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”.

February 24, 2010 Replacing the Control Bar

Wednesday. I figured out the dimensions for the control bar pieces. It is a triangle, two downtubes and a crosspiece. The downtubes attached to the wing keel by an “A”-shaped bracket. There are two connectors on the bottom of the downtubes that connect to the crosspiece. All pieces are 1 1/8” outer sleeve and 1” inner sleeve. I decided to make the replacement of the control bar my first foray into the actual rebuilding project. I ordered the tubing from Online Metals in North Minneapolis and a few days later went down there and picked up the tubing. This part of the project worked very well.

After taking the material home, I found that the inner tubes fit nicely inside the outer tubes. The only thing left to do was to have the holes drilled in the ends of the downtubes where they attach to the “A” bracket and the crosspiece.

February 20, 2010 – Find the Control Bar

I went back up to the airport to reconnoiter. One thing that I had seen when up there the last time was a piece of cut-up tubing whose function I could not identify. I thought at first that it might be a cut piece of the wing keel, but as I looked more closely, I saw it was a piece of the control bar. But only a piece. As I examined it, I saw that it included a piece of the crossbar and part of one of the uprights. I was disappointed that this was all that was left of the control bar that I could find. This would be a problem because there were connectors at each corner that were missing. Then I thought that maybe the rest of the control bar was zipped up in the wing bag, which under normal circumstances would be the place for the control bar to be kept. So it would make sense that the rest of it would be in the wing bag, and sure enough, as I opened the wing bag, there was the rest of the control bar. I detached it and put all the pieces into the trunk of the car to bring back home. One thing that will be a challenge to fix was that virtually all the flying wires have been cut. Hopefully I can find or have made replacements. It would probably not be a bad idea to replace them all anyway for the same reason I would want to replace all the bolts while I have everything disassembled. A good move and significant upgrade to the trike.

As I had the wing bag unzipped, without unfolding the wing, I checked it out as best as I could. I saw that the front part of the keel tube is slightly bent; not enough, I don’t think, to compromise the integrity of the keel. I think it could be straightened and restored to use. The wing itself looks good, although Steve had warned me that he thought there were some small punctures I will have to find and repair later when I can assemble the wing fully. Those will be easy to repair.

Since I now had the control bar pieces accounted for, along with connectors and wires that had been cut. It was enough to determine replacement aluminum tubing.

February 15, 2010 – Flying Again Soon B-R-R-R-R

Through the EAA web site, I found that there is a guy here in the MPLS area who gives dual instruction in a WSC Trike. His name is Don Lindemann and, after he responded to my e-mail, we talked by telephone and e-mail several more times. We decided to meet for lunch at an Applebee’s in Chanhassen. We met as planned and he accepted me formally as a student and promised we will get some dual as soon as the weather warms up above freezing or so (or a little warmer, I hope!). He lives in New Richmond, WI, which is across the river from St. Paul, MN, not too far, and flies out of the airport there. It’s about 1½ hour drive from here, but I’m looking forward to it.

February 5, 2010 – Disassemble the Carriage

As I had planned, I went up to the airport again. Sandra was visiting Judy and Larry Nelson in Llitchfield but made me promise that I would keep John informed when I went up to the airport, and when I returned. There was just a little nagging fear in her mind harkening back to the last time I went to the airport.
I started to dismantle the carriage. I took off the side rails, the uprights, and the wheel plate on the right side that would need to be straightened. I took off the remains of the wheel also on the right side to determine the diameter of the bearing to order a replacement.
Without taking too much time, and without any negative incidents relative to my physical situation, I collected the parts and put them into the trunk of the car and brought them home. Thus began my research to decide if or how to rebuild the carriage.
I found that most of the main carriage tubing is “sleeved”, i.e., there are outside tubes and inner tubes. The side rails and uprights are 1.750 x .058 outer sleeve and 1.625 inner sleeve. The best supplier seems to be Online Metals Store, which is in the Minneapolis area, so I wouldn’t have to worry about shipping. At least it seems like the rebuilding is possible.