Now that the new exhaust is installed I can get to work on a new heat muff that hopefully works (unlike my first one). I started out with a piece Dakota Cub PA-18 Leading Edge from a Super Cub that ground looped on take-off earlier this spring. The pilot and plane were okay, but one [...]
A new exhaust system wasn’t required for my Continental O-200, but one thing that my airplane needs is some cabin heat. Unfortunately, the old exhaust wasn’t fashioned in a way that (easily) allowed for a heat muff. I did make a heat muff many years ago, but it was too small and didn’t have enough [...]
This is the part I’ve been waiting for. These doors have been one of the most exciting parts of this entire rebuild. I’ve looked forward to having something like these on my Tailwind for many years. I can’t guess the number of hours in the past that I spent googling things like “patroller doors” and [...]
I used Solidworks to design some frames to “sandwich” the rear windows into position. The old windows were bolted directly to the window frames (yellow arrow) and I’m sure that’s why many of the bolt holes in those windows had developed cracks. I didn’t want to make new frames, but a problem developed when the [...]
After the the Poly-fiber has been Poly-tak’d to a surface, the next job is to Poly-brush it in preparation for the Poly-spray. Holy poly, that’s a mouth full. With that being said, the wings have been pinked with Poly-Brush.
The wings got covered with Stits polyfiber and poly-tak. The poly-tak was allowed 24 hours to dry and we tried pulling the fabric up. There’s no way that fabric was gonna come off without pulling wood up with it so I can say confidently that it is secure. Absolutely more secure than the old fabric [...]
I don’t know the actual age of all the windows on my Tailwind, but they have all sustained their share of damage over the years. One of the back windows has a sticker for “Sun ‘n Fun 1976” so I can confidently assume that they are both over 40 years old. The two rear windows [...]
My Tailwind must be a liberal. There are nine gauges in the instrument panel and every one is a different brand. How’s that for diversity? Red arrow: Generic auto parts store oil temperature gauge held in place with zip ties Yellow arrow: Japanese brand oil pressure gauge Green arrow: No-name fuel gauge that isn’t hooked [...]
One of my most favorite things about flying is sightseeing. Looking down upon the earth. I love it. One of my least favorite things about my Tailwind is the lack of sideways visibility. I understand that some aircraft can’t have windows that exceed a certain size, but I never understood why more Tailwind builders didn’t [...]
The old belly panel was functional, but I didn’t want to reuse it. It was worn out and dented and since I’m replacing just about every other external part on my airplane I may as well do this too. I measured the hole locations on the original panel and used that info to design a [...]
The polybrush was applied last week followed by the silver ultraviolet protective coating. I wasn’t around to get pictures of either of those. Today she got painted white in preparation for the final color of Cub Yellow.
One of the goals I have during this upgrade process is to make my Tailwind faster. I’ve read that fairing the gear legs has been shown to be worth an extra 10 knots and wheel pants can add 5 knots. I bought some ultralight wheel pants from a seller on ebay. There’s no indication that [...]
The sidewalls on N11018 definitely have some history. For starters, not one single screw hole is round any more. They are all stretched and oblong and what’s strange is that they are elongated in different directions. Some stretch vertically; other horizontally. Some stretched to the edge of the material so they weren’t able to be [...]
Tim the cover guy spent last week covering the fuselage. He said this was different than all the Cubs he’s done. N11018 got rolled in to the paint booth today and some time next week will be pinked, silvered, whited, then painted.
There are several varieties of Tailwind wings. My W8 has the flat-bottomed, short type. “Flat-bottomed” in the sense that the bottom surface is literally flat – not rounded. And “short” in the sense that they don’t have the extended triangular tips which are about 18″ longer and proven to add lift and reduce drag. I [...]
After uncovering and inspecting the wings, they were found to be in great shape. There’s a little bit of water staining at the roots. If you look closely at some of the pictures you may see it. A retired master-craftsman-cabinet-maker-woodsman took a look at them and indicated it was nothing to be concerned about. As [...]