Carlson Skunk Works

February 28th, 2016

Horizontal Stabilizer Bracket Welding

Dad spent some time today welding on the horizontal stabilizer bracket, which will allow adjustment of it. It’s hard to describe, but essentially, once he flies the plane, he can use this bracket to fine-tune the horizontal stabilizer angle, sort of like a coarse adjust trim.

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February 9th, 2016

AMF 14H MARANDA SN:1026 Making Sawdust February 9th, 2016

Posted by Roger in AMF 14H Maranda SN1026, news

So I went to the airport at lunchtime today and checked out a different hanger. I should be moving the plane into the new hanger about March 1st. The new hanger is larger, has a power bi-fold door and a level floor. I think it will be a good move.

So, remember that the rudder had the primer applied? Well, now it has two coats of the finish paint.
Here it is with the primer …

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… and here it is with the finishing color.

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I had originally intended to go with Cub yellow (or brighter), but the gal at the Sherwin Williams store said that the yellow would fade really badly and quickly as an exterior paint. My second choice was the blue and I really like it.

Currently I have completed two coats of the blue. The next thing is to sand it to eliminate a few small imperfections, almost like dust particles. Then I need to add four or five more coats of blue before the final buffing and polishing.

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I am using a small (4″) fine foam roller to apply the paint for parts that I can bring into the house. Ben & Emmett gave me an HVLP spray gun for Christmas and I am planning to use that on the wings and fuselage. I don’t think I can talk my wife into allowing a paint booth in the basement.

February 8th, 2016

AMF 14H MARANDA SN:1026 Making Sawdust February 8th, 2016

Posted by Roger in AMF 14H Maranda SN1026, news

Thanks to Ben for adding the last couple of posts. That gives a slightly different viewpoint than my “standard” approach to the progress being made.

So the ailerons and rudder have been covered and I have applied five coats of latex primer.

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I am following the technique used by Malcolm Morison on his site http://wienerdogaero.com/Latex.php. I attended Malcolm’s presentation at the last two AirVentures and decided that this was the way that I wanted to go. The advantages to using latex paint are several. First, it is readily available. Second, it is easy to apply. Third, latex does not give off noxious fumes, so special breathing equipment is not required. Fourth, the cost is much less than traditional aircraft paint. Check Malcolm’s site for the details of the process and listen to the webinar that he did for EAA which is available on the EAA site.

The primer went on pretty quickly due to the blizzard that whipped through here last week. We were stuck in the house and needed to find things to keep busy with, so I chose to apply the primer to the ailerons and rudder. Just think what applying traditional aircraft paint would be like in the basement of a house closed up tight due to cold weather and occupied by five people. I was able to apply the primer and nobody complained about the odor.

After spending a week moving snow and getting things to the point that we could wiggle, Ben and I decided that we would go to the airport and do a bit of work on the plane. We stopped off at the aviation supply area of our local Menard’s, then went to the airport. The gate would not open which was a bit unusual, so I went to the FBO, checked with them and went through their gate. Things had been cleared so that access to the hangers was easy. However, when I opened the hanger door here is what I saw:

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We didn’t expect this and did not have any snow shovels with us, so we closed it up and went back home to get some shovels. We spent some time digging and clearing the snow off of the plane. Then we moved it back a couple of feet. Hopefully the warm weather predicted for the next couple of weeks will melt all the snow. Maybe we will get enough time to shovel more of the snow to the outside.

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Even Fred’s engine hoist which was in the corner of the hanger got covered.

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Well that was quite an unpleasant surprise!

I did order the control cable and supplies which should be here sometime this week. Hopefully the snow will be melted enough to allow us to run the cables and finish getting the tail rigged. Then I can bring home the rest of those parts and cover them and paint them.