Steveair2's Tiger Moth replica

Hey Guys!

I just got laid off! So I have decided to work full time on my biplane. I started this project in 2001, and I am very anxious to get her finished. This is a steel tube and wood airplane and has been a lot more work than I thought it would be. I have been making progress, but it seems painfully slow. Things I think I can make in a day seem to take a week. It took me a year just to build the landing gear. Most of that was spent building the shock struts. I'm thinking that starting this thread will help force me to make better progress.

I started this project with a partially completed wing kit from Fisher Flying Products. I have had to correct mistakes that the previous builder made. Misaligned bolt holes in the spars.
My dad talked me into building a steel tube fuselage. Even though now he denies it. But it is starting to come together now and I am geting exited. It is amazing the emotions that a project like this can give a person. There have been days when all I wanted to do is cut the thing up with a chainsaw. And I do have more gray hair now, and I do blame it on the plane. Not only will a project like this teach you new building skills, it will teach you alot of things about yourself that are not related to aviation.

My fuselage is based on the GN-1 Aircamper with tubing diminsions of the Hatz CB-1. Flying wire and landing gear attach fittings are from the Steen Skybolt. And the landing gear are my own design exept for the shock struts wich are from the CB-1.
I have a A-75 that I plan on using for power. I will have no electrical system and plan on carving my own prop.
Well, thats my design in a nutshell. And the switch from Guiness Extra Stout and Belhaven to Miller Highlife is not that bad of a shock to my system.

This is a great forum and I believe that it will do alot to advance the homebuilt movement. I apreciate what I have learned from this forum and am glad to be able to contribute. I am sorry that I don't have more pictures to share. I do have a old picture on my album, I will try to get some more posted soon. Well, I guess thats about all I have to say for today.
Back to the buildathon!

Steve

I spent most of the day doing some very difficult welding.
Finished welding the head rest bows. Finished welding the starboard gusset at the lower wing mount. Spent some time removing rust. I got married durring lunch. This weekend I plan on draging all the parts out into the back yard and assembling what parts I have. I will be checking some measurements on the lower wings and taking pictures.

The Glenlivet and margaritas decided to hang around a bit this morning.
I did manage to fit the port gusset into position and half way welded in.
Studied a few sets of biplane drawings to get an idea for my aileron bellcranks and brackets. Went to CDC Surplus and picked up some nut plates for my floor boards. CDC is a really cool store in Richardson Texas.
They sell used aircraft tools and materials. Last year I found three twelve foot lenghts of 5/8"x.058 2024T3 tubing. The price was $7.50 a stick.
Thirty six feet for about twenty five dollars. I got home with it and looked to see what Aircraft Spruce would charge. Their price was $10.50 a foot!

This month went fast. I disassembled the center section and finished shaping, welding and painting center section fittings. Painted fittings, varnished center section and reassembled. I finished shaping and painted my aileron hinges. I have also reorganized my shop and am getting ready to attach the lower wings. Sometimes I wish I were building a UL3.

When I started this thread, my plan was to make a daily progress report. Then I decided that a daily report would cause me to spend to much time at the computer. So I thought maybe a weekly report would be better. As you can see I have at best made monthly reports. Well it was about the first or so in August, I was diligently working on the bipe when my mother inlaw came walking into my shop. She came thru the door that she would have to walk all the way around the house instead of thru the kitchen.
This is a big no no for her because she couldn't walk to well.

She was acting strange so I thought she may have had another stroke. We took her to the emergency room and later found out that she had brain cancer. They removed the cancer but she has been in ICU for a month and a half now.

Anyway she seems to be getting better, but as old as she is I don't know how well she will handle the chemo. So only time will tell. I have spent a lot of time in the hospital in the last month and a half. Have not been able to work on my plane much.

Now she is a little more stable. So I decided I need to kick some butt on the biplane. So Monday I finished mocking up the turtle deck, boot cowl and cockpit combing out of styrofoam and card board. Wednesday I ripped a one by six into eighth inch strips.
Today I used the styrofoam patterns to make the five laminated bows for the turtle deck. Tomarrow I will make the five laminated bows needed for the boot cowl and cockpit combing.

Oh yea, a week or so ago I had the plane in the back yard working on the lower wing attachments. It takes a good bit of time to get all that stuff set up just right, so I was leaving it out in the yard all set up for the next day. Well, I had everything in place and was just getting ready to drill some holes in the rear spars when a big storm decided it would ruin my day. I had to scrammble to get everything back into the shop. The bad part was it didn't start raining until the next day. The other bad part is that it's been raining in Dallas for about two weeks now. I'm sick of it!
The rain was what caused me to start work on the turtle deck.

I am also working on getting some pictures posted. I usually use disposable cameras. I have a whole stack that need to be developed. Most are airshow pictures but some are of my build.
My sister gave me a digital camera, but did not give me a charger or a cord to connect it to the computer. I will try and have it working in the next couple of days. For now I will try to get one of the crapy ones that I do have on the computer posted.
Well, after all that, I need a beer.

Cheers!
Steve

me welding

7-19-2006-09.bmp Me after working eight hours in a steel mill, in Texas, in July, and a few hours of welding on my biplane.

Wow! I ordered a gallon kit of stits epoxy varnish from Aircraft Spruce wednesday morning and received it today on friday.
I also found another twelve foot stick of 5/8" x .058 2024T3 tubing at CDC Surplus. The price was ten dollars. The last three sticks I bought were $7.50 apiece. I'm not complaining though. Now I have plenty for all of my pushrods.

I'm a very patient person; taught myself to play guitar and juggle. No, I can't play guitar and juggle at the same time.
I spent about eight hours today fitting lower wings to my bipe.
I got one hole drilled, and a plywood spacer glued in.
Very frustrating. The past rain brought a million mosquitos, the
humidity is one hundred percent, a hornet stung my hand...
Today really tested my patience. But that one hole looks good!

Leaving her out tonight.

As frustrating as a project like this can be, there is also very much gratification. Yesterday I managed to get three out of four lower wing spars pined into position. I am using 3/16" pins to position my attach fittings. I'll enlarge the holes to the proper diameter later. The rain came back last night, so I moved everything in.
The rain also blew my trailer house at the airport off the blocks.
I've been wanting to get rid of it anyway. I will continue with the turtle deck until the rain stops.

I went out to the airport this morning to look at my trailer house.
It was off all the blocks and had a twelve by twelve piece of roof missing. The place looked like a disaster area. It looked like someone took a dozen rolls of pink fibergass insulation, threw them into a shredder and then blew them across the airport.
I spent six hours with no breaks picking up the stuff.
I didn't think I could get it all picked up before dark. I did.
Lucky, the roof that came off was over the kitchen.
The office and bedroom were dry. So all of the important stuff was not damaged. I loaded paperwork, plans collection and electronics in the car. Funny was the look on the wifes face when I walked in with a arm load of airplane plans. She thought I had all I owned at the house already. I am a plans junkie! She's really going to be pissed when she finds out I just ordered another set.
The bad part is that I will have to tear the trailer house down and haul it to the dump. What a PITA! I also have to find a place to store a Sport Aviation collection that starts from issue one.
That will make the wife happy, hey maybe on her side of the bed!
Then she could read me bedtime stories!

We're getting more rain in Dallas so I'm getting more done on the turtle deck, instrument panel and boot cowl frames. I almost ruined my water heater. Went in for a beer and the wife distracted me. I returned to the shop to find all the water had blown out of the water heater. Lucky the heating element didn't burn out and was able to complete the laminated bow. Those strips bent real easy.

Progress is slow but steady. Four door frames in progress.

To finish my door frames, I had to install the headrest bulkheads. So I started making and installing mounting tabs. I will remove old zinc chromate and rust off the frame as I progress with the tabs. I'm using my die grinder and scotch bright roloc pads to remove the chomate primer and rust. I'll use my sand blaster only on parts I can't get to with the roloc disc. I am also trying a soybean oil and acytone based protection on my clean metal.
Ordering Stits epoxy primer today.