Piper Pawnee 235 (33% - Hanger 9)

[MarnochS]

Put the wings on the Scale.....
Original ...............1549 grams
Invasion stripes .....1540 grams



Final weight is looking good to be on par with the original.....
funny how the invasion strips make the wing look thinner....

[Stew2]

That is awesome that the weights are under. I'd guess that the covering system is heavier, but you saved weight in replacing the molded tip with the built up bow tip. Super cool. So by that logic, the whole airplane will probably end up a little heavier than the original, but not much hopefully and certainly by no means anything the airframe can't handle in terms of performance and ease of flying! Should work out great!! Really cool!!

[ARUP]

'funny how the invasion strips make the wing look thinner...' Maybe I should give up trying to lose 20lbs and wear striped shirts!

Wings look great!

[Mosquito]

Michael, maybe wear a striped hat too? Doh!

[MarnochS]

Finally getting restarted - Right Wing's uncovered, pin hinge removal, and wing tip reconfiguration.

[MarnochS]

A bit more progress......bottom and top Poly-fiber lite covering

[MarnochS]

Yikes, ....this appears to be a "monthly" progress report.......well, at least it's progress.... Polybrush and tapes....

[Steve P]

Nothing wrong with that! Beautiful work and steady progress.

[MarnochS]

Got some inspiration from Dean Gradwell this last weekend at the Visalia Fall AeroTow......so....the fuselage....
Fiberglassing the front hatch and rear turtledeck with 0.75 oz glass cloth

Of course, what's a good story line with out some minor "plot complications" ......front window cracks.......
Got the window out ....

[Asher Carmichael]

Very nice, Scott. Having stilts lite in place of shrink film should make maintenance easier.

[Swiss1]

Stilts Asher!! Or Stits!

[MarnochS]

Thanks Asher, - upgrading to "Wrinkle-free" covering

Continuing progress - a bit more fiberglass to simulate a few panel lines on the front section.



And.....of course , the ultimate goal - Dean Gradwell's Pawnee.

[ARUP]

Oh boy! Your model is looking good!

[MarnochS]

DA 120 mounting........for the best Cowl/Spinner fit I found I had to glue things together upside down



Of course there was a little bit of a gap at the bottom of the spinner / Cowl so a form was made with a bit of an off-set for the West Systems & 410 filler.
Partall #1film used for Epoxy "non-stick".



Isopropyl Alchol used to smooth the surface after all the squishing.



Of course, its probably too close now........

[MarnochS]

Bottom side of the Fuselage - canister bay/mounts and Landing Gear Shocks

1/8" Silicone Aircraft Cowl chafe seal use as the bed/thermal barrier - I'm going to mirror this on the top side to try to minimize vibration and spread the clamping load. .....I think a spring in-between the two canisters too.



Converted the mounts over to longer 10-32 bolts so the shocks run on the shank instead of the threads. Sealed the box with 0.005 G10 to minimize Grass intrusion. Little donuts at the bottom are to try and keep the shock in the center of the bay and not vibrate against the wall.

[ARUP]

Keep it coming! Great ideas, too!

[MarnochS]

Going with the straight pipe installation, oddly one TD75K is slightly longer than the other so it's going on the short side.....

[lenb]

That's pretty strange? I would have thought those cans were stamped out or produced in such a way they would always be identical.
Love the build and have been watching every post!!
Thanks for doing such a nice build thread.

Len

[JimD]

Ditto on watching your build, always enjoy the ride!

[MarnochS]

Thanks Guys

As far as the cans go, I would have thought the same thing....maybe I got a Monday and a Friday can..

[ARUP]

Jim, what happened is the guy making these has very different prescriptions in each eye. Well... sweat got into one eye, probably his dominant one, so the can was made larger (if hyperopic) or smaller (if myopic) due to the condition known as 'aniseikonia'! As we all know the dominant eye is usually the one with the least refractive error! It's a good thing he didn't have a major oblique astigmatic error or those cans would really be 'wonky'! Don't even get me started on the topic of 'axial' vs 'refractive' power manifested!

[RShelby]

Perhaps the longer can is a TD80K. I hear the TD75K has been replaced by the TD80K which I believe is supposed to be 5mm longer.

[MarnochS]

I would suspect the same thing .....both cans are stamped TD75K.......probably one was mis-stamped.......