Air Command Rebuild Project

Drive out the old and replace with the new, all in one step
 

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I took a plastic tube insert, set up a perfect hole on the drill press. Then, for the tube holes, I snapped a chalk line down one sidewall to line up hte holes at both ends. Drill the first hole, one wall only. Insert the jig plug. Draw down the drill bit, motor off, then drill the second wall. This works with a hand drill just as easily with the jig plug inserted. When I lined up the other end, I sighted with a very long bolt thru the drilled hole to get the far end just right.

Then i reamed out the holes from 1/4" to 3/8", and inserted the aluminum or stainless bearing sleeve, whichever the case may be. Then I glued in place so it won't slip out during assembly with some common silicon.

I use the tip of the micrometer to make a scratch in the metal to mark the hole.
 

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Repairs on the flying tail
 

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Experimental mylar skin

Experimental mylar skin

I am sick of buffing and polishing, only to be disappointed with the results. I grabbed a piece of junk stock, sprayed on the glue and wrapped with metalized .010 heavy duty mylar. A few seconds of work. It looks GREAT. The finish is durable, needs no maintenance, won't chip, scratch, or fade. It is aerodynamic. It weighs nothing to speak of. I'll stick it out the window on the xpressway and test it. What could go wrong?
 

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BTW...the blonde neighbor lady loading kids in the minivan is SMOKIN hot. Can't wait for the beach to open. She wears a teeny weenie bikini, and I wear shades to hide where my eyes are lookin.
 
Hiya,

be careful using "Common" silicon, it normally contains acid and shouldn't be used on aircraft especially aluminium.

Are there any more pictures of the tail repair we havn't seen ? The stub spar does not appear to go into the older red coloured skin very far. How did you splice the spar to the red skin ?

If it is exactly as it looks in the picture I doubt it will be strong enough.
 
Gerg, is she married & if so, does her husband have a gun ?

Is she a new neighbor ? or are you ?
 
NoWingsAttached :
Like the wooden AH-1ModS looks great and bring back a few thoughts.
Looks like your in to lots of works, Rebuild. Like the pics.
 
I am the new neighbor, as of 9/11/07. SHe is always on the beach, I never see her hubby around. SHe lives around the corner, and visits my next door neighbor a lot for play dates for their kids. I have been told he is pretty laid back. SHe is a teensy bit flirty, and always diverts her eyes long enough so I can get get a good long look at the beach.

Silicon with acid - you can smell the acid if it is in it. good point, that is why i am posting, to find out stuff like this that I don't think about or don't know about. This stuff is mild to the nostrils, and intended for use with aluminum gutters. I will remove the excess. I just need a little bit to hold the sleeves in place. I have found silicon used originally for this inside the tubes, with no corrosive effects, and the craft was built in 1986.

I wish I was getting more responses on some of the other questions I have had here. Like rivets.

THe stub spar was originally overlapped into the wing spar just 1", which is the thin, skin sheet aluminum bent into a channel shape and attached to the stainless stub. 90% of the attachement and stress was taken by the skin attached to the stub by rivets spaced 1/2" top and bottom. Now the coupling is a 1/8" x 1/2" x 8" 6061t6 bolted in four places by AN4 (one of the inboard bolts is not yet inserted in the stub in the photos), and also steel riveted between the bolts (also not yet done in the photo). The skin attachments to stub and the vertical stab take most of the stresses. (You can see the close spacing of the rivets into the stub in the final shot, completed) THis is a neutral wing with 0 lift, so I don't believe vertical stressing will be significant factor in cracking and failure. THe buffeting from the prop wash is more critical, right?

I considered a 1" wide bar instead of 1/2", but it would not fit between two rows of rivets holding two layers of the stub together, and I felt a flush mount was more important than beefier stock.

This feed back is very useful, I wish I was getting more. HELP! I am an idiot and need your tips.

I would like to know how homebuilders shape leading edges of aluminum airfoils? I had particular difficulty with this one, and I am not 100% happy with my results. I have no brake to use. It seems impossible to do without one.

I gave up on polishing. I don't have the luxury of the time to spend on that nonsense, even though I love the results when it turns out right. I painted the mast black, it was almost 80 here yesterday and no wind, so a perfect day for painting outdoors. It will match the rest of the frame tubing.
 
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Looking good, Greg.

I've seen folks use a piece of plywood clamped on both sides of the skin for a break and they used a rig - plug / mold of the stab and just bent it over the form. They made it look easy?
 
I am sick of buffing and polishing, only to be disappointed with the results. I grabbed a piece of junk stock, sprayed on the glue and wrapped with metalized .010 heavy duty mylar. A few seconds of work. It looks GREAT. The finish is durable, needs no maintenance, won't chip, scratch, or fade. It is aerodynamic. It weighs nothing to speak of. I'll stick it out the window on the xpressway and test it. What could go wrong?

Just remember that the air behind the tail is near 400mph and can cause all kinds of problems when air jets underneath or in to anything.
 
She sounds like trouble !

I also was not aware of the silicone thing. I have also used it on aluminum with no signs of damage.

I don't know a damn thing about rivits.......yet !

Where are you getting the tube sleeves?

Aluminum & Stainless ?
 
I bought 1/4"ID x 3/8"OD stainless, cut and fitted to perfect length with a little $60Dewalt handgrinder. Someone else did some on here with aluminum tube, both seem to work just fine.
 
How are you NoWingsAttached

Has the size of the rotor head drawings?


Thanks

Dong

I am coming to CHina tomorrow. I don't know where Younghao is, but hope i run into you there!

I don't know if I understand your question.

I do not have drawings of the rotorhead. They were not available for the tandem from Air Command when I asked. They do have the smaller single-place machine rotorhead drawings available I think.

I will happily send you a set of drawings if you want, but I will have to make them when I get back home from China, after 3/30. Let me know if you need them.
 
Looking good, Greg.

I've seen folks use a piece of plywood clamped on both sides of the skin for a break and they used a rig - plug / mold of the stab and just bent it over the form. They made it look easy?

I used the rounded edge of my clothes dryer....and two hands. The part was small, so it worked, but it got me wondering about a larger piece.
 
Dragon Wings for Arrow stuff?

Dragon Wings for Arrow stuff?

Gerg, you need to buy all my Arrow stuff! I need a set of DWs!!

Um...you know how much rotors are, right? Is your Arrow stuff platinum plated?
 
WHen I did the CLT conversion in 2007, I used everything from the low-rider framing and just rearranged stuf to put it together. This picture shows the rear crossover frame tube attached to the upper framing with the rear seat mounts, removed because with the frame raised the seat clearance to the mast improved and the rear mounts, which raised the back of the seat 2", were no longer necessary. When I crashed, the crossover tube broke. I never liked the original way I had put this together, it was kinda Rube Goldberg, and was the worst part of the CLT conversion. It was heavy, ugly, and not all that strong.
 

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Here is the new crossover part, made from tube salvaged from the broken mast
 

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