Carlson Skunk Works

September 16th, 2012

AMF 14H MARANDA SN:1026 Making Sawdust September 16, 2012

Posted by Roger in AMF 14H Maranda SN1026, news

Progress has been happening almost in spite of myself. The fuel tank is pretty much in the same place that it was on the last post, but I have been doing more thinking about how to go about installing it. So, in the mean time I decided to work on getting the wings installed.

I ordered struts from Carlson Aircraft, Inc. in Ohio. They are not related to me in any way that I know of. The struts arrived in about a week in a cardboard tube. Each strut comes in a long plastic sleeve. I left the sleeves on to protect the struts until the plane is done.

What needed to be done was to make the attachment brackets for the rear wing spars. The front spars attach to the windshield frame that Don welded up for me before I could put the sides together to make the fuselage. The rear attachment brackets require an aluminum plate to be installed on the front and back of the rear bulkhead and some aluminum angle to be drilled and installed. That all meant that I had to drill a bunch of holes straight through the bulkhead to allow the bolts to hold the plates and angles in their proper locations. I guess it is time for some pictures.

Well, since I don’t have any pictures of the individual parts, I will post some pictures of the plane as it stood yesterday evening about 6:00. The picture above shows the front view. Doug, a friend from EAA, came over to lend a hand and since he is a brick layer he offered to bring a couple of sets of scaffolding. This was great since each leg had a base that was adjustable up and down about two feet total. We put a 2 x 6 on the top of each scaffolding section and rested the ends of the spars on them. Then we adjusted the legs up and down to get the proper dihedral and washout.

Moving to the south just a bit gives a slightly different angle on things. The main struts are in place at this point and are actually holding up the front spar on each wing. The scaffolding is only supporting the rear spars and is maintaining the washout.

I stacked up my shop stools, some plywood and the box that my heat gun came in, to raise the tail wheel so the fuselage is basically level.

With the washout in place I measured and cut the left rear strut. It fit just fine, but I need to finish the top attachment piece that goes into the strut. Since it is now the correct length I can finish the top piece and put it into place in the strut.

I pulled the fuselage out into the driveway about 7:30 in the morning. At this point it is about 6:00 pm and we still need to remove the wings and hang them back on the ceiling in the garage, then break down the scaffolding for Doug, so he can head home for supper.

The plane is back in the garage and the garage has been vacuumed. There is even room for Marsha’s car. Now to figure out what I am going to attack next.

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