Friday, June 25, 2010 Bungees Arrive

I had placed an order with a Canadian company for the 3/16” bungees that attach to the swing axles, and the 3/32” bungees for the wing batten safties and front wing attachment. The box arrived today and I threw it into the trunk of the car without opening it. Earlier in the week, I had taken the wheels to Eric’s Bikes & Boards in Eden Prairie to have them mount the tires on the new wheels from the old broken wheels. With that accomplished, and hopefully after I get the pieces from Victoria Repair, I’ll make a trip to the airport and start some serious assembly work.
I had e-mailed Steve Gund to come up and stay for a week-end and help with the assembly of the carriage. I had hoped to get started the week following July 4th, but Steve’s schedule won’t allow that. I could push it out to the next week if he’s available, but if he isn’t, I’ll probably go ahead with the assembly process. It’s not really a 2-person job; just might be more fun if we could do it together. I have to wait to hear from him.
Meanwhile, we had committed to dog-sit for our friends Larry and Judy Nelson the week of June 27th through July 4th. So nothing will get done until after that. Hopefully I’ll pick up the carriage pieces and if Steve can’t come up the following week, I’ll start with the rebuild the weekend of 10th-11th. Who knows, maybe Larry Miller will enjoy coming up to help. I’ll ask him.
Also, Don Lindemann wants to get me “finished up” with my flight instruction. I committed to 10 hours dual and have done slightly over 3 hours. He wants me to have at least 100 landings. He hasn’t given me a schedule, but I’ll try to finish up within a couple of weeks. My goal would be for him to sign me off for solo, even though I can’t solo any certificated aircraft because of my revoked medical. I can fly under Part 103, but that’s all. Fine with me, but I would feel much more confident when I fly the Jetwing for the first time if I felt that at least Don thought I was safe to solo.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Carriage Pieces to Machine Shop

Today I plan to deliver the tubing and instructions to Victoria Repair so they can cut and drill the carriage pieces. This is the last step before I will be able to put the carriage together. There will be much to go after that, but this will be a big step, psychologically as well as actually, because I will actually have the Jetwing basically built. There will be other work, including the throttle cabling and electrical hook-up, propeller installation, and general engine check-out. But getting past this step will be huge. I measured everything out meticulously and gave Victoria Repair a list of all the carriage components, side rails, uprights, side brace tube, and bent front downtube. The side rails and uprights are sleeved, so hopefully they will do that correct. I am doing a slight modification to the uprights; I’m going to add a full-length inner sleeve rather than duplicating the original design of three sections of sleeving. Since the wing and engine hang on these pieces, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have full-length inner sleeves like the side rails. The added weight will be minimal. We’ll see how Victoria Repair does with these components.

Saturday, June 19, 2010 Finish the Wing

Today started out with blustery winds but the temperature was very comfortable. I headed for the airport with hopeful intent to get the wing fully inflated to check out all the fixes. With the help of Larry Miller’s pictures, I bolted up the kingpost to its attach point on the keel and the tensioning bracket. My attention now turned to the control bar and cables. I attached the front and back control bar cables and assembled the control bar, attached the front cable to the nose, and set the wing on the control bar. Looking good! I spread the wing and tensioned it. After a couple of false starts due to some tangling of the kingpost cables, and trying to figure out how the top loop stayed at the top of the kingpost, the wing finally fully inflated. Because of the wind gusts, the wing wanted to fly and I had to hold it down on the ground. I attached the wing cables to the control bar and during a short decrease of the wind, walked around and took some pictures. As I head for home, I’m physically exhausted but very gratified.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Cable Repairs

The end of the project seems distantly in sight. The only remaining pieces of the puzzle are first, the cables that were cut by the EMT’s need to be replaced, and second, the carriage tubing needs to be fabricated. Then the carriage will be able to be assembled, which, with the assembly manuals I now have, although probably not simple, at least relatively straight-forward. I e-mailed my old friend, Steve Gund, who had been with me when I had first experimented with the Jetwing back in September, and also when I crunched it. I asked him to come up for a week-end some time within the next couple of weeks and help me assemble the Jetwing. He responded saying he wanted to do that, but we just had to get the schedule worked out.
Yesterday we went to the Burnsville area for another purpose, so I took advantage of the trip to take the carriage cables to Aero Assemblies, who do cable fabrication. They seemed willing to do the job, so I left them there to accomplish the task. I still had the wing cables because I had decided to splice them myself rather than have them done right now. I don’t intend to fly the Jetwing with the spliced cables—just use them to check out the wing. With that task done, I am ready to go up and finish the wing. My goal is to use the spliced cables so I could complete the wing project and do the inspection.

Saturday, June 12, 2010 – Good Day at the Airport

I didn’t get the cables and bungees done this past week, but did get the leading-edge spar back from Victoria Repair. Looks good. I went to the airport this morning to try to finish up putting the wing back together so I could inspect it for holes or tears. So far I haven’t seen any holes except for several very small ones that probably have been there for quite awhile, and no tears. But I won’t know unless I can inflate it fully and inspect both surfaces.
It was overcast with rain threatening, but initially no rain. I hauled the wing onto the grass in front of the hanger and stretched it out. The new leading-edge spar went in very smoothly. I attached the crossbar and the fabric. No problem. The next task was to finish up attaching the keel hardware and the control bar. I got the new tubing that made up the control bar and assembled it. The top of the control bar attaches to a mounting bracket which also adjusts the trim. I had to look around, but finally found the mounting bracket. It went in smoothly, also.
It was about this time the rain cut loose. I still wanted to install the main hang bracket so I could turn the wing to the other side and attach the kingpost, but with the rain, I decided to bundle it up and put it back into the hanger and head for home.
But I’m pleased with the accomplishment today. The next thing is to try to figure out how the kingpost attaches to the keel. I don’t see a separate mounting hole of it; it might share one of the bolts that attaches the control bar. I need to check on that. Again, I regret being such an idiot that I didn’t take enough pictures before I disassembled the wing. It would have made it much easier had I had the foresight to do that.

Saturday, June 5, 2010 Restore Keel Spar

I went to the airport today for the first time in quite awhile. Last week, Papa’s Shoe Repair had called to tell me the repairs on the tank sling and seat were completed. I went out to Waconia and picked them up. Looks like the repairs were very well done. So that part of the project has come to a satisfactory conclusion. And then yesterday, I went to Victoria Repair to check on the repair to the keel spar, and they are finished with it. Looks like a good job of reproducing the original spar, with the correct length, the inner and outer sleeving done, and holes drilled. So with the keel and the leading-edge spar (that I didn’t have them work on) sticking out of the car trunk, I arrived at the airport at about 9AM.
The first thing I did was check to see if the replacement leading-edge tube fit on the inner sleeve. I had thought that it was the wrong wall thickness, but it fit perfectly. So the good news is that my new tube will replace the bent one, but bad news it now I have to haul it back home, but that’s a minor thing. Better to be safe than sorry. Hey! I just invented a cool saying!
I worked most of the morning on re-attaching the keel spar. It wasn’t as easy as taking it off of the wing. That’s essentially all I got done today. I had taken some pictures of the wing before I dismantled the keel, but I am mad at myself for not taking more pictures. The nose piece was difficult to get all three attachments (actually four), the two leading-edge spars, and the two attachments for the keel. The forward attachment connects the keel to the leading-edge spars, but right behind the front bolt is an attachment of the main wing batten and the front kingpost cable attachment, along with the control bar attach cable tang. Just getting that done took most of my energy, so after completing that task, I knew I was finished for the day.
One other thing I did was to inspect the wing fabric for tears. There were none, although there are several small holes in the fabric that look like they might even pre-date the accident. But they are imminently repairable with some repair tape. Overall I think the wing is in excellent condition, but what do I know!?! I still will want to get it inspected by an expert.
I brought the rest of the tubing home with me, the leading-edge spar and all the carriage tubing. I made a detailed list of all the carriage components and will take it to Victoria Repair. The only real items to get yet are the cable replacements and bungees. That’s the project for next week.