Author Topic: Proctor Jenny (Read 15288 times)

Clancy Arnold · « **Reply #50 on:** December 08, 2009, 07:02:58 AM »

John
Have you decided on an inconspicuous place to mount the connector to connect the leads from your flying lines? I use 3/32 miniature earphone jacks and plugs. Center tip - Signal and outer sleeve - Return/ground. By using them I can never hook up the U/Tronics with the signal and ground reversed. I also color code the wires from the phone plug to the flying lines so that it is a no brain-er to connect the lines correctly, BLACK is DOWN. I still check the elevator each time before takeoff, except on a P-38, You can not see the elevator on a P-38 from the center of the circle.
Clancy

John Witt · « **Reply #51 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:54:59 PM »

Thanks for the suggestion, Clancy. I plan to have all the external connections behind a opening panel on the outside of the nose. There is a scale engine access door there. The line connections I hadn't thought about yet, so I appreciate the heads up. I'de like for that connection to be pretty small and was thinking about a two pin Harwin which is one we use at work and which is polarized.

The connections are: safety battery plug, and a two pole single throw miniature toggle to enable the ESC and decoder at the same time. Then of course, on the other side, the two wires from the lines.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm sure looking forward to seeing the engine run up from the handle end of the lines.

John W

John Rist · « **Reply #52 on:** December 10, 2009, 01:50:31 PM »

For what it's worth I found that two insulated line are better than just one. The problem I had was uneven line drag. I started out with 70' lines on my 90 ST powered Extra 300S. I had the one insulated line as the up line. When throttling back and on the upwind side of the circle the lines pull went down. With the increased drag on the up line the Extra 300S would go into a clime. I almost lost it before I figured out what was going wrong. I also found that it is best to use a fiber glass bell crank and a insulated controll handle setup. This setup makes it virtually impossible to short the two lines out. By the way I use standard Futaba servo connectors to tie it all together. I use black for return and white for signal. If you plug it up backwords it doesn't hurt anything. It just doesn't work. 3' aileron extender cut in half makes a mating pair.

John Witt · « **Reply #53 on:** December 11, 2009, 01:02:42 PM »

I've had a comment that two insulated lines are sticky sliding together. Have you noticed that effect with your Extra? The lines I have are Brodak's.

I do have an fiberglass bellcrank and plan on building up a special handle for the Clancy encoder setup. I'll probably stick with the RC type connectors everywhere except I do like Clancy's miniature phono plug connection for the aircraft side.

I had thought about the uneven drag issue, but had no way to know how big a problem it would be. You are undoubtedly flying faster than I will, but I wouldn't like to have an unwanted control input either. Did you end up staying with the 70' lines?

Thanks for the comment. Perhap's I'll run a backyard experiment to see how it feels.

The Jenny has rather large, unbalanced elevators. I'm somewhat worried that will result in unwanted nose down trim. Anybody have any experience that applies?

John W

John Rist · « **Reply #54 on:** December 11, 2009, 03:25:56 PM »

I am using deep sea fishing leader. I did not notice any problem with line rub. However understand that I start out with no twist in the lines and I do not loop. For the most part my lines do not touch. At full power with smoke ON it pulls like a bear. It may be interesting to see how it feels with twist in the line. I am looking at a FUN-SCALE Extra 300S and hopefully it will loop. With it I plan to start with 2 turns in the line. At the end of the flight with 3 loops I will have 1 turn in the line.

John Witt · « **Reply #55 on:** December 12, 2009, 09:49:40 AM »

Here's an update on some recent progress.

The fuselage is coming along nicely. I covered the port side and then installed the bellcrank and leadouts, rough cutting the holes for the leadouts. These holes will get styrene doublers and an extra layer of Solartex covering to reinforce them, similar to the way real aircraft are done, then trimmed out to look nice. Also the four wires which actuate the elevators have been installed and the whole control system finally permanently mounted in the fuselage. The wires are tied off until the stab can be mounted.

Next was to cover the turtledeck and the starboard fuselage side. This a pretty easy covering job, but suddenly it is starting to look a lot more finished. I think that is the way all this works, you develop lots of little assemblies, then all of a sudden you get a reward as the project takes shape.

Today's task is to hook up all the switches and wiring and provide the plug-in for the flying lines electrical leads, the safety plug and the encoder on-off switch. I have to make a quick trip to Radio Shack for a panel mount phone jack for the flying line leads, but otherwise everything is handy.

Following the wiring, I have to trim out the three cowlings and paint them. At that point the cockpit cowls can be permanently installed and a number of other prepared pieces will be added.

I also started building the stab and elevators. The kit includes some bent reed pieces for the outlines, but following a suggestion from John Cole on RCScalebuilder, I made these out of aluminum tubing. To do this a piece of 1/8 OD tube was slipped inside a piece of 5/32 OD tubing to double the wall thickness. I then cut a 1/4 plywood outline to bend the tube around. There is some springback, but the jig sets the basic shape and location of the bends which are then gently hand worked into a match to the plans. Since the picture was taken, the stab has been about 80% completed.

Regards to all,

John W

john e. holliday · « **Reply #56 on:** December 12, 2009, 10:01:39 AM »

A man of patience. That is so awesome what you are doing.

chuck snyder · « **Reply #57 on:** December 12, 2009, 10:48:12 AM »

That stabis really slick. Model is progressing very nicely.

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #58 on:** December 12, 2009, 01:13:39 PM »

Thanks for allowing us into your workshop to watch you work. Really enjoying the build.

John Witt · « **Reply #59 on:** December 14, 2009, 05:49:25 PM »

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad someone is looking at this stuff.

I don't consider myself a super builder, but I have been at it for awhile, starting with 10 cent Comet kits when I was about 5-6 years old in the early 50s. I was in Savannah, GA, and my dad was stationed at Hunter AFB, working on B-29s. Milk came to the front door via a horse-drawn (no kidding) wagon. The dairy switched to Divcos while we were there.

I try to strike a balance in the detail department that will let me live long enough to finish and fly the plane.

Anyway, I digress. Got the stabilizer and elevators closer to completion as well as mounting the switch panel in the forward cockpit. Here's a shot of the stabilizer/elevator structure, ready to cover. Note that beside the ribs and spars, there are a bunch of little blocks used to mount the flying wire fittings. Everything has about twice as many parts as you think. They aren't hard to make, just a lot of them. Second shot is of laying down the little glue stripes that simulate the rib stitching. These are covered with rib tapes cut from Solartex and ironed on. Last picture is of the assembled stab and elevators with the horns installed. Next stop is the elevator wire rigging, then the assembly can be glued to the fuselage and the controls hooked up.

John W

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #60 on:** December 14, 2009, 06:09:05 PM »

This is so facsinating. Thanks again for letting us wander into your shop!

John Witt · « **Reply #61 on:** December 19, 2009, 12:45:58 PM »

More on the stabilizer. I thought this would be pretty fast, but as in all scale stuff it's easy to get carried away.

The elevator control wires and bracing wires are now installed. I was just finishing the last one of the 12 wires which brace the elevators and when trimming the tag end of the wire I snipped the brace wire also, so ended up with thirteen of these.

The elevator horns that come in the kit are pre-cut aluminum sheet parts. The real ones are made of steel stampings welded into an oval section. I made a flange for the mount end and then laminated balsa to both sides of the sheet metal horns. These were sanded to shape and painted to look (more or less) like the originals.

Part of the art of building scale models is picking your compromises between the model and the prototype. The only way to be accurate is to fabricate miniature parts exactly like the real plane and if you do that, you might as well build the real one (cost no object!!).

I've always felt that the idea is to create a satisfactory illusion of the prototype, so any technique to that end works for me. A few more detail pieces and the stab assembly will be done for now. Thanks for checking in.

John W

Jim Kraft · « **Reply #62 on:** December 19, 2009, 07:59:13 PM »

Beautiful work John, and a great subject. Maybe it will encourage me to finish my Bucker Jungmiester that I scratch built some years ago. Mine is covered with Sig Koverall, and finished with Sig butyrate over Sig nitrate. I originally built it for R/C, but am thinking of making it C/L, or maybe both. Mine only has a 66" span, but will weigh in at about the same as yours. I know guys are flying C/L scale planes this big, but I have not seen one. I will be looking forward to your flight report. " With pictures"

John Witt · « **Reply #63 on:** December 21, 2009, 08:06:05 AM »

Jim,

By all means, finish it up, we need more scale builders/fliers. Start a thread and tell us about, especially if you work out how to make it RC and UC. There is a lot of info out there on Buckers, try RCScalebuilder.com for some RC build threads.

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #64 on:** December 25, 2009, 09:45:54 AM »

Over the last week I was able to get the vertical fin and rudder built. The construction is very similar to the stab and elevators, using aluminum tube for the outlines. Here's a picture of them sitting in place, but not attached. I'm trying to figure out how to anchor the rudder control wires inside the fuselage and still be able to do some fine adjustment for flight trim. I will somehow have to get to the adjustment which would be low in the rear cockpit. I can put in a couple of turnbuckles, or possibly have them actually attach to the rudder bar and somehow anchor it. I like that idea from the scale standpoint, but haven't yet figured out how to do it.

The second picture is of the beginning of the fabrication of the beading that borders all the cockpit cowlings. On the full scale plane, this beading is rolled into the sheet metal to stiffen the edges. The beading machine has positive and negative rollers that shape the metal. The model's cowling metal is too stiff to do that at this small scale, so I am simulating the effect by shaping and gluing half round styrene strips. The strips are .080 inch wide which is a good match for the beading that is formed into the side cowls which came in the kit.

That's all the recent progress, I hope to get some work done in between holiday events.

Best wishes to all for the new year.

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #65 on:** December 28, 2009, 11:46:00 AM »

I have had a bad cold for several days and haven't gotten a lot done. however here's a little progress:

The rudder and fin are now installed and rigged as is the turtledeck. Actually the empennage rigging isn't finished as there are two struts up to the bottom of the stab and a brace wire on each side of the fin, but it's getting close.

The second photo is of the forward cockpit cowl and cabane struts, showing the beading on the cowls. This is made of Evergreen .080 wide half-round styrene bent to shape and glued on with ACC. This worked out better than I had hoped, as I had anticipated it would be hard to bend without cracking. Turns out that if the bends are done gradually with a little "stretch" time between tries, it will go around very nicely. I think the styrene creeps into its new position if given a little time. I want to have this cowl removable, so this is a test fit to verify that.

Also, you can see the copper wrapping on the strut ends. This was done with .003 thick copper sheet that is sold for embossing. In a real Jenny, every strut end and many of the structural member ends are treated with nailed-on copper sheet as a reinforcement.

Hope to get the aft cowl done in the next day or so if I can shake this cold.

John W

Jim Scott · « **Reply #66 on:** December 29, 2009, 07:36:18 AM »

Beautiful work John. I am so impressed with how quickly your build is progressing. What Solartex did you use; isn't there a linen and a natural? Have you doped it yet, with what, and what color scheme have you decided on?

Thanks, Jim

John Witt · « **Reply #67 on:** December 29, 2009, 08:45:30 AM »

Thanks guys,

Real Jennies had a couple of coats of dope to tighten the fabric, which as Ty mentioned is sewn as a bag then pulled over the wing and stitched closed. The dope was then overcoated with varnish, of all things. The varnish of course would weather very quickly and turn yellowish brown. The fabric was initially a natural linen color, which is what I've chosen to have on my Jenny, using Solartex Natural covering. It looks pretty good and I like working with the Solartex. It is a bit expensive, I bought a 10 meter roll which was about $100. It is however a good match in weave for the 1/6 scale of the Jenny and doesn't require any further finish. I helped cover a plane when I was a kid and the finish looks like what I remember after a couple of coats of clear.

There are some really great Jenny pictures on Brian Karli's Jenny restoration blog, which I have extensively used as a reference. This guy is a meticulous craftsman.

http://curtissjennyrestoration.blogspot.com/

I'm feeling a bit better today, so hope the cold is going away. I want to fly the Jenny in April and compete in the NW Regionals in May, so I have good carrot to keep me going. I am gratified by the amount of interest in this build and I hope it will inspire others to get into scale modeling. There are a lot of aspects to it, the research which opens a window into the incredible history of aviation, is one I particularly like.

The building of a plane like this is mostly a matter of dealing with one thing at a time, and isn't really much harder, if any, to do than building any other flying model. There is just more of it to do before you get the gratification of flight. If you mess up a part, you just make another one. Come on you guys, get after it, pick out that favorite plane.

Regards,

John W

john e. holliday · « **Reply #68 on:** December 29, 2009, 09:47:39 AM »

That is some craftsmanship. We did get to see a Jenny landing at Wichita KS one year as we were going south on I-35. I thought it was going to fall out of the air it was going so slow. People thought we were having car trouble as we stopped to watch it land. HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR

John Witt · « **Reply #69 on:** December 29, 2009, 11:45:47 AM »

Jenny's cruising speed is about 65 mph, and I think they land at about 50. The OX-5 only makes 90 HP but apparently makes a lot of torque, swinging an 7 ft propellor at about 1400 RPM. Given the low wing loading, they go pretty slow. Here's a link to a flying report on the Hisso powered Jenny at Old Rhinebeck. Keep in mind the Hisso makes 140 HP, so you can imagine the climb rate with 90 HP. As I recall it was about 250 ft/min.

Another interesting thing about many early airplanes is that they didn't have a very wide performance envelope. The take-off, cruise and top speeds were just a few MPH apart. Among other things it makes them sensitive to wind and weather as there is no performance margin.

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepJenny.html

John W

John Rist · « **Reply #70 on:** December 29, 2009, 01:00:48 PM »

Quote from: John Witt on December 29, 2009, 11:45:47 AM

Among other things it makes them sensitive to wind and weather as there is no performance margin.

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepJenny.html

John W

What a great read. Thanks for posting the link.

Jim Kraft · « **Reply #71 on:** December 30, 2009, 05:39:42 AM »

Looking great John; There were some good shots of Jenny's in the Great Waldo Pepper movie also. A very nice Bucker in there too, only it had the engine changed from the radial to a flat with cheek cowls.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #72 on:** December 30, 2009, 10:42:30 AM »

That is a great story of a lady called Jenny. I keep telling myself I was born way to late to enjoy the days of the Jenny.

John Witt · « **Reply #73 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:18:15 AM »

Waldo's plane was actually a Standard J-1, which looks a lot like a Jenny and has similar performance. Lindberg's Jenny still exists. It is in a museum now, one of those "found in a barn" stories.

http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/CradleOfAviationMuseum/LindberghsCurtissJenny/pages/01LindberghsCurtissJenny.htm

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #74 on:** January 02, 2010, 06:06:55 PM »

New bits added on. Finally got to the point of painting the three cowlings Olive Drab. I still have to drill all the holes for the little retaining screws and I haven't quite been able to get the courage for that just yet. I also have to make the windshields and apply them to the top cowlings before I can permanently install them. I spent part of the morning cutting out the louver holes in the side panels. These are thin vacuum formed ABS parts. I used a small router bit in the Dremel tool to slot the material, then a combination of careful carving with a #11 blade and filing and sanding to clean out the openings. Once the louvers are cut out, then a set of braces made of styrene is applied to the inside surface.

I got some work done on the landing gear too, adding the thread wrapping to the front legs. I ran out of thread which is, naturally, a weird type called "carpet thread". So far I haven't found any more like what I have. I hope I don't end up having to strip it off and go with something else. I made the copper cladding for the fuselage end of the struts and shaped and screwed in place the aluminum axle guide plates. These are cutout aluminum pieces that come with the kit. They are not quite the right shape, but close enough to create the right visual impression. I did some filing and drilling that makes them a little closer to the prototype. The bungee cords were added and the axle and its various bushings and retainers put on as well. I couldn't resist putting it all together for a look.

I discovered some black .010 styrene sheet at Galaxy Hobbies which will work nicely for making the clips which hold on the landing gear, as well as some of the other parts for the fuselage. Having black will save painting a lot of these little parts. One of the real virtues of electric power is not having the added headache of trying to fuel proof all this stuff, wow, my hat is off to those who do that.

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #75 on:** January 02, 2010, 06:13:15 PM »

Hi John. Get yourself to a carpet store that also does installs. You should be able to get the thread there. Beautiful job on the Jenny. Am really enjoying the build.

John Witt · « **Reply #76 on:** January 06, 2010, 11:43:09 AM »

Here's a quick note showing the bottom sheet metal cowl. Four half round styrene strips are cemented to a sheet of .010 styrene that will later be glued to the plywood fuselage bottom. The strips will simulate the rolled-in beading that stiffened the full scale sheet metal panels. A styrene tab will be added to form the part of the cowl that covers the bottom of the radiator.

There is a second piece of sheet metal that covers the bottom of the fuse back to the middle of the wing. It will be made in a similar fashion. Both of these will be painted and glued on and the fasteners added later.

I'm having some trouble coming up with a good way to model all these small screws. The real cowlings have about 60 screws that appear to be #10 (3/16 inch diameter) holding them on. I have some model railroad nut-bolt styrene castings that are about the right size, so I'm going to make up a sample piece and see if they look OK. The brass pins that came in the kit scale out to be about 5/8 inch in diameter which is way too big.

Also, another small milestone, the side cowlings are mounted and the final bits of rigging on the empennage were finished. The stabilizer/elevators turned out to have 138 distinct parts. Sounds like a lot, but it's just one or two at a time. The whole thing is beginning to have that intricate patina that is so distinctive about these early airplanes.

I'm also starting to round up the materials for the wings.

Regards to all,

John W

John Rist · « **Reply #77 on:** January 06, 2010, 12:35:03 PM »

Man see looks GOOD! Hope it flyes well. If it does she will be a contest winner!!!

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #78 on:** January 06, 2010, 02:05:35 PM »

That is just so cool. Thanks for inviting us into your shop. Have you considered vacforming the nuts and bolts? Make one template with maybe ten on it, then vacform as many as you need. Just a thought. Peace to you and yours.

John Witt · « **Reply #79 on:** January 08, 2010, 03:22:54 PM »

Thanks for the suggestion. I've never done any vacuum forming, so I hadn't thought of that. What I'm after is pretty small, only about .063 head diameter (1/6 of 3/8). I found some model railroad cast styrene rivets that look promising, made by Grandt Line. Will post how it works out. I'm making the exhaust manifolds today. They are carved wood, plus bits of wire. I'll post some pix of the whole OX-5 engine setup in a few days.

John W

chuck snyder · « **Reply #80 on:** January 09, 2010, 10:32:52 AM »

John, don't know quite what the screws look like, but silicone rubber molds are easy to do and work pretty well for small parts. If you have never made/used them google smooth-on for their website and tutorials on how to make. It is very easy.
Chuck

John Witt · « **Reply #81 on:** January 09, 2010, 05:55:54 PM »

Thanks, Chuck. I really need to learn how to do that. The need for cast urethane pieces comes up now and again. I have a 3/8 inch scale Crowley Invader class tugboat project waiting in the wings that will need a lot of cast ports, doors, vents, etc. Another big project.

Jenny will get added pieces for some time after she flies. I'd like to finish out the cockpit with a good amount of detail, even though it's not required for sport scale. Some of the instrument housings would be good as castings, especially the compass.

A later addition to this post. Got a fair number of small pieces, the windshields and exhaust manifolds finished and installed today. The first decent day of work on the plane in three weeks--must be getting over my pneumonia!

Regards,

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #82 on:** January 16, 2010, 11:06:07 AM »

I have started making wing ribs and trying to get my head around the ins and outs of the wing construction. I also scanned and enlarged the "ASMS Kelly Field 2805" markings that go on the side of the fuselage. These are scanned from the Joe Nieto drawings and enlarged to fit 1/6 scale.

My plan is to trace these on frisket paper to make a mask, then airbrush them on.

If anyone would like a copy of the JPGs, e-mail me and I'll send them. The two files are about 10 mB each and broken down to print on 8.5 x 11 paper.

John W

Will Hinton · « **Reply #83 on:** January 16, 2010, 04:33:20 PM »

John, your detail is looking fabulous!!!! Especially the engine and louvers.
Will

david smith · « **Reply #84 on:** January 17, 2010, 10:00:39 AM »

WOW!! Great looking plane! Thanks for all of the pics through the build.

David

John Witt · « **Reply #85 on:** January 17, 2010, 04:10:56 PM »

Thank you for the kind words. It sure helps keep my enthusiasm high to know that someone else is interested in this stuff.

Today (Sunday, Jan 17) I got the first wing panel off the table. Not finished, of course, but the initial frame is all there. I was capstripping ribs off and on for the last week.

It turns out that the wing tip construction per the kit and Beck plans is not quite right. The plans call for one of the full depth ribs as the last before the tip bow, and the real Jenny has a slender section rib there that makes a more nicely tapered tip. I took one of the ribs and laid out a 1/32 ply solid rib with the correct section, which has the cap strips just touching the spars. This leaves no material above and below the spars to hold the LE and TE of the rib together, so I left little bridges above and below the spar cutouts. These were trimmed off after the rib was in place and then the cap strips were added.

The kit also supplied bent reed pieces for the tip bows and the S-curved TE piece that goes at the inner end of the wing. I replaced these with 5/32 doubled wall aluminum tube as I did with the tail feathers. This also allowed getting the correct arch to the bow to match the revised tip section.

The wing still has to have all the LE/TE and tip shaping done, the intermediate false ribs and the 1/64 LE ply sheeting. There are also the blocks that allow mounting the fittings for the interplane struts and brace wires. This stuff is all made from very nice quality spruce supplied partly precut.

I spent a little quality time admiring the wing attached to fuselage and wondering how I will manage to pick this airplane up when it is finished. There are wires everywhere!

Thanks again all for your comments and advice.

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #86 on:** January 23, 2010, 12:18:09 PM »

Saturday morning report.

I was able to get some more tubing from the LHS yesterday, so I got the other lower wing framed up this morning. Careful not to build two for same side. I had gotten all the ribs done last week while waiting for the tube, so this went pretty fast -- practice, practice.

Also acquired a small servo to use for a tow hook at the tail. If the plane flies well enough, I'd like to tow a banner and be able to remote drop it for landing.

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #87 on:** January 29, 2010, 06:58:10 PM »

Ty, the right and left wing pairs come off as a unit, so the size is reduced somewhat. It's 87 inch span, 1400 square inches area. Gonna be a handful to carry around.

This last week I was able to get the first of the upper wing halves framed up and that is now ready to shape the LE and TE. The next step is to frame out the aileron structure within the wing frame and the two can then be sawed apart. At least that's the plan, there is always something unforeseen that crops up when actually fitting the pieces together.

I borrowed a drafting compass from a colleague at work ( he's much better than a mere coworker) and cut the masking frisket for the markings on the fuselage. Here's a sequence of pictures showing that process. The frisket film is a .002 inch vinyl film with a low tack adhesive and a backing layer. The backing is translucent so you can cut a mask out of the film by taping it down over a pattern, then cutting just through the vinyl film. I cut away part of the backing and stick the film down lightly and when it's in the right place, gently peel off the rest of the backing. Works pretty well for one-off custom markings. The lettering and cockade were both done this way, from a pattern enlarged from Joe Nieto drawings.

Lastly, I had a visit from a nearby RC flier, Brian Taylor, who is also building a Jenny and has done some really nice cockpit detail in his plane. It is interesting to see two planes built from the same kit and to see how an individual's priorities influence how it comes out. A very enjoyable afternoon, swapping lies and comparing techniques. Glad I don't have to mount all those servos.

Regards to all,

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #88 on:** February 03, 2010, 07:57:20 PM »

Last weekend and in evenings this week, I was able to finish the left wing and now have about 85% completion on the right one. Here's a shot of the left wing with the aileron cut away. The ailerons are fabricated using the existing ribs in the wings structure. The space on is top of the spar filled in between the ribs with 3/16 balsa. After that is done top and bottom, next is to measure and cut out a portion of the ribs equal to the aileron spar thickness (1/4 inch), plus the hinge gap (3/32). The aileron spar is then inserted and spaced 3/32 inch from the rear wing spar, which, if everything is cut correctly leaves the aft part of the ribs touching the spar. The ribs are then glued to the spar. Once everything is set up then the aileron spar is sanded flush with the balance of the wing. This procedure is only fleetingly covered in the instructions, so some of this is my own invention.

After all this the leading edge is sheeted with a strip of 1/64 ply, and the intermediate false ribs cut from some balsa stock supplied, and they are glued in from the bottom. This aileron business has so far been the touchiest construction in the whole project. I expect the right wing will be finished by this weekend.

While the glue dries I have been varnishing the interplane struts (the long ones between the wing panels) and have started coppering the ends and applying the end fittings, which are bolted on with two 0-80 brass screws each. These are not exactly correct scale, but look pretty good.

Regards to all,

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #89 on:** February 07, 2010, 12:15:54 PM »

Big reward this weekend. After a monumental amount of dithering around, I got the hole patterns laid out for the interplane strut fittings and so was able to do a preliminary rig of the wings to check how square it all was and the parallelism of the struts. It sure does fill up the workshop.

So now it comes back apart to do the covering. Lots of small chores and checking before that happens, but it's encouraging that it looks pretty good and square.

We had a really nice day in Seattle yesterday, so I drove down south and met up with Steve Helmick, Dane Covey and others for a morning of stunt practice and blowing cobwebs out of the brains and motors. Everybody took home their airplanes in immediately reusable form, so it was an excellent day. It was my first flying since before Thanksgiving and it was really nice to get the tug on the end of the lines.

John W

John Witt · « **Reply #90 on:** February 08, 2010, 08:11:54 PM »

No, no, not too nice to fly, not nearly as slick as those hot-dog PA planes that go plunging at the pavement. Actually there is a 1/6th scale race of humans that I've hired to build it. The whole thing is run by Capt. Eddie. I caught a sneak shot of him climbing in to check out the cockpit.

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #91 on:** February 08, 2010, 10:19:33 PM »

Capt. Eddy must be a Secret Service alias, cause that sure looks like ex-president G.W. Bush to me!

john e. holliday · « **Reply #92 on:** February 09, 2010, 02:02:07 PM »

Boy John, every time I come to check on the progress of this miniture scale model it blows my mind what you have done. You sure you didn't hir some witch doctor to shrink down a real Jenny? It is awesome the work you are putting into this project and wish I could be there when you fly it.

John Witt · « **Reply #93 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:27:44 PM »

This past weekend was rainy and mostly an inside weekend. I was able to get all four wing panels covered as well as a few other small chores. The covering went fairly smoothly, the only variation being that the Top Flite iron I use had to be turned up to the max when I was sticking the Solartex to the aluminum tubing used for the tips and wing root curves. This was also true of the previous work on the stab, rudder and elevators. The aluminum tube has to be warmed up enough to allow the glue on the Solartex to adhere. In one spot at the wing root where the tube has an acute angle to the line of the fabric, I ended up gluing it on with CA.

I was also able to prepare the airplane end of the insulated flying wires, crimping on the wires that carry the control signal into the plane and also crimping on the tubing loops that forms the ferrule. All in all a pretty productive weekend.

The next chores are to do the rib stitching and covering tapes, then I will be set to paint the circles and stars and attach the strut fittings. Boy, then we'll be ready to have some real fun: the wire rigging. I've actually been looking forward to doing that part, it's one of the premier features of a Jenny.

The pictures show a couple of the steps, using the brass plates to predrill the screw holes for mounting the strut fittings, and the one of the fitting assemblies on the bottom of the upper wing. The strut fitting are built up of several of the Proctor brass parts to duplicate the combination fitting that the full scale plane uses. It's a very contrasty photo, and it's hard to make out whats going on. The pulley on the right is for the aileron control cable.

Anyone who wants more info about any of these processes, let me know and I'll post more. I don't want to bore anyone with obvious details.

Regards to all, and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Art Adamisin. It's good to hear he's home.

John Witt

Tom Niebuhr · « **Reply #94 on:** February 17, 2010, 01:15:38 PM »

John,
Where did you the 1/6 scale pilot who is climbing aboard??

John Witt · « **Reply #95 on:** February 17, 2010, 01:24:24 PM »

Tom,

It is a collectible doll of Eddie Rickenbacker, imported by Sideshow. If you search around you can find them for sale with prices all over the map. I paid $25 plus shipping for mine a few months ago.

http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=41141

John W

Tom Niebuhr · « **Reply #96 on:** February 19, 2010, 10:32:22 AM »

John,

Thanks for the info.

Following your "Jenny" progress is like absorbing knowledge. No matter what event we fly, we can all learn from the methods and techniques used by others. Personally, you and Allen are doing much to give me even more appreciation of the efforts of scale modelers.

Thanks for the lessons from a true master modeler.

John Witt · « **Reply #97 on:** February 23, 2010, 05:38:18 PM »

A quick update. The last week or so has been occupied with sorting out the strut fittings and doing the rib stitching and tapes. The last panel is nearly done, there are around 1200 little glue lines to simulate the rib stitching and 62 tapes covering them. I am glad this is almost finished -- I've had about all of this kind of fun I need. The stitching and tapes are such a prominent feature of the plane that it would be impossible to leave them out and have it look right, but it has grown a bit tedious.

I have a lot of admiration for Allen for actually stitching the covering, how cool. Metal airplanes have their panel lines and rivets, fabric airplanes have stitching. It's all part of the patina.

Next will be the installation of the last of the fittings to the upper wings and then all the wings can be fitted to the fuselage and the rigging started. I'm looking forward to that part.

John W

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #98 on:** February 23, 2010, 05:56:07 PM »

Wow....talk about patience! Really enjoying your build. Thanks so much for taking the time to post it.

John Witt · « **Reply #99 on:** February 28, 2010, 05:08:20 PM »

The weekend's work produced some progress. The star insignia are now finished on all four wing panels, so I could then attach the end fittings for the brace wires. The next step was to install the first part of the rigging which is the upper wing trusses, and then start mounting the wings to the fuselage.

The wings are braced so that they can be removed from the fuselage for transport, so the first bit is to get the spar end fittings lined up and temporarily pinned in place. Then the interplane struts are added and after all the screws are tight and trimmed, the the brace wires can be installed. I have the right side wings attached, the left side will be next and then I plan on taking the plane upstairs to the living room and rolling back the carpet to use the floor as a surface plate to check the alignment.

John W

Author Topic: Proctor Jenny (Read 15288 times)

david smith