Do y'all have any interest in a little air racer project?

[retroaviation]

One word for this update.....

YAY!!!!!.............








Gary

[bdk]

Is there fabric or fiberglass on the wing, or do the racers just fill and sand right over the bare wood?

[ebutner]

Christmas in August!!! Nice.

[mustangdriver]

Cool man.

[JHall]

Very nice!

[Django]

None too soon too!!

[retroaviation]

Is there fabric or fiberglass on the wing, or do the racers just fill and sand right over the bare wood?

Well, my wing (for Another Solution) just uses fabric over the top of the wood, and it turned out pretty dang slick. When they built this wing, many moons ago, they opted for a wood filler-lookin' stuff to make it slick. The problem is, that eventually, it became unbonded. AvSource West is applying another type of filler over the wood now, that is more "technologically advanced" to stick on there better. I'm not sure what it is, but it's dang sure better than that sawdust lookin' stuff that was on there. The big downside to this filler is it's heavy. But, if you can make it slick, heavy isn't as big of a deal, you know?

I'm gonna take a day off work tomorrow (doctor's orders ) and come out and work on the racer instead. So, hopefully, there'll be some REAL progress reports soon!

Gary

[retroaviation]

Just a quick update for now. I was only able to work on the racer for about half the day today, as my "real" work took up all of the morning. I was excited to hang the engine received from Pacific Continental Engines, out of Pacoima, CA. I knew that the initial hanging was going to be temporary, as I found it doubtful that I'd get the spacing right the first try. This guess ended up being accurate, as I found out after hanging up the bottom cowling and seeing that the prop extension was aft of the front of the cowling lip. So, I'll come out tomorrow and add some spacers (which I just found in a box of parts) between the engine mount and engine. No big deal, and it should only take about half an hour to get that completely finished.

Other than that, I was able to start the installation of the safety cable, which I'll finish once the engine is spaced correctly and mounted. And I just threw some "spray bomb" paint on some pressure baffling that I'll install tomorrow. These baffles are pretty simple, but are kind of rough. I'll fix the rougher areas, but I doubt they'll win "best of show" in the International Engine Baffle Competition.

So that's pretty much it for now. Here are a few pictures of the temporary installation. If you look close on the last picture, you'll see how the prop extension is actually behind the end of the cowling by about a half inch..........








Gary

[Django]

Put it together.

Take it apart.

Put it together again.

Take it apart again.

Put it back together one more time.

Take it apart one more time.

Take it apart for the last time.

Put it together for the last time.

Take it apart for the very last time.

Put it together for the very last time.

Sound familar?

[CAPFlyer]

Yeah, sounds like every project I've ever worked on in aviation, even when it's just doing the Jepp revisions...

Great news that you've got the motor in Gary. Just think, in a month you'll be showing off both racers to a couple hundred thousand people without even having to get in 'em.

[Obergrafeter]

I was wondering how you were going to get that engine on the plane when I saw that picture of it in the crate. So did you have to turn the airplane upside down to hang it. Can't beleive they would build an engine with the sump on top. Good thing you got it straightened out.

[retroaviation]

I was wondering how you were going to get that engine on the plane when I saw that picture of it in the crate. So did you have to turn the airplane upside down to hang it. Can't beleive they would build an engine with the sump on top. Good thing you got it straightened out.

Well DUH! Dang Ober, don't you know anything??? You haven't ever heard of a gravity feed oil system? Geez, that's an old racing trick to gain horsepower by not having the engine spin one of those pesky oil pumps.


Gary

[retroaviation]

Put it together.

Take it apart.

Put it together again.

Take it apart again.

Put it back together one more time.

Take it apart one more time.

Take it apart for the last time.

Put it together for the last time.

Take it apart for the very last time.

Put it together for the very last time.

Sound familar?

Unfortunately, I'm only about halfway through that list.
How's that old song go?......."I've got a long way to go, but a short time to get there.........."
The Time Bandit is certainly earning it's name right now.

Gary

[retroaviation]

Great news that you've got the motor in Gary. Just think, in a month you'll be showing off both racers to a couple hundred thousand people without even having to get in 'em.

Actually, Another Solution's wing is on Time Bandit right now, just so I could temporarily install the instrument panel and wire it up. I was told yesterday, that Time Bandit's wing will be ready for me to pick up on Monday, so it'll just be #24 that I'll be showing off this year. Next year will be Another Solution's turn.

Gary

[CAPFlyer]

So you're going to hide Another Solution instead of putting it on display for everyone to see your fine work? Come on Gary, you need to make sure we all get to see both airplanes in the hangar!