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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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 Posted Wednesday, November 6, 2013 @ 06:26 PM
Meanwhile Pat will be re-wiring and re-plumbing the instrument panel, which is currently a rat's nest of ancient and mostly automotive wiring.
In the foreground on the left is the last known spool of minylin in known existence. It even came with paperwork! Manufacture date of 1986 of course ;-)
Again, that took a lot of chasing down.
Planned completion date is 1st November, with paperwork and test flying completed in time for my birthday towards the end of the month.
But we all know that aircraft engineers work in a different time continuum, so I'm not holding my breath.
Yours, Bob
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 @ 11:08 AM
...at last the spruce arrived. And beautiful it is, with very close, absolutely straight grain.
Many thanks to Matt Pettit of Bygone Aviation, who gets my wholehearted endorsement for superb customer service.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 @ 11:19 AM
...and here's a jury-rig of the aux tank fuel system IAW Fournier drawing No... Bugger, it's printed out too dark, I can't read the drawing number, anyway, in accordance with Rene's design, except that I shall be using a flexible bladder tank supplied by Fluid Containment in the baggage compartment, rather than the originally specified killer metal tank.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Collin
General
Gender: Male
Location: McMinnville. Oregon
Registered: Oct 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 711
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Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 @ 12:52 PM
Hi Bob,
Cool you are adding a aux fuel tank. I wish I had one flew my RF4 from New York to Oregon. Also cool you are based at the same airport as Top Gear.
Here a link to the aux tank drawing 4-51-30 (1600x1072).
http://cfiamerica.com/images/4-51-30%20Auxiliary%20Fuel%20Tank%20General%20Arrangement-1600.JPG
Collin
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 @ 01:18 PM
Hi Collin, Thank you very much, that is indeed the relevant drawing, it's just so dark down in the corner there that I couldn't read the drawing number.
And would you believe, I let my concentration lapse for just one hour and they're at it again while my back's turned!
I popped down to buy some replacement hangar parts, and when I came back my main wheel assembly was in many pieces!
Please, please guys, you've got to stop taking the poor thing apart and start putting it together again!
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 @ 01:32 PM
This Sitka spruce is lovely.
No wonder it is so hard to obtain and so expensive.
In this mere six-inch plank there are 100 annular rings, so the original tree was probably a couple of hundred years old!
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 @ 01:39 PM
Here's the tail (inverted, of course) ready for the new tailwheel block that Tony is now laminating.
For Jorgen, there was no sign at all of any damp in the tail area. The 'stern post' is not a block, but a box, with ply faces front and rear. As you can see, the drain holes have gone, along with the ply skin they removed, but I would guess that the drain holes need to be 15mm to 20mm ahead of the rear face.
I will try to check with the drawings today.
Yours, Bob
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Friday, November 8, 2013 @ 05:26 AM]
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Saturday, November 9, 2013 @ 06:08 AM
Pat has now cut the laminations, ready for shaping the tailwheel block:
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Monday, November 11, 2013 @ 07:50 PM
As you can just about see from the photo above, the tailwheel attach holes were not drilled square through the block, so rather than try to re-drill them off-centre in the new block, Tony and Bobby have done a lovely job of plugging the holes, and Bobby is making a jig to get them perfectly square.
Here is the lovely new floor being glued together.
It seems that all the lower part of the forward fuselage was out of true since the big repair of 1971/2, so starting afresh with a completely square and true floor, fuselage underside and Frame 3 should restore WGN's handling and performance to the level of HDO and all the others.
With some luck and the peerless skill, craftsmanship and ingenuity of Tony, Bobby and Pat, 'WGN should leave the workshop a little late, but a lot better.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Jorgen
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Lund, Sweden
Registered: Apr 2007
Status: Offline
Posts: 834
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Posted Tuesday, November 12, 2013 @ 12:20 PM
| Quote: |  | | 'WGN should leave the workshop a little late, but a lot better. |
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Maybe even without the trimtab;-))?
May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Tuesday, November 12, 2013 @ 07:21 PM
Sorry Jorgen, we don't have time to re-jig the wing, only re-aligning the fuselage.
Here is the new floor, carefully made a little oversize, temporarily in place for an alignment check.
It is absolutely straight and true, so now Tony is ensuring the remainder of the fuselage is also true.
When I left the workshop, exhausted after 1:15 of aerobatics and re-familiarisation in a Chipmunk earlier in the day, Bobby was repairing the lathe so that he can finish making the tailwheel block's last lamination.
It is interesting to find that nothing in this fuselage is straight or true. The large tailwheel hole is a couple of milimetres off-centre, and the spine down the middle of the tail underside is even curved!
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Monday, November 25, 2013 @ 12:24 PM
Here is the tailwheel block, 'roughly' shaped by Bobby & glued in place.
More detailed sanding and shaping to come.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Monday, November 25, 2013 @ 12:28 PM
And here's the new floor, painted & assembled, with the old one for comparison.
There's lots more work yet before it can be glued in place.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Friday, December 13, 2013 @ 08:12 AM
At last the new floor is glued into place, so things should gallop ahead now.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Jorgen
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Lund, Sweden
Registered: Apr 2007
Status: Offline
Posts: 834
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Posted Saturday, December 14, 2013 @ 05:33 PM
Seems like it's busy in Santas workshop!
What is that to the left, Bob- A Hurricane replica? And are you skipping your DownUnder D-vitamin boost altogether this year?
May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
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Posted Saturday, December 14, 2013 @ 06:07 PM
Hi Jorgen,
It is very frustrating that this is taking so long, particularly because I am not by nature a patient man.
The Hurricane is a 5/8 scale Sindlinger Hurricane (Google it for more info) owned by Tony Hoskins, whose workshop it is.
He stopped work on this Hurricane in September, for a 'quick re-cover & re-spray' of my Fournier, and hasn't done any work on it since then.
His habit seems to be to start a project, take apart that aeroplane, and then move on to something else.
He did the same with that RF3, which like my RF4D had to be rescued by its owner to complete the job.
Work progresses intermittently on Wagon, with Pat Willis and Bobby Warren both involved.
Wagon and I have to wait for lulls in the workload.
There is also the hangar to re-erect, of course, and since that is no longer on site, all work on it has stopped. This is the current situation there, at historic Dunsfold:
I help where I can at both sites, but I just wish Tony could re-cover and paint the fuselage. Then I could get on with re-fitting the engine, altering my new Eugenio cowlings to fit and shaping baffles etc, which will take me several weeks.
Meanwhile I am working on a removable auxiliary tank, to go in the baggage compartment, plus all the paperwork associated with the various small modifications I and previous owners have made.
I have almost forgotten about my home in Australia. I do hope that I can get back there some time, but it won't be for a few weeks yet.
Meanwhile I wish all fellow Fournier enthusiasts a very Happy Christmas, Hannukah, or other winter holiday.
Yours, Bob
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Saturday, February 15, 2020 @ 05:05 AM]
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Bob Grimstead
Captain
Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2029
|
Posted Saturday, June 28, 2014 @ 07:52 AM
Just in case anybody is still unaware, I could not possibly recommend Tony Hoskins of South East Aircraft Services in any way, for anything.
Yours, Bob
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV
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Donald
Command Sergeant Major
Gender: Male
Location: Scotland
Registered: Jan 2007
Status: Offline
Posts: 489
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Posted Sunday, June 29, 2014 @ 03:49 AM
Bob,
From those few terse words do we take it that AWGN is not only not back in the air but is possibly no further forward than you showed us before Christmas? If so that's truly shocking.
I confess when you first showed pictures of AWGN dismantled in the workshop the place struck me as chaotic, although the workmanship you subsequently showed us looked good. However I'm getting from your words that perhaps the whole SEAS operation, not just the workshop, is chaotic. That's bad enough but I hope it's not more sinister and that vital parts have not gone 'astray'.
I can offer nothing other than sympathy but I hope you find a way through the morass, and soon.
Donald
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