Cheers,
Before I begin this chronicle, I beg you - do not open unless
you have a modicum of forbearance and compassion. Do not open within 2 hours
of eating. This article is based on my Mono, but detachable wings make it
a Europa item for all who crave enjoyment
.
NOTE: Due to size restrictions, addenda, sketches and photos follow in
"You'll cry 2". I used "ADJUNCT" to describe various items.
After 15 years of building and boasting, I got the fuselage out
of the spare bedroom, and up to the airport to match with the wings. Life
improved at home markedly, but the wings were not obedient - perhaps because
they had waited through two winters while the fuselage lay in relative
comfort.
Attaching the wings, there was a marked "thunk" when the port
pip-pin began its entry. I noticed that it was in only one inch or so, and
surmised that the port spar was the reticent item. While I was cursing and
sweating at this event, a buddy came across the hangar and slid the
starboard pin in, slick as a whistle.
I mused as to how to react ,and after some consultation with the
burgeoning Advisory Board (casually forming at the hangar), calculated that
a 'tapered spindle', suitably divided into sections would easily (a) urge
the bushings on the port side to align as it entered, (b) if properly
sectioned, would fall in sections into the belly (for recovery), when
pressed forward into the dark, (c) as the pip-pin was installed in trail.
The bushings would then become accustomed to their fates and obey in future.
I designed the item in question - see Adjunct A [see PINTLE2,
attached} - and asked Heinz at the warplane to fashion it. The idea was that
the sections would follow one another because of a centring pin guaranteeing
concentricity.
Now to the design: I tried to measure the free distance from
the back of the starboard spar bushing to the fuel tank forward face, as to
be the free space into which the sections would fall after passing through.
The opportunity to do this was badly restricted by (1) my loss of many
sketches I made and stored on the computor. This latter dimmed in utility
and I "upgraded" (I think they call it). Despite a thousand oaths of purity,
the family computer agent lost many sketches, including measurements now
hidden in the completed fuselage. Let the court examine the drawings in
chapters called "Fuel Tank" (my #16) and are titled Fig.2 "Strap baggage
bay to maintain desired position" and Fig. 3, "Sectional view through
centreline of tank"., or see below as Adjuncts (B) and (C). [ADJUNCT(B) is
SpindleMaster, attached] [ADJUNCT (C) is PORTwingBOLT3, attached]
Back to the design. This was completed after a long
day, at about 11:45 pm. I callipered the space across the tank bottom and
scaled the drawing to calculate the space behind the spar bushings to the
tank forward face to establish the length of the front section of the
spindle for its fall on reaching freedom - see item (b), para 4 above. As
Adjunct (A) shows it came to 4.75 inches with 5/8 inches of space remaining.
Plenty.....
The device was produced by my buddy Heinz at the Warplane
Heritage Museum across the bay. Heinz reversed the connecting pin between
sections (for centring purposes) It's shown as dotted red in ADJUNCT (C).
Back to para 3 and the "thunk". In that split second, I realised what had
happened. In my torpor, I had transcribed 2-3/4 inches to 4-3/4 inches in
the plan. The spindle had thumped the fuel tank and was now jammed part-way
into the spars and stuck - - and so was I.
The present state, as displayed in Adjunct (C) was drawn full-size. At right
the Port pip-pin shows the thickness of spars and seat bulkhead to be
correct..... the relative thickness of bulkhead and spars might be
incorrect, but the total was right. Now, the effect of the reversed Heinz
inter-section pin became clear. Instead of a depression into which I might
drill and tap a thread to hold a retracting threaded rod, I'm looking at the
pin. I used the front sections of the spindle to guide a smaller drill bit
into the pin. However, it was perhaps 0.5 mm off centre and some of the pin
remained erect. As I continued, I felt the bit snag the face of the spindle
and it rotated. With the other end snug against the tank, I panicked that
perhaps I was drilling a hole in the tank. I blanched even further.
I am now being educated as to what lies in that sacred cavern - aileron roll
mechanisms, two spars, the pitch control tube and several sets of nuts and
bolts with which to contend. None of these devices seem to be shown in
relative/measured position - and I can't see to look in.
If you're still with me, see Adjunct (D), [PINTLEsite.jpg, attached] a print
of the spindle in situ, courtesy of Al's boroscope. Yup, there are the twin
scars of an attempt to handsaw the 3/8 inch (+/-) stainless steel spindle,
oh, and a single rut produced when it was the other way around.
So there you have it. That is the present state of affairs. An expert here
banned the use of a moderate-sized reciprocating saw - as bestial - prepared
blade is Adjunct (E). ADJUNCT (F) is P5090153.JPG, attached, and is an
extended hacksaw blade arm with about 2 inches of teeth exposed - used by
hand to dig two of those ruts in the pintle in the boroscope view. I am
contemplating welding a long arm with 2 inches of hacksaw blade at the
business end and a jig saw attached outside the belly panel hole. One must
remember that the pip-pin is about 2 inches from the outer skin, so a
reciprocator must not have a larger range of travel. That's why the expert
banned the "Sawzall" as they call it and I reverted to the other choice (F).
If you have come this far, you must have an opinion - not of me, that's
assumed - but of the solution. If so, let me have it. Otherwise, you may
want to haunt this site hoping to hear of another choice later. In the
meantime, please tell me the width of the spars and the depth of the seat
back, and any photo of the spar entry holes (port side) so I can visualise
the contents of same.
As the Old Guy said, "I have to close now as I hear Sister coming upstairs
with that @#$%^& syringe".
Cheers, Ferg
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