John Teetsel

Arnie, I never knew you were a rotor head!! 8) 4600 hrs in H-16's and H-21's? Those old flying mid-airs? And you're alive to tell about it? <bows lowly> Wow, I'm impressed.

When I came back from Vietnam I was assigned as an IP at the Primary Helicopter Training Center where we'd take kids off the street, straight from Basic Infantry Training, aka Boot Camp, and put 'em behind the controls of a helicopter. If they didn't learn to hover in 10 hours or solo in 20, they got to go to Advanced Infantry Training. Flight School was intensive training - ground school for 6 hours a day - flight training for another 6, with harassment and extra duty every step of the way. Lots of guys quit. Quit to become grunts! Amazing! Yea, it was tough training. The only students I ever thought might not make it were, you guessed it, guys who had a "fixed rotor" license that they'd picked up before their time with Uncle Sam. The fixed wing guys were universally afraid of stalling on approach, just as their training had taught them. Helicopters, of course, transition from forward flight to a hover and things happen quickly during that transition - add collective pitch, add throttle, add left pedal, slight forward cyclic (everything's happening at once) and the vibrations and noise pick up dramatically for a few seconds then settle back down as you come to hover. It feels a bit like a stall in an airplane. I had one fella who was an Instrument Flight Examiner with 1500 hrs who could barely make it around the pattern. I thought he was going into cardiac arrest every time we got within 100' of the ground and autorotations (engine out landings) were his worst nightmare come true. It took a real serious talk about the Infantry Experience to get him over what turned out to be a fear of the vibrations peculiar to the type of helicopter we were flying. Transitioning from airplanes to helicopters can be done, you just have to put your airplane habits on hold while you do it. It

I manage the heat by using an "ice bath" set up sort of like a double boiler. Mix the gouge in a disposable plastic cup and have another cup of the same size, partly full of ice water, at the ready. Once mixed, just set the epoxy cup into the cup of iced water and take all the time you want. If the epoxy gets too thick, just seperate the cups for a few minutes and it thins right out. This works for unthinned epoxy applied with a brush or thickened epoxy applied with a spatula or putty knife. If you're using a roller, put the ice water into a roller tray, insert a plastic tray liner and pour the epoxy into the liner. This technique has been tested and certified up to 115 degrees in the shade. :wink:

Sailing and flying are both very challenging, very satisfying, and as you point out, very expensive. It's been a while since I've slipped the surly bonds of earth, but this is how I earned my keep in the previous incarnation. Cobra IP.

$20,000? What's that color scheme again? :wink: That fellow has an eye for quality workmanship.

Thanks for the input everyone. Phil, I'd thought of using individual bolts, maybe even a metric size to get a better fit, but wondered if it might result in some play between the upper and lower sets of eyebolts. Thanks for answering that for me.

The plans call for 5/16" eyebolts screwed thru the rudder box and stern post to mount the rudder assembly to the boat. The "eye" of a 5/16" eyebolt is about 3/4" dia but the plans say to use 3/8" threaded rod to connect the two pair of eyebolts (top & bottom). That's an awfully sloppy connection. What am I missing? Anyone have a "Plan B"?

Hi Abe. I think I remember you said in some posts from way back when that you had to move over some REALLY rugged terrain. Glad to hear you're making progress. Your steering setup is very clever. Thanks for sharing the ideas.

Richard, how will you deal with the stem and stern attachments? I'm referring to how the three pieces overlap to support each other.

Sure Richard, it's pretty simple really. The problem is that the boat gets stern down/bow up as weight (people in most cases) piles into the cockpit. One solution is to counter this weight aft with weight forward and our friend Beaker has done this most ingeniously with his ballast bulbs. Another solution is to make the boat capable of carrying more weight aft by widening the stern which, coincidentally, increases the overall stability of the boat. The downside is that it slows the boat a bit, but these aren

Since you're in the early stages of construction, why not consider widening the stern by a few inches? It goes a long way to adding stability with a small sacrifice in speed, no appreciable change in looks and adds considerably to the room and comfort in the cockpit. I added 8" at the stern (4" each side) and gradually worked back to the stock dimensions at station #8 on the hull bottom. Similar on the deck measurements. Standard at station #11 adding 4

Seems that with the change in sites that the original post went to internet na-na land so here goes again. Is there any particular reason that the front of the lazarette doesn't go all the way to the hull sides? The only thing I can think of is to ventilate the lazarette. The problem is that the gap leaves an opening in the seats' aft storage compartment for things to slip out and water to get in. I'm thinking of extending it to meet the hull and just using a hole saw to drill a couple of vents near the top. Am I missing something?

I feel your pain! It was 110 here in Phoenix yesterday. I mix the epoxy in an cooler full of ice water, pour it into a paint tray liner sitting in ice water, then slather it onto the parts and clamp it all up. Quickly.

I don't know if Ace or HD has made it to Belgium yet. :wink: Assuming you're going to use epoxy on the fiberglass, it's just as easy to use epoxy as a glue for the entire boat. The advantage to epoxy is that it works well on a less than perfect joint. Waterproof polyurethane glues like Titebond, Elmer's ProBond and Gorilla Glue need a pretty tight fit and lots of clamps to give maximum strength. Most are cheaper than epoxy, about $20 US for a gallon of Titebond II (you get a longer open time w/ Titebond II), vs about $55-$65 for the same amount of epoxy. Gorilla Glue is about the same cost as epoxy and gets mixed reviews on ease of use as it foams up a bit as it sets up and the squeeze out has to be cleaned up. I have no personal experience w/ Gorilla but like TBII very much for the right application. Check here (and Google of course) for more info. http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/showoff.cfm?&DID=6&ObjectGroup_ID=217&CATID=63 Good luck.

The "Swallows and Amazons" series was a real treat. Some may consider it a childrens' story but I was thoroughly entertained. Young at heart would be my explination. I'm listening to the O'Brian series on tape as I drive to and from work and it is great. Enjoy your cruise. Watch out for those "all you can eat buffets". :wink:

The "Wanted: Advice from experienced sanders." thread and some of the pithy posts it garnered, reminded me how much I dislike sanding so I decided to do something about it. I'm going the peel ply route. Basically, peel ply is a light weight dacron or nylon fabric that is laid over the wetted out fiberglass. The resin is squeegeed a second time to wet out the peel ply and you have a beer while everything sets up. Before everything gets rock hard, the peel ply is removed and you're left with a smooth, amine blush free, practically ready to paint surface. Doesn't that sound wonderful?!! I tried a test batch last night using some fabric from a fabric store. The results were satisfactory, but the cost wasn't. About $6 a running yard for some dacron. I shopped the net and found various products from $7.75 to $2.57. The good news is that the real stuff, authentic peel ply called "Econo Ply J", in a 60" width by 25 yard roll is available from the manufacturer for $45 + shipping. (Probably spend that much on sandpaper anyway. :wink: ) Works out to about $2 a running yard and should be plenty to do even a Vacationer. Check it out at Airtech Online. https://www.airtechonline.com/airtechstore/product.asp?dept%5Fid=5&pf%5Fid=0075

Well all I know anyway. In an effort to repay the many contributors at this site, I

That's correct, drawing #2, on page 3. Look at the left side, center of the page and you'll find the dimensions of the piece labled "DEADWOOD". When you've found that drawing, look at the shaded drawing of the keel and stem pieces just below the drawing of the deadwood. The deadwood fills the area above the keel from station 3 forward to the stem. Without it, there would be a large void there. It's shown as a non-shaded piece on the shaded keel/stem drawing on the same page. From Belgium! I spent some time in your lovely country a few years ago. What excellent beers you have. Brugge was a delight. Welcome!

Glen-L has 7" short nap rollers especially for epoxy @ 2.49/pair http://www.glen-l.com/supplies/appli-supplies.html Jamestown has 7" @ 2.07/pair and 9" @ 2.22/pair http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/store/entries/index_paint_supplies.html?L+scstore+zhyv9128ffc893c8+1056858118 I like Glen-L microballoons, 4.77/lb, because they're white as opposed to the purple/brown fillers found elsewhere. If mixed with a little sanding dust, you can match the color of your wood very closely. http://www.glen-l.com/supplies/fillers.html#

The 5" size is only $23 and they open and close too. Replace the mirror with plexiglass and you're ready to go. Mounting with bedding compound would be simple enough. "Brass Porthole Mirrors These beautiful brass mirror replicas of old time steamer ship portholes open and close like an actual porthole. Measurements are overall diameter of porthole. You could also use these as picture frames by removing the mirror. " http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=N&Product_Code=n-BPM&Category_Code=portholes

It doesn't get any more authoritative than that.

Looks finest kind.

Jake those look great. Did you make the scroll work or is store bought?