Neil’s Blog

Here are the new elevators and horizontal stabilizer:

I decided pretty early on to try something new instead of using the stock Weedhopper tail section. My design has a few interesting features that should prove useful. More on those later.

Hal did all the sewing by hand on a 25-year old Kenmore sewing machine… The 3.9 ounce Dacron fabric and UV thread were bought from Hang ‘Em High Fabrics (part #’s 3.9 and T46-1-W) — we ended up spending $157 on these. There were no premade patterns to use so the dimensions were transferred directly to the fabric. Trying to get both surfaces drum-tight wasn’t easy — which is one of the reasons the tail section has taken so long. There were many other problems along the way, but the pieces turned out great in the end.

We will be using Drifter hinges on the elevator. Placing them at 45° lowers the gap from 1″ down to 0.4″, plus it allows us to ‘fold’ the elevators up for storage or transport.

The rudder is done but the fabric hasn’t been permanently installed yet. I’ll be making another small update Sunday or so to show the complete tail section installed on the airframe.

This weekend we installed the wheels and brakes. I didn’t like the stock Weedhopper setup, so I came up with the following:

Main wheels/brakes - 8″ Azusa aluminum spinner wheel & brake kit - Includes wheels, brakes, drums, tires, tubes, and hardware (Aircraft Spruce P/N 06-03410, $218.20)

The original Weedhoppers used a piece of rubber that contacts the nose wheel when you press your foot on it. I dunno, I like these brakes better :)

1″ 4130 chromoly main axle - ends step down to 5/8″ to fit wheel bearing ID. The original Weedhopper used a solid 1″ rod of aluminum. This one should be much stronger and only a pound or so heavier.

Custom nose fork - I designed it in CAD and then machined it from aluminum. It’s roughly the same shape and size as the original Weedhopper fork.

Machining the nose fork on my new G0463:

Nose wheel - 4″ Azusalite nylon wheel and 4.10 x 3.50 x 4 tire/tube (Aircraft spruce P/N 06-02600 and 06-02800, $34.00)

(the blue stuff is dykem. I need to clean this stuff off when I get a chance)

Up next is the seat, control stick, foot pedals, and teleflex control cabling. We’re hoping to have a somewhat complete cabin by March 10 or so.

Since my last post almost a month ago, we’ve had a few setbacks — mostly in the tail section. Here is an uncomplete list of the problems we’ve had:

• Design changes - The design was changed from a foldable Kolb-style to a fixed type about halfway through construction. We had to re-order several pieces, wait for them to arrive, and re-cut/drill/bend them all.
• Elevator hinge selection - There were a few heated arguments as to how we should hinge the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer. Our horiz. stabilizer and elevators are fully enclosed, and the stainless hinge brackets I picked out left a 1″ gap between them. Having no gap would obviously be better for aerodynamics but in my eyes it’s only a marginal improvement since the Weedhopper has so much drag to begin with. We eventually found a compromise that can both agree on. We’ll be using the same brackets, but hinging them at 45°, which will not only have 1/3 of the gap, it will also allow us to fold the elevators 180° to rest on top of the horizontal stabilizer when in storage. We had to make some minor modifications to the placement of the stabilizer in relation to the boom but it shouldn’t hurt anything.
• Fabric covering problems - We decided to cover the tail section ourselves (well Hal is, I wouldn’t trust myself to sewing fabric) rather than buy a professionally-made set. We saved a few hundred dollars doing it this way, but I’m still wondering if it was worth it. Trying to get the fabric drum-tight is a tedious process. In the end we found a clever way to do it… I should have the pictures of the completed surfaces in a few days.
• Time - I don’t have enough of it.
• Money - It’s not exactly pouring in :)
• I’m sure there were a few other things I’m forgetting…

Progress has finally picked up though, and I should have a lot of stuff to post in the next few weeks.