Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Back to the Machine Shop

I went back to the machine shop and this time he had actually drilled the holes for the control bar. But he also said that he couldn’t straighten the spars. He said he wouldn’t charge me for the drilling, and we both agreed it would be best to take everything and go somewhere else. It was an amicable parting, but I am disappointed because it seemed like an ideal arrangement. I think he was a little concerned about his own liability dealing with working on an aircraft.

Now what? I decided to e-mail one of the guys I had become acquainted with trying to locate tubing materials. Thor Smith at Eagle Mouldings had been helpful before and since his website said his shop could (among other things) do bending of aluminum tubing, they should be able to do straightening, also. But alas, he e-mailed me back that they couldn’t do that, but did recommend another company in St. Paul who might be able to help. Their name was Linders Specialty.

Friday, March 25, 2010 Take the Spars to the Machine Shop

On Friday I took both spars to the machine shop. Again, the things I had taken there before were stacked in the same corner as before, untouched. My confidence is shaken that he will do anything for me. I showed him the spars and asked him if he thought they could be straightened. He was skeptical. He also for the third or fourth time apologized for not getting the other stuff started, and promised he would drill the holes over the weekend.

Sunday, March 21, 2010 I May End Up with Two Manuals!

Yesterday I e-mailed Tom Kennedy, who had promised to send me a copy of his Owners Manual, and told him that I had received the copy from Dave Engle, so he didn’t have to make a copy for me. But then later on, it occurred to me that Tom’s Jetwing had a Demon 175 wing, the same as mine, whereas Dave Engle’s had a Javelin 208 wing, not helpful to me. I e-mailed Tom back and asked him if he had a manual on the Demon 175 wing. After awhile he sent a return e-mail saying that he did have that manual, and he would be sending me copies of both the Demon wing manual and another copy of the Jetwing Owners Manual “…just in case”. What a good guy! Hope to meet him some day.

Saturday, March 20, 2010 Another Visit to the Airport

It’s Saturday morning, again cool and clear but promised a beautiful spring day. I headed for Crystal to extract the leading-edge spar and bring it home to take to Eric and see if he can straighten it. It popped off surprisingly easily. I’ll take it and the keel spar to Eric early next week.

Later in the afternoon, an e-mail arrived from Dave Engle complete with a copy of the Jetwing Owners Manual! He had his wife (or “significant other” as he put it, whoever that means) to scan in each page of the manual. It’s in JPG format, not the best kind of copy, but certainly readable and usable and generally a wonderful sight! I printed it off (2-sided copy) and began studying it. One amusing thing is that on the cover it describes the manual as “For Jetwing All Terrain Vehicle”. What are they saying? Isn’t this a flying machine?! The only contact with “terrain” (other than take-off and landing) would be disastrous! The Jetwing was originally designed as a kit and intended to be assembled by the owner, so re-assembling should be a piece of cake. The assembly instructions are for the most part very detailed although sometimes confusing in places, but nonetheless should provide the basis for a step-by-step reconstruction. I am encouraged. However, there is no detail on the wing at all, just the carriage.

Friday, March 19, 2010 Check on Status at the Machine Shop

On Friday I scheduled our Camry to have its cracked windshield replaced, which had been sorely needed for several years. After retrieving it from the shop, I decided to make a visit to the machine shop to see what the status was with the control bar holes and other stuff, since I have not heard anything from the shop owner as he had promised.

It was with some disappointment that when I walked in, the control bar tubes I had taken there were still stacked in the same corner as when I had left them two weeks ago. The shop owner apologized and said he had some higher priority work that prevented his getting to my project, but said he would for sure get to it soon. I gave him the nose-wheel bracket and asked if he could fix the broken parts, which he said he probably could. There were a couple of other pieces that needed straightening or other minor things. I described the bent spars and asked him his opinion about if they could be straightened, and he said he thought that could be done without weakening those pieces.

It’s Friday night, and I have received a surprise e-mail from Dave Engle. He apologized for being off-line for so long and said he was going to try to get the Owners Manual in shape so he could send it to me as an e-mail attachment. He would try to get it to me over the weekend.

Monday, March 15, 2010 I Need that Manual!

I had sent several e-mails to Dave Engle updating him on my progress and subtly applying a little pressure on him about the status of copying the Jetwing Owners Manual that he had promised earlier. He has gone on radio silence. No e-mails at all. After a couple of weeks of this, I decided that he had lost interest or something else in his life was keeping him from helping me and would not be responding. I then sent out a general message on the Yahoo group site asking anyone out there if they had a Jetwing Owners Manual. I got a response form a guy named Tom Kennedy who said he had both a JetWing manual and a Demon 175 (wing) manual would be willing to copy both of them for me. What good news! I’m at the point that I want to check out the Owners Manual to see if that would give me some ideas on how to proceed. He has promised to get a copy to me next week.

March 6, 2010 Next Visit to the Airport

Saturday was another clear and cool day. It had been this way for over a week now. It had been getting warmer and was a positive sign of good things to come. At 8AM or so, it was in the 30’s but promised to warm up into the 40’s. I took my tools and headed for Crystal. I needed to get the two remaining wing wires that had been cut by the EMT’s, and also the keel spar unattached from the wing. The wires were needed to take to some place that would fabricate replacements to all the wing wires. The keel was bent and needed to be straightened, if that was possible without compromising its integrity.

This turned out to be a difficult project. I opened the hanger door and struggled to carry the rolled-up wing out to the grassy area in front. Fortunately the snow had melted enough for actual grass to show. Although brown and wet, it was grass, and much more forgiving on the wing fabric than the asphalt taxiway would have been.

After spreading out the wing, I unbolted the keel spar. It was tedious and time-consuming, but not exceptionally difficult. The difficult part came trying to access the cable ends which are bolted to the wing crossbar at the point where they attach to the leading-edge spars on both sides. The wing fabric envelope is two-sided, with the wing crossbar assembly between the two layers. The cable ends were completely hidden within the envelope. But after studying the situation, and by unbolting the wing fabric from the leading-edge spars at the ends, I was able to slide the fabric envelope up to reveal the ends. This sounds easier than it was. It took some time and dexterity to accomplish this, but I was able to get it done. The cables came off easily.

I put the cables into the car. The keel was not as easy; it was longer than would fit into the Camry, however with the nifty rear seat access to the trunk, the keel just fit when placed diagonally with one end on the dashboard, and the other at the end of the trunk.

However, in the course of this sub-project, after sliding the fabric envelope up to unbolt the cable on the left side, I discovered that the leading edge main spar on the left side was bent a couple of degrees. This did not come as good news because it was unexpected, though in retrospect not surprising given what the Jetwing had gone through; it seems that every time I turn around, there was another serious problem with the project. I had said all along that I was not going to proceed with the project if it looked like the wing was damaged, and now I am faced with that exact scenario. The keel spar and the leading-edge spar are both bent.

After arriving home, I searched the web for opinions on whether or not these pieces could be straightened , and the prevailing opinions I received indicated that these members were so strategic to the integrity of the aircraft that they needed to be replaced.

Now what do I do? This may be a watershed moment. Do I continue pouring good time and throw good money after bad, or do I finally concede defeat and sell off the pieces that remain and write off the whole thing? I decided the first step would be to take the keel spar to the machine shop and ask Eric’s opinion about the structural integrity of the spar, and whether or not it could be straightened. Then I’ll decide what to do.

March 5, 2010 Finding a Good Machine Shop

Googlemaps is a great computer tool. You can put in the business type you are interested in finding, like ‘Machine Shop’ in this case, and the general area of the country you are interested, for example, Minneapolis, then all of a sudden a map of the area pops up with a bunch of little yellow dots showing locations of the businesses about which you are inquiring. A local machine shop popped up almost within walking distance. I took the control bar tubes to the shop, met the owner, and explained what I wanted to do. He seemed agreeable to help (at $60/hour), so I left the tubing with him and he said he would call back when the holes were drilled “in a couple of days”.