Blue Headrest

Now that the headrest is off the plane I decided to wash it, just water and a soft brush.  With the dust and loose paint washed off it's clear the headrest was blue before it was painted black.

The blue seems to be a good match to the blue on the old sheet metal.

This got me looking at old photos more closely.  Here's the front half of the plane taken the same day as the aft half.  Clearly the sheet metal is still blue.  It looks like Mr. Betz is wearing Black pants.

This is the last know picture of the plane, taken in warm weather between May 31, 1937 and July 1939, when it was owned by Joe Brown, left.  The sheet metal still looks Blue and the fabric on the side of the fuselage is still in silver dope, not black.  It's possible the guy on the right is the prior owner Carl Bradshaw, and this was taken when Joe picked up the plane in Pinehurst, NC.  Carl Owned or worked at Pinehurst Garage Company, the local Chevrolet, Packard, Cadillac and La Salle dealer.  There must be a picture of him out there.

Anyway no Black on the fuselage.

 

Fuselage Aft Station - Fabric Air Dam and Rudder Cable Guides

 

At the last station in the fuselage there is a piece of fabric laced to the tubes with flat brown shoe laces.  The only purpose I can figure out for it is to act as an Air Dam blocking flow through the opening for the tail skid.  The whole bottom of the fuselage aft of this station is open so I can believe there was exhaust coming back into the cockpit through that opening from positive pressure below the fuselage and negative pressure at the cockpit opening.

It's not a later addition because you can see it in the covered fuselage from this factory photo, June 26, 1926, within days of my plane leaving the factory.  Some day I'll get my hands on the original of this photo and do a higher resolution scan.  Even at this resolution, you can see that the view of top stringer on the right side of the fuselage is blocked by the air dam.

If we ever get a high resolution scan of this photo I may be able to identify the fuselage in the lower left corner.  It's written in pencil on the aft side of the former where the fellow is working.  Aero archeology is so much fun.

Here's what's left of the original air dam.  I don't imagine it would have been replaced when the plane was recovered, so I'm sure this is a factory part.  I've trapped it between 2 pieces of plexiglass to hold it flat for measuring, etc.  I also assume it's a factory part since it's so well made.  

It appears to be made of Grade A cotton with silver dope on the forward side and the aft side bare fabric.  It may also be made from some surplus balloon or dirigible fabric, which seems more likely than them doping one side of some fabric to make these.  The dirigible Shenandoah crashed Sept. 3, 1925 and the WACO factory made money hopping sightseeing rides over it. The debris was all looted.  How cool if this were a piece of fabric from the Shenandoah, OK back to reality.

It's about 10" wide x 15" tall with about 3/4" folded forward along the edges and sewn down before the brass grommets were added.  The 1 3/4" corner notches are for the brace wire tubes in the corners, a la Fokker D-VII.  The fabric was trapped between the double wires which loop around the corner tubes.  The 2" x 1 3/8" notches, 7 1/2" up the sides, are where the rudder cables pass through.  More on then below.

I have plenty of Grade A cotton but it's already 30 years old.  I'll probably make this using Poly Fiber.

You can see in the pictures above a small piece of the shoe lacing used to attach the dam to the tubes.  The shoe lace seems to have protected the paint below it enough that you can see the candy cane stripes protected by them as they wrapped around the tubes.

I assume this air dam was needed because they went to a lot of trouble to make and install it.

Where the brace wire cross in the center of the bay there is a small roll of rubberized Friction Tape to prevent the wire and turnbuckle from rubbing.  They used friction tape a lot at WACO.

The rudder cables exit the fuselage aft of this bay.  To protect the cables from chafing on the tubing there is a piece of 1/8" thick leather about 2" wide laced to the vertical tubes.

You can see where the cable rubbed during about 1,100 hours of flying.

It's laced on with what looks to be cotton rib stitching cord, another thing they used a lot, think cheap like zip ties today.  The stringers on the sides of the fuselage were laced on with it.  A topic for another post.

I plan to make up CAD drawings for all this as I make up the new parts.

WACO TEN Headrest Removed

 I've decided as I remove things I should repair or make new parts as I go.  This is the time when I have the most information about how the parts were installed, etc.  I think it's easier to get things right now then it will be a year or 2 from now.

Fortunately the first thing I've taken off doesn't need repair because it's not going back on the plane.

This picture was taken when the plane was about 1 year old and like all NINEs it does not have a headrest.  Remember they were trying to build the Model T of the air, cheap transportation.

In 1929 when Spangler and Fink owned the plane it still did not have a headrest.

Spangler sold his share to Betz and I have some pictures from 1931 while he and Fink owned it.  One picture shows no headrest.  In this picture however, the plane has new fabric and the headrest has been added.  In this and another picture it looks like all the metal has been painted black, as it is still today.

The fuselage fabric eventually got painted black also.

The headrest clearly matches the TEN headrest drawings.

Pretty simple headrest, a rolled piece of aluminum, a block of wood, some padding, tacks and leatherette covering.

There's some old fabric covering and original Dutch Blue paint on the sheet metal.  I wonder if I could fix up this cowl piece and keep that little bit of original blue paint showing.  That would be fun.

They clearly removed some of the padding material under the leatherette in order to get the headrest to set down tightly to the cowling.  The old pictures show it nice and round in this area as well as the rest.  We'll get to all that cockpit coming material once the cowling is removed.  The bulge along the edge is due to the rolled edge they put on the cockpit opening for stiffening, more fun for later.

This blue paint made me wonder about the Travel Air radiator I had.  It looks to me like Travel Air also painted their planes with Valspar Dutch Blue, nice color, commercially available.

The fabric on the fuselage was painted black but not under the headrest.  Someone recovering the plane and painting the fabric black would probably have painted the fabric before reinstalling the sheet metal.  This piece of fabric is probably from the 1931 recovering.  The plane only flew 7 more years.  If it was hangared there would not be a need to recover the fuselage that soon.

The center stringer on the turtle deck is double width to allow the 2 side pieces of fabric to be nailed to it during covering.  The nail hole spacing looks like only the factory nailed the fabric to this stringer.

When you roll back the remaining piece of fabric you can see that the last time the fuselage was covered they used a sewn envelope instead of the blanket method.  Therefore they didn't need to nail the fabric to the stringer.  The seam is a single row of stitching and the excess fabric is very neatly trimmed to 1/4" from the stitching.

This simple little headrest has been a lot of fun and very informative.  On to the next piece.

Fuselage In Attic To Start Repairs

 I've spent the summer and fall working on and flying our old Fly Baby.  I've had a lot of little problems with things that worked when I took the plane apart, in 1994.  Now I have an ignition problem.  

While I work on it I keep waiting for Aircraft Spruce to ship my wing spars.  The problem is there was a forest fire which has disrupted their wood supply.  They still aren't getting spar quality wood.

Since I can't work on the wings I've decided to start on the fuselage.

I didn't want to bring it to the attic earlier because it takes up too much space.  A while back I cut a big hole in the piece of plywood the bolted on the front in 1939, after cutting off the front half of the fuselage.

I haven't taken anything off for fear of losing things.  I haven't even sat in the seat.  I need to see if I fit in this thing.

My next project is to start documenting everything as I slowly take it all apart.  This will mean lots of photos and drawings.   I may work on making/repairing things as I take them off.  There are a lot of little things to work on, should be fun.

I made the entrance door to the attic 42" wide when I built the house so the fuselage would fit.  Other than the work of carrying it up a lot of steps, getting it in the attic worked out fine.  A nice winter project.

Varnishing the Lower Left Wing

I'm using Oil Based Polyurethane Spar Varnish to have a finish which is flexible.  The idea being that as the wood expands and contracts over time the varnish doesn't crack allowing moisture in.

 I started by varnishing the big areas first, wing walk, spars, etc.  A 1 1/2" tapered brush is about perfect for these areas.

 With the big areas done the problem was how to varnish in the corners of the ribs where the gussets are attached.  I was at the hardware store and saw these 1" wide by 1/2" thick foam brushes for $0.79.  They are pointed, like a paint brush along the tip, so I took the scissors and added a point on the flat side to fit the corners better.

 That worked well.  It was a little big for the small areas, but I was able to get varnish in them.

 It only lasted a few minutes before the foam fell off.  Bummer, but I like the idea.

 I decided to make my own.  I had some similar open cell foam, unfortunately a little dirty but good enough to try it.  I also had 3 sizes of craft sticks, wide tongue depressors, Popsicle sticks, and skinny coffee stirring sticks.  I also used the foam from a couple of the ones I bought.

Split the foam open and glue it together with Contact Cement.  It just has to dry for about 15 minutes before closing it together.

The skinny ones worked best but didn't last long.  We need more of them.

 I had some softer foam, which didn't last as long in use, but I have plenty of it.  I sliced off some pieces 3/8" thick, the same width as the rib sticks, from a 2" thick piece of foam.

Then I cut them to width.  I tried some more 1" wide and the rest 3/4" wide, they worked best.

 Just take a 30 degree breakaway knife, stab it in to the edge about 3/8" from the end.

Then cut a split to the other end.  It works.

 Fold one side back and apply Contact Cement to the other side.  Fold them back together and gently press.  Glue ends up on both sides.  Then peal it back open.

Put glue on the stick. Push the end of the stick in the fold to help hold the foam open while the glue dries, 15 minutes.  When it's dry gently squeeze it shut and let it dry overnight.

 Point the ends with a pair of scissors and you're ready to swab some varnish.

 The wider, 1", ones were nice in the big nose rib gussets but you need the flexibility of the coffee stirrer stick.

In the end the only ones that worked well were the 3/4" wide ones for all inside surfaces.  You can feel it slide easier as you get the wood coated with varnish.  It doesn't take much varnish to do the deed.  That little piece of foam will hold a lot more varnish than you need.

 This would be a fools mission without the rotating stand.  I varnished from one side of the wing on a couple ribs, then walked around and did it from the other side.  Then I rotated the wing 180 degrees and did from each side again.  It's slow but you miss a lot of little spots from any one position.  It takes about 2 - 3 hours per coat per wing and uses 1 1/2 to 2 quarts per coat per wing.

I got 2 - 4 ribs per swab before they started falling apart, so I made a bunch of them.

 I borrowed my wife's Handy Paint Pail.  It has a clear plastic liner, a strap to hold it on your hand, and a magnet to hold the brush while using a swab or rotating the wing.  Much easier than holding a quart can, which I kept tipping and pouring varnish on the ground.  At $45 per gallon you do not want in poured on the ground.

Along with the swabs I'm using a 1" brush for everything not needing the swab.

 By the end of the first coat I was getting pretty good at this.

 I decided I needed a can for cleaning the brush.  There are a lot of solids which settle to the bottom.  They make a mess when you stir them up cleaning the brush.  I made a grid from 1/2" hardware cloth with the edges folded down so there is about 2" for yuck to accumulate.  The paint thinner is an inch or so above the grid.  It works great.

 Finally a wing with 2 coats of varnish.  I still need to put 2 coats of epoxy varnish where ever the fabric will touch.  It's about $90 per quart so it only goes where fabric will touch.  The solvents in Dope or Poly-Brush will lift regular varnish if it's not protected with the epoxy varnish.  It needs to dry for a week or so before putting on the fabric so no rush this minute.  I only put 1 coat of spar varnish on areas getting the epoxy varnish.

After taking the pictures of the wing I went inside to work on our big printer which we use for printing banners and tee shirt transfers.  There were these nice foam swabs I'd forgotten all about.  They work great in the small areas and the 3/4" homemade ones work great in the nose ribs.  We buy them in packs of 50 from our distributor, but I've seen packs of 200 for $18 on line.

On to the next wing.