Thomas Philippa

I am a new member to this web site, but I have been a long time in the aviation fraternity. My first project was in the early 1970's when I built the Tailor Monoplane. My interest has always been to design, build and fly my own aircraft. I have made many attempts but family life and restricted finance has hounded me relentlessly. Now some 45 years since my first aircraft build I am in the very happy situation of having designed the aircraft I am currently building. My journey to this point has been on a steep learning curve regards design and aircraft construction. I can now say that I have the confidence that my aircraft will fly and do it well. Once I started to design, I was faced with a mammoth task of developing the knowledge that would make the building process a success. There is a sequence to design and to discover the sequential process involved much trail and error and at least a couple of years doing calculations, drawings and manufacturing parts, before I was able to go ahead with confidence to where I am today. I started the construction of my current project a month ago and I have completed all the ribs for one wing panel, all the ribs for the tail group and I also have started on the spars and other incidental such as fittings and the flap control lever. I am in the process of trying to work out the undercarriage. A description of the aircraft is a wood, low wing, tail dragger, two seat, single strut braced wing, powered by the Jabiru 2200 cc /80 hp engine with a gross weight of 1200 lbs. If a larger 100 hp engine is fitted the aircft will take 1500 lb. Over the years I have developed simplicity in construction. Example: making wing ribs would be the pits of aircraft building unless there is a simple way of doing it. The whole setting up, gluing and clamping process has been simplified to the stage where I can make one wing rib in one hour. Making the hundreds of gussets is now done in a bulk process where I make about one hundred gussets in 15 minutes. And the story goes on. Any person who would like to come and have a look and learn all about wood aircraft construction is most welcome to visit. It is my intention to hold a wood aircraft building session some time later in the year. One final comment. About 90% of my aircraft timber is free. I go to recycling yards and buy the old wooden windows and doors that were tossed out to be replaced with aluminium. These old windows and doors were made from AAA grade Oregon, otherwise known as Douglas Fir. I machine the timber to my requirements and I can build about 90% of the airframe for free.:ban: