Thorp Air Command - T18.net

As tomorrow’s weather will allow for a paint day....today was mask up the engine and cockpit areas. I was using a laser level to set some initial lines. In the morning I’ll pull masking tape to the laser line and figure where the radius points are.
The balance of the scheme will be revealed when the clear has been applied. Most likely the weekend of the 12,13 of March.
The clock is ticking and sun n fun is getting closer!

There's been a couple paint sessions since the last post. The entire airplane is now painted. Now the reassembly begins. Today I put the wingtips back on the outer wing panels. I may get the vertical stab back on the fuselage by this weekend. The condition inspection is due in June , so it'll be done as it's put back together. The plan is to be at Sun N Fun for the entire week.



This photo was our last paint session. Hanging in the booth are the flaps, vertical fin, and rudder. I'm thinking that in this photo we had just sprayed the clear and are waiting for it to kick off.

you have a very nice painting setup! looks line tons of space.

Big reveal day! For the first time since October- 218TH got some outside time. The paint is complete. Cowling back on and just a couple fairings before she’s going airborne.

A while back I had given my oldest daughter ( a graphic designer by profession) a 3 lines drawing with the instructions to come up with a nice paint scheme. With few revisions, this is what she came up with. It was my idea to have the metallic grey surround the windshield and canopy. I wanted a visual seemless canopy area. As with many Thorp schemes, it’s better to have lines that try to make the airplane appear less boxy. The classic stripe down the fuselage accomplishes this on many of the airplanes out there. I went a different route. The strip on the inboard part of the main wing butts against the fuselage and attempts to visually hide the hard 90 between the wing and fuselage.
The plan is have it a sun n fun next week. See you there.

Well done! That’s a ton of work,
Cubes

wow, that is awesome. Nice job!

WOW! Terry....She is B E A UTIFUL! Is that the new TAC decals you just made?

Mike
N2WB

The weather moved out so that I could get TH airborne. Had to get some time on it before taking off for sun n fun. Just happened that we were able to put together an photo mission.

In good company at sun n fun 2021

Update. Had a great flying day to finish out October. Flew off the wing of friends Grumman and got some great shots.

Now that the weather has cooled off here on the Gulf Coast, We've had a great work day to get the autopilot on line. That was the last item on the punch list during phase 1. Our troubleshooting and ringing out the circuits finally paid off when we found that one shell on a 25 pin D connector was grounding the input/output signal for the servos. There was a butt splice connector with shrink tube that when you tightened down the D connector shell, would Pierce the shrink tube and ground on the Connector shell. Now that the cause has been found, both servos are able to come on line. I had removed the pitch servo before the trip to Oshkosh. I'll do some fuselage diving this week and reinstall the servo. Then flight test begins as I get to set the gain and torque settings.
I'll agree with the other experts in that electrical issues are the worst - However, it is satisfying to find and be able to solve a puzzle.

The rain stopped, clouds cleared and was able to get another .5 on TH…now sitting at 70.5 total time.
There’s a video of the takeoff on the Thorp Facebook page.

that grass runway looked really smooth.

This past weekend was another successful trip in TH. 7 hours and two stops to just north of the Wisconsin Dells. 811nm one way. The airplane performed well and the weather cooperated. My co pilot had issues with the draft coming from the canopy- not so much on the way back when the temps were warmer and any extra flow was appreciated. Went up at 6500 feet and back at 7500 when the clouds allowed. I'm seeing consistently 163 knots true at those altitudes running 78 percent power. I may have some baffle issues to track. I stop leaning when #2 gets to just under or at 400 degrees. Fuel flow is greater on average - but I would rather not run a cylinder too warm.
One of the best parts of the trip was arriving at 63C and seeing 25+ airplanes participating at an EAA event. Better yet, when I was asked how long I was staying- got an offer to put TH in a hangar for the weekend. GA Rocks!
Leaving yesterday the big challenge was the lower visibility and ceilings until middle Illinois. We were able to climb to 5500 and then 7500 on the second and third legs of the trip. Those altitudes provided the best in cabin temperatures.