Microlighters

I have recently bought a semi-built Pietenpol Aircamper from Fritz Wolmerans in Kempton Park.

I moved it to my hanger at Kitty Hawk and will continue with the build within the next couple of weeks.

The deal with the wife was that I could get the Pietenpol if she can get the new bathroom she has been "nagging" about for the last couple of years. Well, the batroom is about 80% complete and I have my Pietenpol lying waiting for completion.

Phillip from Bundu Aviation is busy sourcing stub-axles, brakes and wheels for the Piet and I ordered a Chevvy Corvair engine core through him from the USA.

The covering material I will only buy from SA Planes.

The fuselage is about 60% complete, all of the main wing ribs are complete, the undercarriage is complete except for the bungee cord shocks, the tail surfaces basic structures are complete i.e. elevator with control surfaces and vertical stabilizer with rudder. The control surface hinges are all manufactured, the metal drag- and anti drag cable lugs are present. The main wing spars are ready for installation.

I have since purchased a Piper J3 Cub fuel tank for the Piet, a lot of instruments including an Altimeter, Rev counter, ASI, 2 x VSI's, a slip indicator, a pael mount compass, an Icom radio, two cessna 172 rims and a Cessna 150 prop (which I will try to swop for a wooden prop at some stage).

I also received a heck of a lot of different Spruce profiles, all of the required bolts & nuts with split pin / securing wire holes and slots.

The first photo I got from the internet and hope the owner don't kill me for using his plane as a sample.

Nice one. Keep em pictures coming.
Regards
Stefan

Looks like you are well on your way to a beautiful Pietenpol!

I will keep an eye out for the carpentry hangar next time I am at FAKT - I would love to sneak a peek at it .

Justin

Hi, Oldtimer,

I will follow the build progress with interest.

Thanks for sharing.

Kind regards,

Gunter Rostek.

Hi Oldtimer

Sorry to hear Fritz sold his Piet but if she is going to be built then i am actually very happy.
strongs and I hope she flies soon

Mooi man, really beautiful aircraft

Nice one Oldtimer.

I saw Sailor's Pietenpol about two weeks ago at Rhino park. Almost ready to fly. What a nostalgic plane. Can't wait to see it in the air.

Very nice to see you here oldtimer. Start to post pics as you build especially when you start to build the engine. A lot of guys are going to follow that.

Mike in PE
Scratchbuilding a CH650

Cool man! half way done, 90% to go!

So nice to see a wooden structure again.(varnish, varnish and varnish some more)
A word of advice regarding the wing.CAA will probarbly make you do a static load test.
For this you will need an engeneer to design the test.I can recomend someone who did our L-18 design.

Also do the test before covering the wing.This way you can see everything during test and measure all deflections and binding on the aileron.

Good luck.

Theuns
083 742 2928

Theuns,

I will defenitely need to use an engineer who has done this before otherwise another guy may decide to re-invent the wheel and drag things out.

I will start building the wing in the next couple of months, I am first going to complete the fuselage with the tail surfaces and undercarriage. For that I will need to get stub axles that will fit the Piet's mounting holes, and hopefully the C172 rims that I already have.

I have looked at the Aero-muti system offered by SA Planes and that will give me a saving of close to R15 000-00 on the quote I got from the US of A for Ceconite.

Thanks for the offer of advice, I will surely make use of it.

Cheers

If you get to the covering phase there are a few cheaper options than certified systems like ceconite or polli fiber.

There is the local dope from SA planes and Tri-3 from Krugers dorp.

Just a word of advice, try not to put 2-k on the fabric to save a couple of bucks.Even with plastisezer it still cracks after a while and can't be rejuvenated.

Stick to dope all the way through to final collour.I have personally not yet used the local dope, but many bush babies use it so ot has to be ok.

The engineer we used is Frans Jordaan from slick 360 fame and is based in FAWB.
He realy is clued up on wood and don't try to make things overly complicated.

Enjoy the prosess, it is the journy that counts -not the destination!

Theuns

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I agree with Theuns, the 2K will give you a shorter life span than pigmented butyrate. The 2k, if applied correctly last quite long. It can not be rejuvenated but can be resprayed like a car if the fabric is still OK. We do have pigmented butyrate, Standard colours are Yellow and white but we can make others up. Just let me know.
Regards
Stefan

You could get clear butrate and have it tinted to any collour you want by an automotive paint shop.The pigments is not what cracks and if in dope it should remain flexable for much longer.
One problem with dope is that does not have the "wet look" that people like so much.
In the 30's to 60's planes didn't look ""wet" anyway.Dope is not totally dull, it has an egg-shell sheen to it.

The problem with repainting over old cracked 2k is that the paint then becomes thick and wil just crack over exhisting cracks.

Yes I know of 2k that have lasted long, but it is way in the minority.

T

I will have to do a crash course in applying the local dope with a colour tint, specifically where applying two or more colours per panel is required.

I think a weekend or so's apprenticeship in the presence of some master applicator will be the answer.

Anybody in Gauteng willing to put up with a middle aged person looking over his shoulder, offering assistance where none is needed, asking too many questions and in general just irritating the s***t out of him for a couple of days?

It will have to be over weekends as I still have to attend to my day job from Mondays to Fridays.

It's simlpe.You paint the base collour and then mask off and paint the trim.Easy.

Just make sure you first put nitrate dope (2-3 coats usualy) onto the fabric and then butrate otherwize you will pull the dope off with masking.

Butrate does not stick well the man-made materials but well to nitrate that does stick well to fabric.

T