·:[ Darryl's Coot Building Journal ]:·
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Honda announced at Oshkosh that they will begin production of a small (7-seat) jet.

That front end look so…um…Coot-like! And that wing-root looks so sponson-like.

Maybe they should consider an Amphibian version!

Today was a clean-up and organization day. In preparation for building a tail jig in the basement shop, I sealed up and placed the two wingtank outside. If anyone is interested in wing tanks, they are free to the first person to haul them away.

These tanks were pulled from a set of wings that flew. The tanks appear to be in very good shape.

[8 hours] Following up from yesterday, I’ve now finished the cradel. Here is a photo of the cradle built over the inverted hull:

Here is another view.

The cradle may appear to be over-built. However one of my goals was to make the cradle self-supporting from the ends so that I could build a jig to rotate the cradle from the ends, in order to work on the interior more easily (Russ Milham mentioned he was thinking of doing that, too).

My cradle is patterned, roughly, after Molt Taylor’s, as seen in Coot-Builder’s Newsletter volume 28, number 2, page 5. Taylor had one additional frame member between the front and the leading edge of the wing root. I added horizontal framing on both the top and the bottom of the cradle, and used 2×3 in place of 2×4s where it seemed reasonable.

I still need to check measurements and shim the hull to the proper dimensions (as per Sean Wiens’ suggestion). The cradle construction is pretty modular and easy to modify. All fasteners are deck screws.

With a little bit of help from Kathy, I managed to raise the cradle high enough on saw horses to pull the hull out from underneath. The cradle held together just fine raised up on a saw horse at each end. I then rotated it over on its side (fully supported on the end of the sponson/wing root frame). And, with Kathy balancing the slightly heavier front, I walked it down into an upright position.

Here is a second view. And a third view.

And, finally, the Hull is settled into its womb.

Here is another view.

[4 hours] Continuing from this post, I’ve completed more work on the cradle. Here is a photo:

I expect to be done tomorrow, although it may be Sunday before I can round up the bodies to invert the whole thing.

[0.5 hours] One of the treasures that I snagged from Fran Nealy (story here) was a foredeck, windshield, instrument panel assembly. The dash comes with a throttle quadrant and some instruments. I spent a little time cleaning and inspecting this today.

The windshields cleaned up pretty well. I noticed a small crack in the left windshield (it is barely visible in the top photo).

The shape near the nose wheel differs slightly from my hull, but Russ assures me that the two can be blended together just fine.

[3 hours] I began construction of a hull cradle today. Kathy generously let me take over her half of the garage for a few days. Construction is 2 x 3s, 2 x 4s and plywood. Of course, some of the time was spent cleaning decades of grunge off of the bottom of the hull….

Another view, and a third view.

Perhaps the technology is not quite Coot ready, but the world’s first battery operated plane flew on Sunday.

It traveled 391.4 meters.

The plane, created by a project team from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (T.I.T.) and Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., was powered by 160 dry-cell batteries of the type normally purchased in stores.

A later flight given a push-start continued for 269.3 meters powered by just 96 batteries.

[4 hours] As part of the loot that Russ Milham and I collected from Fran Neeley, I ended up with this engine cooling fan (drawing 807).

The only problem is that the fan is for a six-bolt prop. My Franklin 165 has an eight-bolt pattern. I’ve been wanting to do something in metal lately, so I built a new 807-1 plate for my engine. I built the -1 plate from 0.10″ 6061 (0.080″ is called for, but the old one was about 0.120″). The circle was cut out roughly and then trued on a lathe. The eight prop bolt holes were reamed for AN-6 prop bolts, but I am not sure if larger holes will be required for the final assembly (leave a comment if you know for sure).

Here is the assembled fan. I still have some finishing work (buffing out scratches, and priming) to do, I will replace the nuts and bolts, and I have a unused set of fan blades that I will probably install at some point. But it sure felt good to reassemble the cooling fan!

Russ Milham and I co-hosted the annual gathering of Coot builders/enthusiasts yesterday at the Arlington airport Fly-in and Airshow. About 20 folks showed up at Taildraggers for the meeting and luncheon. The bar was ours for a couple of hours.

Richard Steeves was at the meeting and will likely provide a full report in the next Coot Builder’s Newsletter.

In short, we heard a report from John Kuehl on the ill-fated test flight of Jim West’s Coot (NTSB synopsis). John was present during the test flight, and offered some suggestions about building, listening to peers, and test flying a Coot.

Richard Steeves then gave a presentation on the Coot. (Unfortunately, I left the computer projection system at Russ’ house on the way to Arlington, so we had to huddle around Richard’s computer).

Andy Adams then discussed the new aluminum main gear leg and a “hydraulics in a can” gear retraction component.

Just as we started a round-robin introductions, the food arrived and we stopped to eat lunch. After lunch, many of the meeting participants gathered around Russ’ car to inspected his hull and other parts.

It was terrific hanging out with the region’s Coot enthusiasts again. My complete set of photos from the event can be found here.

Russ and I thank Karen, the enthusiastic and accommodating new owner of Taildraggers for providing us with a great meeting space!

I spent the day with Russ Milham dragging his station wagon and a trailer down to Fran Neeley’s house in Cathlamet, WA, and coming home with many Coot parts and Coot-building molds. Fran, who I believe has owned a number of completed Coots has decided to get out of the Coot-building business.

The short wooden hull can be seen loaded on the trailer here.