My name is Mark and I'm a Bipe-aholic!
I just joined the forum after bringing home Skybolt N32DA as a refurbishment project. I thought I would share what has occurred since starting this project and provide a few photos.
First a description of N32DA: You may have seen this plane advertised on Barnstormers earlier this year. Completed in 1977, she's got an IO-540-D, 260 horse, with Hartzell constant speed prop. I believe I am about the third or fourth owner. About 540 hours TT. In license as of last fall, but little flying activity for the past 15 years and out of license for part of that time. A tad heavy at 1394 lbs empty weight according to a W&B done almost 20 years ago. There is a smoke oil tank but no upper wing tank. There is no plywood or aluminum turtleback, instead it has old-timey looking stringers behind the pilot's head. The main landing gear was replaced early on after a ground loop took out the right wing. These replacement gear legs appear to be longer than what the Skybolt plans show. The gear seem to be a Starduster Too configuration adapted to fit the Skybolt. The front leg is made from two inch tube and the rear drag strut leg is an airfoil shaped tube. The slave struts are the old school configuration, attaching aft of the hinge line. The pitch trim uses cables all the way out to the tab like on a Cub or Champ.
In addition to going through the airframe thoroughly looking for gremlins, I plan to update the slave struts to the current forward of hinge line design. I am taller than the previous owners, so I also plan to rework the cockpit seating to give more head room. I found stretching out the rudder cables two inches made a big improvement in leg room. Fortunately, I found that the datum line for the pilot's seatback tube corresponds to the latest plans definition, so it is not one of the early short fuselages.
I moved the airplane 280 miles by road from its old home in central California to my shop in Long Beach. I looked at some furniture vans that I figured I could fit the airplane into, but the loading height of these vans seemed alarmingly high. And I don't recall seeing truck loading docks as a feature at many airports. I found that an 18 foot flatbed trailer worked well for this move, although multiple trips were required. The 24 foot single piece wing presents some problems moving by road. I made up some carpet sling racks to support the upper wing, similar to the Tony Bingeles design archived on the EAA website, but modified to accommodate the Skybolt wing sweep. The carpet slings do distribute loads nicely onto the leading edge, but I found that they allowed some motion on the trailer which resulted in some minor chafing of the paint. If I was to do it again, I think I would make up more rigid foam lined plywood cutouts shaped to hold the wing more firmly. The fuselage rode very nicely on the trailer despite being jolted repeatedly by pot-holed southern California freeways. The G meter had recorded only 1.7 G max at arrival.
I have not found any discrepancies so far that make me sorry I bought N32DA. I did find that the lower wing front spar attach bolts are only 1/4 inch when the plans call for 5/16 diameter. I will upgrade these to 5/16. Also I will most likely remove the smoke oil system to help get the weight down.
Mark
I just joined the forum after bringing home Skybolt N32DA as a refurbishment project. I thought I would share what has occurred since starting this project and provide a few photos.
First a description of N32DA: You may have seen this plane advertised on Barnstormers earlier this year. Completed in 1977, she's got an IO-540-D, 260 horse, with Hartzell constant speed prop. I believe I am about the third or fourth owner. About 540 hours TT. In license as of last fall, but little flying activity for the past 15 years and out of license for part of that time. A tad heavy at 1394 lbs empty weight according to a W&B done almost 20 years ago. There is a smoke oil tank but no upper wing tank. There is no plywood or aluminum turtleback, instead it has old-timey looking stringers behind the pilot's head. The main landing gear was replaced early on after a ground loop took out the right wing. These replacement gear legs appear to be longer than what the Skybolt plans show. The gear seem to be a Starduster Too configuration adapted to fit the Skybolt. The front leg is made from two inch tube and the rear drag strut leg is an airfoil shaped tube. The slave struts are the old school configuration, attaching aft of the hinge line. The pitch trim uses cables all the way out to the tab like on a Cub or Champ.
In addition to going through the airframe thoroughly looking for gremlins, I plan to update the slave struts to the current forward of hinge line design. I am taller than the previous owners, so I also plan to rework the cockpit seating to give more head room. I found stretching out the rudder cables two inches made a big improvement in leg room. Fortunately, I found that the datum line for the pilot's seatback tube corresponds to the latest plans definition, so it is not one of the early short fuselages.
I moved the airplane 280 miles by road from its old home in central California to my shop in Long Beach. I looked at some furniture vans that I figured I could fit the airplane into, but the loading height of these vans seemed alarmingly high. And I don't recall seeing truck loading docks as a feature at many airports. I found that an 18 foot flatbed trailer worked well for this move, although multiple trips were required. The 24 foot single piece wing presents some problems moving by road. I made up some carpet sling racks to support the upper wing, similar to the Tony Bingeles design archived on the EAA website, but modified to accommodate the Skybolt wing sweep. The carpet slings do distribute loads nicely onto the leading edge, but I found that they allowed some motion on the trailer which resulted in some minor chafing of the paint. If I was to do it again, I think I would make up more rigid foam lined plywood cutouts shaped to hold the wing more firmly. The fuselage rode very nicely on the trailer despite being jolted repeatedly by pot-holed southern California freeways. The G meter had recorded only 1.7 G max at arrival.
I have not found any discrepancies so far that make me sorry I bought N32DA. I did find that the lower wing front spar attach bolts are only 1/4 inch when the plans call for 5/16 diameter. I will upgrade these to 5/16. Also I will most likely remove the smoke oil system to help get the weight down.
Mark
