Experimenter

November 2012

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/90184

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"Building the fuselage was fairly straightforward," he said, "although in some areas you have to build a three-dimensional jig and suspend things like the main spar attach points in space. I used a lot of plywood building jigs, and when finished, bolted an 8-foot piece of 2-inch angle iron to the firewall station running spanwise. Measurements from the end of the angle iron to the tail post became my guides. I checked those dimensions every time. I did my best to keep the tail post perfectly centered." As Mike proceeded with the fuselage and started fitting the myriads of tabs, bushings, and fittings, he began making his personal mark on the airplane, working from the front to the back. He said, "You really can't change much on the front of a J-3 without screwing up those classic looks, so I changed almost nothing about the design of the cowl and used Univair Cub nose bowl pieces. I also used their boot cowl, although I did some whittling on it to make it fit a little tighter and flow better into the cowling sheet metal. "When I got into the cockpit, I really started chang- ing stuff. But you'd have to know Cubs to know what I changed because some of the changes are fairly subtle. They all, however, address some of the minor things about Cubs that are universally disliked, the brakes be- ing the first thing." For those who have never suffered them, the brake pedals on a Cub are difficult-to-use heel brakes with the rear pedals sticking horizontally out from under the front seat and integral to big metal master cylinders. Al- though you need brakes very seldom on a Cub, it would be nice if they were more accessible, less expensive to maintain, and more effective without being too effec- tive. It's easy to put too much brake on a Cub, which leads to Cubs on their backs on the runway. Mike solved all of those problems. "I designed and built a brake system that is as much Acro Sport/Pitts as anything else. The pedals are tubing structures with toe brakes that activate Grove cylinders that pivot with the pedals. It's a very common and user- friendly way of doing things. Easier to maintain than the originals too. "I was determined to hang on to as much of the Cub look as possible, so I used the fat, old 8.00-by-4 tires and wheels but stayed away from Cleveland disc brakes. Those stick out like a sore thumb. Instead, I replaced the old expander tube brakes with the Grove conversion Photography by Jim Raeder Nothing fancy here, but practical and neat. Simple, neat, clean ... the qualities that AirVenture judges appreciated. that looks so close to original that you really have to look to know the change was made. "Then, when I was building the window frames, I got rid of the sliding left window entirely and replaced it with a swing-up version that's almost identical to the top half of the door on the other side. The sliding windows are next-to-impossible to keep from rubbing against the fram- ing, so they always have scrub marks in the Plexiglas. And they're hard to operate. The swing-out arrangement is cleaner all the way around, and it clips open to the bottom of the wing using a really nice latch I found at a camper store. When you have both the window and the door opened, it's like fl ying an open-cockpit airplane! "I built a new front seat that's square, sort of like a Super Cub, so it's a lot more comfortable. However, get- ting in the front seat of a Cub requires a peculiar little EAA EXPERIMENTER 17

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