Thorp Air Command - T18.net

What would you say was the most difficult part of the build? The empennage, the fuselage, the wings, landing gear, etc??

The tail feathers.....There is nothing flat or square. Try building the fin, even with John Shinns fixture its difficult
Riveting the horizontal is a challenge and requires a special bucking bar between two saw horses.

Yes the tail feathers are difficult. The biggest challenge I found was bending the rudder skin in one piece with the multiple bends . Believe it or not I used 1x3's and 2x4's to make the bends. I found it difficult to try and rivet the entire rudder together using solid AN rivets and went to Cherry Max when it became difficult for a one man operation. I used flush Cherry Max on the trailing edge of the rudder and have almost no distortion on the trailing edge. Shaved off the pulled end . BOOM !

RB

I would say the wings because I do not have a good jig for them. That having been said, I think I will rebuild my vertical. Fuse is easy.
Cubes

Getting started and finishing.
d

I had a real tough time with the flaps. Attaining the sharp irregular bend radius in the skin was very difficult. To this day I'm not very happy with them.

The flaps were the biggest problem for me, but probably wouldn't be if I was doing it again. I built the wings last, and have always thought about doing it again some day... got in a hurry and riveted them completely by myself, which was stupid. I never have been happy with them, but they are straight and the airplane flies well, so I probably never will.

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John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

I have to agree with many, the tail feathers was the most difficult section of the aircraft to build for my dad.
He re-skinned the rudder twice as he was not happy with the 1st result.

He found the wings and the ribs to be fun to make as he made solid alunimun dies and pressed the rib material over the dies.
He needed to make a 20 ton press to press the rib material. Another challenge.
He also saw that the wings were going to be difficult so he made a rotating wing jig to aid in building, and enlisted Mom as a helper.
A two person job for sure.


The fuselage was the 1st thing that dad tackled and alignment was ensured as he ground down a 12 ft I beam for the base of the fuselage to sit on.


I have more construction pictures in my gallery in album (building C-GIRQ).
Cheers.

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Victor J Thompson
C-GIRQ
In memory of Dad

Great photos, Victor. Thanks for sharing.

Where would one find a template of John Shinns fixture?

Ryan, it's in one of the newsletters, probably in the 1960's? I tried using it but was not satisfied. I mounted the fin spars with ribs on the plane, laid out the skin and drilled #40's aligned the skin on the plane using rulers and the eyeball.

Thanks Bill. Found it in the NL 1-12 compilation.

Painting has been my nemesis; I hate all the chemicals, etching, respirators, etc. For the same reason I like the all aluminum construction, I wouldn't do a 'glass project. I like metal working. Honestly, the flaps weren't too bad. Probably because they're an easy size to handle. Wings weren't terrible either, but were probably the most difficult for me. It's just for handling their size (likewise, I also did most by myself).

Nevertheless, I'll be done with painting soon, just before colder weather sets in. Expect to have another Thorp in the group guys, maybe come springtime!

Les Krumel
Albuquerque

I bent the leading edge of the fin using a 2 x 4 and then drilled the center punched hole locations (Ken Knowles maybe Phil Tucker ?) then put the ribs in place and matched drilled the center punched rib hole locations. BOOM !

RB

Workin on the airplane in the garage and smellin the wife's Mexican food cooking in the kitchen was the hardest part of the airplane build for me, I,always wanted to stop working to go eat....Dan