Metal vs Wood (T2 vs VP)

On Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:01:50 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:








The Teenie Two uses three self-bent spars. After the flanges are
formed and fitted with doublers, the three spars are arranged on the
bench so as to lay-out the dihedral, allowing the spars to be drilled
for taper pins. Once drilled, the outer spars are put aside and the
center-section spar is used as a jig for fabrication of the cockpit
and center-section. Since the Teenie Two is assembled using pop-
rivets, construction goes very quickly.

The point here is that while bending a flange may have to be learned,
it is a skill that is used over and over again for ANY flange. The
same applies to riveting, which entails laying-out and drilling..
While the drilling may appear complicated it is actually the same
procedure, repeated as many times as needed. When the airframe is
finishing you will see that while it required dozens of bends and
flanges, as well as thousands of rivets, you've actually used only TWO
procedures, modifying them a little or a lot, as needed for a
particular application.

-R.S.Hoover

Having had experience with both of those aircraft, I would have to say
that after you built it you would have to fly the sucker. The VP
handles like a toad and the Teenie two is damn twitchy and has the
sink rate of a greased fire hydrant.

Ed Sullivan, the curmudge