I thought I would update folks on my progress on our “Epic Sport” fastback tri-gear aircraft. Mostly we’ve been working on restoring a hangar at our airport to give us more space to work in. We call ourselves the “Hangar Management” crew.
Just to help out while David has been building the tailwheel wrap around vision prototype I bought a rib kit for the “Epic Sport” awhile back. I got a “full-sized” rib drawing from David, but, being the fanatic type I am, was concerned about the shrinking and swelling of the paper drawing, so I did up a scale drawing with all the measurements I took off the full sized drawing and sent it to David to check. He very kindly made the decision to send me an actual “Epic Sport” rib to check against, which I received this Saturday.
I’ve started checking the dimensions and have found that, while my drawing might well be considered close enough, I can certainly make it closer to the actual rib. I’ll be working on that. Hopefully I’ll be able to send this rib on to another plans and rib kit pre-purchaser who can use it in making a rib jig or checking their own work.
It appears that the section will have a shorter chord than I had first thought and is thus a bit thicker proportionally. I’ll be very interested to get the final plans so I can add the plywood nose ribs and see what the actual section is like. I think it should be pretty close to a simple high coefficient of lift section, which should be quite suitable for low speed landings and short take off runs. Even though Eastport has a great paved runway over 4,000 feet long we are in an area where for safety’s sake the ability to get in and out of small areas is a smart thing to have.
I'm just finding time to start on the rib jig now. Since the ultimate goal is to have high school students work with us on building "Epic Sports", I'm trying to design all jigs to be permanent fixtures that will be used over and over. Not just for one aircraft.
This summer we had to slow up a bit in the really hot weather on the restoration of our hangar. The roofing work would just have been too hot in mid-summer and our son-in-law Rob and our daughter Heather had a huge amount of plumbing to do getting their Eastport house ready to open as a small Bed and Breakfast. However in the second half of August we were able to get back to finishing the roof, which now is much better done than it was when the hangar was new. Since last year we replaced one wall, also to higher standards than original construction. We feel like it is gradually getting to be ship shape.
I'm also designing new doors for the hangar. People never seem to understand the wind loads on doors and don't get that they have to be thoroughly held both top and bottom as well as being very rigid. Those should go on this coming spring.
Once the rib jig is done, I hope to do up an Empennage jig, and then hopefully start work on the fuselage jig.
This all goes slow, because I'm pretty crippled up with arthritis and any heavy work has to be done by our young people with me "helping" or being an annoyance depending on ones point of view.
I hope to have some more news on exactly what we'll be doing shortly, along with at least a couple of pictures of the work we've done on the hangar.
Yes, Eastport, Maine. This is an unbelievable little "city". It is about 3.75 square miles on Moose Island between Cobscook Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay. With only about 1,350 year round residents, it has a Victorian brick downtown, with street lamps. A park in the middle of town has a stone amphitheater and granite sculptures. There is a "fun" statue left over from a "reality" show and a really beautiful bronze statue of a mermaid. A Navy ship comes every fourth of July.
The airport has a paved runway over 4,000 feet long which serves everybody from ultralights up to corporate jets. About half the aircraft based here are homebuilts. There is fuel available for piston engine aircraft and jets. There are some really great people who gather there. It is a port of entry so we get to see people stopping in from Canada quite frequently.
Wild life abounds in Eastport. No pollution means lots of song birds. We see deer in our yard almost every day. They aren't afraid and will come to within 10 feet of you. The other day a deer outside and our cats inside were nose to nose on opposite sides of the glass both trying to "snuff" out what the other was. Our son-in-law was followed around by a fawn one day which was just fascinated by what he was doing and commenting with a "meeeh" when he spoke to it. Because of the abundant fish there are large numbers of eagles. I've counted 5 in sight at one time and friends have counted 14 at one time. It is quite common to see whales and there are great numbers of seals.
Small as the town is, there is a lot of woods, with trails to hike out on Shackford Head. Salmon farming is a big industry.
We have an international deep water port second in depth on the East Coast only to the port of New York. Ships come and go from all over the world.
There is a high concentration of instrument makers, artists, and musicians, including a symphony orchestra. If all this sounds too good to be true, then you may find it hard to believe, but because it is an island surrounded by two bays with 20'+ tides which constantly bring up the deep water to the surface, Eastport is about 10 degrees cooler in summer than surrounding towns and about 10 degrees warmer in the winter. This makes all the difference in climate. We have the longest growing season in Maine. Our rose bushes have flowers into November. Because there is a sea breeze from all directions there are virtually no biting insects. This year I didn't see a single mosquito and I don't think I've ever seen a black fly.
If it sounds like paradise, it is for many of us. I understand you are in central Maine. Do come down sometime and we'll show you around.
I have been to Eastport many times; fact is my wife is there right now with a quilting group. They rent the cabins at the camping area and stay from Thursday till Sunday and have a good old time. I worked for the Passamaquaddy Tribe as a silvicultral forester for 5 years and I am very familiar with Pleasant Point and surrounding area. I will send a e-mail your way.
I had a great talk with David Cooper on the phone yesterday. We talked about my next two purchases of Epic Sport “sub-kits” for this fall, various solutions for our hangar questions, Team’s expansion into larger facilities, their plans for using the first Epic Sport to train pilots, and a number of other questions.
He is plugging away on the “Epic Sport” prototype, but because of the number of people who come to him for help on their projects, he has to work in bits and pieces. We talked in detail about the details of what he’s working on. I think the best way to describe it is to say that he seems to be working hard at making every single bit of everything just as perfect as possible. He also sent me some pictures taken of the “Epic Sport” prototype at Oshkosh this year.
Today I’m making up a “For Rent” sign for our hangar, since it is now ready to store aircraft in, and we won’t need it for assembly of components for awhile. I’m also ripping a piece of wood to use a trim on the outside of the hangar. Hopefully we’ll get all that done today.
I hope to take a little time in the evenings and on the weekend this coming week to do more on the rib jig which I’m making so that it can be a permanent jig which can be used over and over, as we hope to get together some high school students and teach them something of working on aircraft construction. After that I’ll be working on the assembly table, which will also be pretty ruggedly and carefully built so it can be used over and over.
Got to tell you Tom you are describing paradise to me and my wife. We are looking for a place like this for our semi-retirement in about 4 years! Wondering if we fly the Cherokee down in a few weeks if your willing to give us the nickel tour! We may stay the weekend ......weather permitting. Is your son in laws bed and breakfast operating? If so perhaps we rent a room there? If not, could you recommend a place? Best Brian 😄
Eastport really is paradise on earth for people with whom it "clicks". It has been said that there is almost an "Eastport gene". If you have it you'll fit in instantly and be at home. Sometimes the bond is almost immediate. I've used the phrase "Welcome to Eastport, everything's going to be alright now." In fact we're going to put that on the front of the hanger eventually.
It is the friendliest and most supportive town on the planet that I've ever encountered.
Heather and Rob's bed and breakfast, while not officially open yet, has had a few guests already. They've had a great time. I'll get information on what it costs per night and private message or email it to you. It will probably look pretty moderate to you. When you know when you want to come, which I suppose will be partly weather dependent, let me know. If for any reason they couldn't accommodate you we can find you another place to stay.
We can certainly give you a tour of the town in any depth you'd like. It really is a pretty great place. If we haven't rented out our hangar for the winter by then, you can keep your plane in it while you are here, but there are tie down spaces empty if you prefer.
Sounds great Tom. Got your email. Looking forward to seeing you and your paradise soon. Hanger, if open is great. Tie down works also. Cherokee is an "outside" airplane. Hanger may just spoil her😄 Thank you Brian and Janet
I got a call today from Lisa at Team telling me that our “Epic Sport” Empennage Kit would be shipping tomorrow. That’s great to hear. I’d already received the epoxy for it which they shipped on receiving the order. I was very pleased to hear the kit was shipping.
This afternoon the UPS truck pulled up with a couple of unexpected boxes for us from Aircraft Spruce. These turned out to be a couple of pieces of aluminum tube for the struts on the empennage and the polyester cloth, MEK, and Poly-Fiber adhesive for covering the empennage. These having been drop shipped to us at Team’s request. All in all an exciting day.
I didn’t get to work on the permanent rib jig I’m designing tonight as we had supper late. Tomorrow, along with some winterizing on the house, I hope to take down some trim pieces for the hangar walls to seal them up a bit so the snow won’t blow in around the Cessna 180 which is renting the space for the winter. You wouldn’t get much snow in, but we might as well make it as nice as we can for the guy renting the space.
Probably I’ll have some time to work on the rib jig and will continue to design the new doors for the hangar this weekend. The doors are a tough job to get rigid enough for high winter winds.
I’ve been keeping very careful track of the time being put into this project. When you read the figures on how long it takes to build an aircraft, it can be quite amusing to compare with the actual time you spend associated with the project, though perhaps not actually building. So far we’ve spent a huge amount of time getting the hangar in shape. It’s been fun and we’ve had a great time with the folks at the airport. Since we want all the jigs to be permanent so that we can have, eventually, continuing projects with the local young people building additional aircraft, in cooperation with Team, we’ve spent a lot of time on designing jigs and doing reference drawings. Finally to be sure we understand every phase of this project we are going through all the performance predictions, which we refine as we learn more, plus load predictions and structural analysis.
You might wonder if we’ll ever get the aircraft done. We’ll I’m older and maybe I won’t, but I hope to see a group of young people getting involved with building aircraft and assembling engines to give them a good entry into possibilities for professional work and, of course, recreational flying. If I get to go up a few times and see a good program for young people underway, I’ll be well satisfied.
As most of you know Team has been having a lot of plywood parts, like gussets, etc. laser cut by a subcontractor. This has now been brought in house in their expanded facility. I guess this happened suddenly and David, who has a lot of experience with CAD had to quickly start operating this machine. Our Empennage Kit has been one of the early projects and David has worked hard to make sure he’s getting the best quality out of the machine. This has taken some time, but ultimately it should do wonders for productivity. I’ve done a lot patterns for CNC work in my business and I’ve seen the amazing boosts in productivity you get once you get thoroughly familiar with what you can do. Some of the students attending our technical school are doing a lot with CNC also. It really is amazing. I think bringing the laser cutting in house is going to make a big difference to Team and by extension to all of us.
Further I think that over time the kitting of wood/epoxy aircraft will be revolutionized as folks find more ways to take advantage of laser cut parts through designing aircraft from scratch to take full advantage of CNC work.
Several packages have arrived from TEAM over the last few days. These comprise the Empennage Kit. The anticipation starts with the order and builds as you get “tracking numbers” for items shipped. When each package arrives it is a real thrill to open them.
It occurs to me that Team doesn’t really give you detailed information on what is in these kits. I think some folks who think in terms of “scratch building” don’t realize everything that you get with these kits and may therefore make a less informed choice than they could. The Empennage Kit as I’ve received it contains:
T-88 Epoxy Polyester Covering Fabric MEK Poly-Fiber Adhesive Aluminum Tubing for the Empennage Struts A Large Amount of Wood (cut to proper section shapes and lengths) A Section of Aluminum Plate A Length of Heavy Duty Stainless Steel Piano Hinge Stock (for making hinges) An Incredible number of laser cut parts of varying sizes (the amount of time saved over cutting and drilling these yourself is huge) A package of bolts, hinge pins, and other hardware. A length of Aluminum Channel A Length of Aluminum Angle
When I’m talking about wood remember that I’m a real fanatic about wood, far beyond what lots of people would consider reasonable. Normally I want all wood quarter sawn. That is with the grain running closer to vertical between the upper and lower faces on the wide dimension of the wood. No grain should be at a shallower angle to the wider face than 45 degrees. Now why is this generally a good idea? Because it prevents the wood from warping with changes in moisture content. It just gets a bit bigger or smaller depending on moisture content. The actual wood I received was very close to these ideals except that the grain was sometimes vertical between the narrower faces instead of the wider ones. Perhaps there is a reason for this, but I don’t know what it would be. In any case I’m not objecting to this because warping is slowed if you can prevent the wood from taking on or releasing moisture, and in this case I will be coating everything with epoxy. Since epoxy has no “solvents” to evaporate out during cure, which would leave micro passages to pass moisture, it is much better at preventing moisture transfer than varnish. This means that my fussy grain concerns really have no practical bearing on the structure, and, other than that, all the wood needs is some sanding to remove a few saw marks and a few areas where planing didn’t quite remove the original rough surface of the wood. Think how much time is saved by having all these pieces cut to size. If you start with a few rough sawn boards you have to plan out the thicknesses you need to plane to, cut them carefully to section on the table saw, and discard a significant percentage which doesn’t measure up in one way or another. That’s a lot of time.
There’s only one thing I still need to build the jigs for the Empennage and that is the “layout drawing”. That I haven’t got yet, but I’m still working on perfecting a permanent jig for making ribs that will allow gluing the gussets on both sides of the rib in one pass and without using staples. I can’t bear the thought of the reduction in strength from staples, even though the rib still would be strong enough with staple holes in it.
David says he’s adding some details to the Empennage Layout drawing and that should be sent out this week sometime. I’ll look forward to that greatly. I’m making all these jigs to be permanent fixtures as I have great hopes that we can have a program for local high school age people to work with us on building an “Epic Sport”. Hopefully this will work into a formal program.
Work is going slowly as I can only spare a little time now and then in the evening due to the press of work. However every minute I spend on this project is really fun. I’m having a great time with it.
We just received the revised Empennage drawings to go with the Empennage Kit we received. They came in late today. The poor delivery driver was still delivering stuff in the dark. I suppose that goes with the time of year. Of course my wife and I took them out immediately and looked them over with great excitement. Later I took them to my drafting office and looked them over in more detail.
The drawings look quite complete and seem to be based on the Aero-Max empennage which saves on the parts counts they have to keep on hand I would suppose. The drawings are all “full sized” which makes for some pretty big pieces of paper. I suppose these days when fewer people are trained in drafting, and shop type skills it is reassuring to the average customer to get these big drawings which they can make jigs from without really worrying as much about laying down measurements. Still I do worry about the shrinking and swelling of these paper prints. It would be only a bit more expensive to print them out on polyester film which is more stable, but what I’d really like to see is a “ruler” added along one border of each print out. That way the builder could lift a measurement with a “tick strip” from the drawing and compare it with the ruler on the drawing. Then he or she could lay it down on the jig base using their regular measuring tools.
Of course this is me being super fanatic. I doubt anyone else would worry about this. After all we are generally talking about pretty small changes in sizes. Anybody who really wants to know how much shrinkage or swelling there is can take one of the really large laser cut parts and offer it up to the drawing and see how much different in size it is. From that you should be able to calculate a shrinkage allowance and from that construct a “ruler” on the drawing that from there on would shrink and swell with it. Then you can lift any measurements with tick strips if you don’t want to simply build the drawing into the jig under a layer of clear plastic film.
In any case I’m having a lot of fun with this project. As I’ve said before we’re approaching this a little differently than most folks in that I’m trying to produce permanent jigs that will be really efficient so we can eventually, with the cooperation of Team, have classes in wood and epoxy aircraft construction for local young people. Possibly we might also do the same for adults as well. My big concern on that is that I know from past teaching in a shop environment that being semi-crippled with arthritis makes it hard for me to reliably work through a long session with a large number of students. Hopefully I’ll be able to induce another experienced Team aircraft builder to work with me at some point to make things go efficiently.
When I’m pretty sure that I’ve got the most efficient jig design I can manage myself I’m going to send copies to some of you that I’ve corresponded with and see what you might have for suggestions and criticisms. I’ve built a lot of jigs of various types and I know it is easy to miss a way to make things more efficient. Very likely someone will see something I didn’t think of.
I’m still hoping to do a few more repairs on our hangar before the snow flies. I almost got to it last weekend. We’ve got it rented out to a great guy who’s storing his Cessna 180 in it for the winter. Basically I’m trying to “tighten it up” a bit to keep any more snow from sifting in through cracks then we can help. I’m also designing some new doors for the hangar. Hopefully we can get to building those this spring. My son-in-law Rob wants to put a concrete floor in the rest of the hanger this summer rather than just the central part. I’ll be happy if we just get the doors on and the jigs finished up.
This is just a quick note in response to a couple of people who've emailed for an update. It hasn't been a great winter, spring, and summer as the arthritis in my spine has been really bad. The hospital's going to try some injections this fall to see if we can relieve the pain some. Having to rest my back frequently has meant my business and my school have absorbed most of my time. However we have gotten down a few times to work on the hangar. We are adding trim at the corners where a lot of air is getting in. The trim and the walls are being stained. The walls are Cape Cod gray and the trim Wedgewood Blue. This at least will probably get done this fall.
I had hoped to build new doors on the hangar this year. I've designed two sets. One set was sliding doors. These were heavy enough that I could see they wouldn't be much fun to open and close. The second door design, which I'm pricing out at the moment is foam cored fiberglass composite. It will be counterbalanced to swing up as one piece. It will be rigid and light, but I'm obviously not going to get to building it until next year.
As "Epic Sport" sub-kits are made available I'm continuing to design permanent jigs for making up the various assemblies. There is a lot I don't dare to do until the prototype flies. For instance, if more "tail volume" is needed for more authority in pitch, will they go to a longer fuselage, larger empennage, or both?
I understand Dave is working on the baffling for the engine now. I would think that is probably close to the last thing needed before they can do some test flying. Of course it is common to have to fool with cooling a fair amount before it is finalized, and there could be other things they may want to change. So it may be awhile yet before we have a prototype that's really going to tell us the design is finalized. We'll see.
You can find this video on the Team Facebook Page, which I reach by going to the Team web site, clicking on the Support drop down menu, and selecting the Facebook Page option. You have scroll down a bit to find the video, there are some other videos above it.
It’s great to see the “Epic Sport” engine in operation. Hopefully we’ll get some flight videos soon. I’m really looking forward to it. I know how hard David works.
I’m not a mechanic. So you won’t see me commenting much in the threads on various engine questions. I’ll only comment on very broad principles. Here on this thread where I won’t step on any toes I thought I’d mention one thing I’ve learned.
Our business for many years worked on engines a lot. We had a great mechanic from Montana named Jeff Lee. He was unbelievable. But still occasionally an engine would be brought in, from outside our regular customer base, that was supposed to be a “mystery”. Usually it would have been to two or three different outfits and sooner or later somebody would mention that we seemed to be good with these problems. I did a lot of these. Jeff was busy enough with our regular work. We always got them running. If I’m not really a mechanic, why were we able to get them running? I think it is worth pointing out the simple process which always served me well:
First you make sure you have the shop manual for that engine. Then you make sure you have any special tools you’d need to work on that engine. That way you don’t avoid checking something because you don’t have the tools. At that point you just put the engine back to exactly the factory specifications. If everything is as the factory specifies the engine HAS to run.
That’s the secret as far as I’m concerned. It is amazing how far engines get from factory specifications, because people are presumably just “trying things” to get them to work.
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