Radial Explorer Project - Da Animal

[RV Sometime]

I started building an Explorer, basically & fat boy Bushbaby recently, contacted Demon to ascertain whether there is any interest or not (He said "go for it")& got inspired after meeting Tailspin at Hobby X today, seeing his vp1.

Is there interest/inspiration for those guys & gals out there who would aspire to build their own ml/aerie.

Please let me know. I spend about 15 hrs a week building & the progress is quite rapid.

Regards

RV

[FAWGie]

So what are you suggesting? Free beers? or hard labour, followed by free beers?

[RV Sometime]

So what are you suggesting? Free beers? or hard labour, followed by free beers?

Fawgie

Your'e welcome to come & help boet

I'll supply the gilroys, you supply the air tickets or your own avgas

Regards

RV

PS Is the Borienne back in the air yet

[RV Sometime]

Thanks Demon. Wilco. Shes coming along nicely, becides going to the show I logged 8.5 hrs building today. I just went out & checked & the latest epoxy is starting to set.

Regards

RV

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Topic should read RV's Exp project.

[RV Sometime]

Nope, it should read Rv & Rvforkers Explorer project.

Just some background, the 2 of us together with Darrell from avcom bought the Fokker D7 from Dick Jacobs. We lost her last year on 18 September. Luckily Rvforker walked away albeit that he now looks quite cute with his own built in gps in his chin.

Initially, we were going to rebuild Martha, but she was a write off.

Darrell pulled out at this stage.

We still wanted to build another D7 & found someone in the states who could supply us with a new kit but he lives out in the woods & only returns his emails when he feels like it so we looked elsewhere.

Our brief was to then build a 2 seater 3 axis machine. We decided on the Bushbaby, but Monty then told us that he had developed a wider bodied version, more suitable to us fat boys.

We ordered the wing kit in november last year. It was ready by mid december but we were all about to go on holiday so we camelled it until this year.

I only got the opportunity to collect the wing kit on 26 January this year.

Rvforker & myself are 50/50 partners & Rvforker had told me that he has 2 left hands & massive business commitments up front & would not be able to put in much building time.

Darrells daughter is a ppl holder & wants to make aviation her career. She is in the process of becoming an AP & is helping with the construction process, using this project to assist with qualifying for her license.

We are still not sure about power plant, but would like to go 4 stroke.

Because of our size, we need plenty of horsepower.

I looked at the verner motor but discarded it as a possibility due to it's limited horsepower.

I'm not keen on a modified automotive engine.

We have tentatively decided on either a 912 uls or even a 914, but everyone says that a 914 is ott.

Out of the blue came Geoff Cronje (PapaG on avcom). They have a company called Adept Airmotive, based at Virginia. Geoff is developing a v6 turbo motor for Jan Troskie for one of his Ravin 500's. This motor makes 350 hp. The Ravin already does 196 Ktas on 260 hp. Imagine the performance with this powerplant.

The spin off relevant here is that he is now developing half that motor, either turbo, or normally aspirated. Basically a 3 cylinder in line motor. The normally aspirated version will come in at 115 hp, but weighs less that a 582.

We estimate finishing the project before the end of the year so PapaG is under some pressure, otherwise we will go the tried & tested Rattex route.

The aerie will be able to cruise at 100 mph with a 6 hr endurance, making it capable of Rand to Port Alfred with reserves. It is also capable of flying slowly (35mph stall) so we will be able to have fun flying around affordably with you guys. I have formated with a Pietenpol from Rustenberg to Mawala before, using nearly all of my 250 ponies, full flap & hanging off the prop on the stall at 55mph, burning 18 gph of avgas. It is just not feasible.

I know how much fun you guys have by comparison to us blik drivers. I want part of that action.

I will start giving details of our build progress thus far later after work.

Regards

RV

[FAWGie]

But did this thread just get hijacked I wonder

Well, RV sometime did ask me how the progress was for the Vixen and I thought that because his pictures weren't coming thru thick and furious, I'd wet the appetite somewhat.....

Besides, threads are there for the hijacking, aren't they?

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Great report RV sometime - I suggest you get jcvb/RV4ker to help with assembly work from 05h30 to 07h30 every weekday before work

Would be even more juiceless than when awake......

PS
Once normality returns (RAIN STOPS) I will see what I can do. Am feelin very . Haven't even seen it yet. With RV grounded by CAA I spending (10+) building hrs in car

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Fri 03 feb I had all the bits & pieces of the wing on the garage floor & had started making head or tail of the manual. This is the wing set except for hardware & flapperons. The flapperons were not ready yet, but are only needed at a much later stage.

Regards

RV

[RV Sometime]

The first step thereafter is to make a set of trestles which can be independently levelled.

The wing has 16 mm of washout incorporated into the design, so a block has to be made which is glued onto the trestle in the appropriate place so that the rear spar lies on this block & therefore has 16 mm twist from wing root to wing tip.

The ribs are then sanded to deburr them & the ribs are then pushed onto the rear spar. The ribs consist of both 4mm ply ribs as well as 6mm ply ribs. The 6 mm ply ribs are the flapperon hinge point ribs. Rib no 8 has to have a relief cut into both the front spar attachment point as well as the rear spar attachment point. There are also two half ribs which are cut away to accommodate the the fuel tank.

The areas where the ribs are epoxied onto the spars have to be sanded down. I put the spar in my lathe & with Tarryn's help, we sanded the spars down appropriately.

The rib positions are measured out accurately, ribs are placed in position & then epoxied into place.

This sounds easy, but it actually very time consuming, cos the ribs do not stay vertical or parallel by themselves. I taped each rib up with masking tape once I had them true.

I also found that individual ribs were of different sizes & some ribs tended to bow.

The whole contaption also looked mighty flimsy to me. I am used to a massive wing spar running the full length of a wing approximately 1/3 of the way down the wing chord.

I was impressed with the quality of the kit though. I could immediately see that the wing was going to be straight. I battled to get my head around an aluminium tube as a spar & a spar on the leading edge of the wing nogal.

Rib no 8 from the wing root is not epoxied into place until the brace attachment brackets are installed.

This stage was very gratifying cos, in no time we had transformed a bunch of spare parts into something resembling a wing.

Regards

RV

[FAWGie]

RV,

Do your fingers resemble chewed on glue stick yet?

[RV4ker (RIP)]

[RV Sometime]

Fawgie, I clean the epoxy off whilst still wet with thinners & wash my hands with Hibiscrub, as used by our quacks. So far they are a bit dry, but not too bad. The glue does get a bit much though.

Regards

RV

[RV Sometime]

The pic just posted by forker shows very rapid progress.

You can clearly see how the ribs have a cutout for the tank.

The wing is built upside down at this stage.

I was quite amazed when the epoxy was totally dry, as to how strong the wing was already. The wing is just over 4m in length & if you pick up one corner, it only lifted by 8 mm before the other end became suspended, at this early stage.

I was still worried cos some ribs were out of true by as much as 10 mm.

The next step was to install the top & bottom aluminium braces into the ribs. I used this stage to physically pull the ribs better in line, securing them with masking tape once the epoxy had been put in place.

The step after that was to manufacture & install the steel tube cross braces between the spars.

Once that was completed & the epoxy dry, I was left with about 3mm of warp. Whilst turning the wing over, I started feeling quite confident that it was going to be pretty strong.

Regards

RV

[RV Sometime]

Sorry, got a bit ahead of myself there, before the cross braces were manufactured & installed, the trailing edge had to be epoxied in place.

I was quite concerned about the trailing edges cos the ribs had these funny, bulky trailing edges which were very easy to break & I ended up with a few broken ones. Only after I did the right thing as in RTFM (read the manual), did I realise that the huge lugs were to be filed away.

Regards

RV