I kind of drove Robert Baslee of Airdrome Aeroplanes nuts when I'd call with a question because of my inability to name things properly.

"So I'm working on the wing, and the thingies that hold the cross wires and the cross tubes are in the way of the rib joiney bits so it won't work like the plans. I can move the rib over a little, right?"

He'd respond with "Yes, if the tang that supports the drag-anti-drag wires and the wing compression strut is interfering with the placement of rib mounting bracket you can relocate it to ensure clearance."

I don't know if I told this story in this thread, but I'm somewhat infamous in that circle of builders for talking "doo hickey."

When I went down to Sun N Fun, I got a chance to talk to Robert in person since I first started building, and I got a chance to ask about stuff I'd done and managed to get to work in a Rube Goldberg sort of way, wondering how I should have done it. The big thing was the leading edges of the wings, which on my plane look like I've flown through repeated hail storms. I never figured out a way to make them in a way that looks good.

"Well, it's easy. Instead of trying to make a big U like you did, we do it in halves, using two sheets. I honestly don't know why you didn't do it that way. It's in the instruction book."

I went all googly-eyed at him. "INSTRUCTION BOOK?! All I got was a pile of hand drawn picture line drawings and a DVD showing Butch Witlock's DVII build!"

He went all quiet, then grinned.

"Oh, yeah," he admitted, "the instruction book we made up after you built yours. I didn't realize I actually needed to include one before then."



To his credit, while he firmly states that his airplanes can be built by an inexperienced builder using only basic tools in the space of a single car garage - and he's right - I was the first to put the theory to actual test. Everyone else prior to me had at least one aircraft build behind them or had experience in the area (A&P's etc.), so a set of line drawings with minimal notes on them was just fine.

Well at least you proved him right Dart, like a lot on here we have all been following your build with great interest and you do tell it in a most entertaining way.

In all seriousness your inexperience may end up saving someones life since now they will have a better set of instructions than you did when they start their build. I would request one of the instruction booklets from him just to read it if I was you though. I am guessing it would probably give you some insights on other niggly areas you want to rework over time.

Curious if you ever gave Robert Baslee links to your website and IL-2 instruction videos.


Wheels

Someone get this man a CLECO!



g.

The Cleco is the bathrobe of fittings.

It's an intermediary step between naked and dressed that I never really saw the reason for.

If one has drilled the holes that lines pieces up, just put a rivet in it.

Well, I think the cleco is meant as a temporary connector to hold everything in place to make sure you got it right. Once you've started riveting and realized you've screwed up, your effed.

Yeah, I know. I just had so little actual sheeting that they weren't necessary...and for little jobs like putting in the hickey floggers, it would have been overkill. Just setting in a rivet to keep things aligned worked well.

The coaming around the cockpit is devolving into complete crap. The outer edges are curling up and the inner edges where I made little tabs all curled on up as well. I put some duct tape to the tabs on the inside of the fuselage to tame them down, but it's clear I'm just going to have to put down the money on some actual leather.

Took Babette around the patch this afternoon once the fixes were done - very bumpy below 3,000 feet, but manageable.

Still refining the max climb "V Speeds" and I think I've just about got them. She managed 500 to 550 fpm climb out today at around 51 mph indicated and the nose far too high up for my liking. Density altitude for my 540 foot ASL airfield was 2150, too (though it barely topped 90 degrees - Autumn is here.).

I'm going to give up on three pointing her for a little while, too. Conventional wisdom is that in this type one should always wheel land, but I've seen some guys just ace them. Me, well, I'm baubling around all three wheels and making a mess of it. Part of it is the pavement, and part of it is my unwillingness to fly her down to 35 mph....it just seems unnatural. So I ate up about 400 feet of runway in bouncy bounce hilarity before just picking her back up, getting the tail up, sticking the mains and letting the tail fall on her own.

Good Lord! Don't mess up the hickey floggers! Every aircraft engineer knows it's the most critical part of an airframe. You'd never get off the ground.

Been enjoying this thread for ages, popping in once in a while with a Congrats mixed with a heavy dose of envy.
Out of curiosity, I just went back to Page 1 to rediscover how the Babette saga all started

This is what I got on Page 1:

"Direct control, fabric over aluminum frame.
Loads to do before it's done."

hmmm...
Have the early bits been lost over time? I hope not !
or was the thread started somewhere else, and I have since forgotten ?

Cheers,
Slug

The soup-to-peanuts build thread is actually on the EAA forums:

http://eaaforums.org/showthread.php?612-Building-a-Nieuport-11

You may be remembering some of these threads Sluggish.

Bebe, don't be sad...: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3515919#Post3515919

Help with my Nieuport 11: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4162368#Post4162368

Aircraft hardware nightmares.: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3860709#Post3860709

Cheaper attack aircraft for you built by me...: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3839954#Post3839954


Here are some other entertaining threads documenting his journey.

WWI aircraft goodness...: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3970147#Post3970147

My first taste of aerobatics... : http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3842088#Post3842088

Touch and goes are good for the soul.: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3431959#Post3431959

Dart one, landing light zero.: http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3330760#Post3330760

Flight Sim to Flight Line: http://www.SimHQ.com/_air13/air_451a.html
(My Journey from Sim Pilot to Sport Pilot)


Wheels

Oh, lord, I didn't realize I had been pimping out my airplane all over SimHQ!



Took her up and around on patrol today and found out that sewage treatment plants in the summertime can really project themselves, even at 3000 feet altitude.

No joke, I loved every thread Dart.
Heck, going back and reading them is just as entertaining as the first time which says a ton about your writing skills.


Wheels

Thanks!

Today's flight was interesting.

Over 90 degrees in the early afternoon, so lots of thermals and baubles and bumps below 2,500 feet, and thanks to scattered clouds at 3,500 an inversion layer at 3,000 that was super squirrely, tossing me about. So I tried to work just below the layer, which was of course invisible.

Tomorrow I go to my first fly-in! Just a small one over at Greg Koontz's place, but it's in my 25 mile test flight radius and he puts on a great aerobatic display. l'm kind of expecting that most folks will look at my plane and say it's a hunk of junk and other bad things, but I don't really care. She's my patched, dented, no-three-rivets-in-a-line little light aeroplane with paint runs and I love her.

Here's the flight data, though the GPS or software is a bit, um, questionable on takeoff and landing. Trust me when I say I did not line up to the right of the runway or do a smooth lateral warp move to the center. It also didn't take me over 700 feet to land - I floated her along and did a nice wheel landing so I wouldn't have to taxi half a mile to the turn-off.

http://www.cloudahoy.com/debrief/?key=Xmr2gJ1pblZtMzFWlo

Fly-in was fun!

Though I forgot my sunscreen and wound up with a massive sunburn, a good time had by all. A few notes:

1) I really, really liked the airshow they put on. Five aerobatic acts, each different in style. We got the tumbly "hell no" routine from a guy in a biplane, the amazing high G routine, the grace of a T-6 doing loops and rolls, a super low routine with crazy, crazy slips, and Greg himself showing off "grandpa" aerobatics in his Decathalon ("folks, these are the things you will learn when you attend the classes here,"), which I find graceful and appealing.

2) Ten bucks and lunch with it. Lunch being ribs and pulled pork, which was awesome.

3) Landed with a bounce at the end of the strip for over-thinking it, picked it back up, and did a fine wheel landing where I wanted to in the first place. Nobody seems to have seen it.

4) Since I arrived a bit early, they parked me up front! I let kids have their pictures taken in the cockpit, which really brought out some smiles. Nobody said bad things about my beloved Bebe.

5) That grass strip is really rough, as other pilots were telling me. I landed a bit long of the rough bits, and didn't really pay attention to just how rough as I did a slow taxi over it. On takeoff I hit a rut or a bump or something and got a little kaywhompus. Had to do some pilot stuff to get her straight, but up she went to go back home.

Here's a video of that landing.

Fly-ins are great fun.

Maybe we could meet up at one.

This afternoon would be a great time time for you to do a lazy sightseeing flight.

Probably would have got more than a few frowns but as quick as your Bebe slows down you could have landed right before that pond and still had twenty minutes of taxi time to your parking spot.


Wheels

Looks great sitting there at the grass with it's new airplane friends. Just personally I miss the wheelcovers...

I really need to put them on!