Loaded everything I needed in the truck, plus everything I didn't need... for that "just in case." Drove over to Denise's where I have the fuselage, up-side-down, in a back building. Put the fittings on my little homemade jig and when lining it up, found that I still needed to take a bit of metal off the rear of the rear fitting to make it fit. Not a problem.

With the fitting taken care of I set the jig up on the lower longeron, set the digital level on it... what the heck ??? It's reading point 3 degrees off of level. Hmmmmm ???? Took the jig off the longeron, took a reading of the longeron with some additional bad news, that was good.

The bad news: The entire fuselage "sunk" off kilter point 3 degrees. The good news: The jig is level with the longerons. Simple enough to fix the sunken off kilterness with the shims that I have. Fifteen minutes later and she's level again. With the jig back in place I take an inordinate amount of time making sure that it's centered over the longeron and that the forward and the rear fittings are in their proper position. When alls well, I throw a few tack welds on the front fitting then move to the back.

Problem one... with all that metal needing to be heated I fried the spacer block pretty good. Pretty good to the point of it being unuseable for the other side.

Problem two... when I went to take the 3/8" tubing out of the rear fitting, it wouldn't budge. I'm thinking that the heat, while taking the moisture out of the spacer block, shrunk the wood to the point of it not allowing me to take the tubing out of the block. I started tapping the tube, from the front end... over time the taps turned into pretty good hits.

Problem number three: The last whack of the hammer broke the tack welds on the back fittings. DAMN !

Not a simple matter of going over to the bench, glueing up another spacer or two and cutting and drilling to fit. Nope... that's a 20 mile ride south of here.

OK... the day wasn't a total waste. I know what I don't want to do next time. And I know what I need to do next time.

Right now, I need to make two more spacer blocks, so that when I fry the first one it's not a problem. I need to use bolts to bolt the top and the bottom of the rear fitting to the space block. I'll need to make a sleeve that slips over the end of the 3/8" bolt, in the rear fitting, and the 3/8" tubing that I have to align the rear fitting with the forward fitting. (follow that ?)

'Nuff said... now back to work !

July 8, 2009
I'm ready..
            so what am I waiting for ?

I find myself dragging my feet on this. Yes, there are moments of inspiration... but then a small set-back sets me back more than a few days; that initial push over the hill of hesitation gets knocked back down the hill. The fact that the fuselage is a 20 mile drive from my place doesn't help one iota.

Another set-back is the fact that I have the opportunity to trade, even-up for my Harley Sportster, for a 65hp Fly Baby (a Fly Baby is a beautiful single place experimental.) I've wrapped myself around the thought of getting it... trying to gather all the information that I can so that I can make an informed decision on it. You'd think that it'd be a no-brainer. But... in my research I'm finding that this little guy should have an empty weight of around 605 pounds. The one that I'm looking at has an empty weight of 727 pounds ! Where the heck did all this extra weight come from ?

OK... so I could get it and sell the engine, brakes, etc and make more than what I have in the bike, right ? That seems like a lot of effort for little gain. I'd just as soon sell the bike out right for less money... spend my time building.

Kinda got off the subject matter here... but it's just my ramblings anyways. My decision has been made... I'm keeping the bike. But, the fact that I've entertained the thought of getting another plane to fly while building (yeah, this happens periodically), I find myself spending time looking on Barnstormers for another possible lead, which is taking time away from the build. (gotta stay focused)

I think I'll head over to Denise's tomorrow to try and put completion on getting the fittings on the fuselage so that I can start building the main gear. I'm getting tired of telling people that I'm about ready to start the main gear. I have all the additional pieces I wanted to make for the jigging completed... nothing should be stopping me now.

Let's git'er done !

July 9, 2009
Yep, I did..
                  really !

Not only did I align the forward and rear brackets, and tack them onto the lower longerons... I completely welded on the rear 2-pc fittings. They need a little heat on the other side of where I welded to make them straight, but they're welded on there real good.

That's all I'm sayin' for today.

July 10, 2009
Working on the landing gear..
                  actually the landing gear fittings !

Additional work on the landing gear fittings. Today, it was work on the front fittings. They still needed to be trimmed and then welded. I should have brought a 205 tip with me... instead, I worked through it with a 203. Long time heating all that metal up with a 203. Still more to do, so I'll have a chance to use that 205.

Didn't take any pictures today. Spent most of my time grinding and flipping the fuselage upright-upside down-upright-etc-etc-etc.

Getting there... but it seems so slooooooow.

July 13, 2009
Summers here..
                  and things are heating up again.

The clusters that I'm welding these Forward Gear Brackets to are huge. The amount of heat that these things suck up is huge. The amount of time I'm spending on these things is huge. All I want to do is get them finished and move on.

Well... I'm just about there. Would have finished today, even the last time, but it's that 20 mile away thing. I'm grateful to have a building this large to work on it, but when the unexpected arrises... it kinda puts the project on hold. At least I was able to finish welding up to the point where I need the additional items.

The pain in the arse about the Forward Gear Bracket is that it's welded over the 1.125" Bungee Truss tube, the 1" lower longeron and a (I believe) 7/8" cross-tube. The Bungee Truss and the lower longeron tubes aren't a problem; the Bungee Truss tube sits flush with the lower longeron. The problem is the 7/9" cross-tube. There is quite a large gap between the bracket and the tube. Thought about just building up a large weld there but then decided against it. And that is where I sit today... needing a few extra pieces.

To fill that "gap" up between the Forward Gear Bracket and the cross-tube I need to cut a few pieces of .o90 4130 flatstock to build up around the area; sorta box it in. I'll get these cut tonight and next time I'm there I'll finish up the welding of the Forward Gear bracket. Then it's finally onto starting the main gear (I hope.)

July 21, 2009
Yeah..
          I can't believe it either.

Hard to believe, but I'm finally at the point of being able to start building the Landing Gear. It took me forever, and a month, to just weld on the fittings.

The amount of heat... the amount of turning, of the fuselage and myself... the amount of time... the amount of times I traveled 20 miles each way, once getting close to half-way there and realizing that I forgot the pieces that I needed for the days work (which, by the way, was today.)

I wasn't in a rush to get it done. I was pretty patient with it. A lot of you may be thinking... what the heck took so long ? (me included) But that's the way it was, is, and now done. The thing is, just like everything else I've done on the Radial Skybolt, I'm constantly working on the project... not dragging my feet. All told, I spent 14 hours getting these fittings aligned on the fuselage, tacked, then welded into place. Now that I think about it, I'm sure I'm not finished with getting them ready before making the Landing Gear. I haven't even looked at them close to make sure that they are still aligned. I can only imagine what all that heat did to them. I'll say a small prayer tonight... and just maybe...

Here are photos of the two fittings...

July 29, 2009
Cavity Sam..
          I got the best of him... or did I ?

Just a few things to make before starting on the Forward Landing Gear. As mentioned elsewhere on the site (thewings_too page), I started cutting the bushings for the Landing Gear, but found that I needed an additional size tube. Ordered that, with some other tubes, and it should be here tomorrow. Today, I decided that I would make the Brake Backing Plates. I had already drawn these up on DeltaCAD so all I needed to do was print the drawings out and get to cutting metal.

Didn't take long to cut the blanks out... but cutting those 1 1/2" holes in the .125 4130 was painful...ly slooooooooow. From previous experience using a hole saw, I had a feeling that it might cut an over-sized hole. When I purchased the 1 1/2" hole saw yesterday I was going to buy a smaller one (guess you see where this is going) but decided on the "correct" size holesaw instead.

After 2 hours of cutting... two holes, I took one of the axles and slid it inside of one of the holes... didn't even touch the sides. I could have been playing "Operation" with my eyes closed and wouldn't have set off the buzzer. It was a good (actually bad) 1/16" over-sized. DAMN ! I caught myself dwelling on the two hours of learning and forced myself out of it.

Let's see... the 1 1/2" holesaw cost $11 and change. Now should I go out and buy another one, about the same price, or should I just go onto Steen Aero's site and buy the two Brake Backing Plates for a total of $30.00, plus shipping ? It would have been so easy, and cheaper, to buy these two pieces instead of picking up an under-sized holesaw and working my way through this. BUT, that's not what this is about.

I almost allowed the 'learning," I just experienced, to coerse me into throwing in the towel for today. "What the hell... just wasted two hours on a few pieces of scrap metal." Sat down for about 1/2 hour, ate some dinner and rose above those thoughts and went back down and finished filing/sanding the edges on the remaining fittings that I had cut some time ago.

Tomorrow... back to the Home Depot. Another holesaw... another two hours.

July 30, 2009
Add five hours..
          that's all it was today... time

My stubbornness is going to be my undoing . I said I was going to make these two Brake Backing Plates... and damn it !, I"m going to ! I could have bought both of them.... ahhhh... I've already told you that story.

Like I said, add an additional five hours to the total build of the biplane. Five hours... and I have two holes that I'm happy with. FIVE HOURS. I can't believe it. Almost like a person addicted to gambling. Losing their shirt... and they keep playing 'cause they "know" it's eventually going to turn around in their favor.

That pretty much sums up today's two holes.

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