Back to Work!

Boy, it has really been a while since I have posted here.  The ugly fact of the matter is that I haven't had a lot to post.  So...time to get back at it, and get my lazy okole (Hawaiian for rear end) in gear.

I decided that the RV storage in Creswell was not going to really work out for long term storage and aircraft renovation.  So I made the decision to move my various aircraft to a new undisclosed location up north.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a nice sunny day, so I started the process by moving my Kawasaki 340 trike, and some Mitchell Wing components to the new spot.  The new location is completely enclosed, and offers better work areas as well.

After arriving, I gave the trike a good washing and proceeded to fire her up.  I primed the fuel, checked throttle to be in the low position, choked the carb, turned on the ignition, and started to crank her.

After several vigorous pulls, she fired right up.  I ran her for 10 min-15 or so, at low to medium rpms, then shut off the fuel and ran her dry.  Temps on the EGT gradually arose as expected and I shut her down when I started to reach 1100 degrees.

Next step on the trike is to some minor polishing here and there, but as soon as I can match up a wing....she will be ready to fly.  I am currently on the lookout for a North Wing Stratus, which should be a good match.

Hopefully, next weekend will provide good weather and I will move the Mitchell Wing up north as well.

And Yet Another Trike!?!

Yes you read correctly...I now have yet another aircraft.  Yikes! 

On my last trip to Hawaii I had made a trade with a trike pilot friend who is now aspiring to be a paraglider pilot.

I traded a full rig, wing, harness, reserve, etc., etc., for a trike wing and chassis.
At least this one was not located so far away from where I live....up in Banks, Oregon, which is about 20min W of Portland.

I made the trip up this weekend staying at Russel's (flying cohort) house Saturday night.  We went out to Banks on Sunday and collected all of the gear which included, Jetwing Trike with 440 Kawasaki engine (same as on the A-10), 3 fin Ivo prop, balistic chute (unmounted), and Moyes GTR wing.

Everything is in pretty good shape....just needing some clean up and some minor fiddling here and there.


I am starting to think that I may have some sort of Obsessive/Compulsive aircraft collecting disorder.

Anybody know the number for 911?

To Idaho and Back

It has been a really long time since I have posted....so I thought I better get back on track.  It is now clear to me that this blog is going to be expanded to include other flying adventures beyond the Restoration of the A-10.  Apparently I will do anything to sidetrack a project...including and not limited to starting 2-3 more projects simultaneously.  It is amazing that I ever get anything done at all.

Anyway...long story short, I ended up buying another aircraft.  Or at least half of one.  I previously owned a trike (hanglider trike) and had been itching to get another one.   I spent a lot of time trolling on Craigslist and Barnstormers for deals....and a month or two back found one that I liked.  It was the chassis and engine, sans wing, single seat, Kawasaki 340 engine, instruments, power fin prop, etc.....a nice Light Trike setup.

Only hitch was that it was in Idaho....and not only in Idaho....but way on the North Eastern side of Idaho.
After e-mailing the owner back and forth and talking to him on the phone, I made a deal on the trike, contingent on me coming to Idaho to pick it up.  This deal was made just prior to my last month long trip to Hawaii and would have to wait until I returned.

After returning from Hawaii I set the date and off I went on my adventure.  I left at 4am Friday morning, driving solo, with my trailer in tow.  After about 14 hours and 800 miles I made it to my destination in Rigby, Idaho.  Greg (trike owner) very graciously talked me in on the final few miles to his place, where he was waiting to transfer ownership of the trike.  The trike was just as described and advertised, and I wasted no time loading up to get ready for the trip back.

Off I went to start the return trip to Oregon.  One of the highlights of this trip occurred on this late night exodus through Idaho.  I drove into and through one of the most amazing Lighting and Thunder Storms I had ever seen.  The Thunderheads were almost indescribable with dark fingers reaching down from the sky to the silhouetted landscape.  The strikes were bold and numerous....and I could not help thinking as I was driving along that the trike sitting in the trailer behind me...with it's tall mast....made an inviting target.

Anyway...I drove to about 1 am in the morning (Sat.) at which point I found a rest stop, and collapsed in the back of the van for a few hours of fitful sleep.  At 5:30 am I was back up and on my way.

I was back in Oregon early afternoon on Saturday....made a short stop to drop the trike in my RV storage slot at Creswell (keeping the A-10 company)....making it to my house at about 4 pm.  Yikes....1600 miles in about 36 hours....I was wiped out.

I have vowed that this is my last long cross country trip to bring back an airplane......I guess we'll see.

Ramping UP

Finally decided to take her down to the airport to test a few things.  I was feeling pretty optimistic and wanted
to accomplish a few specific tasks.

First I wanted to get the plane off the trailer, testing my new winch set up.  Secondly I wanted to pitch the prop, fuel the tank and fire her up. 

In preparation I had previously ordered Pennzoil 2 cycle air cooled oil from Aircraft Spruce for my premix, and purchased a new 12 volt battery from Wal-Mart as the old one was not coming back from the dead.

On Saturday I set off with my Dad for Creswell.  After hitching the trailer up and securing everything we set off for the airport.  After parking on a grassy area, we set up the ramps and tried our first attempt at lowering her off the trailer.

It always seems the case that things don't always work out quite as well as you think they will.  Although my setup of the winch seemed like it would work well enough, we ran into a problem.

The whole idea is that I should be able to raise and lower the aircraft off of the trailer, solely on my own.  However the ramps are so steep....by the time the nose wheel is on the ground, the winch cable which is connected to the nose fork starts to contact the underside of the fiberglass pod.  However, there is still too much weight from the aircraft at this point to disengage the winch and lower her solo.  Furthermore there is really no other place to effectively "hitch" to the aircraft.

So.....need to do some more engineering.

Oh, I forgot to mention there was one more complicating factor going on.  Most airplane pilots, and any other pilots for that matter.....have never seen a Mitchell Wing before.  So practically everyone in site of my plane, came by to ask questions and offer advice.  As much as I love to talk about the Mitchell Wing and specifically my little bird.....it does not allow for getting a lot of work done.  So lesson learned.....try to do as much work away from the airport as possible.

Second lesson learned.....when the Mitchell Wing is off the trailer.....the wing is very, very low to the ground.
Most maintenance and work on the aircraft will be easier to do while it is on the trailer.

Feeling somewhat defeated for the day....I decided to pack it up and head home.

After a few hours of thinking we decided the solution to our problem was to make the ramps longer.  This would decrease the angle of the aircraft coming off of the trailer, get a better angle of dangle on the winch cable, and allow me to disengage the cable and lower the aircraft solo.

Super Dad, who happens to be a retired crew chief on an F-16, and a handy carpenter, was able to extend the ramps by 3 feet using simple 2 x 8's.  They make the previous aluminum ramps stiffer, and give the desired angle of descent.

Yesterday we went back to the RV storage yard, pulled the trailer out of its slot an tried them out.

Success!  I can raise and lower the aircraft off the trailer without any additional hands.

What's next?

Baby Steps of Progress

It has been a few weeks since I have updated....so I though I had better get something up.
I haven't accomplished anything major but have gotten a few things done.

First of all I located the battery.  My A-10 has an electric start, making it easy to shut the engine off in flight to take advantage of any soarable lift, with the ability to restart when necessary.  There is a forward compartment on the main pod, accessible through a small hatch.  I pulled the cover and inside I found a couple of things.  One was the battery.  The terminals were still connected....so it is doubtful that the battery is still any good.  But I pulled it and brought it home and we will see if it will take a charge.

Inside the compartment I also found a heavy set of wing tie downs.  I pulled them out for the moment, but will probably be putting them back in before flying as they may be part of the CG balance.(which we will check before flying)

Secondly I installed my winch.  It took a fair amount of engineering to get it set up properly, but I think it should work very well.  I had purchased a worm-drive unit which I installed on the rear of the trailer.  This way I can raise and lower the A-10 while being fully clear of the aircraft.  The winch cable is led forward underneath the A-10, and then is turned 90 degrees via a cable pulley to attach at the front wheel fork.  A medium size vertical pulley was also installed just aft of the wheel wheel to guide the cable as the aircraft is lowered.

Lastly I put on the prop.  A very nice composite 3 blade Powerfin Prop came with the A-10 but was not installed.  I first gave the prop hub a cursory cleaning along with the prop surfaces to insure a proper mating.  After a little scrounging in the part boxes I was able to come up with the 6 AN bolts and washers for mounting.  I cleaned them up as well and then mounted the prop.  According to the Manufacturer specs I applied 175 Inch-Pounds of torque to each bolt.  The proper way to mount a prop is to make very small incremental turns on each bolt, very slowly increasing the torque....working in a cross bolt pattern like you would when replacing a wheel on a car.

I should have some new photos shortly to show the progress.

The Great Polish OFF

Anxious to try out the polishes, I set out for Creswell.  On the way I picked up a few polishing aids, thin red rags, micro-fiber towels etc.

I picked a small area on the leading edge to test out the two polishes.  This area has a dime sized rough black spot which will be a good indicator of how well the polishes are going to work.  There are a variety of small spots like this on the wing, showing slightly heavier oxidation, and in my opinion are in areas where the blue cover was in contact with the wing.  I am not too keen on such covers, as I feel instead of protecting, they tend to trap moisture and promote corrosion.

Before polishing my spot, I washed the test area with water, and then with the Nuvite Dry Wash.

First the Gord's.  Instructions say to shake it very well, which I did.  There is apparently a penny on the inside of the bottle to help the mixing.  I thought I would try it first with a thin red shop rag, as this was recommended by the manufacturer. Polish, polish, polish.....here comes the usual black residue, indicating the polish is working.  Even though it seems to be polishing well in general, it is not having much effect on the black spot.  So next I tried a piece of synthetic 0000 steel wool.(looks like a scouring pad)  Polish, polish, polish, .....that spot, although slightly smoother, is still not going away.

Next step try the Metal Gloss.  Applied with the red rag, polish, polish, polish, ....again no real effect on the spot.

Initial conclusions.  The Gord's, although it seems to work well enough for general oxidation, is not going to be strong enough for some areas of the wing.  Furthermore, the Gord's is very thin, and it is drippy.  This makes it fairly impractical for polishing any where except the upper surfaces.

The Metal Gloss has more appeal as it is more of a paste, with good enough viscosity to be able to apply on most any of the wing surfaces.  In addition it seems to really polish to a mirror finish, as evidenced by the results I achieved on my little test area.

So...between the two, I will probably only be re-ordering the Metal Gloss.

I am however still stuck with having to explore other polishes.  These two will finish well enough, but I need something with a little more teeth for the heavier oxidized areas of the wing.  I am going to go back to either the Rolite or Nuvite Brands, and get several grades of polish to experiment with.

Somewhat slow and frustrating, but this is how we learn.

So much Polish and so little Time

Getting back to clean up.  The A-10 has a very large wing.  The specs show a 34' wing span with 156 sq ft.
of aluminum....yikes!  That is a lot of area to polish.

Cleaning and washing will be one job....but polishing will be quite another.

First of all there are a ton of aluminum polishes on the market.  Names like Rolite, Nuvite, Met-All, Fitz just to name a few.  And everyone has a opinion on the best way to polish aluminum.

Polishes by definition, different than waxes, work by removing varying degrees of metal.  Each brand of polish, contains varying amounts of abrasives.  Even within the same brand, a variety of polishes may be offered for anything from very aggressive oxidation removal, with course abrasives, to the final mirror polishing stage, with only very fine abrasives.

The A-10 has very thin aluminum skins, so I want to be able to clean and remove the light to medium oxidation, while removing the minimum of material.

Of course everyone markets their polish as the best, and none of them are exactly cheap.  So how does one choose?

Even after you have chosen a polish, then you need to decide if you are going to do the job by hand, or involve machinery.  Hand polishing is slow and tedious when you are dealing with a lot of surface area.  Machinery will definitely cut down the time.....but the downside is that you can do a lot of damage in a short period time if you are not careful.

Decisions, decisions.

I decided to order two different polishes in small quantities that I have heard good things about.  The first one is "Gord's" Aluminum Polish, the second is "Metal Gloss".  Gord's is a soap based polish that is supposed to be 15 times less abrasive than most polishes on the market.  Metal Gloss is also marketed as very safe for aluminum, chrome etc., and has a good following in the show bike community.

From what I have read, the Gord's will be good for areas that are a little more oxidized and stubborn....while the Metal Gloss will be for areas in better condition and for finishing.  I will test each on very small areas to see how well they work.

In addition to the polishes I also ordered Metal Gloss Sealer (for sealing after polishing) and Nuvite Dry Wash for cleaning small areas without water.

I initially intend to proceed by hand.....we will have to see how far I get.