About a year after Osp was delivered PA determined that the fin and rudder needed reinforcing, and sent me a kit with oversleeves to be riveted over the existing tubing.
Further testing determined the oversleeves were not necessary, but by this time I had already installed them. The SeaRey LSA/X is a little porker, a kit that used to come in under 900# often now weighs in the 1,000# range, leaving a small payload envelope to stay below the 1,435# max weight for an amphib. In addition, the SeaRey has a long tail moment and a short nose, meaning any excess weight in the tail requires more to compensate in the nose. Removing them would have left the structure weakened as a result of the holes I had drilled, so I was caught in a Catch-22.
After debating it, I decided to go ahead and acquire new stab frames, and while I was at it I acquired the new Friese ailerons. I'll fly Osp with the "Classic" ailerons, then switch to the newer ones at a date in the future if I want. By building them now I'd be able to paint everything at once and match the paint.
We've been there and done this before, but boiled linseed oil is still a sticky mess to apply and clean up.
and review old photos about previous assembly/covering days.
I really had to take a breath and ask myself if I wanted to do this again, if it was worth saving the weight. A quick slice of a knife ended the debate.
That's a lot of junk off a single stab.
A beat up hangar scale showed just under 2# removed, I stopped at the post office on the way home and got a more accurate reading of 2.1#/side, leading to a 4.2# weight removal from the tail, and saving an undetermined amount of weight I would have needed to add to the nose to counter the oversleeves. Worth it.
A long time ago...
It's not the years, it's the (s)miles.
Further testing determined the oversleeves were not necessary, but by this time I had already installed them. The SeaRey LSA/X is a little porker, a kit that used to come in under 900# often now weighs in the 1,000# range, leaving a small payload envelope to stay below the 1,435# max weight for an amphib. In addition, the SeaRey has a long tail moment and a short nose, meaning any excess weight in the tail requires more to compensate in the nose. Removing them would have left the structure weakened as a result of the holes I had drilled, so I was caught in a Catch-22.
After debating it, I decided to go ahead and acquire new stab frames, and while I was at it I acquired the new Friese ailerons. I'll fly Osp with the "Classic" ailerons, then switch to the newer ones at a date in the future if I want. By building them now I'd be able to paint everything at once and match the paint.
We've been there and done this before, but boiled linseed oil is still a sticky mess to apply and clean up.
Prep the hangar...
and review old photos about previous assembly/covering days.
I really had to take a breath and ask myself if I wanted to do this again, if it was worth saving the weight. A quick slice of a knife ended the debate.
That's a lot of junk off a single stab.
A beat up hangar scale showed just under 2# removed, I stopped at the post office on the way home and got a more accurate reading of 2.1#/side, leading to a 4.2# weight removal from the tail, and saving an undetermined amount of weight I would have needed to add to the nose to counter the oversleeves. Worth it.
A long time ago...
It's not the years, it's the (s)miles.
Covering is FUN!!
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