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Here are the first set of nose ribs I built for NC41620.

The parts were built using original ribs from N41706 s/n 415 which i bought the termite infested remains of for parts.
N41706 sat outside at Long Beach (California) airport for a number of years (About 1976 to 1982)and rotted into the ramp. And yes it actually had termites!

All of the wood rotted beyond repair, however it was useful for parts and patterns.

I have compared the ribs in the slat area of the wing to their Helton counterparts and they differ in airfoil cross section to the 1942 Culver parts I have.

Hi all,

Here are some pictures of the new instrument panel I built for my airplane.
It is a duplicate of a factory original panel I have that came from s/n 313 NC37803

I am looking for a set of original instruments to put in it. I plan on using a sensitive altimeter in place of the old non sensitive unit the airplane came with.

The old panel in this post is the one without the trim and extra instrument hole

As for me I have used Stitts epoxy varnish and it goes over anything.

Hi all,

I have a spar tip in need of a new section of the spar cap replaced (about 18"). I looked up the procedure in the FAA AC 43.13, and it only seemed to cover splicing a section of a built up spar, not the procedure of replacing a section of spar cap.

Any ideas???

Hi all,

I also gather from talking to old timers that were around during the war that there were a number of all wood or partially wood airplanes during those years that were built somewhat "disposable" and may not have been intended to last but a couple years or so, and hence their quality of construction was lower than would be normally the case. For example, has anyone seen a wood wing,wood tail cone and tail BT-13???
In the case of the PQ-8, its projected life may have been measured in weeks or days.

tires

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post a few pictures of a new old stock Goodrich 500-4 tire like were standard equipment on Culver Cadets out of the factory.

I suspect that this tire's primary application was a tail wheel tire for a large airplane of the time.

With that said, I'm going to start asking around Chino airport among the War Bird people there if they have a source for new production or a re-tread person that could take a mold and reproduce the tread?

Hi all,

Here is a picture of a hollow spar compared to a solid spar.
I covered the center pieces of wood with blue masking tape for the sake of being able to see the lamination lines in the hollow spar.

After further investigation I have determined that I was in error in stating that the holes in the hollow spar and solid spar do not line up. All of the hardware lines up perfectly. The solid spar is slightly 1/4" deeper at the bottom between the outboard main attach point and root. Also the lower spar cap is deeper from the root to just outside the landing gear attach point.