dhal22

Here are some photos of a P-8 i acquired. The plane is in very good condition, i see some hanger rash and campaign scars but i'm happy. This is one of the planes that John Gaylord offered for sale. Now to remove the old servos, battery and receiver. Any pointers on connecting the kraft retracts to a modern receiver? Also the engine is a piped Webra, a 1st for me. Hopefully the seller will clue me in on the engine's condition.

dhal22

A couple more.

pitstop000

My Feedback: (26)

Looks good David.

I see a flying stab!!

I can’t wait for you to get her in the air and give us some feedback on that mechanism.

Can you see in the tail at the unit?

dhal22

i've had the plane for a week and just unpacked it. didn't even know until today that it had a flying stab. i do know it doesn't move much but i have not looked at the mechanism yet.

Atlanta 60

My Feedback: (18)

That is Kewl Dude!! Hope you enjoy her!!!

crankpin

My Feedback: (15)

Good going David. Couple question's. What did he charge you for shipping from the west coast? What kind of box, packing, and carrier? There have been some inquiry's on here, a couple guy's looking for flying stab info.

Crank

dhal22

John had the plane professionally boxed for $60 or $65, greyhound charged $50 to send it to the nearest station to me. unfortunately the box was too large and had to be abandoned. it was a box worth keeping.

i am very curious about the flying stab also, so i will try to do some research and post it here.

crankpin

My Feedback: (15)

David - Thanks.

Vince

dhal22

does anyone have any advice on connecting kraft electric retracts to modern equipment? i have stripped the old kraft receivers and servos out of the phoenix and starting to replace with new equipment. around 24 oz of old equipment and batteries came out.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Nice looking airplane there!
I asked that question (about using Kraft Multicons with a modern Rx ) a few years ago, and was told that all I had to do was change the connector on the amplifier.

You should have a seperate little gold amplifier box, with three x 2 wire (red and black ) leads/2 pin connectors that plug into the gear units...
There should also be 1, 3 wire connector, that would plug into ch. 5 in the Rx....change that connector.

Cover My ***** here...I've never actually done it yet though...so I'm not 100% sure it's gonna work.

dhal22

is that what that is? i thought it was an auxiliary receiver. thx, i gotta go check that out.

dhal22

ok so the amplifier has three 2 wire strands and one 4 wire strand. the 2 wire strands are labeled a. pwr, b. nose ret, and c. rx aux. the label on the 4 wire strand is unreadable. the green tabs are my own markings, just in case.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Hmmm....I wonder if there are 2 versions of the amp? IIRC my channel 5 connector only has 3 wires? (I guess I'll have to dig it out and check...I could be wrong ) I bought my set of Multicons from Tower in '76 or '77.

The three connectors with only 2 pins/wires are to the mains and nose gear...the one with 4 wires plugs into the retract ch. of your rx.
Someone with a bit more knowlege of older radio systems will have to tell us which wire to ignore. The red and black are obvious...and I think the orange wire is the signal wire, but I will defer to someone who can tell us for sure.

You might want to consider a different set of retracts though...at least the nose gear, as they can be unreliable.
Inside the retract is a wiper that wipes/contacts on a circuit board track...and since the nose gear is right up against the firewall (usually ) the engine vibration really does a number on the circuit board/wiper assy. and the nose gear becomes intermittant, then quits working...seen it happen a couple times and heard of it happening a few more.

doxilia

My Feedback: (3)

Gents,

I can explain this. I'll gather some photos and post them tomorrow. In a nutshell though, yes, they can be connected - in several different ways. And yes, there are several different amps depending on the Multicon vintage. The amps are actually armless servos - you'll notice they look much like the Kraft servos. They serve as a polarity trigger. The system is double throw/double pole (DTDP).

More tomorrow.

David.

dhal22

maybe that explains the excessive wear on the chin of the plane. the plane is in great shape except for that area. i wondered about the cause of that. thx

crankpin

My Feedback: (15)

DPDT - I haven't heard that said since the early 70's. David, once in a while, some of the Kraft amp's come up on the auction site, plus the whole Kraft retract unit's. They go in the $80.00 to $120.00 range, for a complete set-up.

Vince

dhal22

i'll probably leave the retracts in at the moment. i don't expect to fly the plane a lot. but i do have sets of spring air retracts waiting to be used.

MTK

Man does this bring it back for me....a Webra 60 side exhaust no less. Perfect!! A great engine. I used mine with simple pipe pressure and it ran and ran. You'd want to carefully take it apart, clean it and install new bearings. I may still have a set of bearings for it. I'm sure your local bearing supplier carries these tho. If I recall, they are standard metric sizes

MattK

doxilia

My Feedback: (3)

David,

something doesn't quite jive between those small Kraft wheels (2"?) and the wells. One has to grow or the other shrink.

More on Multicons later.

David.

doxilia

My Feedback: (3)

Request:

Can you take a picture of how the nose gear steering is setup?

David.

Taurus Flyer

David, I read your first post:
Also the engine is a piped Webra, a 1st for me. Hopefully the seller will clue me in on the engine's condition.

What type of Webra is that?
Cees

KLXMASTER14

Yes, throw them away and install a set of Spring-Airs. If you do use them, at least use a separate battery pack to power them, then the worst that might happen is a belly landing.

"Friends don't let friends wreck classic airplanes with stupid retracts"

-Robert

dhal22

david, you don't like those tiny wheels?

i will label the amplifier wiring a bit better:

one of the 2 wire assemblies is labeled nose ret
another one says pwr
the 3rd 2 wire assembly says rx aux
and the 4 wire assembly marking is illegible

dhal22

the plane was stored in competition condition in '82 (i think) and unused since then. i will take a closer look at the engine and report back.

dhal22

david, here are the requested photos: the nose gear is tightly fit into a fiberglass box and wedged with a piece of wood and screws. the box is bolted to the firewall. and by the looks of the chin the nose gear has failed before.

it looks like the spring air wing retracts would retrofit fairly easily, the nose gear is another story. and last photo shows a label that says 'aero composites 1978'.