Wooden Notes

In article ,
John Ammeter wrote:

Speaking of high energy crashes...

A few years ago a friend of mine, with his wife, was attempting a
landing that went wrong. He was flying an RV-6 and, somehow, lost
control of the plane on landing.

At least he was flying one of those manly old-fashioned planes, rather
than one of those new-fangled sissy planes designed to prevent ground
loops and other misfortunes. That certainly must have saved him some
embarrassment.

Smitty (-7A) Two

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:02:37 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Stealth Pilot" wrote

the sawdust pongs a

Could you give a yank wood butcher an idea of what pong is in relation to
sawdust?

Thanks.

I can honestly say that you probably wouldnt know ...since spruce
grows in your locale and neither it nor QHP have any aroma.

pong - an obnoxious smell, in this case the malodourous scents
emanating from the sawn alaskan yellow cedar.

It seems there would be a market for an australian-american
dictionary. ...we'd publish one if only you'd go metric :-)

Stealth Pilot

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:03:12 -0800, John Ammeter
wrote:

Speaking of high energy crashes...

A few years ago a friend of mine, with his wife, was attempting a
landing that went wrong. He was flying an RV-6 and, somehow, lost
control of the plane on landing.

He careened off the runway to the left, dragging the left wing tip in
the grass, went through a barbed wire fence complete with metal posts,
through a blackberry thicket and then it got interesting.... The
thicket was at the top of a cliff next to a gravel pit and the plane
ended up at the base of the 60 foot cliff nose down in between two piles
of gravel. The nose of the RV was buried in the gravel and the wings
were buried in the two piles of gravel. The contents of the fuel tanks
drained out instantly (cut open by the metal posts) into the gravel.

He suffered a small cut on his left arm from the broken canopy and his
wife, in the right seat, suffered a crushed ankle from the collapsing
fuselage around her right foot.

The RV may not use wood construction but it certainly is well designed
for pilot/passenger protection.

John

one of our 80 year old pilots took an international visiting friend
for a fly in his Druine D5 turbi. gave the guy his normal rear seat so
that he could fly and flew from the front seat.
on approach to landing he found that the lower seat position in the
front seat prevented him from seeing much. the aircraft intercom being
a homemade unit that ceased working reliably probably back in the 50's
was no help in getting the visitor to take over so the landing
proceeded.

150 ft short of the runway, on the other side of a country road, in
the opposite paddock stood an old cattle loading ramp built from 6"x4"
timber posts probably about the time the radio intercom started to
quit.

the D5 turbi took the nearmost corner post of the cattle ramp fair on
the nosebowl. the impact demolished to a wood stack the entire cattle
ramp. the D5 then slid through a 5 wire farm fence taking out one
post. the aircraft came to rest on a demolished undercarriage in the
centre of the road pointing to the front gate of the airfield.

I arrived on the scene just as the dust settled intending to take my
aircraft out flying.

The D5 turbi is a tandem seat low wing wooden aircraft which is the
bigger brother to the single seat Druine D3 Turbulent.

The most damage was caused by the sawing action of the fence wires as
the aircraft slid through them. The engine mount was bent but not
broken. The guys suffered a cut lip for the pilot and a gash across
the eyebrow for the passenger.

The aircraft has long since completed it's third rebuild and is still
being flown by the now late 80's pilot.

timber is just as much an engineering material as aloooominum.
the glues are a hell of a lot more reliable nowadays.
whittling and aeroplane is good fun.
Stealth Pilot

"Stealth Pilot" wrote

It seems there would be a market for an australian-american
dictionary. ...we'd publish one if only you'd go metric :-)

The *real* problem would be in making the first "smellobetic" dictionary, me
thinks. g

So it is kinda like how some of our red oak smells like "dog ****."
--
Jim in NC

That Alaskan yellow cedar is MARVELOUS WOOD !!! I bought some of it 30
yrs ago to build an air boat---had some left over to build pipe-organ
wind chests & still had some to use in my airplane-----Look at the specs!!
10% stronger ( and heavier) than Spruce --right straight across the
lines for ALL the strength specs. Can't hardly see the grain, beautiful
white stuff-(till you wet ot or varnish it--then a pale yellow) --I
bought it from a place that made wooden screen doors---(aluminum storm
doors= no more wood)

Stealth Pilot wrote:
On 25 Jan 2006 03:08:10 -0800, wrote:



The Smilin' Jacks don't know what they're missing :-)

-R.S.Hoover



absolutely the case. I ran out of Queensland Hoop Pine that we use as
a substitute for spruce and was walking through bunnings warehouse
(the australian clone of home depot) , what did I spy but some
stunning alaskan yellow cedar. 8ft long with absolutely straight grain
and not more than one pin knot in the entire length and about 30 rings
per inch. I bought them all and sliced them up for the laminations
that form the turtledeck formers of my Turbulent. the sawdust pongs a
bit but they made superb lightweight laminated bows.

we also get a eucalyptus timber sold as "ash" or "oak" but is actually
eucalyptus deligatensis or something similar. I have seen lengths that
look absolutely perfect propeller wood. my guess is $aus70 retail for
a propeller's worth of wood.

half of this alternate wood selection is having the courage that it
will be ok in use, and that comes from an appreciation of the loads
and stresses that the components get subjected to in flight.

btw my hoop pine comes from a guy who uses it to make apiarists honey
bee boxes. he is evidently absolutely stoked that some of his bee box
wood will some day fly as an aircraft :-)

Stealth Pilot

... now corky scott should build himself a little single seat wooden
aeroplane with a 1600cc vw engine conversion done by himself.
cheap as chips. he'd have a ball without breaking the bank.
(hey corkie send me an email and I'll reply with enough details to
work from)

Well, I wuss'd out and went with Sitka on my Wright machine, but only
b/c I didn't know anyone who would murder a West Virginia silver spruce
tree for me. ...that stuff's kinda hard to find, for obvious reasons.
One of the Wright recreators did use it, but then they also had a $7
million budget.

I've been entertaining the idea of building a Chanute-Herring glider
from alternate wood like doug fir or possibly yellow poplar. Anyone
got specs on yellow poplar? Didn't see it listed in AC43-13.

"wright1902glider" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've been entertaining the idea of building a Chanute-Herring glider
from alternate wood like doug fir or possibly yellow poplar. Anyone
got specs on yellow poplar? Didn't see it listed in AC43-13.

Harry...............

All I have is this table, copied from one of the old Emeraude newsletters:

Essence Spec. Grav. Tension (psi)
Yellow Poplar .44 8600
Alaska Cedar .46 9900
Douglas Fir .43 to .50 9000 to 10900
Fir .40 to .42 8400 to 9400
West. Hemlock .45 11000
East. White Pine .37 7600
West. Red Cedar .34 7100
Sitka Spruce .41 9400
Port Orford Cedar .43 10200
East. Cottonwood .43 7700

Rich S.

Rich S. wrote:
"wright1902glider" wrote in message
oups.com...

I've been entertaining the idea of building a Chanute-Herring glider
from alternate wood like doug fir or possibly yellow poplar. Anyone
got specs on yellow poplar? Didn't see it listed in AC43-13.


Harry...............

All I have is this table, copied from one of the old Emeraude newsletters:

Essence Spec. Grav. Tension (psi)
Yellow Poplar .44 8600
Alaska Cedar .46 9900
Douglas Fir .43 to .50 9000 to 10900
Fir .40 to .42 8400 to 9400
West. Hemlock .45 11000
East. White Pine .37 7600
West. Red Cedar .34 7100
Sitka Spruce .41 9400
Port Orford Cedar .43 10200
East. Cottonwood .43 7700

Rich S.


Try this--it's the whole ball o' wax---(Forest products Laboratory wood
handbook,

http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomfr...e.com%2Fsearch
Sorry 'bout the long url----just google the title..Jerry

jerry wass wrote:

Rich S. wrote:

"wright1902glider" wrote in message
oups.com...

I've been entertaining the idea of building a Chanute-Herring glider
from alternate wood like doug fir or possibly yellow poplar. Anyone
got specs on yellow poplar? Didn't see it listed in AC43-13.



Harry...............

All I have is this table, copied from one of the old Emeraude
newsletters:

Essence Spec. Grav. Tension (psi)
Yellow Poplar .44 8600
Alaska Cedar .46 9900
Douglas Fir .43 to .50 9000 to 10900
Fir .40 to .42 8400 to 9400
West. Hemlock .45 11000
East. White Pine .37 7600
West. Red Cedar .34 7100
Sitka Spruce .41 9400
Port Orford Cedar .43 10200
East. Cottonwood .43 7700

Rich S.

Try this--it's the whole ball o' wax---(Forest products Laboratory wood
handbook,

http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomfr...e.com%2Fsearch

Sorry 'bout the long url----just google the title..Jerry


Here it is ---shorter-----www.fpl.fs.fed.us/ - 29k - Jan 25, 2006


you want Ch. 4---mech. properties of wood

Thanks again Bugger! er...VW'er! er...Veeduber!

I haven't built anything yet, but love to read your articles. One of
these days... Started on a trike, no wood needed there. Maybe this
spring I'll get it done. Got the hang glider, the motor, prop, whels,
just gotta design(AutoCad) and build the frame. Still playing with the
layout.

So you still surfing or what? I'm guessing you used to surf. Just a
wild guess.

The Monk