Joe: what's fabric covered mean? What sort of fabric is used?

You should check out Group 44's hanger at Sebring
http://www.southfloridajaguarclub.org/events/sebring02.htm

He also has the last TR6 built and the last TR7... Very cool

Joe,

I want a ride sometime!

DD,

In the old days it was cotton or linen, with a type of dope over it that shrunk the fabric. Problem is that it was really sensative that if you put too much dope on the fabric it could shrink so much that it broke the wooden bits inside, or not enough and the fabric could be loose. The old stuff was also highly flammable and the reason why the old WW1 planes would go down in flames when in combat.

Now almost all the planes use syn fabric that is closest to the fabric that sailboats use for their sails, but very thin. Then a dope is sprayed over them that contains ground up aluminum to keep the sun from getting to the fabric and weakening it. Next is a coat of paint.

All in all its fairly light and a covering usually last 30+ years if the plane is kept in a hangar. Leaving it outside can mean that it has to be recovered after 10 years or so. Its expensive and very labour entensive so something you do not want to do often. Doing fabric is kinda a work of art and people who do it are becoming fewer and fewer as time goes by. I still enjoy doing fabric but have not done it in a while.

Aaron,

Airplane went out of annual inspection yesterday. Need to do its yearly inspection then its legal to fly again. Glad to give you a ride anytime!

JoeA

Side note:

I have three rolls of airplane fabric tape if anyone wants them. They are pink, purple and blue. I believe it's for the fabric used on ultalite wings (the shrink stuff?).

If it's nylon - like kite material - what do you want for it lendaddy... We make kites and sails for boats from the stuff for the kids...

No charge, just P.M me your address. This stuff is actually pretty heavy though, it's not the shiny thin stuff they use on model planes, rather it's sort of a reinforced fabric. Like I said I am 99% sure it's for the fabric they use on ultralites. But either way, whoever wants it......

Oh yea, it's really a tape though. Looks like it's used to connect seams. Maybe 2-1/2 -3" wide.

If it's the tape - then I will leave it for someone with more appropriate applications. Thanks for the offer though...

So any pics yet of the Spyder or 914?

It was probably a trap... the old lady has kidnapped him and made him her slave. Probably been luring people in for years...

"Must clean out barn: For sale, Schwimmwagen. Needs tires, $1200."

Hillbilly cousin Ron had a barn full of these things (still has one - he was a distributor)- they used to fly it by connecting a rope to a pickup truck and driving down a (black) dirt road - you should have seen how dirty he was when he landed!

I'll take it, we are both in Michigan, right?

Here is my glue experiment I started last night. Anyone care to guess which one is going to hold best? The semi-clear plastic is nylon reinforced, it's not the recommended hovercraft fabric - I'm experimenting with materials and skirt shapes. The seams I have from last year are indoor/outdoor double sided carpet tape with aluminum rivets about 3 inches on center.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117654460.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117654507.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117654563.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117654709.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117654754.jpg


This is what it's supposed to look like flying 6 inches off the ground.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117654845.jpg

Joe,

Nice looking Aeronca. A local friend of mine has a Champ of similar age(1948 maybe...?). He took me up in it a couple of times. It was great fun. It was so light you could almost land it vertically in a headwind. It was wonderful for those late afternoon flights on calm Summer days.

FWIW, to get your A&P (both ratings at the same time) you have to have an AP/IA sign a letter stating that you have completed 30 months (based on 8hr days 5 days per week) experience working "under the supervision" of an AP. I documented my time building experimental aircraft and helping my AP working on my certified aircraft over about a six year time frame. My IA then agreed to write a carefully worded letter to my local FSDO stating that I did this work under his supervision (I had documented about 32 months worth of work). I was then granted permission to take the written and practical tests which I breezed thru after some intense cramming sessions. I am an engineer by day and so going to an adult school for a couple years just to get an AP was not going to happen. This experience based route worked for me, but you do not want to lie or ask someone else to lie about your experience cause it could come back to bite you later.

After 3 years time as an AP (and two years actively using your ticket), you can opt to take the IA (Inspection Authorization) test which allows you to do annual inspections among other things. I did this 2 yrs ago so now I can "annual" my certified airplanes along with a few others as a side business. Having these ratings lowers my cost of ownership plus provides a good back-up should I ever lose or tire of my day job, but it took a long time to get to this point.

Tim is correct on the way to accomplish this but if you just want one license (either airframe or engine) you can do this with 18 months of experience.

Many mechanics get their airframe ticket first then work on getting the engine rating. This way they can still work on or restore a plane legally and sign it off themselves.

Rob, they are a lot of fun and reasonable on operating costs. We now have STC's for car gas in many of the older airplanes, which cuts the costs in half a lot of the time and thats a big deal!

Now, where are the photos of the car in the barn?????

Joe A

i have been lookin for this hot experimental in peices http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117719904.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117719923.jpg

Ahh....the Quickie.... So goofy lookin'! :D

kach22i - thats pretty cool!

You could get an adhesives company to do some real application testing for you to understand the lap-shear and peel strgnth of the various adhesives. It's actually pretty easy - cotact the applications labs at 3-M or Lord or ITW or even Loctite (Henkle) and say you are so and so from this and that and you will be sending in some subrates for adhesion testing with their adheisve they would recommend. They will want to know the typ of plastic and the cure conditions and maybe even the application but they will do the testing and supply the results that will be a bit more controlled than what you are doing (but what you are doing is way cool!).

If you don't want to be bothered, send me the material and lets talk about the application and I will do it for you.

Very well put. After doing my research I discovered that it would take me years of additional documented hands on experience since like you my attending a trade school is not an option. If I put any time and money into additional schooling it will be for a masters or doctorate, not an FAA cert.

I checked around to see if there were any good machinist or tech jobs in the area that had a decent paying work study program but no such luck. It looks like general aviation is still on hard times even a decade after I graduated with my BSAE.

If I have a chance to help with someone's aircraft project I now know to what kind of documentation to get since that's now my plan B for getting an A&P.

I've been wanting to put one of these together for years:

http://www.europa-aircraft.co.uk/

We've got a spare room if you wanna move out here and help. ;)

The only glitch 350, is that the IA that signs the letter confirming your experience has to be able to state that the work was done "under the supervision" of someone with an appropriate rating. You have to be careful in how you word the letter so that neither one of you is stating something that is untrue. That said, the written tests for the A&P are easy if you study the Gliem books a week prior to each test.

I took a week long course to prep for and take the IA test and actually scored 100% on it (which is rare because there is usually a couple of bogus trick questions that you have to guess on, I got lucky and must have guessed right). Everyone in the class passed but I was the only one who was not employed full time as a mechanic or technician as my day job. Point to all this back patting being is that the tests are relatively easy, getting the authorization to take the tests is the hard part.

I really enjoy working on airplanes and cars for that matter, but I just can't toss out my 15 yr engineering job with good benefits when I have a wife and kids to provide for.

I'll see if anyone is using that at the big/national hovercraft rally in Ohio in three weeks.

For the finger/segmented skirts neoprene coated nylon woven fabric is used, heavier fabric for bag skirts or PVC. Their are common materials with the inflatable rafts, the rafts tend to use heavier materials for craft of similar size though.

None of the glues worked as well as I hoped. About 75% of them did just fine when tugged on with vigor. However I was able to easily peel them off each other. Sewing stitches and or using rivets, zippers and other mechanical fasteners is pretty typical in hovercraft skirts.

Marine Goop and rivets, covered with Lubmaster's tape will get me by until I get the design sorted out. At 99 cent a foot for a three-foot wide sheet of nylon reinforced plastic sheet I can play with attachments and skit forms all summer long.

Could we get this thread renamed before someone mistakenly thinks it has anything to do with, you know,...a spyder. Oh wait! There wasn't really a spyder in it to begin with! ;)
Les

I did not take a picture of the first inflation test; the bag filled up and popped off the cloths pins pretty quickly.

I used a foam core model with clay bags for form, cut a pattern off of it, and blew it up to fit the real craft. I suppose there are 3-D drafting/model programs out there, but I'm more of a sculptor and artist at heart.

Note: rear bouyancy butt (blue part - another innovation) will be covered by the rear bag yet to be fitted.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117796539.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117796570.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117796596.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117796632.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1117796665.jpg

If I could figure out how to get a government research grant or find a rich investor I would develop this thought/design further.

Check out the classifieds:

http://www.hoverclubofamerica.org/

For $3,000 you get a good running used craft, $500 more for a used fly-on trailer.

There is a 90% complete Sevtec with a Subaru engine for sale. I'm inspired by it's skirt design. A similar craft did a tour of Alaska braving 15-foot waves!

I need pics to tell

It would be really nice to see pictures of the "car in the barn" so we know its real. Otherwise one would start thinking that it was a scam all along...

Joe A

well i dont think any of you ever seached out rare hard to find cars , it has only been one week since i posted it , still trying to find out what are the differnaces in spyders RS 550 speedsters etc... with more help on a Mercedes board then this porsche one

when looking and finding hard to find cars you dont want to be all excited takling pictures showing up every other day you dont want to let the person know you are interested you want them to think its a hassle to take it off their hands , you want to make them wait and think you are not interested anymore so when you show up agian they are happy to see you , if you are there every other day taking pics and checking it out you will reveal you are really into and the price seems to go up it a mellow dance to get a great deal anyone can pay fulll prices
but not me
i will post pics once i get them into my barn and and we can figure out if it is real or a replicas

Why don't you just ask her how much she wants for it and verify its authenticity for yourself? Sounds like you're setting yourself up to be bragging on "Antiques Roadshow" about how you picked this thing up for $200.

Gotta have a dream, don't you?

http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article.aspx?id=25&vf=1&s_cid=NewCarSales:
It's the archetypal car collectors' urban myth: a rare collectible found in a barn, where it had sat with minimal mileage on the clock for 27 years.

Nice airplanes, Joe!
I got my solo license in a 7AC Champion on my 16th birhday...two weeks before I got my driver's license.

No offense, but it does sound a bit fishy. I know if I found something resembling a Spyder (Replica or not) in a barn (plus a 914) for $1000, I would not be waiting around for someone else to come and buy it out from under me.

This group is very helpful and informative, and the board is an excellent resource. The problem with posting a "found in a barn" story is that this is a pretty skeptical crowd. However, once we all know it is legit, you will have an abundance of support and help. I'm not sure how much technical info you are going to get from your "Mercedes board", but the collective Porsche knowledge here trumps almost anything out there in "cyber space".

Actually, taking pictures and posting them here could be a great help to you. Then you will have everyone coming out of the woodwork to tell you EXACTLY what you are looking at. Then you would know what you are getting into and/or just how great of a deal it would be.

So, any updates?

:confused:

He is probably still waiting for the lady to dig the cars out for him. ;)

Or for her to call back willing to let it go for less...

My philosophy on deals like this is quite different.

1. Extricate and remove the car in no more than 24 hours.

2. Give a reasonable amount over and above the asking price if it's ridiculously low.

The longer you wait, the greater chance the seller will casually remark to someone that she has a buyer for that old car in the barn. interest begets interest, and you could have a bidding war on your hands.

As for engine parts -- well, a real 4-cam 550/Carrera engine costs as much as a small vacation home. And many in the business would not sell you an engine unless it was numbers-matching tot he chassis. So if it's not a replica, let's hope the engine is mostly or all there.

The lack up updates just adds to my suspicion that this whole story is pure BS.

I once found an all original Carrera RS buried in and behind a bunch of junk in an old barn. The farmer said I could buy it and all the other junk cars in the barn for a couple hundred bucks or so but that stupid Ferrari 250 on jack stands was blocking it in. I figured it just wasn't worth my time.

This is just as dumb as the guy with the front yard turbo find down in MD.