By Don | October 24, 2011
I’ve finished the 4 wings (finally) and built stanchions that allow me to turn the wings for easier access in varnishing.
Trying to figure out which was most efficient, brushing or spraying, I ended up deciding to spray the wings.
Here’s what spraying on the varnish looks like!
By Don | October 4, 2011
With the 4 wings all finished now on my Tiger Moth project, and after attending a huge airshow in Wisconsin this summer (EAA’s Oshkosh show), I got the crazy idea – could I power my Tiger Moth on electricity? How cool would that be?!? The short answer is no – because energy storage isn’t there yet.
But this past week, NASA (with Google sponsoring prize $$) had a competition under the CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) foundation with a top prize of $1,350,000 for the winner, to be announced on Monday (yesterday).
Because most of the aircraft were electric (or hybrid), I was very interested so Leslie (bless her!) and I went up over the weekend to see these e-airplanes. Who won?
By Don | August 23, 2011
What did I get myself into I thought as I volunteered to be a “pylon dog” at the Camarillo air show?!?
The air show organizers tried to bring a high level of excitement and buzz to the show this year by having another organization bring their race to Camarillo. Seven aerobatic planes would “race” down the field, slaloming between 60′ – 70′ high inflatable pylons – cool!
I envisioned having to stand next to these things while the planes screamed just over my head. I’d been told that in practice (at another field), the planes got as low as 7′ – but I figured, that’s okay – I’m less than 6′ tall, so no problem…
Besides, I was told the FAA had set a minimum floor of 15′ for these guys – lots of room!
But ultimately, there was no racing because of lots of complications between the race organizers and the FAA. – bummer.
But what a beautiful weekend for an air show – lots of sun, noise and smoke as all types of planes flew throughout the weekend.
And we put up the pylons each day to give the crowd an idea of what the race may have looked like – maybe next year! Read the rest of this article »
By Don | June 20, 2011
Many of you know I’m (slowly) building a replica of an old Tiger Moth bi-plane. I’ve got the 4 wings pretty much done, but I was sitting in the hangar one day trying to visualize how I would get the nuts onto the aileron brackets once I had the wing and aileron covered in fabric.
You can see tolerances are pretty tight (for a wood airplane) and there’s no easy way to get a wrench into that space above the spar where the bracket sits. The bolts will go UP through the spar and bracket.
I’m in a hangar with 4 other guys building airplanes and we looked and studied, looked and studied some more, but the ultimate solution was I had to start over and make new brackets. Why? Here’s the reason and pictures of how I built new brackets.
By Don | March 7, 2011
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve updated progress on the Tiger Moth! Too much work and not enough play time at the airport…
But during the past 6 plus months I’ve managed to finish the lower right wing which has the aileron. Some biplanes have ailerons on all 4 wings, but I’ve chosen to just have them on the lower wings.
To see how this wing progressed, especially how the aileron was built, I’ve posted some more pictures.
By Don | April 8, 2010
Many friends and clients know I’ve been slowly building a replica of a 1930′s era biplane called a Tiger Moth at a hangar at Camarillo airport.
3 wings are done and hanging in the rafters and I’m almost finished with the 4th – the lower right wing that has an aileron (controls the turns). I’ve just made the aluminum brackets for the pivots that the aileron will swing from. After double checking all the alignment Read the rest of this article »
By Don | May 2, 2009
Laying out for the leading edge.
During April, after installing the wing tip bow and the curved inner trailing edge piece, I started on wrapping the leading edge of the wing.
This is the 4th wing (of a bi-plane) and yet I’m somewhat nervous because this is 1/16″ Finnish plywood – very thin and yet very workable for this application.
I’ve previously installed the rounded nose caps that I’ll be wrapping the plywood over, and ultimately, it all gets covered in fabric – just like a 1930s era airplane.
So how’d it turn out? Check it out and see!
By Don | May 2, 2009
Wing tip bow finished
In my last report I mentioned how I had to re-do the wing tip bow. I wasn’t a happy camper. I’d epoxy’d that laminated, curved bow to those 2 extensions, but something had slipped and I used a heat gun to loosen the epoxy and then re-set the bow. It worked the second time, then I added the bracing and various small blocking pieces.
Then it was on to installing a curved, laminated piece at the trailing edge of the wing, next to the root. It’s strictly for looks, and will give a more pleasing sense to the eye when done.
Read on for more details!
By Don | March 5, 2009
I hadn’t worked on the Tiger Moth for several weeks and was getting antsy. But on Sunday afternoon I made it back out to Camarillo airport to continue working on attaching the wing tip bow, but when I looked closely at my previous work – arrrrhhh…!
I had carefully epoxy’d it to those triangular pieces off the main and rear spars, used bungee cords and clamps to secure it tightly, but… Read the rest of this article »
By Don | January 7, 2009
I was able to spend some “quality time” on the Tiger Moth over the Christmas holiday season. Work on the airplane generally comes in spurts, in increments of an hour or two – as you’ll see why. Read the rest of this article »
