Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Talk about a sparring partner!

Hi, everyone. Light blogging tonight, as I've been fully occupied trying to help Miss D. with her wing re-sparring issues.

She's rebuilding a 1941 Taylorcraft light observation plane. The wings consist of aluminum ribs covered with fabric. At their heart are two wooden spars, a thick, deep one at the front and a smaller one at the rear. She had new spars made, but unfortunately the spars for a Taylorcraft varied over the years, and she was given spars for a 1970's-vintage model instead of her just-before-World-War-II variant. Her wings' ribs wouldn't fit over a double reinforcing plate in the spar.

No real problem, though. She got hold of the expert who made the spars, and today I ran them up there, towing them on a long trailer hitched behind Jenny's Jeep. It's a two-hour run from here to there, through some very beautiful country, and I enjoyed the drive. On arrival, the builder set to work with chisel, pliers, plane and sander, and soon had the extra reinforcing plate off the offending parts of the spars. A touch of polyurethane sealant later, and time out for a community lunch while it dried, and we wrapped them up, loaded them on thetrailer, and I headed back.

The spars are now within spec for a 1941 Taylorcraft, and Miss D. and I will be building wings over the next week to ten days. I look forward to learning a lot - including verifying that bit about Adam's rib and aircraft spars!

More blogging tomorrow, I promise (wings permitting!).

Peter

3 comments:

raven said...

It is a joy to use ones hands to create. I guess over the years I have built about anything that can be made from wood EXCEPT an aircraft. And that wood be fun-!Especially a Falco! (Stelio Frati's Ferrari of the air)
If you ever get the chance to visit the Boeing Museum in Seattle, be sure to check out the Jenny that is there- it is completely restored, sans fabric- apparently folks were so impressed with the woodwork that the museum decided to leave it uncovered. An absolutely amazing collection of spars, gussets, bronze nails, and wire.

mostly cajun said...

Mmmmmmm! Rib-stitching!

The smell of nitrate dope and thinners!

Old airplane heaven!

MC

Old NFO said...

Enjoy the hands on, and enjoy the companionship!