Libelle

On Mon, 13 Aug 2018 11:08:06 -0700, gregorywheldon wrote:

On Tuesday, 11 July 2017 21:22:19 UTC+1, bertvaneyken wrote:
Bought my libelle 13j ago also from an 'importer', he even claimed
someone flew it after he bought it. Not registered on a glider pilot
nor any trace of the "testflight". Google cache and plain old Phone
learned that he had bought te libelle €4500 less than he had it for
sale.
By then he knew the gliding world is too small and he dropped the price
to a reasonable level.

The e-libelle might indeed rise the price somewhat but the mod will be
expensive anyway.

I overhauled my libelle, did the 4000hr check, fitted winglets and know
them inside out ... but this one will need a LOT of work to look
acceptable, not mentioning the parts to be replaced/overhauled. Only
interesting if one wants to put a lot of his own time in it and
enjoying a great old ship.

Have you removed the under carriage from the glider ?
I need to look at mine on a later 201.
I've found the holes in the side, just need to know how all comes apart.

Take the wheel off first, followed by the short links to the main part of
the rear undercarriage assembly. This leaves the front and rear main
undercarriage assemblies on the front and rear axles. The axles are the
thin-walled tubes the undercarriage pivots on when it retracts. The use
of relatively soft, thin walled tube for the axles is intended to adsorb
the shock of a hard landing by bending the tube.

Disconnect the retraction lever from the right end of the rear axle.

There's an 8mm thread in both the front and rear axles at the end facing
the access holes. Use some 8mm studding or a rod with 20mm or so of 8mm
thread on its end - to extract the axle, screw this tool into the axle
and pull it out through the side hole.

Assuming the axles are not bent, the front axle should just slide out
because the front undercarriage assembly rotates freely on it with a
spacer washer on each side to keep it centered. You need to remove the
two bolts through the rear axle and disconnect the retraction drive crank
from the right end of the rear axle before it will slide out.

If the axles are bent they will be a lot harder to remove - be careful
not to break the brass axle bearings out of the wheel box. The
undercarriage assemblies have a 20mm wide bearing surface at each end:
the middle part of the tube does not touch the axle, which can bend
inside the bearing surfaces.

Glasfaser can supply replacement axles quite promptly if you need them.
Note that new rear axles are NOT pre-drilled and that Glasflugel didn't
use a drilling template, so the exact placement of holes must be taken
from the rear undercarriage assembly and the relative angle between that
and the retraction drive crank must be copied from the old axle.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org