Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Thanks for the insurance info, guys. N12055 went out to the airport on Saturday to be assembled and checked out. It will take about a month and I hope to be flying in October.

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

I have been working on N12055 at the airport on Saturdays and some weekday nights. I've been buying some needed parts from Cubes as I find I need something. This past week I've been taking apart the rudder pedals and controls to strip, prime, repaint, and re-lubricate them. I've put in all new nuts and bolts hardware while I was at it. Once again, it's the prep work that really eats the clock. >:(

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

She is in good hands John.
Cubes

I don't know if this is a service letter in regards to the rudder controls. I don't see them on John's
Did some builders put gussets at the 90* junction where the controls attach to the floor, It was triangle about 2 1/2" long which wrapped around the 3/4" tube and welded in place

I live in a high wind area and may have worked mine harder than others. (Cubes and Fraser can attest to that from one blustery formation practice weekend!!) I had an upper 90 degree weld break while landing on a dicey, high crosswind day. After that scare I put wrap-around gussets on ALL of the 90 degree welds.

This December will be 25 years since I made it's first flight. I don't expect any rudder bar problems for the next 25 years. -- Tony

I live in a high wind area and may have worked mine harder than others. (Cubes and Fraser can attest to that from one blustery formation practice weekend!!) I had an upper 90 degree weld break while landing on a dicey, high crosswind day. After that scare I put wrap-around gussets on ALL of the 90 degree welds.

This December will be 25 years since I made it's first flight. I don't expect any rudder bar problems for the next 25 years. -- Tony

Hi Bill and Tony, thanks for the posts. Does anyone have a newsletter #, drawings, or pictures of this mod?

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

If it helps, EAA Sport Aviation had a good article about welding gussets in the October 2016 issue (the one with the radial engine RV on the cover).

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Tony, what did you do to keep control of your plane when that upper weld broke?

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

Bernie - I'll be doing exactly what you suggested here tomorrow morning at 8:00. Thanks!

I also pulled out all the control cables and am shipping them off to McFarlane to have new ones made. The carb heat cable was too short and never quite closed off the heat flap, the throttle was a vernier type that you had to push the button to increase the throttle, and the mixture was too short.

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

I spent five hours today replacing the O-290's pushrod seals. Since this is an O-290, it doesn't have the clips inside the valve cover that allows you to easily remove the pushrod tubes. As I learned a couple months ago, on the O-290 you have to loosen and pull each cylinder about a half inch or more away from the block to get the pushrod tubes out and change the seals. Bernie Fried suggests (and I'm glad he did) that if I'm going to go to the trouble of pulling the cylinders a little bit, that I might as well pull them away just far enough to remove the piston wrist pin and then change the O-ring at the bottom of each cylinder. It was actually fun to have some excellent help today (thanks RV-driver Steve!) and see how to do it. The best reward was finding out the N12055's engine is very clean inside. No corrosion, pitting, spalling, etc. on anything - cam shaft, wrist pins, cylinder walls, etc. Very lucky to see this engine in such good condition after sitting without running for 13 years. Sometimes you do get lucky . After the engine was back together I went home and grabbed the wings and threw them into a U-haul and took them out to the airport. This was a very productive day.

The pictures below are in no particular order.

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

The wings are on as of last Monday, 10/2. No work this past weekend as my son and his family are in from Alaska. We all went out tonight and my 5-year old grandson was helping me put the control sticks back in the plane after I painted them. All new hardware, a paint job, and Lubriplate really makes a difference in appearance and smoothness .

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

Bruce - thanks for the info on Sky Smith. I just got off the phone with Scott over there and he is sending me a quote.
John

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

Guys - I need to get a new life insurance policy with accidental death by aviation included. It appeared that my current Prudential policy didn't cover aviation after renewal - but (whew) it did. However, it is still expensive as hell. Anybody have a good provider who doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)

N12055 is starting to look like an airplane...

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)