Thanks Guys: Keep up the good work!

Hey..

I never got one, maybe next year. I had to invest $1000 into radio gear this month already for current projects.. Picked me up an Sig SE for an winter project, cheap and it looks like its going to be a fun build..

Anyways, heres our real PA 22/20! Would like to see one done up for RC like her.

Shane

Just to add, We do have wheel pants, I am repainting them right now though. I beat them off last year with a "good landing"..Better said which one of the brackets broke on take off, and when we came in , the pant was upside down, asking as an ski, so it was pretty nasty, Only thing that got damaged was the pant.. I took them both off because it did look quiet funny with just 1.

Well TriPacer fans, I'm back in the workshop. We had company over the holidays but things a back to normal around here. The antibiotics have worked their wonders and I am back to my old self. What a drag that was. I coughed so hard that I tore a muscle in my lower stomach, way lower, and caused spasims in my back. There were times in the last few weeks that I didn't care if I lived or not.
I pretty much finished the detail work on the wing so I moved on to the struts. The struts are the only parts built over the plans. They must be built as a pair, one left and one right. The faired shape is made by changing the position of the 1/4 square stick. The plans show the profile and the manual tells you that they are built on top of each other. I did it somewhat differtly. The plan is used to cut the lengths and angles of the sticks. I set the 3/8 sq on the plan and glued them. for the right strut you set the 1/4 sq sticks on the plan and glue them. For the left strut, flip the assembled 3/8 sq sticks over and set the 1/4 sticks on the board and glue. The object is to have the finished struts 5/8" across the top flat and 3/8" across the bottom flat. This is then sanded to give a teardrop shape to the struts. It took about two hours to build and shape the two strut assemblies. Mine came out better than the ones shown in the manual. Once the hinge halfs are CA'd on, the strut legs can be faired into them. They almost dissappear. The struts get covered prior to their final installation. The manual assumes that the plane will be covered in film and their method of installing the struts may not work with my choice of covering, but I will worry about it just before I cover the wing. I am ready to start the cowl and am a little aprehensive about building it from a flat sheet of ABS. MegaMang is finished with his cowl and said that it worked great. We'll see. When I fit up the engine I saw that I will need a remote fuel fill valve. I have never used one and will take whatever advice that any of you have about the various units available. I saw one made from aluminum but can't remember where.

Shane, What year is your Pacer? It has the round rear window so that makes me think 55' or earlier. Does it have a back door on the pilots side or was that a later option? I have seen rear doors but only on square window models which I think started about 55 or 56.
Give us some particulars about your plane and you might generate some interest from one of the TriPacer fans out there. MegaMang has voiced interest in building a Pacer version when his TriPacer is flying.

Well, The fuel line that had collapsed was dated 1956, so thats original equipment, we built it in 1985.


Let's see.. Lycoming 035 150hp engine..

Ask me somthing, I dont know what I should be telling you about it...

Wow, that late. I would have thought it was older. Was it a TriPacer that was converted? I don't have a lot of data on the PA-20/22 so I can not claim to be an expert. I thought all the round window versions were 135 HP but that just proves my lack of knowledge on the subject. I do know that the PA-20/22 was built for a very long time. It was built into the mid 60's and a bunch were made during the run.
I flew a 135 HP during my early airport bum period. It had coordinated aileron/rudder and came down like a stone. The guy that owned it took great pains to scare the hell out of me with steep aproaches into very short fields. Note I said fields, not airports. She always arrived like a lady but the last 30 seconds were something else.

You may want to consider a "fuel dot" I believe it's called. It's a third line into the tank and fits nicely into a fitting that can be placed in various locations. It has a nice look. I have used the filler type valves that uses a special fitting on the end of the hose from the fuel supply (pump), but my experience has been they tend to get stuck in the open position after a year or two.
The dot is so simple, there's nothing much to go wrong.

DaveB

Hey again.

Yes it was converted from a tricycle undercarage. We wanted somthing to keep practiced on for our Stearman, so we converted the tripacer over to taildragger.

Hey Shawn, I went back and looked at your photo in the full size format. It is a square window so my original thought was nearly correct. It looks like a round window in the small format. Thats what through me off on guessing the year. Is there an STC to convert it or do you just move the gear. Were the original Pacer conventional gear fittings on the frame or must they be added.
I think the Pacer and triPacer were produced concurrently for a short time but eventually the Pacer version was dropped. As I said befor, many thought that the tri gear ruined the Pacer/Carribean. At some angles the pacer is beautiful.

Hey Gang, two posts tonight as I have not figured out how to post more than four photos at a time. First we have the radio box. This is a neat setup. Servos, recvr, and batt are all contained in it. The instructions say to glue it together, install the componants and glue it into the floor of the plane. OK. So what if you need to change out a componant or the whole radio? As you see in the photos I modified it a little.
I glued in 1/4 sq spruce sticks to each side plate flush with the line below the tabs. Installed the top dry and drilled 2 pilot holes for #6 screws thru the top into the sticks. Install the screws and then glue the end plate on. You want the spruce to fit flush against the bottom of the top plate. Then you add 2 balsa blocks between the sides per the instructions. When you glue it into the plane you still have access to your radio gear. Just remove the screws and lift the top off.

OK, The moment I have been dreading, The Cowl! When I first looked at this setup I was a little skeptical of the method employed. A template is layed over a sheet of APS and the cowl is cut out. Photo 1 shows the flat cowl. Lay the cutout on the fuse and center it. Use as much masking tapt as you need to hold the rear down to the wood. A small allen screw is installed thru the cowl into spruce blocks previously installed on the firewall at each side. When both the aft screws are in turn the model over and bring the tabs to the center of the nose block. A screw is driven thru the tabs into the nose block. You're done. Thats it. The trick is to get the rear tight against the wood aft of the firewall, then pull the forward tabs tight against the nose. It took me about 30 min. to do the whole job and that encluded a couple of short breaks to calm my nerves. (I always get a litte shakey when some thing must be done right the first time)

My nose block wiggles a little because I had to radically modify the right side nose support to clear my muffler. I will add a couple of very small screws to the cowl where it rides the nose block to stiffen the whole thing up. I also thinh I will find a way to ensure that the screw holes in the wood retain their size and don't loosen up from removing and replacing the cowl during engine tuning and setups.

To keep the holes from stripping out, just enlarge them, and install short pieces of inner nyrod. The screws will never loosen and fall out, but will still be easy to remove when needed.

Great idea, Thanks Terry. Would thick CA handle it or would you reccomend a dab of epoxy?The screws only have a 1/4 spruce stick to bite and there is not a lot of wood left around them. I may have to build up the hold down area but I think it's worth it. If this cowl ever let go it would not be pretty. Made the 200 odd mile round trip to the LHS today. Tried another one and boy, did I hit the jackpot. This place has everything. And more. The folks around the Spokane area will know who I mean. One of the best stocked shops I have ever seen. My eyes are failing a little and I have a hard time reading small print across a counter. They let me roam around behind the counters and pick stuff off the wall and hand it to my finance minister. She followed along and kept all the little bags in one pile. Thanks B&B!
I have almost all the parts and supplies I will need to finish her now. Except paint which I will have mixed at my local body shop.

I always install them with thin CA. You don't really need a lot of grip as they expand just a bit when the screws are installed.

I'm writing this all down. This is great stuff!

Terry, I just tried your hint about the screw holes. It works great. Thanks a bunch.

Ken. You Dirty lurker! Thanks for checking in. You are always welcome to add comments or hints. My building skills are a little rusty so Ican use all the help I can get. I am using some # 1 screws to keep the cowl shaped around the nose and the nose ring. I will get a picture of my R/H nose support so you can have a good laugh! I have glue drying now but will be back in an hour or so.

I have a couple of things tonight. I had to make a new R/H nose support to clear my muffler. The first photo shows the joggle that offsets the forward piece by 1/4 inch. It is made from the original ends with a piece of scrap ply in the center. It is glued up with gorrilla glue and one layer of .5 oz glass cloth and epoxy. The joggle neccessitates moving the slots outboard in the ply nose ring. The second shows how much I had to cut it down to get the clearance required. UGLY!!!

One thing I am doing with this build is to try to add some scale details. At least "scale like". Perhaps the word should be scale illusions. The real plane has fairings at the gear legs and struts so I have been experimenting with recreating them. The pictures show my first attemts at the gear fairings. They started as 3/8 th stick carved and sanded to triangle stock. Then an inside radius was carved. You can see one installed in the last shot. It is not scale and it will not stay, but it is close to what I am loosing for. I won't opt for glass fairings but I think I can approximate the scale look with a little more work. I built these two in about a half an hour without my documentation photos. What do you think? Am I on the right track?

Hey, guys, great stuff.
I got one of the first kits from Ken but just haven't had time to start it.
The weather is getting bad and soon there will be no more outside stuff for me so it will be time to build.
I certainly have lots to do. Still have the T-Rex to do, as well as the tripacer.
I also have a Sig 4*60 to complete before spring. This is to replace the one I lost last year. This is one plane that I would fly no matter what the wind/weather conditions. I just had that much confidence in it.

But I think the Tri-pacer will be the next build on my bench.

channel38

Channel38, I can understand the urge to build the tri-pacer before the t-rex. It's just too sexy not to want to do it first. You really have to give that T-Rex a try though. It'll build quicker than the Tri-Pacer. I'm tempted to put skis in my T-Rex. I have every confidence it'll have no problems on skis.

Roger, Looking good. Have you got enough room on the nose block for a little 1/4 x 1/4 block glued up agains the nose piece and the modified support? Something to beef up that connection since you had to carve out new notches in the nose piece plywood...

Would you be able to duplicate that fairing on the landing struts using a piece of cardstock for the curve, then fill the ends with microballoon filler? Of course, the balsa works good structurally as well.

Glad to see you back in good health Roger

Roger, what was the reason for the blue masking tape behind the fairing? Was that just to avoid scratching the rest of the plane while final sanding?

Hey MegaMang, Glad to hear from you again. As to your first question: since the foto was taken I have added triangle blocks made from both balsa and spruce, depending on where they go. I literally moved the slots. Cut them in the new position and filled the old slots with ply inserts. The addition of the blocks has stiffened the whole assembly conciderably. It is now very ridgid. I'll post a foto of it tonight. Yes, the tape was to protest the Fuse sides while I sanded the fairings. I left it on for the pictures for contrast. The fairing disappeared without it.

Good idea on the tape Roger. I'll have to remember that one. Look forward to the photo of the nose assembly.

As promised here are a couple of shots of the nose unit. The gusset blocks are spruce that were carved fronm 1/4 sq stick stock. They were made a little long, glued in and then cut and sanded to match the contour of the nose block. By a stroke of luck the nose block is alligned perfectly in long and lat with the fuselage. It came out very strong with none of the wobble that I had before they were added.

More later.

I am sorry for the lack of progress reports. We had a snow storm on Wed. and were without power for two days last week. Sort of tough to work in the basement without lights. I have started covering the small bits and am having to learn the koverall secrets. I am beginning to like this stuff. My wife has no tolerance for the smell of nitrate dope as it wafts up from the basement. I had to seal off the airplane room from the rest of the house and place a fan in an open window. It gets cold down there when the outside temp is 19 F. A space heater keeps it warm enough for the dope to dry, slowly. Based on the recommendations of you guys who have covered with Koverall I am usuing the dope method rather than the iron activated glue. So far I have covered the flaps. ailerons, parts of the tail feathers, and the struts. I will post pictures tomorrow if you are interested. I still need to glass the landing gear legs before I cover the fusealage. I am covering the tail surfaces prior to installing them and will hinge them after the are on the ship.

I have never used the Sig fabric but it seems to be a lot finer weave than the coverite cloth I used on my Citabra. It is much easier to use and conforms very well. It looks like it will fill better than the old stuff.

More tomorrow.