Piper Cub Build

[Tim Wescott]

In 1:1 scale

[Mike Scholtes]

Wow! Great film! I watched the whole thing.

I did a complete ground-up restoration and recover of a 1943 Taylorcraft L-2M, almost identical and designed by the same person as the Cub. This really takes me back and reminds me why it took six years to do the job single handed. My T-Craft had Cub wheels and brakes, those gawd-awful expanding-shoe things (shown in the film) that barely would hold the plane in place for engine runup.

The "model airplane" connection that makes this thread legit is that my years of model plane building came in handy doing the woodwork and covering the 37-foot wing, just like doping a model wing, but bigger. And with rib stitching.

[Bootlegger]

    Tim, sure do 'ppreciate you having posted that film..

[Tim Wescott]

those gawd-awful expanding-shoe things (shown in the film) that barely would hold the plane in place for engine runup.

I was looking at that itty bitty brake and that great big tire, and wondering if that wouldn't be the case.

[Mike Scholtes]

The motive power for the pads is an allegedly expanding rubber bladder in the shape of a ring, with six pads held in place around it by spring steel clips. The bladder is supposed to enlarge and press the shoes against the inside of the brake drum when the pilot presses on the brake pedal. It may have worked better when the rubber was newer and more elastic, but not by 1977. I had to be careful not to depend on them for anything. Mag checks were always interesting. But I welcomed the fat tires when landing on dirt roads or on the beach along the NorCal coast.