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rankamateur

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Everything posted by rankamateur

  1. rankamateur
    Be very cautious hammering on your airframe because you can easily cause distortions. Use a pair of pinchers of the type used to squeeze ear clamps to cut the back of the rivet, pull out the stem, then drill carefully. There is one style of pincher that has an off-set jaw which pinches on the end as well as the side which are good for accessing tight spots. Bikeservice Motorcycle Double Ear Clamp Pliers, BS2904 | eBay
  2. rankamateur
    I started building mine with the intention of doing it once and well and removing no rivets at all. Tell him he is dreaming! I built twelve flaperons in one eight day stretch previously, but still mucked up some of the rivets into the trailing end of the ribs where the rivet tails clash, on the flaperon for my own build. They certainly were not the first ones I had to drill out. I had kept a list of all the drilled out rivets, having counted all my rivets I was able to know how many short the kit was supplied with. I came to the conclusion that rivets had not been budgeted for option upgrades like the extended baggage and long range tanks.
  3. rankamateur
    The front bulkhead of the adjustable seat is much lower and flatter, having only a rise in the middle to accommodate the stick. I can't see how you could have one adjustable seat and one standard one. The bucket uses some of the available height, But more significant for some fat arses or their fat arsed pax, they are quite narrow bum buckets too.
  4. rankamateur
    My god son owned half of it until 8 or 10 years ago. The boundary fence apparently went across the middle of it, not that it mattered much because the scrub was well and truly reclaiming it by that time anyway. He had done some Drifter training with Trevor so he probably flew over it a few times in that period. There is however what looks like a very well maintained strip close to the main road about 5 to 10 Km south of Leyburn on a farmstay property. I took the details off the sign on the gate and posted them on a thread here about country fly away trip destinations some time ago.
  5. rankamateur
    If you Cleco everything together including the nose skin that front hole will still not line up so drop the drill through the hole and rivet as usual. It is the same on every kit I have worked on. I think the hole in the rib is at fault, but cant remember for sure, take note as you put the nose skin on, whether to drill the rib or the top sheet.
  6. rankamateur
    It worked well for a painted fuselage, I wouldn't do it if I was planning to polish my skins ! There are little clamp marks, like fingernail clippings, along the underside of the sheets where the CNC machines clamp the sheets and these become the outside once the sheets are swapped. The primer and paint make them quite easy to miss but they would be very obvious on a polished surface.
  7. rankamateur
    They always have a much bigger gap at the bottom than the top, though I have never heard of a reason for it. Ron Hoey won a prize at Natfly for his cowling to spinner fit when he had completed his build, it was quite close at the top from memory. Ron do you have a photo or two of your cowling installation? I don't remember if you installed your cowling with in the fuselage or outside it.
  8. rankamateur
    Is that your wife Bob?
  9. rankamateur
    Your Gel coat is much more amateur than mine was, it will definitely need more than just sanding to make it ready to paint. Your wing tips are the same finish that the cowling was delivered in for some time previously.
  10. rankamateur
    The "duct" on the upper cowling is standard to take the air into the air box. The amateur fiberglass parts look much better after a sanding, it is itchy stuff to sand and wear a respirator to keep the glass out of your lungs.
  11. rankamateur
    Looks like they have gone back to the Gel Coat fiberglass finish. Embarrassed as I am to admit it, my unfinished kit had that in mid 2013, The raw finish causes some more headaches to achieve a smooth finish to paint but saves a little weight.
  12. rankamateur
    The cabin frame is usually screwed to the top of the big crate when they are shipped to Australia so a separate crate is quite an upgrade.
  13. rankamateur
    And it is only a guide and often not complete but it will give you some idea. You still will not know until you have it built. Many of the bolts etc are packed in assemblies so it is a pity to unpack them all up front, Get yourself a packet of zip lock bags and repack them and label them as you go.
  14. rankamateur
    Heavy weight Airmaster on the front will sort it out. Reg's maroon XL has a 4kg block of ballast above the tail skid, so the battery placement will hopefully get me back that weight.
  15. rankamateur
    My battery is down the back, that is why I swapped the side sheets to put the door on the other side, gives more room to work on the battery.
  16. rankamateur
    Reg welds them up, I would probably go to a tyre shop and get black plastic plugs designed for the job and put them in the offending hole, pump the tyre up then promptly forget they are there.
  17. rankamateur
    DON'T DRILL !! Just get the tubes with the right angle brass stem that they should be supplied with anyway and mount the stem out through the two half holes in the rim casting.
  18. rankamateur
    Condors fell onto the rims, but still had to take care not to pinch the tube when doing up the bolt together rims. Tubes needed to be inflated just up to full shape to keep them from bulging into the joint before the bolts were tightened.
  19. rankamateur
    The tunnel shouldn't need panel beating, just give it a bit of depression.
  20. rankamateur
    I agreed with Mark because I had to do the same. I believe the part is the correct shape but the curve along the fold is a bit shaper than the computer intended, causing the whole part to sit a little bit higher than intended. Remember neither Mark or I were dealing with adjustable seats either. A good job because we are both well over six foot and need all the head room we can get.
  21. rankamateur
    Always a last resort because the $300,000 computer program that designed your kit is a lot smarter than any first time builder. Always cleco everything in that area before riveting anything, is a good general rule.
  22. rankamateur
    Given the quoted speed of 900 rpm, I would suggest that in English it would be and angle drill as majortom suggested. You could get yourself in all sorts of trouble if you sailed into deburring aluminium parts with and angle grinder doing 10,000 rpm.
  23. rankamateur
    Reg's first Savannah was GA registered for about two weeks before he converted it to RAA. I don't remember him mentioning any particular grief getting his original rego through, nor any difficulty converting it to RAA.
  24. rankamateur
    When you finish your kit, might not hurt to hang on to your 51 clecos so you have them to do small repairs down the track.
  25. rankamateur
    I noticed on that site a radioactivity incident at Bacchus Marsh too.
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