Restoration of ZS-UAD, Tipsy Nipper T66 mk 1

[Tipsy Flyer]

Hi Neil again!
Please can you post photo's of your new engine and the installation thereof, interesting subject building ones own engines!!

Regards
Glen

[Tipsy Flyer]

Hi all,
Sorry for the very loud silence of late but things are starting to move again.
After a long wait, i managed to get the correct plywood for the leading edges and now have plucked up the courage to cut up all that lovely ply into the right sizes. Each side of the wing needs 3 pieces and one needs to join all this together.
I built a small scarfing Jig/machine after been "shown" by Dave Taylor, worked 100% and ended up with nice 1:12 scarfs. Dave, been the expert at aircraft woodwork then told me how to join scarf joins etc. I followed his instructions to the tee and ended up with nice joints, Thanks Dave!!

Scarf Joint.JPG (32.42 KiB) Viewed 16977 times

The jointing machine1.JPG (29.1 KiB) Viewed 16928 times

[Tipsy Flyer]

Now that i have all the ply joined etc, i decided to preshape the ply around the LE.
It is amazing how such thin ply can resist bending even after a thorough steaming but after much sweat and bad language , the ply capitulated and did what i wanted of it !!

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Preshaping LE..JPG (33.18 KiB) Viewed 16958 times

[Neil Spooner]

Hi Glen,

So pleased you are "under way" again! Those joints and the LE look absolutely perfect to me, well done.

I need to get off to bed as I have a very long day tomorrow, so will post the photos tomorrow.......the new manifold is a mixed success, good in that it works well with the Ellison TBI, but it is not efficient enough to keep my oil cool enough during aerobatics, so I must find ways of dissipating more heat......ideas and work is at hand to achieve this.

Keep well and post soon,

Neil

[Tipsy Flyer]

Made a fair amount of progress considering i only had today to work on the wings.
I attached the right hand side LE skin to preshape it and the job went fairly smoothly
It will have to stay like this for two weeks because i will be away for work purposes, unfortunately
Here are pics of todays effort

R wing LE preshape.JPG (29.33 KiB) Viewed 16898 times

Rwing LE preshape..JPG (40.91 KiB) Viewed 16878 times

The small glassfibre "wedges" that are the exit point for the aileron pushrods, are in a terrible state, so i quickly made a mold from blue foam that was "scrap" from a friends Europa kit, wrapped with wax paper. Will see tomorrow how the first one looks and then lay up the second effort.

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Pushrod exit mould..JPG (50.74 KiB) Viewed 16892 times

[Tipsy Flyer]

Quick update, the leading edge ply is solidly epoxied to the wing and if i may say so, they look good. Need to trim the end points down to match the rib profile. Hopefully the coming weekend's weather plays ball so i can spray paint all the wings metal fittings
Regards
Glen

[Tipsy Flyer]

Very busy today, epoxied the new wing root ply into place.
Using 2K paint, i spray painted all the metal hardware that will soon be fitted back into the wings
Using my home made mold, i made a second glass wedge.

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New wing root right.JPG (53.13 KiB) Viewed 16776 times

New wing root left.JPG (36.79 KiB) Viewed 16786 times

[Neil Spooner]

Nice one Glen, it is looking really nice.

[Tipsy Flyer]

Thanks Neil, appreciated.
How's your new engine coming along, will you be using the inlet manifold/carb from your present engine or making a new one ?
Regards
Glen

[Neil Spooner]

Hi Glen,
Unfortunately the new manifold does not suit the Ellison Throttle Body I am using, so has been a complete waste of time for me. I must have spent about 80hrs trying to develop it. I think it would work very well on a normal carb', but the Ellison is very sensitive to airflow disturbance both before and after it, it also suffers from poor mixture distribution from side to side, so I find the Stb side of the engine running much richer than the port. I have returned to my original fabrication that I built when I restored the a/c, which works very well, but I thought I could improve on it and add an oil cooler to the new manifold. The intention was to do away with the oil radiator under the engine to allow a cross-over ex' pipe to allow a 4 into 1 exhaust.....back the drawing board on both counts!
What are you doing about ignition? I have found an alternative to the Leburg system, but not proved it yet.
If you are going to build a new VW engine I have found a very good VW enging builder and supplier in the UK. My new engine from Great Plains has been a real trial, I would not recommend them. I have now found an issue with the "nip" of the center main bearing that I have yet to resolve. The LAA are also dragging their heals giving me the mod approval, they have had it two and a half months and have still not done anything with it......what is the secret?
By the way, the engine in the picture is a scrap that I use as a jig.

Going back to your wing..........I made a very light door for my cubby-box with a velcro "catch" to keep my bits from falling out during rolling maneuvers, it is very light, and just a small finger sized hole for a "handle" to open it with.

All the very best,
Neil

[Tipsy Flyer]

Hi Neil,
Sorry to hear that your manifold is not work properly, i know that feeling !!!
If only there was more space between the cowling and the engine, one could then have more options iro carbs, etc.
I have a double sidedraft solex that i intend using, a bit bulky but nice and "flat". A friend of mine used this same carb on his Teenie two aircraft with good results ie easy start, economical and most importantly...reliable
Yes, ignition! I would love to go the "magneto mounted on the rear" route or the Le Burg type route but our exchange rate (money) makes these options extremely expensive.
Was thinking about the 009 distributor linked with a electronic system ala the system that Great plains use. What do you think are pos or neg points with the above system ?
Neil, i fitted a 4 into 1 exhaust system on the previous engine and the effort was well worth the effort. The "vibration levels" improved, cockpit noise down and external noise down plus a vw that sounded like a 'real' aircraft engine I have a example of a tight fitting 4 into1 system, can post a few pic's if you are interested
Keep well
Regards
Glen

[Tipsy Flyer]

Another busy weekend comes to an end.
The flat wing tips on this wing were slighty "bowed" inwards due to the fabric pulling on it for all these years. Now this not a problem at all, so i made "false" wing tips from 2mm ply.
I then glued strips of ply vertically and carefully sanded each piece of ply to various thickness. The end result is a straight "false" end rib which is the new wing tip

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The glassfibre wedge i made last weedend was all lumps and bumps......no good and went straight to the bin. Made a new one yesterday which came out of the mold this afternoon and it is OK Needs a little light wieght filler and sanding to make it 100%

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IMG_3380.JPG (52.39 KiB) Viewed 16652 times

I trimmed and sanded all the new plywood today and if i may say....it's look good
I resprayed same of the metal bits that i did last weekend as i was not happy with the results. Will entertain the start of refitting the metal pieces back into the wing this week plus i will start with the static/airspeed pipes.

[Tipsy Flyer]

Not very productive this week as it was simply to cold(-3c) to work in the workshop. I purchased new piping for the airspeed/static lines and made some new brackets to mount the piping.
The plans show that that piping brackets are simply screwed into the rear of the spar, well, i'm not mad about making holes in the spar, so i made small wooden blocks and epoxied them to the spar. I hope to fit the brackets/piping etc this week.....if the weather warms up
I have started varnishing the raw wood that do's not come into contact with the covering.
Stripped the pitot/static assembly and sanded the old paint off. Now my pitot is still aluminium and has be bent back a few times by people that are to lazy to walk around the wing and simply duck under and connect the pitot. I have straightened it but it is starting to show strain. To add a little strenght, i added a slipover thinwall aluminium pipe where the pitot pipe is showing signs of distress. I'll add some pic's latter in the week .

Neil, how's your engine progressing..........or are you enjoying summer and flying to much
Attended a small flyin a few weeks back and this very nicely built RV arrived

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[Tipsy Flyer]

Work and weather have been getting in the way for the last 2 weeks but i hit the floor "running" this weekend. Fitted all the aileron hinges into the wing and the ailerons. This consumed a fair number of hours as one has to match pair the hinges, the result is hinge pins that one can insert easily and at the worst, small tap with a small hammer.
I assembled the whole lot as a trail fit to check clearences and to check for the lack of free play (wear) throughout the varies pieces.
One thing i did to reduce the "play" was to replace all the bolts with american aircraft bolts. This required finding the right size drill bit to "ream" out all the fittings and the effort seems to have payed off.

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[Neil Spooner]

Hi Glen,

Looking really good. There is a worthwhile mod' to replace the aileron link rods with ones that have proper rod ends. I have these on my a/c and it works very well and very easy to make. The originals have too little bearing surface at the bellcrank end, and too many moving parts at the aileron end, which collectively give a fair bit of play.

My 2180cc engine is almost complete, just the valve rockers to mod' and assemble, pushrods to make and fit. Then make the new engine cowls.........90% done/90% to do!

I have a new inlet manifold on the drawing board!! Also a mod' to my inverted oil system to reduce aereation of the oil and better transition from erect to inverted flight (I get a short period when I loose oil pressure during slow rolls)

Well done with the job so far.

What are you doing about a canopy?

Neil