unsightly pushrod access

In an effort to avoid a hatch in the side of my Impcat to access the pushrod adjustment, I placed the hatch in what I thought was a neat location- in the pipe-tunnel floor. I was hoping to impress appearance judges but it's a real pain. Every time I have to tinker with the PR length I have to remove the pipe,adjust, then reinstall. Hopefully I can get it set once and for all, but my planes in the future will have the unsightly, but handy, hole in the side of the plane. Best regards,

>In an effort to avoid a hatch in the side of my Impcat to
>access the pushrod adjustment, I placed the hatch in what I
>thought was a neat location- in the pipe-tunnel floor. I was
>hoping to impress appearance judges but it's a real pain.
>Every time I have to tinker with the PR length I have to
>remove the pipe,adjust, then reinstall. Hopefully I can get
>it set once and for all, but my planes in the future will
>have the unsightly, but handy, hole in the side of the
>plane. Best regards,

That's where Matt put his, Dale. Really, there shouldn't be a lot of fiddling with that. If you set it up and measure accurately, you may not have to adjust it at all. If you do, maybe once, maybe twice. It isn't something that you keep doing.

Hey Dale,
At least you have a chance to fiddle with it. I get to fiddle with the snow blower!

Dale,

How do you like this hatch access? Actually, it turned out better than I'd hoped, but I wish I'd made just a tinsy bit bigger.

Very nice! Fitting a door to an opening-such as a cover on wing-mounted gear, or lid for a tip weight box- is a challenge for me.

Dale,

It's not really very tough. If you're interested, I'll email you a description. The little round hatch screws in.

Randy....this is a terrific topic for a PAMPA / Stunt News piece! I hope that you put something together for Tom!

See Ya

Stunt1

Hey Randy,

I'd love and "E" mailed description of how you did that if you're into it? Pictures are also worth a lot of words.

Thanks/Regards,

Bob Lampione

Bob,

I'm at work, so I don't have access to the pictures.

The process was pretty simple. The hole was cut with a sharpened piece of 1" thin walled, brass tubing. The plug popped out, of course, fits the hole perfectly. The inside of the fuselage at the cut out area has a 1/64" ply doubler that extends into a saddle for the stab. The hole was traced then cut out about 1/8" smaller than the plug so that the plug has a ledge to rest on. A couple of slots were cut in the ledge. The plug has a "T" made from some scrap plywood glued cross grain to the back. It fits through the slot in the ledge. You then spin the plug and the "T" turns behind the ledge, holding the plug in place.

I put a drop of thick CA behind this "T" piece on the back of the ledge so that when the plug is rotated, it moves over the drop of hardened CA and keeps it from spinning out in flight. Just block sand over the whole mess to level things out, and there you are. In the picture posted, you can see the ledge inside the hole, the slots cut into in and the "T" piece glued to the back of the plug.

Originally, I had glued a piece of 1/32-inch plywood perpendicularly on the outside of the plug as a sort of handle so the plug could be spun out. But I discovered that the fit was too tight and ie was almost impossible to not break the plug when trying to unscrew the plug. So I shaved the plug down a 64th and glued a 1/64" plywood cap on it, drilled a couple of holes and made a tool that slips into plug to unscrew it. The whole system works well, but is a bit cramped. Next time I'll increase the diameter a just a bit.

As a side note: in order to adjust both the control throw and the pushrod length, I had to make some tools. This plane has the trick Tom Morris pushrod ends, the elevator end having the left hand threaded piece. But the fit though the hole in the fuse was a bit tight and because I didn't make it quite big enough, the hex end on the pushrod is not quite exposed through the hole. So I made a couple of miniature wrenches, one straight and one at a 45 degree angle to adjust the pushrod. To my never-ending surprise, the whole system works wonderfully. I'll change a couple of things next time like making the whole slightly bigger, but over all, this was a stupid idea that actually worked well. And it required not hardware and is light.

Good Lord. Are the rest of you beginning to see the drivel we in the NW must put up with whenever Randy brings a new model out?

Next time I lose the lid to a Thermos bottle, Randy will be the first person I call.

As I finish with MonoKote, access holes in my latest Impact are simply covered with 3M tape, same stuff we are using for sealing hinge lines. If I ever come to grips with pushrod length they will simply be covered over with film.

Dan

P.S. Love your new model, Randy!

Gee Dan, I'm hurt. You always liked my drivel before. Ah well, fair weather friends and such.

You can critique my classic plane that will most likely be cheap, iron on film.