For Sale

I have listed this project for sale on eBay including all parts, wood, engine, propeller, gas tank, safety harness, etc.

Canard Leading Edge #8

I must admit that plywood covering airfoils is a frustrating and demotivating task but I will press on through the process.  I lined up the plywood skin on the right side of the canard once more and marked the position of the spars, stringer, and ribs so I could see where not to apply varnish.  Then I put on the first coat of varnish.  My plan is to try to pre bend the skin using ammonia as has been done on other aircraft (www.robinultralight.blogspot.com).

Number of hours: 1.2
Total hours: 273.5

One more point of note, Sylvia Littner now has her own website advertising the Piel plans.  www.slittneraircraftplans.com

I think that she should stop marketing the plans for the Onyx because they appear to be incomplete and an amalgamation of at least three different revisions of the design.  I do not believe that the performance numbers on her site are correct and I do not know if a proper structural analysis has been done on the design that she sells.  It doesn't appear that anyone has ever completed an aircraft from her father's plans and she is unable to provide support for the design.  If you order the "Operations Manual" from her, you will receive the operations manual for the fiberglass version.  I intend to do, at least, a basic analysis before I complete this project to make sure that it is safe to fly.  The plans should not bear the name C.P.-150 Onyx or the name Claude Piel because they are vastly different from his design.  I am considering the purchase of the French plans at some point to see if they are any better but I suspect that they are the original short wing design.

Canard Leading Edge #7

I spent some time the other night test fitting the outboard leading edge panel to the right side of the canard so I could mark the locations of the ribs and spar on the wood.  I tried several different methods for strapping the plywood to the D-cell structure and I was surprised to find out that I got lucky when I attached the first panel because the panel needs to be attached to the top and then worked to the bottom.  Working from bottom to top is pretty much impossible.

Number of hours: 1.5
Total hours: 272.3

Wing Ribs #4

I was able to find some time to program the rudder ribs at the end of last week and then I machined the rest of the wing ribs along with the rudder ribs.  It is official, there are no more foam ribs to machine!  This morning I did think of a place on the fuselage that I could add a few pieces of foam, but that is a small task in comparison to the wings.

Today is the first day of Airventure; you should be there not reading this blog!  Unfortunately, I can't go this year but I hope to be back next year.

Number of hours: 1.8
Total hours: 270.8

Wing Ribs #3

I machined the first 33 ribs for the right wing after work yesterday.  I plan to machine the rest today but I need to get the rudder ribs programmed first.  We'll see what happens.

Number of hours: 2.0
Total hours: 269.0

Wing Ribs #2

I finished up the remaining five programs yesterday for the wing ribs.  This afternoon I machined two more sheets of foam in order to make the remaining parts for the left wing.  Labeling takes a lot longer than I expected.  Now I have 48 done and 48 to go!

Number of hours: 2.5
Total hours: 267.0

Wing Ribs #1

I'm sure that I recorded some time for working on the wing ribs previously but I didn't have my post naming convention finalized at the time so this post becomes #1 in the chain.  It is the end of finals week for the summer semester so I figured that I should start building airplane parts again.  I reviewed and reviewed the anti-tab issues over that past few weeks and decided that I am going to rebuild the whole thing.  There were just too many issues for me to fix in ways that would make me feel good about the project.  The "updated" canard sheet showed inconsistent dimensions so I had changed the canard spar from 1120mm to 1108mm which was mistake #1.  Mistake #2 was planning the mounting holes for the hinges but not the control fittings before I started making parts.  My plan is to move the outboard hinges inboard which will require extending a couple of spacers on the spars - easy to do when planned in advance.  I have to place an order with Aircraft Spruce for the wood to cover my mistakes so will move on to some other areas for now.  I machined a template yesterday to check the dimensions for my wing ribs and it came out perfectly so I decided to start getting the wing ribs made.  I spent some time today naming, laying out, programming, and machining the ribs.  There are 48 foam pieces in each wing and they are all unique.  I was able to get 15 of the 96 machined today.  There are 5 ribs that will require a secondary operation to make an undercut of 7.32 degrees.  I need to label each rib as they are machined so I put the orientation of the parts in the sheet along with the names on a drawing (picture shown below).  As before, the ribs are made from 32" X 48" X 1" Divinycell foam.

Number of hours: 3.5
Total hours: 264.5