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A distraction

skywords

skywords

Donation Time
I have been distracted from my cars lately building an airplane. All though I did do the rear seals and brakes on the driver last weekend. Oh what a difference having brakes. When you drive a car for several years you don't seem to notice the brakes diminishing. My rears were running in gear oil. I put new shoes, slave cylinders, and a rebuilt MC I did a couple of years ago. And of course bead blasted and painted everything that gets painted. I purchased some rear seals from VB and what a pain to install way to tight. So I dug thru my boxes and found some SS seals. Much nicer to install. If you notice Rick's catalog calls for three .006 gaskets. I found this is needed because his seals protrude past the retainer it is pressed into. I trimmed the seal and used two gaskets.

Some pictures of my distraction. Making a biplane into a parasol using Cessna 120 wings.

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B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Rick, I cannot comment on your airplane, other than to say it looks nice. The ignorance factor is too high.

Is the plane your toy or family bread on the table? You've been away for quite a while, I figured you were busy moving.

Bill
 
skywords

skywords

Donation Time
The move was to be way to expensive. So I am looking for a surplus space suit to wear in the summer. :D The airplane is both a toy and an investment, hopefully I can hang on to it. I started building it several years ago. It has been sitting in a storage hanger and I figured how to finish it within the catagory that allows me to fly it without a medical.
 
Series6

Series6

Past President
Gold Level Sponsor
Making a biplane into a parasol using Cessna 120 wings.

For those of us aeronauticly challenged, what does that mean? What's a parasol? I think of it as an umbrella....
 
skywords

skywords

Donation Time
Sorry I should have been more clear. The FAA has made another catagory of pilots called Light Sport pilots and when a pilot lets his medical expier he can fly these type of aircraft. They have to weigh fully loaded no more than 1320 pounds, Fixed pitch propeller, fix landing gear except amphibians, can fly no faster than 138 mph. My aircraft as it was originally designed as a biplane and weighed close to 2000 gross, by making it a parasol with these incredibally light Cessna wings and using a Jack La Lane juicer motor (100 hp or less) I can make it light sport qualified. I am modifing the already light wings to shave 52 pounds from them. The leg belongs to the infamous Bobby V a fellow now retired skydiver. He spends most of his time on walk-a-bouts, He will, I kid you not put a pebble in his mouth with a gallon of water, a few oranges in a pack and walk from tucson to El-Paso as the crow flys in the summer. Yes he is Mexican.

These are some examples of parasol aircraft.
 
Nickodell

Nickodell

Donation Time
To enlarge a little on what Rick said; the new Light Sport category is a godsend for people like Rick and me who cannot for various reasons get their 3rd-Class Medical Certification renewed, thus disqualifying us from flying standard General Aviation aircraft.

Federal Flight Regulation Part 61.303 states that anyone holding a Sport Pilot Certificate and a US driver's license is permitted to operate: "Any light sport aircraft for which you hold the endorsements required for its category, class, make and model."

Having been forced to be a "penguin" for the past 15 months, on the expiration of my 3rd-Class Med. Cert., I am trying to form a 3-person syndicate to buy one of the new Light Sport aircraft, and share costs as I did for several years with a V-tail Beech Bonanza. Current prices are in the $100K region. Rick, with his experience and expertise, is cutting this by about 75% I would guess.
 
wipeout

wipeout

Donation Time
Just make sure you old barn stormers dont fly them contraptions over my house....

egad...there are enough gray hairs on the roads here in Florida...

:p
 
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