Sigh. It's time. My project's found a new home. I'm no longer a builder.
You can find Steen Aero Lab at http://www.steenaero.com
I haven't decided what color to paint the plane yet. Here are GIF & JPEG 3-view images of the airplane. If you're artistically inclined, download the images & send me your stuff. I can't promise any money, but I will give a free ride in the finished plane. (Kinda tough if you're in Europe, though!)So far, I've had only one person mail me a copy of how their Skybolt is painted. I'd like to thank Mickey Keenan for sending it to me.
Here's a letter I recently emailed that may be of general interest.
Since I plan on competing with this plane, it's necessary that the top & bottom surfaces be different. I also need to put some sort of stripe, or perhaps an image, on the top wing so people can tell if I'm doing hammerheads correctly. It's also important to me that the design be something I can paint. If I suspect a problem, I may have to cut a hole in the fabric. Large, bold designs that can be seen from a distance will probably take precedence over landscapes...
I recently purchased a scanner, so I've put a few construction photos online. To keep this page easy to read over slow connections (like the one I'm using), I put the photos on separate pages that this page links to.
My first sub-project was to insulate my garage & build workbenches. I now have 5 benches in my 21' x 21' garage (yes, there's still room to walk). I also took a welding class at the local vo-tech. No, I haven't heated the garage yet.
Once the primary work bench was built & leveled, I positioned the sides on it & started cutting/fitting/tack-welding the "intercoastals" - the tubes that connect the 2 sides together. I'm currently (11/29/94) just past the half-way point in this process. I recently bent the sides in, & positioned the tailpost in a jig. It's starting to look a lot like an airplane!
I finished the tack welding last night. Dave Clarke of LANL pointed out that this project is very comparable to an advanced degree - it costs about the same, takes the same amount of time (if not more), requires at least as much effort, & is easily as educational. I recently learned this experience counts towards the 3 year experience requirement for the Airframe & Powerplant Mechanic's certificate. To become a licensed airplane mechanic, all I'll need do is pass a written & oral exam.
I'll build some jigs to hold the fuselage, so I can rotate it about the longitudinal axis. That way, I can finish weld it without crawling around too much. I have to be careful - I have a nasty tendency to point the 5300 degree welding flame at myself. I've been lucky so far. These jigs will help prevent that. My goal is to have this thing welded up & sitting on its' wheels by "spring". That schedule is looking tight, but it's still possible. It mostly depends on taking a sufficiently lax definition of spring.
I was told this particular weld, called a "rosette weld", is difficult. I tried it on some scrap tubing. It took me 10 tries before I was confident enough to do it to my fuselage. I drilled holes in my longerons to accept the rosette welds, & inserted the reinforcement tubes. I've done 1 of the 6 required rosette welds. They are still difficult. It's easy to melt the outer tube without affecting the inner tube.
This reinforcement seems appropriate in my case, because I'd like to install a fairly heavy engine. If you picture a see-saw, the engine is on one end, the rest of the plane is on the other, & the landing gear is at the fulcrum. I'm reinforcing the see-saw at the point where it meets the fulcrum.
Terminology note: Planes, like boats, are described by "stations". In both cases, the station number describes a distance aft of a reference line. When building a boat, the reference line is usually the forwardmost point of the hull, not counting any kind of bowsprit. On traditional aircraft such as mine, the reference point is the firewall. The landing gear attaches to the fuselage at station 34 (34 inches aft of the firewall). The tail is at station 168.
I finally rolled the fuselage out of my garage last Sunday, September 10, 1995 at 10:37 am. My neighbors took pictures of me sitting in it. It's a pretty tremendous feeling. It took me a while to get out of the plane.
For my next trick, I'll build the cabane struts. They're the A-frame struts that connect the top wing & the fuselage together. The hard part's going to be to do it all as accurately as possible. The top wing has an angle of incidence of 1-1/2 degrees.
I got tired of looking at the plane without its' legs on, so I reinstalled the gear. The forward cabane strut is now about 6" taller than my garage door! (No big deal; I'll just have to remove the gear to get the fuselage out of the garage). It sure looks funny, though.
I've started work on the tail. The instructions say to make the leading edge of the vertical tail by using a conduit bender on a piece of 5/8" 4130 steel tube. It's not easy to keep the bend in 2 dimensions; steel can get squirrelly. Thank goodness for big rubber mallets. I now have the vertical fin ready to finish weld to the fuselage. Next will be the rudder, the horizontal stabs, & the elevators.
I chose to purchase the tail ribs from Steen Aero Labs, rather than try to bend the sheet steel myself.
My latest little adventure has been to try bending some sheet steel (0.010" thick 4130), to make the rudder & elevator horns. The old "stick it in a vise & apply pressure" method seems to work, although slowly. I'm using a piece of scrap steel to protect the work from the hammer.
I built the torque tube & the control sticks. More parts that I'm glad are behind me. I followed the original plans, and did not put needle bearings in them. Tonight, I spent 3 hours cutting the elevator pushrods to length, and drilling holes for the bolts. There are 3 pushrods: One to connect the control sticks to the pushrod reverser, another to connect the reverser to the walking beam, and a third to connect the walking beam to the elevator horns.
The pushrod reverser is sort of like a see-saw. It's a length of 5/8" square tubing mounted vertically. It pivots forward & back on a bolt that is attached to the fusealge. The purpose of this is to convert a "pull" on the stick to a "push" on the elevator horns. I suppose I should include a picture of this some time...
The elevator pushrods are in, & the rudder pedals are mostly complete. I'm still asking myself if I did the right thing in building them from scratch, rather than just buying a set. It's a time vs. money question; 3 months & $30 in materials, or 2 days & $500. I think I made the right choice. (I just counted; there are about 40 separate pieces of metal that must be cut, shaped, & welded together to make the 4 rudder pedals. That's less than the cabane struts & landing gear combined!)
I'm working on the trim/servo tabs, & have still been poking a bit at the rudder pedals. The pedal hinge mechanism depends on 2 tubes nested inside each other. They nest ok, but the outer tube bent a bit when I welded it. I may replace the outer tube & try again. I also may say 'heck with it', & rig up something similar to what I understand is used on the Pitts S-2B. There, the outer tube gets caps welded on the ends, then a small (3/8"?) rod is pushed through to act as a hinge pin. The tolerances are better that way. We'll see.
I finally got around to putting the lead counter-weights into the elevators. Without the trim/servo tabs or skin, I appear to be fairly well balanced. The builder's guide says this is good - the ideal finished condition is slightly 'nose-down' on the elevators.
Right now I'm working on installing the brake master cylinders, the rudder pedals, and the rudder cables. I do not plan on making my rudder pedals adjustable - I'm 34 years old, and am not likely to grow much any more. Needless to say, I'm being very careful about where I position the pedals!
I'm currently looking for an engine. I plan on installing a Lycoming IO-540/C4B5 engine. My big problems are price and trust. What ever I buy will have to be pickled for a few years while I finish the rest of the plane. If it then turns out to have problems, no one (including me) will know if the problems were there originally or if they developed during storage. Aircraft Spruce lists factory rebuilt ones for about $20,000. This price assumes I have a good engine core for trade-in. For some reason, I thought I could obtain a good running engine for $15 - $20,000. Maybe I'm just miscalibrated and underpaid.
Well, ok, I have made progress. For starters, my 2nd son, Steven Spencer Pichelman was born on 6/28/98. He's a happy-go-lucky little guy, just like his brother. No fuss-budgets here! (How'd I get so lucky? I dunno...)
Back to the airplane. I finished the trim/servo tabs. I followed the plans, which tell you how to make a combination trim/servo tab on each of the elevators. Unfortunately, the plans do not tell you how to attach the tabs to the elevators. The tabs must be attached to a piano hinge, which then must be attached to the airplane. It is very important that this connection be reliable; elevator tab flutter is pretty high on the list of "Bad Things" that can happen to an airplane. In my book, it's just behind main spar failure and engine fire. All the builder's guide has to say is "don't use pop rivets". I used pop rivets, but only to hold all-metal locking nutplates in place.
That was a real experience. I used the standard "more is better" approach, which meant that I used the biggest sized nutplate that would fit, & I used a lot of them -- I think it's 8 per side. My theory is that I only need 3 or 4 to actually hold the tab on until my next preflight, so 8 seemed like a good number. :-)
This was my first experience with pop riveting, & I was working with steel & flush rivets. Since I had 8 bolts on each side of the hinge (& 2 hinges), I had to accomodate 32 bolts (yes, that's overkill -- but then again, so is the whole airplane). Each bolt had to have 3 holes drilled - 1 for the bolt, and 2 for the rivets to hold the nutplate in place. That's 96 holes boys & girls. Since this was steel, I always drill an initial pilot hole, then work my way up to the size I want. Some day I'm going to look back on this & ask myself why the heck I make so much extra work for myself.
Now that the tabs are on, the elevators are definitely tail-heavy. I'll have to check to see if that's a bad thing. Some tail-heaviness is desirable, but do I have too much of a good thing? We'll see. (No, it's not the bolts -- I only put in 1 or two to stick things together, not all 8 per side)
I solved my canopy problem by throwing money at the situation. I sent Hale Wallace a big check, & he made a canopy kit similar to what's on his bright yellow airplane. (I love that plane). I had to spend some time scratching my head, because I found out that my fuselage is wider than the plans call for by over an inch, at the pilot's shoulders (I think that's station 85 or so). When I bent the longerons back to the tail, I made the top intercoastal too long. The funny thing is that I didn't discover it until I went to make the formers for the turtledeck! (It takes a tape measure to see the problem; I've eyeballed that line a zillion times).
I solved (I hope) the problem by making my turtledeck just a little taller & wider than planned; it looks good, & the canopy has enough flex in it that I think it's going to work out. Speaking of the turtledeck, mine is made of 2 types of aluminum - 2024 & something else. (Sorry, but I'm writing this off the top of my head, & I'm too lazy to look up my notes). I built forms out of 3/4" plywood (perfect excuse to buy a router), sandwiched the aluminum between 2 forms, & started whacking it with a rubber mallet. I later bought a set of fluting pliers, because I learned the hard way how much aluminum will stretch (a lot), & how much it won't. In honor of homebuilders everywhere, I put in a zillion rivets. I've an A&P friend who asked me about that -- I put in about 5 rivet holes, then decided that I was getting excessive. I thought about it for a while, decided that rivets & Clecos (rivet simulators) were fun, then kept right on plopping in holes. It'll all be covered up by fabric (& it isn't structural anyway), but I'll know :-)
Right now, I'm formally taking a break from the construction to build a pedal plane (the Gee Bee) for my eldest son's 3rd birthday this July. I learned from my full scale aircraft construction experiences, & ordered every pre-built component that I could. (I even bought all the nuts & bolts & screws & whatnot!) It added significantly to the price of the project (even if you don't count the table saw I convinced myself I needed...), but without it, there's no way I could possibly finish the project in a reasonable time.
I don't yet know what's next on the 'Bolt. I'm delaying wing construction, but there's not much more that I can do on the fuselage without a firewall. The firewall is held in place by the engine mount, and the engine mount is determined by the engine choice. Therefore, I need an engine. I've waffled back & forth between a fire breathing monster (Monty Barrett hotrodded), & a vanilla engine. We'll see.
It's time to face facts. I haven't made progress on the Skybolt in years, and I now have another plane. Why'd I fail? The biggest reason is that I discovered that if I'm in a good mood going into the shop, I'll do good work and make good progress. If I go in with a less than stellar mood, I'll make crud that will require rework later. Some people (I envy them!) go into the shop to relax. I like making things, but if I'm frustrated with how my day went, there was too great a tendency to take out the frustration on the work. Not a good idea if you're going to bet your life on your handiwork.
According to my wife I'm supposed to put the project up for sale. I have a dead-straight fuselage (a little wide around the pilot's shoulders, but that's OK) with less-than-perfect landing gear. I have the Hale Wallace tip-up canopy kit (unassembled), and some pretty nice wheels. I also have a reasonably complete wood kit (tip bows, spars, etc).
Thanks for the inquiries, but the project's been sold. I'm a little sad, but it's the right thing to do. The gentleman who bought it rebuilds aircraft for a living, and wanted a project of his own. I've no doubt that this plane will be finished and flying a lot sooner than if I'd kept it.
I keep thinking to myself that perhaps I'll start another one in 20 years or so when I retire. We'll see. In the mean time, I'll keep flying my Laser, and being a Daddy.
