Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/307497
EAA Experimenter 15 designer of the all-wood Boredom Fighter. Don lived in the next town over from me, and we be- came friends." Jon is also a designated airwor- thiness representative (DAR). Jon cautioned, "Even though our Breezy is TIG welded, you still need a torch to make many of the bent fittings. Wittman Buttercup builder Earl Luce and I made a gas welding video with Kent White (TinManTech.com), and it was Kent who reminded me that "…you have to use the appropriate technology." When I inspect vintage airplanes in my DAR work, I see beautiful gas welding. The gas welding on an old Howard DGA is simply beautiful artwork. I am currently practicing on getting my aluminum welding skills to the point where I can build compound aluminum fairing parts for old airplanes." Although Breezy is simple in concept, some parts of it are fairly complex in execution—for exam- ple, its fuselage. Where most aircraft fuselages are some form of modifi ed box, the Breezy fuselage almost has to be seen to understand it because it is dif cult to describe in words. Jon explained, "The Breezy has what is essentially a bent, triangular fuselage. This makes it impossible to build two sides and join them later, as is done on most fuselages. A flat table was built and the fuselage top frame was tacked together on the table and then elevated above it. The keel was then bent and installed, held in place with blocks, and the verticals and diagonals were then added. "The longerons were bent cold over various radius dies, one degree at a time. We didn't want to splice them like most people do on Breezys, so we started with tubes nearly 12 feet long. Mike and I would stand there slowly bending them over the die. The length of the area of the bend was marked with masking tape and numbered in inch increments. We would push down over the die and call out the number where we were going to bend. Then we'd place the contact point of the tube on each number (or between) called out on the vertex of the die. After some bending, the tube was then placed in a temporary jig on the table that used blocks screwed to the surface to define the desired bend. We'd bend it, then check it. Then bend it some more. It is an iterative process, allowing you to sneak up on the desired angle of bend. It is kind of like a bunch of small bends, but the result is a beautifully curved longeron with no tubing collapse. We practiced on electrical conduit first to get the technique down pat." With almost childlike enthusiasm, he said, 'T at's real f ying!' Carl's enthusiasm was contagious. Jon and Mike purchased a wing kit for the Wag Aero J-3 Sport Trainer to build their all-metal wing. A newly formed cooling eyebrow for one of the engine cylinders. E A A E X P _ M a y 1 4 . i n d d 1 5 EAAEXP_May14.indd 15 5 / 5 / 1 4 3 : 1 6 P M 5/5/14 3:16 PM