All Metal 'STOLLITE'

[pylon500]

Right, another quick post during lunch...
This wing flew really well, but the rest of the ultralight left a bit to be desired, when it was blown over in a storm, I didn't deem it worth repairing so I stored the wings and scrapped the rest.
Didn't get any photos of the damage, other than the wingtip ;

OK, so modifying the wing involved removing all the trailing edge and fitting a heavier doubler to the trailing edge, a, because the original attach point bracket was showing cracks and, b, this is going to be a folding wing, swinging on the trailing edge like a Kitfox;

The new flaps and ailerons would be remote hinge requiring an arm attached to the wing.
While many will cut out the arm and rivet it to an aligning wing, this then requires a large cut in the skin to allow it through, I simply use a bit of heavy angle and bolted it under the rib after fitting some reinforcing to the fibreglass rib;

This has become my 'go to' method for attaching flaps and ailerons as it only requires a few bolt holes through the lower skin/rear spar, and make them easier to replace should need be.
The previous ultralight was a bit like a Cub in that the aileron controls ran up the strut, but to a belcrank there with a pushrod straight to the aileron. Wanting folding wings and maybe a tidier looking finish, I needed to run the aileron controls out through the wing.
Here is where I cheated, and regretted it thereafter; I used Telemorse cables for most of the control system.
THIS IS A MISTAKE !
These things only belong on boats
Anyway, I now needed a belcrank in the wing, so built a structural box with hardpoints into the rear of the wing;

Now, for those looking really closely will realise the dynamics here aren't quite right and the answer is, the belcrank is neutral when rotated about another 10º anticlockwise, and the pushrod needs to be adjusted shorter.

OK, lunch break over, more plane to build, will detail main wing pickup and fuel tanks next...

 

[Rockiedog2]

Interesting
Currently I happen to be working on removing the complete aileron torque tube mess and replacing with combination 3/32 cable and pushrod setup on my original design.
I like all that except the boat cable.

 

[Pops]

Interesting
Currently I happen to be working on removing the complete aileron torque tube mess and replacing with combination 3/32 cable and pushrod setup on my original design.
I like all that except the boat cable.

Removing the aileron torque tube is going to be a major job. How about keeping us posted.

 

[Rockiedog2]

Removing the aileron torque tube is going to be a major job. How about keeping us posted.

Right Pops. I'm in the head scratching phase right now. Looking at different control systems etc. The big deal is trying to do it without uncovering the wing. I think it can be done with a few fair sized patches. I've always liked patches. Character.
Might decide it's not worth it and just keep flying it as is. But it's been on my mind for a while now; won't go away. That's a bad sign.

 

[pylon500]

SUNDAY?
I guess life happens...

The ultralight these wings were on previously had a single fuel tank in the fuselage, this time I wanted the tanks out in the wings.
Being ex military I'm used to the concept of wet wings or integral tanks, and rather like the tanks on the Piper Cherokees, so decided to use that method for my wing tanks. First off I needed to remove an inboard section of leading edge, which also made it easier to install the forward wing attach point;

It was also about this time I realised that there was a small space in the hangar where I instructed that I could use if I made the wings fold...
This added about eight months to the build time and when I was finished, another club member had grabbed the spot for his Rans S-9
Anyway, back to the build.
The wing fold method was to be like a Kitfox, the wings staying flat while pivoting back at the rear spar. The forward spar disconnecting with a spring loaded pin, operated from the wingtip via a cable. This was going to be a taildragger, so if the wing pin is removed, the wing will swing down and back, and would be hard to hold from the root end!

I wasn't foolish enough to think that just a spring would be able to hold the pin in place against various vibrations and the like, so the arm that operates the latching pin has an extended leg that goes into a slot on the cabin spar carry through and (although not shown in this picture) a 'pip' pin is inserted across the top of the arm to prevent it from riding up.

Making the integral (but removable) tanks was pretty straight forward.
A couple of ribs, some reinforcing hat sections, a rear wall and the outside skin;

All riveting (apart from the top hats) could be done from the outside with rivet squeezers, which is a lot easier that using a rivet gun. Some quickly turned up fittings for drains, filler caps and feed lines, and the tanks came together without too much trouble;

You may note the back wall is at an angle, this was to ensure that the fuel drain would still be at the lowest point at the outboard end of the tank, even taking into account the dihedral of the wing. This was twofold, keep the drains away from the polycarbonate windows and this had the drains at the lowest point when the wings were folded.
One part that I thought I was clever with, was the fuel gauge. I forgot to photograph this, but a bracket with a bit of piano hinge was riveted inside the tank having a bent wire pivoting next to the wall of the tank. On the end of the wire a cork float was bound and glued, while at the pivot, a small bar magnet was also bound and glued. On the outside of the tank, a simple bracket was riveted that held a cheap $2 plastic compass with a calibrated scale printed up and glued over the cardinal points.
Unfortunately, these compasses degrade with time (the fluid leaks out), and I can no longer find the same compasses any more.
Anyway, it looks something like this;

Alright, that's enough for this break, will continue... whenever.

 

[pylon500]

Alright, where were we...
So, we've taken the fabric covered wings, removed the fabric, removed everything behind the rear spar, taken off a section of leading edge and made a tank to fit, fitted an aileron system, reinforced the fibreglass ribs to carry the remote control hinges and fitted attach points to both spars...
Next is to get the trailing sorted out. The plan was to make the flaps and ailerons all the same section and use a common hinge point like on the SuperCub.
This means a frieze styled aileron, and the possibility of reflexing the flaps a tiny bit as they have a fairly blunt leading edge.
Unfortunately I failed to photograph the trailing edge shroud, but I have the flap arm (being made);

Then the reinforcement of the inboard rib to carry both the arm and the actuating pushrod;

And how it attached on the outside;

The last mods to the wing were, skinning the rest of the wing, fitting a wingtip and fitting a remove wing latch hatch (which I'll describe a bit later...).

From here I have to point out that I also failed to take many photos of building the flaps and ailerons, but I will mention that when it came to making them, I had just finished doing some repairs on a Robin 2160;

And was rather impressed how the whole flap or aileron was folded from one piece of metal with a few ribs thrown in;

(I created this in photoshop to put up here about ten years ago!)

So, having around a twelve foot long wing panel, I had the choice of doing a six foot flap and six foot aileron, but I wanted a bit of STOL performance so I opted to make an eight foot flap and a four foot aileron. This actually made making them easier as they were all folded as a four foot panel, cut off the end of a sheet (0.016"), two of them joined together to form the flap. This also saved me some metal as there were virtually no offcuts.
A control horn was fitted to the flap root rib;

And a hinge point for the mid and end of the flap. Similar hinges made for the ailerons, the inboard ones incorporating the control horn;

These were shaped from a T extrusion.

OK, only a few more details for the wings, then on to the fuselage...

 

[pylon500]

Just checking emails during breakfast and noticed an error in my previous post regarding the way the flap and aileron skins were made.
Yes, it's still folded from one piece, but done in such a way that there is no 'forward facing edge' on completion.
So I knocked up a quick diagram;

Ok, back later... maybe...

 

[Victor Bravo]

That one-piece control surface is pretty cool, but a very small misalignment in the bend axis on just one of those bends would cause a nasty twist in the entire part.

 

[pylon500]

True, there was a lot of 'fudging' to get each one perfect, that said, until you drill any of the rivet holes it's quite flexible and not that hard to align.

 

[pylon500]

Lunch break.
So part of the deal is folding wings...
The wings fold back like a KitFox, unlike a KitFox, I didn't want to have to remove a rear section of cabin for the wing to fold. I instead decided to have a removable section of flap that would allow the trailing edge to just miss the rear windscreen. I'm going with the 'Omni view' style like a Cessna 150, or more closely, a Cessna BirdDog.
Now, as a procedural safety concept, I wanted to make sure I, or anyone helping, would make the mistake of trying to fold the wings without removing the flap section, so the wing pin release cable out at the tip is inside a flush closing door that can't be opened from the tip. A release cable for the door runs back inside the wing, and comes out of the rear spar just where the removable section of flap is.
You have to remove the flap, to pull the cable, to open the tip hatch, to pull the wing lock pin and support the wing as it folds.
There's actually a few more steps, but I'll get to them later!
This is the tip hatch from the inside (L/H);

The large triangle bracket just relies on it's 'springiness' to hold the hatch shut.

The removable section of flap is only just over a foot long and is held in place by aluminium piano hinge on the top and bottom surfaces.
Somehow they both got cut a little short, so the inboard end was built up a little;

I never took any photos of the tip being made, but basically half hexagon in planform with a smaller rib at the end, as shown in this three view;

So, with that exposed, I'll move onto the fuselage next time...

 

[pylon500]

Saturday ! , Where does the time go?
Oh right, building five aeroplanes, teaching people to fly, maintaining the property and keeping the missus happy...
OK, Fuselage
So I mentioned I was building another plane when an apprentice at the maintenance operation I worked at, who I was teaching to fly as well, said he wanted to build something.
I was teaching him to fly in a locally produced ultralight called a Lightwing;

This is your standard steel tube fuse and tail, with a two spar sheet alloy wing, the whole thing covered in fabric. This particular model is the GR582, powered by a Rotax 582 two stroke (later models fitted with the 912), two seat side by side, single central stick and a good, honest training plane.
Some two hundred odd of these have been built and would be the backbone of the expanding ultralight movement in Australia.
Relevance to the Stollite story is; after my previous Ultralight was blown over and damaged, only the wings were kept and we decided to use them to make a single seat 'Lightwing'.
It was then we realised that neither of us knew how to weld, and the cost of fabric, dope and paint was about the same as sheetmetal, and we worked in a sheetmetal shop...
I initially thought of making use of some large extruded tube as a basic fuselage, with a bit of a cabin, and will admit to being influenced by an 'economy pack' design released by the Lightwing company, a thing they called the 'Pocket Rocket';

(and when the manufacturer wasn't within earshot, we all called it the 'Ugly Wing', like the UglyStick RC model), that said, as single seater with 582 motor, it was a blast to fly!
Anyway, where the Pocket Rocket had a four inch tube form nose to tail, like a Drifter, I wanted to have a 'cage' around me made from two inch square alloy tube, riveted as a structure.
I had an initial drawing as follows;

But in the end decided to make a full fuselage.
As the design process moved along, various little ideas came to mind;
I liked the concept of a floor with all the controls running underneath like in the Cessna's,
I still planned to use the 2" square tube to 'cage' the cabin,
I didn't want the rear fuse to just be a sheet metal box (you know which plane I'm talking about) and as I was doing a lot of work on DeHavilland Beavers at the time, that seemed a reasonable way to go.
As for the front end, instead of finishing at the firewall and having to get someone else weld up an engine mount, I had a look at the Cessna 210's and 300 series aircraft with their fabricated sheet metal 'bed mounts'.
While most people will try to instal two stroke engines upright (we were going to use the Rotax 503 from the previous aircraft), as a modeller, I wasn't afraid to fit the motor upside down, and basically created a cantilevered nose section and simply bolt the engine up to it.
All that was left was the U/C...
A complicated arrangement of triangulated steel tubes and bungee cords?
A heavy lump of bent aluminium?
A fancy layup of fibreglass roving and cloth?
In the end, an odd fate presented itself in the form of a stockpile of Tiger Moth radius arms rusting away in a container, so I manage to buy a couple of them with the intent of using them as a cantilevered leg bolted to a bulkhead in the fuse (think Cessna 152), this then led to the idea of pivoting them to a pair of short gas struts under the floor (think Beagle Pup), until I settled on the leg levering against a rubber block (think Beaver again!).
I would re-insert the three view here, but just go back to the previous post.
Or better yet, have this one;

I lost most of the drawings in a computer crash.
So, on to the fuselage build...

 

[pylon500]

While most people probably start a fuselage from the firewall and go back, I started with the tailcone and worked forward.
I came up with a nice radiused corner that I put on all four corners of the fuse with the rest being flat. All the corners were shaped around one block, neither of which I managed to photograph individually (or if I did, they were lost in a computer crash a few years back).
Looked a bit like this;

Which when I started to put them together, looked a bit like this;

These are all the bits for one side of the rear fuselage, the corner brackets riveted to side frames, the rolled corners including a folded stringer on each edge, the two side skins, the stringer to run down the centre and the piece of extrusion (yellow) that forms the tail mount.
When riveted together, looks like this;

While I had the apprentice making up this, I started on the tail and as you can imagine, there's a little more work there.
All the photography of the build was done on 'film', remember that stuff?
Hence not a lot of them were taken, and most of these pictures are scans done in the early 2000's on a crpy copier.
This means that we mostly photographed 'milestones' in the build instead of every part.
Here was the tailplane 'kit';

Which I slowly began assembling;

While the 'Boy' made the rudder and fin;

With these parts to work from we could start assembling the rear fuse;

OK, more fuselage next time...

 

[pylon500]

'Says fuselage, talks about tailplane...?'
OK, so various parts are being made at the same time, and the few photographs I have are difficult to fit into a narrative.
So here's a view of the fin being made, the unfinished rudder in the background;

The elevators were made in two halves with aerodynamic balances at the ends. The tailplane has an arm on each end with a pin pointing outwards, and the elevators have a bush in the counterbalance rib. The elevators are slid onto the pin from each end and bolted to a bush in the middle that holds them together (I got this idea from the Beaver), the left elevator having a trim tab;

It was always good to finish a night with a bit of VP (visual progress), so we sat the tail group on the back of the rear fuse section;

At this point the aft fuse gets a bit more work including the top and bottom skins and a dorsal fillet;

You can just make out the wings sitting on the overhead light supports. It would be cold working in the hangar at night, so I'm wearing a 'beenie', and the apprentice is fiddling with something on top of the fin.
Now some details about the back end of the fuselage;

The two yellow extrusions run from the next bulkhead forward, back to the fin post and beyond to where the tail main spar will be.
The four corner frames are joined to form an oval section at the rear. Two heavy brackets are riveted either side of where the fin post will go and two short stainless steel tubes will be riveted to extend below the fuselage with two quarter inch bolts through them to hold the tailwheel leaf spring.
The entire fuselage and tail group was primarily solid riveted, and lots of them.
I had a closer look at some Cessna's later and figured I used way too many rivets, typically three quarter and one inch spacing...

Next is the tail attach and elevator control system;

Now, prior to working at this maintenance facility, I spent nearly two years working for the Australian manufacturer of the Sadler Vampire, and that aircraft used exclusively Tele-morse cables for all controls, and this seemed like a good idea at the time...
I did however realise that these did not work well in 'push', being better in tension, and as I wanted to have the cable in 'pull' for up elevator, I had to reverse the final linkage to the elevator with a bellcrank. You mat recall I did the same with the aileron bellcranks in the wing.
Once sorted, the fuselage is finished with an open ended structural fairing, as I had plans for a tow release at some later date;

Next time, we'll get into the cabin area and seat...

 

[pylon500]

A MONTH!, Where does the time go?
Anyway, we've got a rear fuselage and I want a 'cage' like cabin with a real floor, and the controls running underneath like a Cessna.
Somewhere I had come across a two inch square alloy tube designed to be used as a balustrade handrail, and seemed to be ideal for use a riveted cabin cage.

With some careful planning the cage was assembled with all the gusset plates solid riveted, then the 'cage' was lined up with the rear fuse and the cabin built around it.

The slightly out of sequence bits here are the seat and the undercarriage 'box' and, as is typical in a build, you don't make a part and rivet it on, it usually just gets skin pinned on as you move onto other bits that may require 'tweaks' to previously made parts.
Remember, this is being scratch built, with many of the parts actually being designed on the sheet metal, then made.

At one stage I had the whole rear tailcone finished with the fin fitted, the cabin floor with the control stick and seat rails in place, and the tailplane attached.
The whole lot only weighed about 55 pounds.

Mentioning the seat, while most go find one of those plastic garden chairs, I was still doing Air Force reservist time, working on C130's, and had to repair an engineers seat, which inspired me to make a fabricated alloy seat that would run on tracks (old Cessna tracks),

I put the old tracks in backwards so I had fresh holes, and built the cabin floor around them, including the control running under the floor.

The front of the cabin floor became my undercarriage 'box', which I'll run on the next post.

 

[pylon500]

So the undercarriage box.
As I mentioned, I had these fairly robust legs that were actually the axle and radius tubes from a Tiger Moth, and initially I planned to just bolt them to heavy bulkheads and rely on their 'spring' for suspension.
Advice was given that the legs would probably just bend (which later proved true), so I changed them to now pivoting, and working against rubber blocks.

These are 'left over' drawings after I had a computer crash and lost most of the working drawings.
Here is a closer detail of the rubber block set up;

People working on Piper Navajos back in the 90's may remember an AD coming out to replace the main gear retract ram mounting bracket (they had some squarish corners that were prone to cracking), and I had changed a few myself.
These were a nice little steel brackets, and after welding up the small cracks, I decided to use a pair of them as the reaction mount for the rubber block suspension.
The undercarriage 'Box' was fabricated from heavy alloy sheet with doublers and angles shrunk to suit the fuselage shape.

Which came together like this;

And the box with legs, ready to be built into the cabin floor.

And to finish off here, the fin and tail on the rear fuse up to the cabin with a seat and the undercarriage, with the proud builders behind.
Note also another project (the T-star) sitting in the 'rafters' of the workshop.

Til next time.

 

[Yellowhammer]

G'Day Spodman, I'm in AUSTRALIA, and I fly (and instruct) at a small field about 35 miles South-West of Sydney, called The OAKS
I instruct with The Sydney Ultralight Flying Club and we have a membership of around 60, at least 12 of whom are building something!
Here's my next project....
Arthur.

You have my attention sir. Both designs are very impressive.

However, the one shown in this photo I have saved on my home screen. I cant recall where I first saw it but when I did I said to myself here is a plane with some appeal and potential. I happen to prefer low wing aircraft

Now, what are you intentions with this plane? I like the hell out of it. Reminds me of a small Tucano!

Thanks!

Yellowhammer

 

[TFF]

That’s a clever landing gear.

 

[pylon500]

You have my attention sir. Both designs are very impressive.
However, the one shown in this photo I have saved on my home screen. I cant recall where I first saw it but when I did I said to myself here is a plane with some appeal and potential. I happen to prefer low wing aircraft
Now, what are you intentions with this plane? I like the hell out of it. Reminds me of a small Tucano!
Thanks!
Yellowhammer

OK, that first post was a LONG time ago, and I had to look to see which 'low wing' you were referring to.
I'll have to admit (again) that I have a bad habit of not getting projects finished, and unfortunately this is one of them.
I will however try to get around to documenting the build up to it's current status.
I called it, the LR-2.

Don't ask me how I get that far in a project and have it grind to a halt, it's too long and frustrating.

 

[pylon500]

OK, so we're up to the forward fuselage...
I've mentioned earlier that my welding abilities are basically non-existant, so the less I have to outsource the better.
To that end, I looked at how some of the bigger Cessna's (210, 310, 337) don't use a welded engine mount, instead having a fabricated sheetmetal structure integral to the airframe, so I decided to look back at my aero-modelling days of inverted mounted engines in control line stunt models, and build a structural nose to bolt the engine straight onto.
Starting with the inverted 'floor' of the engine bay, I folded a W shaped structure to carry the mount hardpoints, which would spread the load out to the surrounding airframe.

And

With this assembly together, we did a quick VP (visual progress) shot, 'Nose about here';

Before installing the cabin 'cage' and proceeding to build the forward fuselage towards the titanium firewall.

Once in place, we started riveting up.

 

[pylon500]

Building an all metal aircraft in a professional workshop more or less dictates that you have to build to aircraft standards, which means solid rivets, so here we are riveting the forward fuselage, and before anyone starts pointing...
This was a staged photo with a timer camera, and we forgot to put on our ear-muffs!

That was soo long ago , I'm now retired, and my 'apprentice' is a workshop manager now!
OK, with most of the front end now coming together;

We could even try a test hang of the engine, a Rotax 503.

The engine has cross mount bars, which are then rubber mounted up into the W frame mentioned earlier.
Having a comfortably wide (30"!) cabin, meant that the firewall was wide enough to enclose the muffler.

Add some carbi's, a battery, fuel pump and some electrics, and it's ready to close up.

Just need to make a bowl for the front...

Good old English Wheel!
And it all goes together.

Next up, some undercarriage mods and wing attach points.