Spent the Labor Day weekend camping in Steamboat Springs. It was a great trip, weather was amazing and the people friendly. I met an Electrical Engineer named Ken, a politician named Steve, a couple from Vail...Chris and Brittany and two attractive housewives whose names skip my mind. I also seen my friend Pete Vinton demo-ing the Carbon Cub.
My trip coincided with the Steamboat Springs Airfest out at Bob Adams airport. Its the third time I have attended this event. It is not so much an airshow, although there were fly-bys, as it is aircraft on display and rides for the general public. The rides that were available were impressive: Stearman biplane, a J3 Cub, TBM Avenger, C-47, B-25 and helicopter. The prices ranged from $55 to $375 depending on the airplane. Last year I did the Cub ride. Its a great showcase of general aviation to the community.
While I was there I found out that Christina Olds, daughter of the famous fighter pilot Robin Olds was doing a talk and signing copies of her new book, Fighter Pilot. Robin Olds was a multiple ace pilot who served in both WWII and Vietnam, he died of Cancer in 2007 and was a Steamboat resident for many years including his last. Christina had moved back to Steamboat and took care of him while he was getting his cancer treatments. Together they put together his memoirs in those last days so that she could finish the book for him after he passed. Her talk was very warm and heart felt, even though he died a few years ago she still got choked up and couldnt continue several times during her talk. She was very close to her dad and called him the 'love of her life'...I thought that was pretty cool.
Anyway, afterward I purchased the book, met her and had her sign it. I cracked it open over the weekend and started into it. I think I am going to like it, always have loved reading about the exploits of fighter pilots, its fascinating stuff. The cover couldn't have been done any better in my opinion...what a great shot of Robin and what a great title. It is the epitome of what you would expect a fighter pilot to look like...a cigar instead of a cigarette would be the only thing that could make it better.
Here is my anti-hang up bracket. This will keep the flop tube from getting wedged in behind the stiffener. I used pop rivets to secure it...but dont install them until later, doh! I got ahead of myself.
In this shot you can see the other anti-hang up bracket over the access hole. This is mainly to keep the flop tube from dragging over the nut plates (not installed yet) and marring up the tube.
Capacitance fuel sender plate with nut plates attached and my obscure part identification system..."Right" tank, "Out" meaning this surface out and "Flop" to let me know it is the one (there are two) closer to the flop tube.
I got lucky here, the added anti-hang up bracket just barely clears the mounting hardware for the Capacitance plate on the other side. Pay attention to this when doing your own.
Here is my solution to plugging the tooling hole on the end rib. A pull rivet that I had on hand from my day job...it has a large head...and a small piece of alum on the backside. This will suffice...and will get gooped up with ProSeal to complete the task.
No comments:
Post a Comment