Don't sue aviation over me....

Dear Family and People of the World,

 

First I am not planning to check out any time soon, I love my life.  However, if I should crash any airplane and especially any experimental airplane like the one I am building.  Please, please, please, do not sue anybody over it.  If I kill myself in an aircraft, let the responsibility be mine alone and die with me.

 

I hold the designers of airplanes in the highest regard and would roll in my grave if somebody sued one over me.

 

The only people who win anything in those stupid lawsuits are the doggone lawyers, between them and the union's they've crippled general aviation in this country.

 

I love aviation and I love my country.  Good American's take responsibility for their own actions and they don't frivolously sue others for personal gain.

 

If a man goes up in a machine and buys the farm, well it's his right to do so.  He knows the risks, as I know the risks.  Just dispose of my body in any way that seems fitting and take solace in the knowledge that I checked out doing what I love and as soon as I get to heaven I'll likely check into the flying scene, if they have one.

 

With Love, Sincerity, and all God's Blessings,

Jon

Tapered Rudder Ribs and Airbike control mods

I slept in this morning!  Still managed to spend 30 minutes in the barn though before work.  I tapered two of the rudder ribs into an airfoil shape.  I searched around the barn for something that had a nice arc to use as a template.  Ended up using a wing rib!  The arc on the rudder is the same arc on the top trailing edge of the wing.  Turned out pretty nice.

 

An Airbike distributer in England was kind enough to send me some of the Airbike pushrod control drawings (see attachment).  This is closer to what I want to do with my plane.  The only drawback I can see from leaving the Teleflex cables behind is I won't be able to have flaperons and I won't be able to reflex the ailerons.  I gather the plane cruises a little faster with the Aileron's reflexed (they say three or four knots faster).  As far as flap's go, it simply doesn't need them.  Most of the folks that fly these say that they never put the flaps down.  They create a lot of drag and marginal lift and the design is already low mass and draggy to begin with, all that is needed to slow down is to reduce power, even in a shallow dive.

 

It's kind of hard to get Airbike plans in the USA because the damn lawyers have ruined it.  Personally I think it's a fine little aircraft and as safe as any of them.  I chose the Hi-Max because it's more airplane-like with an enclosed cockpit etc, but the Airbike is awesome if you like being out there in the slipstream.

 

I have no idea why Wayne Ison designed the Airbike with pushrods and the Minimax with Teleflex cables.  I suspect it has something to do with ease of construction.  The Airbike is welded tube and the Minimax line is made of wood.  For some reason a lot of homebuilders shy from welding.  I personally enjoy welding and have the equipment, but wanted a wood airplane this time.  I just find wood is more enjoyable to work with.

Rudder Post and Hinges

Today I drilled a series of 1 mm holes through the rudder post for the lower rudder hinge. Turning a series of holes into a nice neat sawn line required a bit of head scratching. I ended up taking this old saber saw blade in my hand and very gently pulling it from hole to hole, back and forth till I had a shallow trench in the rudder post. This particular blade just happened to be the exact same width as the hinge. I sawed very gently for quite some time and the trench turned into a cut. Eventually the saw blade came out the bottom of the wood and the rest was easy. Happy to say I was able to attain an absolutely perfect fit! The hinge fits so snugly that I actually had to tap it gently with a rubber mallet to push it through the slot.

I initially held the saber saw blade in my hand but this was very uncomfortable so I converted a piece of scrap into a quick and dirty handle in about five minutes. This made the job much easier.

The AN hardware fits very snugly but without issues. I put the bolts in just to make sure that they would go all the way through. They fit snug enough that I actually had to turn them in with a screw driver.

I think I should probably paint these hinges before putting them into the post for good. I was considering using POR 15. That stuff is amazing.

Tool Bench, Work Table #2, and Vertical Stabilizer.

Spent my Birthday leave getting my shop prepared to build wings! In the background you can see our new tool bench which was cut down and repurposed from an old storage loft in the garage. We had enough material to make the bench top and a shelf underneath.



Middle ground you can see my second work table butting up against the first one. That board underneath is just sitting there, I’ll cut it down and make it a cross brace tomorrow morning. I still need to add the straight edge to the second table. This should be sufficient space to build the plane. Sorry about the mess!



I helped a fellow Minimax builder move shop to a new house last Thursday and he gave me his old drill press. He had just purchased a new one and didn’t need two. The old one works just fine and has a new belt. The little wedge on the right hand foreground is our table saw.



Not a whole lot of progress on the actual plane last week. I tried to build an aileron bearing rib #5 but decided I didn’t like how it turned out. I am going to build it again and see if I can do better this time. I am learning some new tricks. Every time I start a new component I am back on the learning curve, but hey that’s what this is about. Now that I have a drill press many jobs are going to be easier and neater.



Today I cut the piano hinge provided from TEAM into two hinges for the rudder. Just used a vise and a hacksaw cleaned up any burs and sharp edges with the bench sander, they turned out pretty nice. Tomorrow I’ll drill the holes in the vertical stabilizer spars for the hinges and the fuselage mounting points.



Now just saving money to build spars.