Latest Update

Update

 

I am sorry its been so long since Ihave done an update to the Blog. Events have conspired that demanded all of my time. I had to take an emergency leave from work to help my mother who unfortunatly was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I could write for weeks on the ins and outs of Hospice care!! My Mother unfortunatly passed away after 4 weeks. At least she wasn' in any pain thanks to the Angels in Nurses uniforms who work for Hospice at Henry Ford Hospital!! 

my poor old ma, God rest her soul!

This is a hoot!! This is a picture of my Ma 3 years ago at Halloween dressed as Jimmy Leyland the current Detroit Tigers manager, my ma was a huge Tigers fan and during the Funeral, the organist actually played "Take me out to the Ball Park" when we were walking her casket out of the church. She wouldn't have had it any other way!!! 

When I got back to Texas, I recieved notification of shipment of my new Router. That took a good two weeks of my time dealing with the shipping agents, customs and secondary shippers. But it was definitly worth it!!  I took a bit of a risk by ordering this router from China. I have had some quality problems, but thankfully all of the important stuff like Bearings, gears and servos came from Tiawan and Japan. My biggest issue turned out to be poor Chinese quality control on the wiring. Servo motors are very sensitive to noise and because of this they require good grounds and solid connections. The latter was the root of my early problems. I ended up soldering every crimped connection on the machine.

The proud owner and his new Router

The router is 4' x 8' x 19" it has a variable speed 7.35 hp spindle. I can machine wood, aluminum, plastic and steel with this. It took a while to get this up and running, but thanks to my Buddy Ed who is an electronics genius, we worked out all of the initial bugs. I plan on using the router for fabrication of a all wood airplane kits. On the side we are also using it to cut some beautiful laminated wood gun stocks. Here is a picture of a couple of test projects we cut using standard clip art from our 3d software files.

Cat and the Eagle

These projects were roughed out with a 1/4" ball nose cutter. after the rough cut the finish cut was done with a 1/16" ball nose cutter. The router took a pass every .007" Each piece took 1 hours to finish cut.

Back to the Robin!!!

I decided to swap out engines. The MZ 34 proved itsself to be an unreliable choice. The engine just would not cool. The vibration is terrible and because of the earlier problem of it dieseling and not shutting off, I decided it was unsafe. When I went to the SSA Western homebuilding convention in Tehachapi Ca, I was talked into swapping the engine for a Briggs and Stratton Vanguard V twin. I am in the process of adding that engine. Unfortunatly I am forced to leave the cylinders unfaired and in the breeze just like other aircraft that use the same engine. This in my opinion detracts greatly from the original lines of the Robin which was designed to emulate the Fournier RF4D. Consequently, I am drawing all of the final plans using a 1/2 VW or a modified Generac industrial engine. Both of these engine are opposed Boxer configurations.

 The first thing I needed to do to use the Vanguard was to strengthen the fwd fuselage to accept the higher shear loads. I decided that the simplest method for the modification would be to sheet the fwd section with plywood. I had to double up the fwd longerons so I could bolt new fittings for the new engine.



side truss with doublers

  This is a view of the fwd fuselage side truss . I designed the original truss so close to the existing loads, that I had to double up all of the members between the landing gear and the firewall. Also you can see the large plate doublers added to the fwd longerons to accept the mount fittings. Unfortunatly this meant that I had to uncover the whole fuselage!! That is not a bad thing actually, because I had a number of areas that were not well thought out regarding the final shape after covering. This will give me a chance to clean all of that up.




side sheeting



After the doublers were addded, I then sheeted the sides with 1/16" Finnish Birch plywood. The circular cutout is for access to the brake pedal adjustment screws.

I am stripping the engine of a great deal of its weight, just the steel shrouding alone adds 5 lbs. The flywheel is 15 lbs! I have debated inverting the engine and making a new ignition , But since this is going to be a one off design I have decided to just turn the flywheel down and use the stock ignition. I am driving the prop from the flywheel side and mounting the engine on the PTO side.

PTO of Vanguard

On this engine I am again designing a dynafocal mount system. To refresh everyones memory, a dynafocal mount is designed to theoretically support the engine at the exact center of gravity. The theory is that all vibration nodes are zero crossing in there amplitude when they pass through the center of gravity. Since there is zero displacement at this point if it were possible to attach here, there would be no induced vibration into the mount. Obviously this is impossible so the next best thing to do is focus the input axis of the rubber shock mounts through the center of gravity. To find this angle a process called tri-filing is used.


Trifiling process



I made up some small lugs with a small hole in them. I attached a length of welding rod through that small hole and then hung the engine from that rod. I then took an angle measurement and that determined the input angle to the center of gravity. I then designed the mount to these angles. The picture above shows 4 angles lugs that the engine mounts attach to.

This brings everyone up to date with my progress.

Now forf the bad news, as I write this I'm sitting in the Admirals club at DFW airport waiting for a flight to Brazil!!! My company Triumph Vought just won a contract to design the aft section of the new EMB 195 airliner. Yours truly is in charge of the Empannage!! I will be at Embraer for 4 weeks starting tomorrow. To all of the Brazillian blog followers, if you are around Sao Jose Dos Compos, please write me at : Planebuilder@yahoo.com.

Mark

Brake pedal installation

I'm sorry I'm so late in updating the blog. I have been very busy!! 6 months ago I agreed to take on a side job for a Gulfstream G3 Engine swap. I am designing a new engine installation for the Right side pylon. This plane will be a flying test bed for the manufacturer of the new engine. I have a hard deadline for complete release of the engineering drawing of Feb 9. Consequently I am slammed for time and the Robin has to take a back seat. That's the bad news, the good news is I have earned enough money to purchase a 4 x 8 x 19" 5 axis N/C router!!!! I am expecting delivery to Houston Texas in May. I can't tell you how excited I am to get this tool. Not only will it allow me to make an exquisite wood kit for the Robin, but it will also make possible my next project. I am going to design and build an all wood laminar flow single place high speed airplane powered by an industrial Suburu 40 hp engine. Speaking of industrial engines, I recieved my replacement engine for the MZ 34 I currently have on the Robin.

23 hp Vanguard Engine

When I get back on the project I will swap this engine for the MZ 34. Stripped down and using a forged billet flywheel this engine will weigh 64 lbs. That will put the prototype over the part 103 254 weight limit. However I anticipate that changes to the wing and landing gear will bring her back under 254 lbs. More on those changes later. I plan on mounting the prop on the flywheel directly. Research has shown that a direct drive should yeild 154 lbs of static thrust. By Mounting the prop on the flywheel side the airflow thru the cowl will be in the same direction as the engines design. I will also be able to mount the engine using the PTO mounting fasteners.

I have finished the new replacement landing gear installation. I fabricated a cover plate that can be removed to service the gear. 

new gear cover plate

 landing gear center cover.

The part 103 Robin will go back toi the original Fournier mono wheel. If a direct drive installation works, the prop clearance issues are such that I could use a non retractable gear. Saving even mode weight.









The existing rudder pedals were removed and modified to add toe brakes. This installation is very clean. Here are some pictures of the installation:

toe brakes

toe brake pedals were added to the existing rudder pedals, The toes brake position is adjustable. I will set the position after I get a chance to sit in the cockpit. The brakes are cble actuated and are modified Go Cart drum brakes.

break cable routing

there is enough relief loop in the brake cables to allow full rudder pedal adjustment.

rudder return pulley

I decided to update the Blog this evening because I received a question from a reader about the rudder return cable design. The main change I would make to this design is to raise the cable attach points to the end of the rudder pedals. This still works pretty good. I like this a lot better than the spring return I used to have. You will notice that the pulley bracket can swivel horizontally. The  fwd pivot hole is oversize and allows the pulley bracket to also rotate up and down. The threaded rod is also the cable tensioner.

 This is a better picture of the return mechanism.














Finally in December it was my privilege  to meet a blog reader from Sweden Dr Jörgen Åstrand. He is Fournier RF4 and Piper Cub Owner and possible a future neighbor here in Texas. It was sure nice meeting up here in Texas. Ironically he was also a reader of my Friend Ed Piper Cub Blog. Only at the last minute die we all realize that he was coming see us both during his vacation.

 Dr Jörgen Åstrand and myself.

KJHKHKJHiu