Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Hi Ryan - my gear leg fairings are riveted, so I'll have to drill the rivets out. Do you use nutplates with your screws on these fairings, or have you found a better alternative?

Fraser - I'm with you too on inspecting the engine compartment more than the rest of the plane, and I wouldn't want difficulty removing the cowl to limit the frequency of inspecting the engine compartment or dread every oil change.

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

yep, nut plates and screws for me.

I riveted piano hinge to the aft edge of the fairing. The hinge part on the inside of the fairing so it isn't seen.

I tried the piano hinge thing, but I found that the with the wheel pants on one end, and the fuselage on the other end of the fairing, I could not get the rod into the piano hinge. Please elaborate on your setup. I would copy it as I don't care for the screw/platenut option.

Ryan, The rod is tight as it goes in the bottom and gets worked upwards. I've got another photo- and if you need I can remove and measure my rivet interval. If I was going to do it again, I'd choose a smaller diameter rod and piano hinge setup that would allow more flexibility in getting the rod worked in.

I've done the same as Terry but my fairings have enough movement that I can insert the hinge pin from the top. I usually put a wide piece of painters tape on the side of the fuselage to prevent scratches from the pin rubbing against the side.

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Bruce Finney
N18JF T-18C #262
Yelm, WA USA

great info. I may give that another shot. Thanks for the photos.

I used the internal hinge the same as Terry and Bruce.
The fairing can be twisted out enough to feed the pin in from the top.
The intersection fairing fits around the leg fairing and holds everything in place.
I haven't decided if I'll repair the Ratray pants or go with modern pressure recovery wheel pants, so I haven't made any lower intersect fairings.

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Scott Emery
EAA Chapter 326
T-18 N18TE

Guys,

i have the piano hinge as well. I swapped the pins for stainless steel TIG welding rod which is smaller in diameter and therefore easier to install and remove.

Regards,

Jim

Well, I can't wait to get my strut fairing rivets drilled out and put the piano hinges on! Thanks, guys.

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

Hi All,

I've been revising the instrument panel with all new circuit breakers. Interesting how that came about - I was charging my new Odyssey battery with an Odyssey charger. After removing it, I went to test the strobe and nav lights and nothing worked at all. Dead battery? No. After 20 minutes searching, a friend and I discovered that the main circuit breaker had tripped - but the button hadn't popped out. These are probably 42 year-old circuit breakers. It probably took 5 pounds or more of force to manually pull the button out on several of them. So I changed them all.

Here's some of the work done last month to restore N12055:
* Finished replacing all the wiring in the engine compartment - some of wires' outer clear layer would crack from heat and age when bent
* Replaced all the wiring behind the instrument panel
* Replaced all the circuit breakers
* Replaced all SCAT/SCEET ducts
* Replaced the tachometer cable - the housing was cracked at both ends
* Installed RAM mount for iPad
* Mounted the vertical card compass in the panel
* Re-arranged instruments to make room for a portable Yaesu FTA-750L Com/Nav/GPS radio and mount

To do's coming up this month:
* Install the mount for the Yaesu FTA-750L radio
* Install the mount for my iPhone
* Make and install a center console with fuel selector handle and extension and intercom mount
* Install two new switches for Com (Yaesu and iPhone) and Nav (Statux and iPad)
* Replace the flap wiring from panel to the baggage compartment
* Replace the trim wiring from panel through the tail
* Install the new trim position sensor from Ray Allen and wire it
* Replace all the grommets in the aircraft, nose to tail (the grommets are old)
* Install the new pitot/static lines and nifty little push-in connectors for the instruments from SteinAir
* Install new throttle, mixture, and carb heat cables

I've added a RAM iPad Mini 4 mount so that I can take off with it swung over to the far right of the panel, and then swing it over to the left in flight. I use a little Stratux that I picked up at Oshkosh 2017 for $150 fully assembled. It works great in my car ...

N12055 is getting her next inspection session on Saturday. There will be more inspections later since the tail cone is open at the moment and the empennage needs removed (one more time) and more work done to install trim position indicator.

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

A lot of good work going on there ! CB's DO fail internally , just ask Chuck Kincer . He had a transponder problem at OSH and couldn't figure out why the transponder was not getting 12 volts ? I believe it was only getting about 6 volts at the transponder when checked with a meter . Come to find out the CB that feeds the transponder had failed internally and was causing the problem . The CB in that case did not "pop" either . That taught me to run a voltage check on power going to the CB and power coming out of the CB . BING , BANG , BOOM !!

RB

I have been slowly swapping these out as I change the load requirements...


I was helping someone troubleshoot a retract problem on a 177 a while back. The system had 12 volts at the pump solenoid until the gear handle was moved then the voltage would drop to less than one. Without a load the landing gear circuit breaker seemed to work just fine but as soon as a load was applied it wouldn’t let any juice through. Remove the load and it went back to reading 12 volts. Replacing the C/B restored good power to the system but his pump still had issues.

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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

Antique artifact!

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

N12055's "new" panel is coming along. I wanted to share some info about the Yaesu radio that I built a mount for.

Original - I gave the original refrigerator-sized radio to a friend to use as a base station.

New- I bought a new Yaesu FTA-750L and got a great deal on it at Oshkosh from Sarasota Avionics. $275. I chose it because my buddies have small Vertex radios (Vertex is basically Yaesu by another name). These radios perform very well - clear and long range. The 750L in particular has COM, but also VOR Nav and glideslope as well as a compass and GPS. I like the large screen on it. You can program a lot of frequencies and GPS fixes in it by hand or on a computer with a cable. The rechargeable battery lasts for days of flying if you use batteries, but you can also power it from the ship like I'm doing.

On the left is an adjustable mount for my iPhone (not shown).

On the right is my iPad Mini 4 running FlyQ. The iPad mount is a RAM articulating mount. The iPad is shown in a good position for flying that will be comfortable for me when I'm flying solo. When not in use or I have a passenger, it can be moved to the right against the panel. FlyQ will run on both the iPhone and the iPad.

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