Welcome to the Culver Aircraft Forum

Bill,  Any chance you can read the N number from that photo?  I can see there is one on the underside of the left wing, but I cannot read it in the scan.

No, you certainly wouldn't be limited to using the propellers approved for the Culver LFA, and I don't think you'd be limited to using certified propellers either.  The diameter and pitch (static RPM) requirements wouldn't apply either.  There would probably be a maximum diameter appropriate to the Fisher Celebrity. 

With a metal or composite prop, you should probably check with the propeller manufacturer to make sure the specific prop won't have any undesirable harmonic resonance characteristics in combination with the 90 hp Franklin.

I ran across this photo of a Culver V with squared off wingtips.  Does anyone know anything about this?

Any chance that is a Model V-2?  The TCDS entry for the V-2 states "Same as Model V except for new wing outer panels, ailerons, flaps, wing fillets and tail fillets; revised wing main panel trailing edge, fuel tanks and flap and stabilizer control systems."

I can't find any photos I can verify as a V-2 and I'm not finding any currently registered.  Does anyone know how many V-2s were built?

With the construction of the PQ-8 and PQ-8A (LAR, L-AR-90 & LARB) being almost identical to that of the LCA and LFA, I doubt there was any significant difference in quality.  Also, there are several examples of the PQ-14 (Culver NR-D) that still exist.  Their quality of construction should also be similar.

I'm not familiar with the Waller two-way radio.  I do have a copy of a factory drawing of the instrument panel with cutouts for an unknown radio installation that implies the entire transmitter and receiver did mount in the panel.   I have a battery powered aircraft radio receiver from 1946 that is shallow enough that it would easily fit in the Culver panel so I don't think it would be unreasonable for everything to be there.  Todays radios are made incredibly deep, apparently to minimize panel space.  I'd love to find a transponder shallow enough to mount in the panel.

Dan,

I forgot to mention the black on the inside edge of the instrument holes.  I'm not sure what Culver used, but I used a black sharpie marker on a test piece with good results.  All the instruments were back mounted using two screws only (upper left, lower right on most of the instruments).  Top center instrument was a Carwil compass, and later an Airpath bubble face.  Carwil sold out to Airpath sometime in the early 1940s and Airpath continued to build the Carwil compass with a revised case.  The instrument to the right of that is either a Stewart-Warner (early) or Aeromarine (late) tachometer.  It's mounted at an odd angle (rotated counterclockwise 45 degrees) to align the tachometer cable, which was rather rigid on the original installation, with the cable hole though the fuel tank.  On the second row starting from the left the altimeter was either a Dart/US Gauge (early), or an Aeromarine (late) both non-sensitive.  (If the notch in the altimeter hole at 6 o'clock has the black coloring in it that panel probably had the Dart/US Gauge version.  The Aeromarine did not need or use a cutout for the setting knob.)
The instrument in the center of the cluster was airspeed, either Dart/US Gauge (early) or Aeromarine (late).  On the bottom row, starting far left was the starter button, then the ammeter (from a Ford Model A), Briggs & Stratton A-7 ignition switch, oil pressure and oil temperature (both Dart/US Gauge). 

The instruments I designated "Dart/US Gauge" were evidently left over from a special run that US Gauge made for the Darts.  They have a white circle in the middle with a Dart logo.  I have or can get photos of most of both versions of these instruments, and I'll try to post them when I have time to get them all together.  I'm not sure exactly when the change to the Aeromarine instruments for the tachometer, airspeed and altimeter occurred.

I've never seen any photo or documentation that had enough detail to determine what the switch placards looked like.  On the push-pull controls however (carb heat, cabin heat, mixture) they had paper decal labels identical to ones that Aircraft Spruce sold until just a few years ago.  Apparently they changed vendors and I've never been able to track down a source for the old ones.  Images of the decals can be found in older versions of the Aircraft Spruce Catalog.

Brett

Dan,

A couple of years ago I acquired a very original panel that had been removed from an LCA.  We determined that the panel was indeed a walnut veneer on a 5 ply birch plywood, with a total thickness of 3/16".  The walnut veneer is "mirrored" from the center of the panel outward.  The joint between the two mirrored veneers is hidden by the vertical, push-pull control trim piece.  I had a cabinet maker make me a couple of panel blanks for mine.  Let me/us know if you come to a different conclusion.

Yours definitely looks like a very original LFA panel.  The only things I'm spotting that look added or modified are the 2 1/8" hole below the tachometer and to the right of the airspeed indicator, the two diagonal screw holes aligned diagonally around the ignition switch hole, and the additional cutouts around the altimeter hole.  It's very unusual to find an original panel that has had so little modification to it.  (That additional 2 1/8" inch hole could have been something added to the standard panel at the factory.)

I think I got the plywood for the instrument panel from Wick's aircraft, and I can't remember now if it was the Birch/Basswood or Birch/Poplar plywood.

Let me know if you need any info on what goes in each hole on the panel.  The tachometer on the LFA mounts rather strangely (rotated 45 degrees counterclockwise from a normal installation).  Do you have the original placards for the electrical switches?

Brett