Back to Building = Thinking it Through....

Hopefully if you are  a fellow builder you will not have to endure the lengthy pauses I seem to experience at just about every turn in between building efforts. I am doing a horrible job of sticking to my original goal of 3-5 years for completion, but life gets in the way sometimes, and so you just keep doing what you can do I guess.

One of the problems of having lengthy delays is that it is easy to forget just exactly what you doing or what your were thinking about at the time that you stopped working on the plane. You forget where certain tools are located, and you forget the small details about certain activities.

So I spent a short time tonight just reassissing where everything was at. I know that I still have a crap load of deburring wing ribs to do, but I also realized that I still had my horizontal stab sitting on my work table - constantly getting in the way. Only problem is that I knew that I had left it there after taking it down off the wall of the garage some time back because there were still several small things that I needed to do before I hung it back up again.

- final torque the 4 mounting bolts for the center bearing/hinge.
- smooth out the cut lines where I had trimmed the edges of the HS to allow proper clearance for the elevator counter balance arms
- re-prime a couple of areas around the center joint of the HS forward spar and support angles, and also around the tips
- smooth and re-prime the area of the rear HS spar flange that had to be trimmed to allow clearance for the control horns during full down travel of the elevators.

After reviewing those items, I also realized that I still needed to drill and mount a couple of K1000-4 nut plates to accept an AN4 bolt along the web of each elevator. Here is a shot of a 3/16 inch cleco that I inserted through the large hole of the nut plate first, and then inserted the clec through the large tooling hole in the forward part of the rib web of the counterbalance support and the tip rib of each elevator.

This additional nut plate allows me to secure additional lead weight to the elevator in the event that more is needed to balance the controls when the time comes for that. You simply take a piece of lead, drill the necessary hole, and mount it to the web using an AN4 bolt and the nut plate. The subject of some controversy among builders is where to place the nut plate - on the inboard or the outboard portion of the elevator. I have chosen to mount the nut plate on the inboard side of each arm, so that any additional lead and the bolt head will be located on the outboard side of the arm (where the fiberglass tip fairing will be installed).

The reason is simple. if the bolt ever becomes loose for any reason, bot the bolt and the additional lead weight would be retained in side the fiberglass tip fairing. If either of these items are located on the inboard side of the elevator, then they could become lodged between the elevator and the horizontal stab, effectively jamming your controls and causing some very serious problems. Some builders sluff this off and decide to put the bolt and the weight on the inboard side because it is more accessible since it is not covered by the tip fairing, and this is true. I guess I view this as being safe rather than sorry. So it is a builders choice.....

I will need to enlarge the hole for the AN4 bolt (1/4 inch hole I believe). SO I will drill it out a bit, then drill the holes for the rivets, and check that little assembly off the list of to-dos.

Last item for tonight is something that I spent considerable time researching, adn I am still not 100% sure I am going with this solution, bit I think it will work.  Here is a series of pics that shows a pipe support bracket that I intend to use for securing my wiring conduit to each wing rib. I found them at HD. Unfortunately, they are just wide enough to allow the conduit to slip very easily through each hole. I figured I could place a zip tie on each side of the bracket around the conduit to hold it in place.

Using these is  a bit easier than drilling large holes in certain areas of each rib and running the conduit through the holes. The only thing I still need to check is if the aileron pushrod will clear the conduit in the last lightening hole of each rib. There are some other nylon brackets that are designed to do the same job as these, but they are more expensive and come from specific aviation suppliers. It tool me forever to find the information about them on VAF. Anyway, these brackets from HD are readily available, and aside from being a bit bulky should do the job. All you do is mark the rivet hole locations for each hole, drill them, and mount. Most use pop rivets for this which is perfectly fine. I also like the fact that they are non-conductive and therefore are perfectly suited for supporting electrical wires and such.

I am now a tail dragger pilot!

After last Monday's performance I was a little bewildered about this endeavor, and was even wondering if I would be able to get comfortable enough to be able to call my self a tail dragger pilot. John had tentatively scheduled us for this past Wednesday, but the entire State was engulfed by heavy rains pretty much all day Wednesday, and the bird needed a new tailwheel as well, so we opted for an early morning flight on Saturday.

Today was one of those days that reminds you why I live where I do. I awoke to a gorgeous sunrise full of pinks, blues, purples and reds filling the cirrus-laden clouds above. THe winds were forecast to remain below 10 knots out of the south - just what the doctor ordered.

We preflighed the plane (the new tailwheel looks great John!) and we were off and running by about 7:00am. WInds were favoring runway 17 L. John had me do two 3 point landings to start with, and these were not super good, but good enough. Then we did the wheel landings - The first one was spot on - just enough power added to allow me to fly the plane all the way down. Then before I knew it, we kissed the runway with that ever familiar "chirp" of the main wheels, without feeling any side load or even vertical load in the seat of my pants. Then it was power off and stick forward to plant the wheels firmly on the surface - could not have been a better landing IMHO. Then I tried one more - probably leveled out a bit too high and did not add enough power to compensate, but the landing was still do-able, so I stuck it on the runway after a bounce or two and finished the landing on two wheels without any problems.

We finished up with a full stop 3 point landing on runway 10 - a rare occurance for Centennial airport, but traffic was light so ATC had no problem clearing us for 10. The last time I saw an approach by an aircraft to runway 10, was the first of two Presedential visits by O-butthead to the Denver area, when the secret service brought their jet in low and fast as I watched in amazement from my office window. Never seen a jet approach and land on that runway before.

Anyway, after .7 hours, John gave me a pat on the back and a well done. Feels pretty good to beat the demons and regain the feeling that you are in total contol of the airplane. John asked if I wanted to take her around solo a couple of times, and told hime I would wait till later. I just wanted to bask in my success for a while I guess.

Here is my endorsement that allows me privilege of operating aircrqft with conventional landing gear (planes with tailwheels for the none-aviation minded folks). I got 'er done in 10.8 hours over about a 3 week period of pretty consisten flying. Your mileage may vary on several factors.

 

As a closing note, all I can say is that I feel very nostalgic right now, knowing that I am now in the company of many other pilots that came before me - from the days of the Wright brothers and the infancy of powered flight, through WWI and WWII, and up to present day conventional aircraft. From Sopwiths to P-51s, to DC-3s, Citabrias, Cessnas, and so on. As John put it to me a while back - you are doing something that not a lot of other pilots know how to do today. I am sure I will continue to reflect on American aviation history as the rest of this day passes, and lazily comes to rest with another beautiful Colorado sunset on a beautiful Fall day.

Now I guess it is time to get back to building an airplane - an RV-8 (that's not an 8A)! Taildraggers here I come!

Will teach you how to fly this airplane for cheap....

Would YOU want to learn how to fly fromTHIS flight instructor? Actually, I would. This is John in a stellar "real life" pose, just prior to our Saturday departure last weekend to terrorize the skies over Erie/TriCounty (EIK) and Longmont Airports (LMO). At that point I had about 3.3 hours remaining to be "eligible" for my tailwheel endorsement. This was a rare late morning/afternoon flight for us, with the majority of the flights thus far being very early morning flights to accomodate work schedules and availability and such.

Then there is even the more rediculous looking student (aka me). Bet you are wondering how a big guy like me can fit in a tiny airplane like that. Well, lets just suffice it to say that John gets a good chuckly watching me maneuver my way into the cockpit. Definitely a tight squeeze, but I manage. So ignore the ugly guy in the below photo - nice plane though, eh?

We burned about 2.4 hours on the Saturday flight, and another hour today. The original plan was to travel to Platte Valley as well. Unfortunately I was (and still am) in a bit of a plateau in my ability to confidently handle this airplane in a variety of different conditions, and so I had some difficulties at Tri-county and again at Longmont that I later attributed to mishandling the rollout and flare attitude by raising the nose just a bit too much before allowing the airspeed to bleed off just a bit before executing my 3 point landings. When John told me that the runway at Platte Valley was even less wide than the taxiway at Tri County, there was just no way I was even going to attempt that landing.  I managed to salvage the last landing back at Centennial, but I was just not happy with the landings at all.

So with .9 hours of "eligible"  time remaining, John was gracious enough to schedule an afternoon flight with me this evening. Well, the forecast winds for this evening were supposed to be light and variable, and don't ya know that ya just can't trust a forecast very much. The winds turned out to be direct crosswinds of 9-12 knots, and they pretty much beat me to a pulp tonight.

So what have a learned? I learned why you don't let the tailwheel stay up forever during a wheel landing in heavy crosswinds. I learned that I need to remember to take the power out during my wheel landings (something I seem to keep forgetting to do), and I learned the hard way what happens when you forget to allow the speed of the airplane to build up fast enough to depart the runway smartly on a crosswind takeoff. All very stupid mistakes on my part - and ones that I know better than to commit. The airplane is pretty much kicking my butt during landings at this point. Not very fun lessons to learn, to say the least, but lessons that must be learned to conquer this type of flying.

Personally, I don't think that a private pilot has as hard a time as I am having while trying to nail this down. Once you possess the type of flying experience that I have accumulated over the years, you have a certain degree of very high expectations of yourself. While John is always quick to remind me not to beat my self up too much, the fact of the matter is that I always have hight expectations of myself at this stage of my flying career - both as a pilot and a flight instructor. And when I don't live up to those expectations, it weighs quite heavily on me.

So am I giving up at this point? Nope. Just need to keep getting back on the saddle until I finally get it figured out. My measuring stick of success is quite simple. I just need to prove to myself that I can spend just one lesson performing landings of different types where the outcome of the directional control during each takeoff or landing is never in doubt. I ain't ashamed to say it, but right now I am a little afraid of this airplane and what it can do to me if I screw up too much. I just have to get over that somehow.....

Anyway, here are some more fun photos of our journey to front range a while back.

and finally John calling for fuel.....

Tailwheel Lesson 6 - Shorts and Softs and Sim Engine Failures

First off, I gotta tell all of yas that are checking out my daily survival posts during the adventurous undertaking I have committed myself to, that Ron Duren has pretty much taken the words right out of my mouth in his posts from a year ago during his tailwheel baptism. His descriptions are alos a bit more eloquent than mine, so feel free to travel to his blog and search under tailwheel training if you need more info about this.

As the title implies, today's mission was more pattern work to cover short and soft field takeoff and landing procedures, and to perform a simulated engine failure while in the pattern. We were about the only plane in the sky except for countless numbers of departing jets on the parallel runway this morning. So no traffic to worry about, just wake turbulence from all those heavy jets, which did not turn out to be much a factor.

What was a bit of a factor for me today was the wind situation. Tower reported winds calm, ATIS reported winds out of the southeast at 4, and my weather briefing from flight service indicated that winds were out of the southwest at about 9 knots. SO what is poor tailwheel pilot to do under such circumstances. Answer - feel the airplane's response and respond to what it tells you during each phase of flight.

I also received an intersection clearance on runway 17L that I had NEVER received before after some 27 years of flying out of this airport. Lots of strange things happening in todays airport environments. Anyway, First takeoff was pretty good, and around the pattern we go. First landing was a 3 point and slightly tail low but a gentle touchdown. SO far so good.

Then John wanted me to experiment with the approach speed a bit and hold my altitude a bit longer before descending to the runway. I ahve normally been using 70 MPH on final and this speed works pretty well for me. The specialty landings always call for a slightly slower airspeed. IN this case the Citabria manual calls for short field landing speed on final of 60 MPH. The second approach required a slip which was giving me a bit a problem because of the changing wind directions all over the pattern. On downwind the wind was out of the southwest requiring about a 20 degree crab to hold my line, then on final the wind shifted to the southeast just a bit - very strange. Then on the roll out it would seem to drop to almost nothing or shift to straight down the runway.

Anyway, the slip and wind and the different airspeed assignment all kind of piled up on me to the point that the airplane touched down the second time and rapidly departed for the runway edge. John let me dig my way out of it, which thankfully I did, but I was fairly disgusted and a bit rattled afterward.  To this moment I still do not fully understand why the airplane did that, but most likely it means that the airplane was probably not aligned totoally down the runway to begin with, or it became that way during my roll out. Either way when the tailwheel contacted the runway off I went. The lesson to learn here was to pay attention to the direction of the airplane immediately adn take corrective action IMEDIATELY to keep it where you want it. RUDDERS RUDDERS RUDDERS!

We did most of these as rolling touch and goes. Next pass I was told to fly at 60 MPH per the manual and aim for the numbers as my touchdown point (a spot or precision landing). On about a quarter mile final we both decided that 60 MPH was way too slow and the controls were way too mushy, so we opted for 65 instead, which was better.

The simulated engine failure was started on downwind. Always love that when the instructor says "you just lost your engine, and I have the throttle!" A quick turn to base and slip and no problem getting down to the runway to land, but the landing went to crap once again. My last landing was interesting in that I executed another 3 point landing but started my roll out a tad too high. The airplane stopped flying and came down on all three wheels without a single bounce. Would ahve been perfect as a carrier landing in a Corsair or something similar. A little to harsh for a Citabria.

So I was not very satisfied with my performance today, nd right now I am still a bit concerned about the occasional problem I keep havng with rapid departures to the side lines. Afterward we discussed this problem a bit, and John reminded me to use my peripheral vision off to the sides of the nose instead of focusing down the runway over the nose of the airplane. 

6.7 hours logged so far, on the way to 10 to satisfy the club checkout requirements, but I may need more if I cannot satisfy myself that I can maintain positive directional control enough to keep from rapidly departing to the edge of the runway every so often.

Anyway, I have a couple of days to mentally prepare, and I expect to overcome my deficiencies on the next flight. All for now.

Tailwheel lesson number 5 - Starting to get the Wheel Landings down

Had a nice break for the holiday and embarked on the annual Dove hunt once again. The weather out there turned out to be much nicer than the weather in Denver, and we had a great time. Saturday was opening day, and almost everyone limited out within  a couple of hours. This hunt has taken place across 3 generations of family over the past 40 years, and has become somewhat of a tradition over the years. I even let junior drive the car on the county roads, and he did great. Top that off with feasts on both Saturday and Sunday night that consisted beef brisket, Dove cabobs marianated in 3 different sauces, potatoe salad, carrot cake, Sweet corn from Olathe Kansas (The absolute best there is in my opinion), and so on.....

I have always had dreams of being able to fly my airplane to and from the hunting grounds, with all my gear safely packed inside. Several builders with similar interests have also outfitted their airplanes to be able to carry hunting, fishing, and camping gear. Mine will have to do all that AND also haul my guitar and the ocassional Radio Control airplane or two, which I plan to enter in various RC competions and fly-ins all over the country when I retire. Hmm. I may need that RV-10 after all.

Anyway - today it was back to flying the Citabria to see if I could get those pesky wheel landings figured out. It was a beautiful cool and still morning, and the airplane just wanted to blast off and fly to the stars it seemed. I initially had a little problem with dancing a bit too much on the rudder pedals after the main wheels touched down, but after a couple more I started to get the hang of it. We mixed in a couple of 3 point landings and called it a day. I am getting more and more comfortable with the plane during each flight.

It was already busy at the airport by the time I was ready to takeoff at about 0630 this morning. A stinson was already up performing close quarter short final slips to landings on runway 35L, and we were instructed to switch over to the alternate tower frequency - yet another sign that aviation may be starting an upswing in activity. I certainly hope so. Centennial Airport used to be a consistent contender for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in the number of total operations, and the ranking as the busiest general aviation airport in the nation.

There is nothing like watching the sun rise against a lazy, red adn pink colored Colorado sky, while you crank up the engine and slip the sirly bonds of the earth. Fall is defnitely  great time to be in Colorado. I am scheduled to fly tomorrow and again on Sunday - still trying to knock out the 10 hours I will need for the check out. Just need to polish some things up now, and I would like to try to find some gusty or variable crosswind conditions to really test my skill. My instructor John told me today that "your really are a pilot." That made me feel pretty darn good. We'll see if I earn the same praise after tomorrow....