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  1. J

    Milling machine/lathe options

    A few thoughts, some repeating sage advice from previous posts: I love meddling with materials, wood, fibreglass or metal, so I used the work on my Tipsy Nipper and Taylor Monoplane as excuse to buy a lathe and a mill. My choices were driven by the limited available space of a 16ft x 8ft...
  2. J

    How old is too old?

    I started building my Taylor Monoplane in 1969, in between school and Uni. It is now structurally complete with everything aft of the firewall finished. It just needs the 1834 VW fitted to get the 'permit to test' papers organised. That will happen when my Tipsy Nipper flies and relocates to a...
  3. J

    The 10 Most Beautiful Military Jets Ever

    English Electric Canberra This isn't the most pretty image with that add-on nose but I couldn't resist posting it because it was mine! At least I spent many hours down the back playing with the secret squirrel stuff in the nose. Wonderful research aircraft, stacks of room in the bomb bay for...
  4. J

    Current Sensing for an Alternator-Dependent airplane

    My aircraft is electrically dependent running two electronic ignition systems off independent busses and batteries. Only one regulator which has diode isolation between the busses so catastrophic failure of one battery doesn't take out the other. The system was investigated and approved by the...
  5. J

    Current Sensing for an Alternator-Dependent airplane

    I run a permanent magnet motor cycle alternator, Honda CB600, which feeds two independent electrical systems downstream of my purpose designed regulator. Each system has an electronic ignition unit. The output from the alternator is linear with rpm and reaches ~ 40V at 3000 rpm. The regulator...
  6. J

    Could you design anything stranger?

    Is that real?, looks a bit suspicious to me, the background is in focus but greyed out. I don't think I can believe that it existed, I have enough trouble getting one engine started - 16 you would run out of fuel before they were all running!
  7. J

    Movies with Cool Aircraft Featured

    Just pulled that book off the shelf above my desk to make sure I spell Geoffrey Wellum correctly. I listened to a radio interview of him some years ago - a short piece in a topical news program, must have been the anniversary of something. He sounded a modest, thoughtful and determined...
  8. J

    If you came into a spare million dollars…..

    1 million US is nowhere near enough, I need about 25 million to purchase a small airfield for recreational flying. They are disappearing like snowballs in hell here in the UK as the families of original owners are releasing the land for housing. The best little airfield in England (probably) has...
  9. J

    Aviation Hoarding

    I don't believe that storing stuff is hoarding. There is no such thing as spare material - only stuff you haven't found a use for - yet. 👍 :D A long time buddy was clearing out a hangar for a friend and asked me if I needed some VW parts. Since I have 3 aircraft that have VWs up front I was up...
  10. J

    Wing lower surface discontinuity

    Love the photo but maybe I'm biased because my personal plastic fantastic is an LS4. It was refinished in Poland a few years ago. The finish coat was two pack acrylic and, as standard procedure, the registration and fin numbers were inlayed into the paint. You cannot feel them when running your...
  11. J

    Hinge Materials and Processes

    Early Grob Astirs have a simple steel fitting glassed into the wing and tailplane structures at the control surface hinge points. A standard commercial plain bearing was pressed in. The mating half was a similar fitting with the hinge pin (clevis pin) retained by rivet. One hinge pin was a bolt...
  12. J

    Dreaming Up the Ultimate Light Fighter Inline

    Hi Flitzer pilot, I think the company name may have been 'Bonner' and the engine was a Rover block which was a derivative from an American car engine. Jim
  13. J

    Battery behind the pilot?

    My aircraft is very small and light - a Tipsy Nipper. When I replaced the magnetos with a dual electronic system I saved several pounds firewall forward. I saved further pounds by opting for LiFePo4 batteries and, with a bit of weighing and measuring, I found that I could optimise the C of G for...
  14. J

    Porco Rosso

    Enjoying the Porco Rosso cartoon is why my Taylor Monoplane (awaiting engine) will have red trim and also be called Porco Rosso. In the same vein the cartoon series the Clangers resulted in my Tipsy Nipper becoming the Iron Chicken. My Flitzer Goblin project becomes Hobgoblin after one of my...
  15. J

    What is your interest and/or experience with homebuilt airplanes?

    Bruce, I seem to have lost the conversation you started. If you can email me your phone number on my gmail address then we could use WhatsAp. Just off to the 'Best of British' afternoon and evening event at the Shuttleworth.
  16. J

    What is your interest and/or experience with homebuilt airplanes?

    Bruce of MRF and the leathery brethren?
  17. J

    Jungster 1 & 2 aircraft

    Yes, I'm still keen on the Goblin but I'm having to show great restraint at the moment as I'm steering the Nipper paperwork through the LAA Mod system. The aircraft is ready to fly but needs to be signed off. Then I'll have an aircraft to fly * and I can start on the engine conversions for the...
  18. J

    Drilling a pair of fittings and spar

    For my Taylor Monoplane spars which are 2" thick I made up tooling as Pops above but for the 1/4" bolts I drilled everything undersize, in this case 6mm and assembled the whole spar attachments together with 6mm store bolts as the drilling progressed. I then removed one bolt at a time and reamed...
  19. J

    Moulding Hollow Carbon Fibre Parts Using a Low-Melt Metal Mandrel

    A bit off topic but regarding low melting point alloys. I wanted to turn down 100mm diameter, 3.2mm wall tubing to 1mm wall thickness. I immediately found it couldn't be held in the lathe chuck because it distorted under the pressure of the jaws. It could be turned ok but then sprung out of...
  20. J

    Jungster 1 & 2 aircraft

    It looks like your canopy is a refit of the standard RAF greenhouse because the transparency is continuous throughout it's length. The original was split between the cockpits with the front sides being flat and the aft sides having a prominent bulge so that the instructor could get a bit more...
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