John's Build

[airlina]

John , I can see why Vicki loves to fly with you , as I have seen the high quality of your work firsthand when you flew to OSH, and after 49 years of marriage , she obviously knows how conscientious you are . Amazed at that list of places you took your Thorpe, certainly wasn't a hangar queen. Bruce N199CL

[jrevens]

DesertFox4 - any chance of moving this thread into the "Member's Build Logs" category? Seems like it should be there, but it's up to you of course.

I finished building my own copy of the "Tail-Mate" tailwheel hoist yesterday. Worked on it during a big blizzard we had here... couldn't do much else anyway! I had hoped to find one for sale, but since I had most of the material already I decided to "do-it-myself". At the ripe young age of 72, bending forward to lift the 59 pounds that mine weighs just isn't much fun anymore. This is much better -

[Delta Whisky]

Looks nice John - need pictures of it in operation though - I'd curious as to how it clears the rudder. If and when I get to move to my own hangar I'll probably need one so save your parts list and dimensions.

[jrevens]

Looks nice John - need pictures of it in operation though - I'd curious as to how it clears the rudder. If and when I get to move to my own hangar I'll probably need one so save your parts list and dimensions.

Darrel - I modified the design a little so that it clears the rudder. The original "Tail-Mate" that I used as an example did not. I finally took it up to the hangar and tried it out... works good!

[Geek]

OK John. Another subject. Way back when I was looking at things I wanted to be sure I did with my build, I liked your piece of wood you used as the rudder trim tab. Your latest pic shows it.


Are you as happy with it in execution as you thought you would be in theory? About how along a piece did you wind up putting there? I want to know cause I want to use that idea. It's perfect.

Geek

[Delta Whisky]

Very nice John - Once I complete the tig welding class one will be in my future. Thanks, Darrel

[jrevens]

I haven't been real happy with how I mounted my Lightspeed headset controls with Velcro, on the close-out "shelf" in the wing root area above each door. Today I made a couple of little SS spring clips/brackets that will mount there with high strength foam mounting tape. I think they will work real well.

[jrevens]

OK John. Another subject. Way back when I was looking at things I wanted to be sure I did with my build, I liked your piece of wood you used as the rudder trim tab. Your latest pic shows it.

Are you as happy with it in execution as you thought you would be in theory? About how along a piece did you wind up putting there? I want to know cause I want to use that idea. It's perfect.

Geek

I am so sorry Geek… don’t know how I missed seeing this when you posted it.

It works great. The “wedge” is made of a little piece of oak, 5” L, 3/4” W & 3/8” H. I experimented with different sizes before settling on that. You can see it’s exact location in relation to the rudder ribs in the picture. Before covering I had installed an aluminum plate with nut inserts for that purpose. The location vertically was just a guess, but I knew it would need to be on the left side of course.

[Geek]

I am so sorry Geek… don’t know how I missed seeing this when you posted it.

It works great. The “wedge” is made of a little piece of oak, 5” L, 3/4” W & 3/8” H. I experimented with different sizes before settling on that. You can see it’s exact location in relation to the rudder ribs in the picture. Before covering I had installed an aluminum plate with nut inserts for that purpose. The location vertically was just a guess, but I knew it would need to be on the left side of course.

Yeah you got to know I was crying in my beer cause you obviously were ignoring me!!! NOT!!!! Thank you for the dimensions. What I did was make a mount on my rudder that would allow me to do something along your line of the block of wood or just add an aluminum flap (traditional style). Now that I have the size, I'm going with that cause I like the looks so much better.

Appreciate the response John.

Geek

[jrevens]

Thanks Alex. I think you’re exactly right, and I probably should have shared my thoughts a little more fully. This test wasn’t really indicative of any “normal” (hopefully) exposure to strong sunlight over a long period of time. Not very scientific, but interesting to see just how destructive the sunlight can be. However, even up close to where the clamp held it (severe discoloration from the rusting clamp), where exposure, if any, of the back face of the fabric was very limited, tear strength was severely reduced. The perceived tear strength was pretty much the same everywhere except for the area underneath the clamp.