Went flying with a couple friends yesterday. As I was putting my flying machine back in the hangar she asked when are we going back to Talladega. I told her soon.

Don't make me a liar Dart.

Well, here's where I'm at:

I made the sleeve for the tail wheel mount, and bought some more bolts, so that's a quick put it together. So figure that done.

The engine mount is still bent, so I've got to either find someone local with a press or take a trip up north to my father-in-laws.

Brakes are a 50/50. The drums themselves can be drilled to fit the wheels no problem, but the drum has to has it's hole enlarged. So I need to find a lathe or do it the long way.

I'm thinking of ordering some more wheels. Or looking around for some heavy duty BMX wheels. It's not like I'm risking a lot going to those thick solid ones. They just have to have the big hubs.

Gotta fabricate and move the brake handle from the stick to the side of the cockpit as a bit of idiot proofing.

Then touch up some paint, mount the engine, put the prop on it, put the brakes and wheels on, put the wings on, and go fly.

A little more progress done.



My camera had crapped out, so Mike, a fellow EAA'r with a lovely KR2, took this photo. Sunlight on the tip makes it look candy corned.

A few other things done:

Brake handle mounted; I need to get some more cable to fit the new location, but I like the routing paths. They aren't going to interfere with anything.

Engine was re-timed and ran well!

And more stuff to do:

In all the shuffling of stuff around my hangar, I mislaid two of my 10mm bolts needed to mount the oil cooler. Simple enough to replace, but it's disconcerting.

Go on a bug hunt. Paper wasps are in full swing, and industrious suckers. On the other side of the aircraft from me, right about where the prop tip is on the back side of the firewall one had started a nest.

I know this because I put my hand there without looking and got stung for my effort. Just three cells, so she had clearly just begun her work. But that means I've got to seriously look at each piece of the aircraft to ensure I don't have more.

Hey, how is the bird doing?

Getting closer!

Drum brakes installed. I had to do some thinking on this, though it looks dead simple.

My original drum brake mounts, which was a bushing welded to a bit of thick sheet steel, were just too good to toss aside, as they answered so many questions.

The problem was that the weld beads were on the outside, towards the brake. This didn't matter with the band brakes, as the drum was on the wheel and the bands went around the outside of them. With the drum brakes, they had to go flush against the steel plate, and couldn't with the bead in the way.

My solution was to take a 1/4" thick bit of poplar and oversize the hole in the center to go around the bead, and use it as a big ol' washer. It worked out really well.



Two bolts hold the brake assembly to the steel support, one on top and one on bottom.

Happily enough, the bolt hole that had the band brake mount was in perfect position for the cable clamp for the new brake as well.



There's some slack put on the cable to the rear of the mount to allow the arm to move forward as the gear rises in the bungees without tightening the cable.

One of my EAA brothers has the drums for drilling holes that match the wheels, and I should have that by the end of the week. I have a basic inability with the tools at hand (and lack of skill) to drill them correctly where the drums are centered on the wheel.

Some of y'all might not be aware, but the axle setup is, um, interesting in my airplane (and I think most Airdrome ones), in that the axle is a tube and the wheels rest on a 3/4" inch, 12 inch long bit of solid round steel stock that is slid into it. The bushing around it is PVC pipe.

Both of mine are slightly bent, so some replacement stock is in place. I'm going to increase the length of them by about six inches. That should be here by week's end as well.

I washed the wings yesterday evening and spotted a few things that need correcting. I cut a small inspection slot in the end of the undamaged wing to look at the spar and need to patch it, and do some touch up painting.

But I'm damned close to putting her back in the air!

Take your time. Do it right. Be safe!

Thanks for the update, looking forward to the first reflight video. OG will supply the Lewis...

Just finished my annual and I am ready to fly up on short notice.

Whelp, lots done today.

The axle inserts have arrived, and I took them out to the airport. Since the brake drums themselves weren't ready, no need in undoing the bungees and mucking around with the axle.

So I patched up a couple of inspection slits I cut into the undamaged wing, touched up the paint on the wings, drilled the replacement spar on the top wing, put on the side sheeting on the fuselage, and was about to call it a day.

My EAA brother called to say he was finished with the drums, so I hopped in the truck and made my way over there. Jack is a great guy and had a helluva career as a USAF pilot, so I got him talking about flying...I just sat there slack jawed as he talked about some of the stuff that happened to him in SE Asia in the '60's.

One of the tales he regaled me with was flying a Cambodian AF plane over to Vietnam to have bomb racks retrofitted to fit US munitions. His introduction to the MiG 19 was a Cambodian pilot pointing stuff out to him and going through start up and shut down procedures, gear, flaps, etc., with everything labeled in either cyrillic or squiggly writing - and the inherent hazards of flying a MiG, regardless of markings, over South Vietnamese airspace. He had "friendly aircraft is armed and will respond in kind if shot at" put in the NOTAM for it.



I did a down and dirty mounting of the drums to see if he got center right on the holes and it's on the money.

But by that time it was late afternoon and I was wilting from the Alabama heat and called it a day.

Once I put in the new axle inserts, it's time to mount the wings, re-time the engine, and do some taxi tests to ensure the brakes won't do anything hazardous.

And then....

Hard to believe in less than two weeks it will have been a year since you had your Minor setback in flight testing.


Wheels

One of the guys who has built and pilots this type of aircraft told me, after hearing the damages, "It'll be a year before she's back up," to which I guffawed.

But unless one is willing to go full time on a hobby like this, it really stretches out.

Do you have a time frame that I can put into my schedule ?

Having seen how long it takes to restore an aircraft even with a crew working full time I thought the same thing when I heard about the damage you needed to fix. Looking really nice again though.


Wheels

Okay, so brakes all good now - at least until taxi tests say otherwise!

First, those 3/4" round steel bar axle inserts were bent, the right being the worst:



Interestingly enough, they were bent on the outside of the axle, right after the bushing that holds the brake mount and at the wheel.

New inserts cut and the plane up on blocks, bungees removed. I wonder who will spot the inherent reason for my general difficulties in the picture.



New inserts in, bungees in place, end caps to hold it all in place drilled, and just a little cleaning up of the cables needing done.



A few notes:

Note the cable routing along the inside of the strut with an easy loop for slack as the assembly moves up and forward on the bungees.

The twisty ties are going to be replaced or hidden with some twine wrapping, which will then be painted, along with the cable. The cable is staying on the outside of the gear leg. I'm all over aesthetics at this point (not that it was ever high on the list, mind you), and since the entire aircraft is an exercise in drag, it's not like I'm spoiling the clean lines.

There were two things spotted and corrected with the hardware: One of the bushings on one wheel wasn't seated properly at the factory. A little gentle tapping put it right. Second, one of the brake shoes on one drum was proud of the assembly and had to be taken down a bit to ensure a fit. It was tight fitting into the drum before placing on the aircraft.

Hmmm...any special reason the cross brace on the left side gear strut isn't in place?

You mean the little black tube that's pointing upwards?

It's actually for the brake mounting assembly arm. In the lower picture you can see it attached to the arm.

Since the axle isn't fixed and can rotate, the brake assembly is mounted to a bit of steel plate with a big bushing that goes around the axle insert.



The arm fixes it in place, keeping the whole thing from going around and round.

Here's a good picture from when I had the band brakes installed.



As the axle moves up and down on the bungees, the whole brake assembly rotates, and since there is a loop in the cable, the brakes don't apply themselves.

Ahhh...I see now it's purpose.

Carry on Sarge...

A question if I may...
N11s didn't have brakes in 1916 so why do you include them on your build now, considering the problems they have caused you?
Is it a FAR legiislation thing over there?

There's absolutely no requirement for brakes, and if I were working off of grass strips I wouldn't bother.

However, on pavement it really is needed for starting and stopping the aircraft - at taxi speeds only - for taxiways and stopping at the end in front of the hangar.

While we don't have a lot of traffic at my field, I have to be able to stop short of the runway if someone is coming in for a landing.

More than once I've been tempted to leave them off, believe me.

Oh, and here she is as I left her yesterday, wings on and ready for rigging.



Next up after rigging:

Touch up the center wing over-wrap section, repair and mount the gun, patch the access holes I had to cut for installing wires, touch up paint, re-time the engine, and it's on to taxi tests.

I'm not going to cover the wheels until I know everything is good with the brakes.

I received a letter in the mail from the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, VA inviting my aircraft and myself to their airshow, which will feature WWI aircraft. They did an FAA search for all WWI sounding planes to gain participation. I'm sure you got one, too.

Sure, it's a kind of form letter and they got my first name wrong (it's just Frank, not Franklin), but I was pretty jazzed by it.

Dang that would be cool Dart. Just looked up the museum and you would need to practice your grass strip landings if you went.
From the looks of it you would get there faster pulling the plane in a trailer than flying though...


Wheels