Dang, and I love Bill Monroe!

Fixed.

Great, Dart. Why the mirror, by the way? Do have Eindeckers patrolling around where you fly?

It's the only way to properly do a control check. With the shoulder harnesses properly tightened one can't turn enough to see the rudder.

But I have bigger worries than Eindeckers. 100 miles north in Huntsville lives a Fokker DVII. 80 miles south outside of Montgomery is another Fokker DVII. So far they've been too scared to venture into the Birmingham Salient, but one never knows....

Wow. Just knowing you're there is scaring the hell out of them. I'm impressed. Stay vigilant, though. Some Hun may get brave and try to make a name for himself.

A lot of digging and begging to experts came up with the answer on the coaming....they couldn't make it work the way I'm trying it, either, back in The Day.

They seamed the material in the middle, with an inner piece and an outer piece.

So, neat. Next time up I'll make the new patterns for that, cut the leather, put the eyelets in the outer piece, confirm fit to the inner....and put the old crappy coaming back on.

It's a lot of sewing.

So, coaming then.

Well, I started out throwing away the old foam core and installing a new one that went all the way around:



It actually made me a little sad that the aviation grade pipe insulation wouldn't hold up to the stresses of use, as it looks fantastic just as it is.

I did a LOT of trial and error on this whole coaming thing, ruining a lot of old sheets and stuff trying to make templates. I finally just dove in with the leather itself. For the center I just TLAR'd it with an Xacto knife.

I went to work with a zillion little stick pins and, to keep it from buckling as it went around, simply cut slits on the inside to relieve the pressure.



The big question was how I would line it back up after removing it to put in the eyelets. Aha! Measure and cut the holes for the eyelets in situ, mark the locations, drill the holes, and then just line them back up! Super Genius, if you ask me.



Look at the precision of those Sharpie markings!



Slather the inside of the leather(ish) material with Weldwood contact cement along with some 3M 90 to help saturate the fabric side of the leather(ish), put it back on, lace it up, and pin in place to let it dry.



I had to close the hangar doors as it was starting to rain right though it, so no picture of the front of the cockpit coaming. I cut it in the center, as I wanted room to work with the leather on the rest of it - the piece looked much like a commercial toilet bowl seat when I got done - and since there isn't a grand curve there got away with a small piece with an eyelet on each corner to sew into the main piece and just glued it down.

It's definately a case of "better enough" over the "gooder enough" coaming I had before. I may come back at some point and fabricate a single piece to go around the inside to cover up the saw toothed leather on the foam, but this will work for right now.

Oh, and because I've only prostituted the video in two other places on the site:

Great work! And excellent vid! All that loose looking fabric around the upper center wing area is interesting. Is that be cause of all of the cut outs there?

No, it's because I didn't replace the center section after I flipped the plane. I just sort of bent it back out the upper piece of sheet and it doesn't lay quite flush.

I need to order some fabric so I can make a new one and cover it, along with the wheels. Oh, and buy more paint.

Nothing broken on the aircraft!

Today was definitely a day of education in piloting Babette.

Winds were calm, sky was clear, and up-uppity-up I went. A couple minor burbles as I climbed all the way up to 2,000 feet (AGL, too!), but then it was hands free flying! I even did a little dance in the cockpit as I sang (fortunately over the wind and distance nobody was endangered).

On the way back to the field I descended and performed an okay-er enough turn about a point using a cell tower. A flag didn't start rising from it's base, so I gave up on that, ascended again, and headed back to the field.

A check of the AWOS brought no surprises. 190 at three, it said. Okay, runway 22 it is.

With the sun coming out and warming things up, it was getting a little bouncy, but nothing too impressive, but as I turn base something just feels wrong. I'm going to have to do some minor pilot type stuff to get lined up properly for final - usually I can hit the mark in a smooth half circle.

Hmmm, I'm crabbing to keep the line, and then slipping to hold it. Okay, so it's a tad more than a gentle crosswind. Simple enough to do, I'll just add a touch of power, fly her down, kiss the wheel, bring the other down, then the tail and done. Except it wasn't a tad. I catch a glimpse of the windsock in the middle of the field and it's 90 degrees to the runway and sticking straight out. Three knots my tail dragging end!

Touch a wheel a bit more firmly than I wanted, tiny bounce, but it's a bounce, so let's adjust and go with it. Down again, smaller bounce, other main touches, gust, up in the air, and I'm on the right third of the runway.

Oh, heck no. Firewall and go around.

Well okay, then. 90 degree crosswind at seven or ten gusting to whatever, I reckon. I'll give it a shot, and if it doesn't work out bail from the pattern and land differently.*

Air is getting pretty dang yucky, and I was not liking it very much. I wrestle her back around the pattern, widening it up, determined to use every bit of the 5,000 feet of runway if I have to. The Nieuport is just whipping across the ground and I'm lining up on final when the windsock snaps 90 degrees. Oh, good not a crosswind. Now it's a tailwind. Ah.

Easy as punch. Pick her back up, go into the downwind leg which is amiable since the other end is a right hand pattern. Radio to the lonely ether around the field what I was doing, line up again - mindful that the winds are being tricksie today - pick up a slight crosswind, put her down, and taxi off.

Turn over to AWOS. Winds 190 at three. I guess it hadn't caught up to the news of the day.

Naturally, like all things aviation, I putter up to the grass and pull off to holler at some folks out to their hangars for the day and the wind just dies down. I climb out, we all laugh, and I get to hear great stories about shifting winds and stuff.

I'm debating about making the video, as it's kind of more of the same. Then again, we don't get a lot of go-arounds and switching ends of the field. I had the camera on the wrong side to get the windsock, though.

* The Talledega Speeway was built on a WWII airstrip used for training bomber pilots, on one of the remnants on our side of the fence is 1,800 feet of perfect pavement that is away from everything and at a 90 degree angle to the new one NASCAR built. I would not be the first to ever use it.

Went out yesterday to put on a pitot/static tube on the aircraft.

It actually went pretty straight forward. I took a peak at a Citabria during some hangar talk and it's static port tube, drawing some measurements from it. Some epoxy at the front, some super tiny holes drilled, tubes cut, annealed, etc. and voila!



It's not super pretty, but what on my aircraft is?



Will it work as it should? I don't know, but it looks very airplane-y and might. At least my ASI won't be stuck on zero.

No expert by any means but that Pitot tube looks like it is extending out pretty darn far. It looks to be about 3/8" in outside diameter from the pics. From my machining background it would not surprise me if it vibrates a lot while you are flying. Might even start whipping around like a propeller in the right conditions.


Wheels

1/4 inch OD.

I think it'll do fine.

I can always cut it back!

It's solidly anchored, and at worst would bend back one way or another. Not a lot of vibration out there, and at most it'll do about 70 mph.

Now all I need is a decent day to go flying with it and see if A) it's okay, and B) gives a reasonable amount of accuracy with the ASI. If it's +/- 5 mph I'll be okay with it.

Heck, it's not like I actually look at the darned thing...I just figured that I ought to have the airspeed indicator needle move since I paid good money for it!

I forgot to add that while they're not actually graveyards on the approach, they're overfill camping areas for the raceway - ones that probably won't ever be needed now that the height of NASCAR popularity has passed - so they might as well be.

Thanks to all the stupid rules changes. Bring back the "pre chase" rulebook and I might start watching again.

Everything has ups and downs in popularity. Give NASCAR the right gimmick or driver and its popularity will likely soar again. Then the cycle of popularity vs indifference will repeat itself as that driver or gimmick fades in popularity.


Wheels

Pitot tube and static port worked really well flying today!

No real wind, but seriously bumpy - like riding a dirt road and an elevator in turns!

But I must say I finally put together the landings I want, coming in high and rounding it out to kiss the mains when landing. More incredibly, not only was it on the centerline but there were witnesses!

Naturally, though, I didn't mount the GoPro to capture it.

So, a little work done on the Nieuport:

1) Removed the brakes. Didn't use them anyway, and couldn't resolve the slight rub they had against the drums. Turns out the drums aren't as round as advertised. Maybe I damaged them in some way. Anyhow, I pulled them.

2) New bearings on the wheels. They supposedly came pre-greased, but Worksman thinks that anti-rust inhibitors are grease and they ain't. Wheels had about two inch lateral slop on them thanks to the burned out bearings, which is probably a contributor to the "Drift" video. New ones installed, but with a proper bearing grease packed into them.

I am exploring better alternatives, including a brass bushing that goes the whole length of the hub with a grease fitting.

3) Re-re-adjusted the mixture of the carb. It was too rich, and my adjustment made it too lean. Third time was a charm, and she's running great. I think going from 40 degrees to 80 might have something to do with it, or not.

I know that going from a true altitude of 540 feet to a density altitude of 3,100 feet does make a difference in taking off. Instead of jumping into the air like a crazy spring, she now walks up the stairs.

Oh, and I finally had the camera up and on for today's flight, and thought I'd make a little video of the landing - because that's where the hilarity usually ensues. This one had me a bit perplexed:

That was suh-moooooth!

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