Panel fitting

Today we fitted the boot cowl once more - and to get it 100% we had to include the instrument panel. This is the first time we're seeing the painted panel in place - I just this it looks really good!

I must admit that the cream face instruments are not right for a J model, it was used on A and B models. I was in the US early in my restoration project, eager as any, and determined to buy the panel when I was there. So that was a result of poor research. However, I'm already working to build a correct panel- I've got the hard-to-find airspeed indicator of type B-8. 

Getting there...

Someone once said about aircraft restoration: "When you think you are 90% done, you're about half way there!". I would like to shake hands with that guy... :-)

A few photos and comments below. Next big milestone is mounting of engine and wings. Hopefully first week of February. Then the big concern is if the L-4 will fit in the hangar with a rather large Cessna 177 RG... Done some measurements, but I think the Cub may need to be elevated so that the wings of the Cessna will go below. 

Had to search for gear/coupling components for the generator. Also needed parts for the exhaust system as well as 100 other small things - it all adds up! Propeller is being made by Hercules Propellers in the UK and should arrive soon. Other parts are on it's way now - hopefully the last purchase for a long while... 

All windows now fitted. Working on the strips from pre-cut aluminum. 

Battery box under front seat. Battery is a 12V Gel battery for MC / scooter. Should do the job well.

ELT connected and verified by test. The connection of the ELT was the last task in the "aft section". Could now be closed for a while (ELT needs a new battery in 5 years from now...) And hopefully all antennas on the ground plane under the seconite will perform well. There is a concern that the transponder antenna may be located too close to the VHF and GPS antennas. The tests will be very exciting to perform.

The aft cover put in place. Waiting for the BC-659 radio box which is still for sandblasting and painting.

Remaining wiring and antenna cables bundled. First season will be flown with a handheld radio and without a transponder.  I'm waiting for a VHF 8.33 kHz channel spacing radio with a combined mode S transponder - all with only one remote control head. Air Avionics radio: http://www.air-avionics.com/air/index.php/en/products/air-com-8-33khz-radio-systems . 

Modified gear-legs...

They have been there all along. Well, I exchanged the original MAV gearlegs with the second L-4 I had (LN-RAK). I did not notice anything strange about them - they were restored, painted and hang on the wall. I simply repainted them gray and OD and it was only when we mounted them on the fuselage that I noticed "something" was wrong... could not really put my finger on it, but this was somewhat strange. Walked over to the other L-4 at Kjeller airport (LN-SAI) and compared. Ahhh! MODIFIED gear-legs! Damn!! If I had known I would have kept the ones from MAV originally and sandblasted them.. Anyway, this was a modification done to many J3's on floats. It makes a great step for refuelling and entering the Cub. So we simply glued a strip of black leather to protect the ceconite. With all other modifications to this one, especially birdcage, this is really a minor one.

The modified gearlegs. A strip of leather will ensure good grip when standing on it for refuelling and stepping in and out.

Norwegian air safety board recommends as a general rule using helmets on Annex 2 / vintage planes. I will use it in the test-flight period as well as when going on short fields and "special missions..." I'll show later what I did, but basically this is a chineese motorcycle helmet for the grand price of 30 USD. Then I easily fitted my Bose QC15 with UFlymike - and thats how you get an active noise reduction aviation helmet for less than 1/5 of the normal price.

Breaks looks good, it was a big moment to get it back on it's own "feet".

Status...

Hi all, I'm not dead after all! Has been a while since the blog was updated, sorry about that. So what's new: let's start with the bad news... I had a goal all the way to fly Maverick on her 70th birthday, which is December 9th this year, but that is not going to happend. It might have, if I had sacrificed a lot of time and cold hours in the hangar... No reason to rush it, better to enjoy the work and make it good.

Good news: My cousin Sander has joined the restoration and he is much better than me at most practical things! (also the theoretical ones actually...) And better: there are so many tasks that requires more than two hands, i.e. mounting of the fueltank today - try that one alone!! THANKS Sander, I don't know how I would ever finish this project alone, it's enjoyable to work with you.

So, the Maverick is based in the hangar at Kjeller airport now, no longer in my garage. After painting I had the feeling that we were almost at the point where wings goes on, but if I had known ALL the small things still to do, I would definitively brought her back home. Windows was a lot more work than I thought. Using a 6 sqm sheet of LEXAN, scratch resistant and VERY expensive. No room for mistake, very little left over - I guess an L-4 requires more than 4 sqm of window... Anyway, windows are now cut roughly to size. I wanted one single piece for roof, so the main challenge was bending the lexan in the aft part. Heat was considered - lexan does not like it. Cold bending is better, but no plate-bending device could take such a big piece! Then we figured it out - lets cut a 2.5 mm stripe in the lexan, leaving 0.5 mm. It will then bend quite easily along the cut, still leaving a water proof one piece roof. GENIUS! (we think...)

Furthermore, we think we have found a good solution for shoulder harness both in front and rear seat. The front seat harness is often seen attached to the stick screws but we attached it inside the seat cover. First some sewing of the harness was necessary - luckily there is an "automobile furniture workshop" in this area, and the guys there are really helpful. They might give you a fixed price for a job, then when returning to pick it up they might say "Oh, this was not so much work after all", and cut the agreed price by half... I did not know such people existed anymore. Then again, other expenses has been greater than expected at this stage of the project (try a set of new mags with harness, new cowls... it all adds up!).

OK folks, some pictures as usual. And, the new goal is to ENJOY the remaining work. I'm very happy if we get undercarrige and wings mounted before the winter really sets in. If we can put the engine on and start it, that would be a blast! So it will not be a flight for Mavericks 70th, but there will certainly be birthday cake and coffee! Oh, speaking of which, a water boiler and coffee has been brought to the hangar, nice! But the old electric system requires us to lower the volume of the Bose loudspeakers before turning on the water boiler... :-)  Thats another discussion BTW: What is the best background music when restoring aircraft ??? Tonight there was anything from jazz to Mötley Crüe...

My cousin Sander and myself in deep discussions...

Rear seat should harness: using an automobile seatbelt roller which is mounted to the crossrod behind the "curtain". The black belt is only visible when I lean forward to operate trim, carbheat etc. On ground, the OD green harness will go all the way back to the slot in the observers desk.

Rear seat belts complete. Notice how nice the one-piece top-roof bends towards the rear.

Again, the rear seat should harness. It will go nicely over the BC-659 radio box (which is still for sandblasting...)

Trying out... I'm short, Sander is tall. So we both have to make it work.. 

Front seat shoulder harness attaches to the main belt points - all hidden inside the leather seat. Notice the battery box - a kids lunchbox from the local kindergarden... Wires from alternator going in there to charge - output going into the BC-659 box to power VHF, transponder and other goodies, possibly an iLevil AHRS system...

Really glad we got the bend in the lexan roof so perfect. This was a major concern for some time...

Fueltank installed - and I hope I don't have to do that again... New fuel cap from Univair. 

Paint job

During the project I have used a local workshop "Peer's Sandblåsing" to sandblast, prime and paint some parts. Working with Peer is also Dalius Zazas, a Lithuanan car painter. He was in charge of the paint process which went really smooth. Biggest concern was that after weeks of warm summer weather it suddenly changed when we started painting. Good thing: lots of rain to keep the dust down. Bad thing: night temperatures below 15 deg C which is the critical limit for the hardener. If the hardener process stops it does not resume when temp increases. However, "with a little help from my friends" I got a huge electrical heater from the guys at Aeromech and power from my hangar neighbour Oddan. Thanks!!

Comments below the pictures:

I used Facebook to invite all my friends to a hangar sweeping party, but only my wife turned up... And she made me promise to run 10 km at Oslo Marathon next year in return for her help! Floor was swept with brush and hosed with water. I'm sure that floor was not cleaned since the hangar was built late 70'ies.

First up, final layers of Rand-O-Proof and silver dope.

We decided to start making the invasion stripes. 8" thick, 3 white, 2 black.

Gray color below wings and fuselage. The color cards shows a very dark gray and most restorers tend to select a lighter gray. So did I.

Olive Drab on the wings and fuselage.

Camo Green on the upper side of wings and elevator+rudder. Perhaps we put on a little too much camo. Oh well, the wings will be restored in a few years, no big deal!

Camo on the tail.

Dalius and myself, very happy with the result of 3 long days of work!

Covering fuselage

After about 4 full days, the fuselage is now covered with ceconite 102 and all ready for spraying the last layers and then paint. It was a pretty straight forward technique, but I'm very happy that I had good guidance all the way from Kåre and Dagfinn at Aeromech, Kjeller.

First we did the sides. Then the one leftover sheet was almost enough for the bottom. It lacked a small patch of a few square inches. So I decided to use it and put a patch on the bottom. You know, during WW2 these L-birds were shot at all the time and patched up at night ready for next morning. So why not make a patch here and save 6 meters of ceconite! :-)

I was waiting for a VHF COMM antenna which was in a suitcase from my trip to Oklahoma the week before covering. However, luggage got lost when we were delayed due weather in Chicago and we had to keep open a sheet above the antenna ground plane in order to wait for the last antenna... Thanks to Steinar my colleague who came by one morning to terminate connectors to the coax cables. It will be very exiting to test how the antennas under the ceconite will perform. I strongly believe it will be fine. I have mounted GPS, VHF COMM, TDR and ELT antennas back there. So, the only visible antenna will be the original AN-29-C used on the BC-659 radio. The only concern I have is that the TDR and VHF antenna might be too close. In that case the TDR might cause noise on the VHF radio. Plan B is to use the AN-29-C antenna, possibly modified with a modern VHF whip antenna on the top.

All in all a great week with a leap forward towards the goal of flying before MAV's 70th birthday which is on the 9th of December 2014. Next up: getting the fuselage and wings up to the sandblaster's farm. He has a paint garage as well and a professional car painter from Lithuania working there. I asked him to teach me to spraypaint, so that I could say I did it all myself, but he was not happy about that... perhaps I can convince him to let me do the grey colour under the wings... ?

A proud owner, pilot and restorer admiring the final result!

Kåre Hovland at Aeromech. Perhaps the most experienced Cub restorer in the country.

After 3 layers of Rand-O-Proof mixed with a little Super Seam and thinner.

The antenna ground plane. Would have liked to spend more time making all cables neat and tidy, but VHF antenna arrived so delayed that we had to settle for "good enough". Will be very exiting to test range and signal quality to see if the ceconite reduces coverage significantly. I can do all this because the aircraft is in the EXPERIMENTAL category, no need for STC's etc. ELT needs programming before installation can be completed.

Finalising fuselage for covering

After a business trip to Oklahoma City I'm back and with a few days off work to complete fuselage. In Oklahoma I got hold of some important components:
- 1950's USAAF Harness (click here it's worth a look... ;-) )
- VHF COMM antenna (just in case the original AN-29-C is not good for VHF band)
- "Lift-the-dot" fasteners to attach first aid kit
- New fuel cap
- Misc other...

But most importantly in Oklahoma: I flew 0:30 in the famous Reno Racer P-51 Mustang "Miss America". AWESOME!!! And it boosted my inspiration to keep up the work on LN-MAV to get my own warbird back in the air. Performance is a little different though...

Anyway, here's a few pics on whats going on for the moment:

Covering fuselage started today. Still awaiting a VHF antenna to be installed, so we had to stop to maintain accessability to the ground plane for antennas. But it's looking good so far!

Loaded on my brother in law's trailer. Ready to go to Kjeller (ENKJ) for covering.

A skibag installed to enable transportation of 2 pair of cross country skies. Looking forward to those late winter flights to a frozen lake from where we can go for great ski trips. Special velcro was sewed on by a local car-furniture shop to securely fasten the bag. It does not even come close to the control wires, which is important! When not in use, the bag sticking out into baggage compartment can easily be stuffed back behind the back wall to maintain original looks.

Mounted the chart-holder from Dick Hall. 

Timmy

Last weekend it was again time for the annual Kjeller Airshow "Flydagen". Great airshow: Spitfire, Tigermoth formations, DeHavilland Vampire, L-4J "Timmy" and many more.

Great day, me and my kid Ludvig was there from morning to the end. We got a good look at LN-RAP, the L-4J "Timmy". I also got a lot of useful tips from the owner and restorer Tor Nørstegård. 

Here's some photos:

Apparently "official approval" by Disney! :-)

Mr. Tor Nørstegård, owner and restorer. 

My kid (5), he can't wait to our own L-4 takes to the air. Meanwhile he builds planes in lego.

LN-MAV model

An aviation artist living up north in Norway, Roald Olsen, is among the kindest people I know. He is doing some artwork for us at work - norwegian marble stone tiles with custom carving of aircraft. However, on his spare time he makes models. Lots of them. Not only the aircraft, no this guy makes the jeep with the mechanics, the toolboxes, he puts it all together like it was photos from WW2.

Roald made me an L-4 model based on pictures on our LN-SAI, also located at Kjeller, Norway. However on this one he painted the MAV serial number 54417 on the tail as well as my selected "J 43" unit code. The model is in my office so I can enjoy it all day! 

Roald: THANK YOU MY GOOD FRIEND!!!

And by the way: Roald will travel 1000 miles to come and paint nose art on MAV this autumn! I guess he is practising his Pinup paint skills now... :-)