Got a homebuilt Great Lakes into the hangar last week that needs a re-cover. It's a 30+ year old airplane with about 100 hours on it. Looks in fairly decent shape apart from a few things.
We plan to move the seat back a little and yes, I know that is opening a can of worms, but I know enough about structures to do it safely. It is very cramped for anyone over 6'.
The sheet metal ribs are handmade from what I believe 0.020" (I actually measure at 0.019", but did they ever make metal in that gauge?) and the webs are badly bowed on some of them. Under the right wingwalk they actually buckled and I had to shore them up with stiffeners. I am considering putting a couple of stiffeners on all the ribs; they are that wavy and bent. Anyone else had this problem?
It's a Ranger powered airplane and with 200hp it climbs great and it's a perfect engine for this. We all know biplanes need inlines, V8s or radials, right?
We plan to move the seat back a little and yes, I know that is opening a can of worms, but I know enough about structures to do it safely. It is very cramped for anyone over 6'.
The sheet metal ribs are handmade from what I believe 0.020" (I actually measure at 0.019", but did they ever make metal in that gauge?) and the webs are badly bowed on some of them. Under the right wingwalk they actually buckled and I had to shore them up with stiffeners. I am considering putting a couple of stiffeners on all the ribs; they are that wavy and bent. Anyone else had this problem?
It's a Ranger powered airplane and with 200hp it climbs great and it's a perfect engine for this. We all know biplanes need inlines, V8s or radials, right?
