King of the Pylons: REMEMBERING Steve Wittman KITPLANES
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KING OF THE PYLONS: REMEMBERING STEVE WITTmAN KITPLANES JANUARY 2017 ® Super Legend HP • Steve Wittman • Hangar Floors • Aerosport Interiors • Lycoming School 2 • Bearhawk Progress • Silicone Tape • Inverted PARTS OFF, PARTS ON Oil • Mr. Lycoming Assembly School Anvil Head HANGAR TIPS JANUARY 2017 BELVOIR Wooden Floors In the Shop: • CNC Mold Blanks PUBLICATIONS BEARHAWK LSA PROJECT • Labeling Wires Fuel Tanks and Wingtips • Silicone Tape MR. ANVIL HEAD… • Solid Rivets Is Not Your Friend www.kitplanes.com Clear, Vibrant Displays Meet SkyView HDX - the new Beautiful Design flagship from the market leaders in Unrivaled Control Ergonomics experimental and light sport avionics. Improved Touch Interface Capable and Compatible DynonAvionics.com [email protected] (425) 402-0433 January 2017 | Volume 34, Number 1 Flight Review 6 SUPER LEGEND HP: The ASTM Titan engine finds another home in a new kit from American Legend. And yeah, it’s a hotrod. By Paul Bertorelli. Builder Spotlight 14 PARTS OFF, PARTS ON! Learning how to disassemble and assemble Lycoming engines. By Paul Dye. 20 JUST CAll HIM MR. PYloN: Homebuilt aircraft builder Steve Wittman was one of America’s greatest air racers. By Amy Laboda. 28 BUILDING THE BEARHAWK LSA: Fuel tanks and wingtips. By Ken Scott. 20 32 WooDEN HANGAR FlooRS: Yes, it’s unusual, but for my hangar it makes perfect sense. By Steve Kessinger. 36 ThE INVERTED OIL DILEMMA: Adding more equipment is never as easy as you think. By Paul Dye. 40 HOMEBUILT OR STORE-BOUGHT? Raising the bar for RV-10 interiors to an entirely different level. By Bruce Eicher. 44 RAPID PROTOTYPING AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: CNC mold blank fabrication, part 2. By Eric Stewart. 68 COMPLETIONS: Builders share their successes. 74 ASK THE DAR: Complying with the 51% rule, bringing Canadian aircraft into the U.S., adding auxiliary fuel tanks, using non-TSO’d ADS-B in an Ercoupe. By Mel Asberry. Shop Talk 50 PlANE AND SIMPLE: Silicone tape—it’s for a lot more than just emergencies. By Jon Croke. 58 BEST PRACTICES: Solid rivet selection and installation. By Dave Prizio. 65 HOME SHOP MAchINIST: Be steady. By Bob Hadley. 78 AERO ’LECTRIcs: Wired at Oshkosh. By Jim Weir. Shop Tips 63 AlIGNMENT AIDS FOR LYcoMING OIL SCREEN HOUSINGS: By William Rynone, Ph.D., P.E. 77 LABELING: By Larry Larson. Designer’s Notebook 75 WIND TUNNEL: More about trikes. By Barnaby Wainfan. 6 Exploring 2 EDITOR’S LOG: No two rivets alike. By Paul Dye. 52 CHECKPOINTS: Mr. Anvil Head is not your friend. By Vic Syracuse. 55 RISKY BUSINEss: Surviving the unplanned pitch trim loop. By Sid Mayeux. Kit Bits 4 LETTERS 69 LIST OF ADVERTISERS 70 BUILDERS’ MARKETPLACE 80 KIT STUFF: Drawing on experience. By cartoonist Robrucha. On the cover: Super Legend HP with 180-hp Titan O-340 Engine. Photographed by 14 Darin Hart. For subscription information, contact KITPLANES® at 800/622-1065 or visit www.kitplanes.com/cs. KITPLANES January 2017 1 EDITOR’S LOG No two rivets alike. It’s a first-world problem—I admit the root. Various lightening holes, bolt it. With too many airplanes in our little blocks, rib flanges, and other accesso- fleet, there is always something to be ries make them quite complicated for worked on, or an airplane that just needs such a simple airplane. to be flown to keep the fluids fluid and Before we even started assembling the battery charged. That means that the spars themselves, we spent a fair we have been violating Rule #1 in finish- amount of time fabricating compo- ing a homebuilt airplane project when it nents. The inner wing rib attachment comes to our Xenos motorglider: Make flanges, for instance, are about 7-inch sure to do a little work on it every single long aluminum sheet angles, each with day, even if it’s just cleaning up the shop. its own unique dimensions, shape, and Life (and other airplanes) tend to get rivet pattern. Forward and aft pieces for in the way, so the Xenos gets attention each rib station are unique, of course, in fits and spurts, when we seem to be and the overall shapes of the seven or caught up (or at least gaining on) all of eight stations are at least symmetrical the other little chores associated with for the left and right spars. These flanges airplane ownership and airpark living. are attached to the spar when it is built Like I said, first-world problem. (and the ribs themselves scabbed on But recently, we’ve been enjoying a later) because they get fastened to the little more time with the project plane, primary spar assembly with the big -5 specifically, building the main wing- (5/32-inch diameter) rivets that predomi- spars. With a 46-foot wingspan, the nate throughout the structure. Driving Xenos presents ample opportunity to those -5 rivets takes a little more work work on spars because, well, they’re then the -4 (1/8-inch diameter) pulled riv- ample! Since the root end of each spar ets that are used to primarily build the This custom-built pneumatic squeezer crosses the cockpit, overlapping the rest of the airplane. made it easy to set large -5 rivets. The spar other, the total length of the two spars Mocking up the spar and match drill- travels through the yoke and is supported exceed the finished span of the airplane, ing the holes was a job that took most on each side by roller stands like you’d making for even more fun. of two months’ worth of spare time. use to handle long boards on either side of a table saw. Built from custom aluminum extru- The drawings are complete and very sions, the caps are works of art, and dense when it comes to important end when it was complete. Upsizing all they change shape and size constantly information, and the spar is far more of the pre-punched holes and match- from root to tip. The webs are built up complicated that you might expect. drilling the spar caps into the assembly of different layers of aluminum sheet, Getting all of the layers of pre-punched took varying sizes and lengths of drill varying from .032-inch thick out near web material in the right order and bits and constant reference to those the tips to a combined thickness of 1/8- located in the proper spots from root to drawings. While the thin sandwich inch layers measuring over ¾ inch at tip was a lovely puzzle, satisfying in the at the tip end could be fastened with Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor in Chief, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 40 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the space shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen, and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 that he built in 2005, and an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra they recently completed. Currently, they are building a Xenos motorglider. A Paul Dye commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 5000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor, and a member of the Homebuilder’s Council. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country. 2 KITPLANES January 2017 www.kitplanes.com & www.facebook.com/kitplanes regular -5 Clecoes, the thick root ends together for good. Solid rivets don’t change also. Just when you think you’ve presented a bit of a conundrum. Wing- phase us at all; we’ve been working with got everything set and you’re rolling nut Clecoes cost about $3.50 each, them for many years on lots of differ- along, you have to change the setup. and there were hundreds of holes ent airplanes. The -5 rivets do, however, Then one of those rib flanges comes that needed to be filled. But many of require a bit more oomph to set than along, and you have to open up the them were so close to the spar cap that the little -3 or -4 fasteners used in build- yoke to get around it, then hunt for your there wasn’t room for the body of the ing most light-aircraft assemblies. But setting again. It’s a fine misery as they long-reach temporary fasteners. For- where there is a need, the right tool can say. Being in the shop is rewarding, but tunately, the -5 rivets require a #21 drill be found. Enter a custom-built pneu- you have to put up with the little things bit, which happens to match perfectly matic squeezer provided by a builder/ that slow you down at every step. It’s all with a metric 4mm machine screw, so craftsman we know just over the moun- part of the game. we obtained a box of those, along with tains from us. When I went to pick it up I figure that with our current sched- appropriate washers and nuts, to tem- in my RV-8, I had to go alone because ule, we’ve got another few weeks to go porarily fasten things together. A little its weight took up the passenger allow- to get this left spar finished. Then we more tedious than Clecoes, yes, but ance (and that seat). Set on a small bench will pull out all the virgin parts for the much more economical and a small stand in the middle of the workspace, right side and get started on that one.