Gieske Nobler resurrection

[james dean]

This is a G. Nobler that hit the deck a little too early in it's life.  I was at a contest at Sepulvida Basin in August of '07 when a very powerful dust devil came dancing around the circle. It was during an official flight and I was just going inverted in the reverse wingover when the little tornado came on in.  Just 6 flights into life.

It must have been toe curling to watch as it took control. After the third save and recovering inverted I just ran out of altitude and pancaked it in.  The rudder was gone leaving only the shredded covering behind.  The prop and spinner were toast and the crutch/tank in a shambles.

With the fuse' in three pieces I just called it a total loss.  Well, after I regained my senses at home the post mortem proceded revealing the worst. Only the wing and stab were in any kind of reparable shape.  As it turned out, even the stab was cracked and twisted out of shape.

A close up of the wing was encouraging though as it had only some minor road rash on the outboard wing tip.  It was amazing!  I like that Polyspan it's covered with more all the time.  Not a crack anywhere on the wing or in the finish.  (Brodak all)

So, finely its time to put things right with a new fuse and feathers.  I will be doing the covering on the fuse with Silkspan and the stab/open bays with Polyspan. 

The plane as you see it weighs a porky 46 oz.  UUUGGHH!   So I'm hoping to bring in the finish at something in the neighborhood of 50/52 oz.  Bad I know. You see, at the time it was finished I had no idea how HEAVY the primer was.  I didn't sand enough of it off so..........

Needless to say it will be getting fitted out with a LA .46 to pull it around.  Your helpfull suggestions are welcome on a lighter finish.

[Scott B. Riese]

As you know my new Nobler came in at 53 oz. LA-40 No stall I like it!

Great job Jim 

[james dean]

Since this G. Nobler turned out a bit heavy in it's beginnings I thought I would try something new to me.  Many of you are familiar with the foam buck method of shaping foredecks, turtle decks, bottom blocks, ect. to make things lighter.  It's kind of nice to avoid all that carving of blocks for this part of a stunter.

I used a sheet of light 1/16 for the foredeck and turtledeck and 3/32 for the bottom block.  Carving those blocks for these parts used to be alot of fun but I must be getting old or something.  Its just not so much fun anymore. 

It seems like alot of work to produce these molds but they save so much time to produce the actual part that it gives me some ideas about making plywood/carbon mat composite landing gear !

Heres another pic of the GN. 

[John Stiles]

What's the blue stuff you used for filet material?

[Bradley Walker]

Beautiful.  I wish Bob had Internet...

[Dennis Adamisin]

NICE save!

You know, you have done a lot of hard work, and have a really nive bird there.  One more option - you mentioned it was heavy because of too much primer.  Randy Ryan just refinished a bird where he started by stripping it down to bare using ad's stripper (look for his thread in the CLassic section.  It would be a little more work but it would bring the WHOLE bird to the same state for totally new and lighter finish..

[james dean]

Thanks everbody for your comments and advice today.

John,  the blue stuff is "Super Fill"  from POLY FIBER  Aircraftcoatings of Riverside CA. 92519  Try www.spenceraircraft.com.  One of the amazing things about this product is that it weighs an astounding 3.68 lbs. per gallon mixed!!

This is an epoxy that just sands so well without adding anything to it.   Cures in 12 hr.s to sanding @ 77deg.


Dennis,

Thanks for the heads-up on the Ryan refinish thread. I'll check that out!

[John Stiles]

Thanks everbody for your comments and advice today.

John,  the blue stuff is "Super Fill"  from POLY FIBER  Aircraftcoatings of Riverside CA. 92519  Try www.spenceraircraft.com.  One of the amazing things about this product is that it weighs an astounding 3.68 lbs. per gallon mixed!!

This is an epoxy that just sands so well without adding anything to it.   Cures in 12 hr.s to sanding @ 77deg.

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[Bill Little]

As to the stripper mentioned, my son, Aaron fund Dad's Stripper at Wal Mart several years ago.  It comes with a sprayer, and is a gel.  DO NOT LE IT TOUCH THE CLEAR CANOPY!  It ruins it, for sure.  We have stripped four airplane finishes with it, and it will take the paper off to bare wood.  I did that when refinishing my Parrott P-47 and with some other techniques, I took close to 5 oz. off the model.

Mongo