1924 - 2024 RCAF Centennial has finally arrived.
To this end, I completed 131 models of which 103 were placed in the North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander NL, Canada.



 

Forum stats are as follows:
New topics            6 - as an aside, I exceeded 10000 posts since transferring to the new site in 2009.
New posts            62
New pages viewed 61,358

Overall, March was a very quiet month

The Gallery saw reduced viewership as well at 8945 for a total of,485,618.

Three 1/32 scale model trucks were submitted from yours truly.

Generic 1920 stake truck

Mack R6oo

Kenworth T800 

This years submission are considerably less than previous years I certainly hope this is not a sign of a forthcoming demise.

Lou

I purchase the wheels from Bears Wood Supplies in BC.

LOu

It is a relaxing change.

Lou

Very close. The Fury was started first and as a straight-wing aircraft.

I am using recycled mahogany baseboards.

Lou

Moving along nicely.

Lou

Nicely done.

Lou

You have a way with metal.

Lou

Here is the 150 gear.

The mains are spring rods enclosed in a fairing. Therefore they look the same as the Cessna 140 for all purposes. The difference is they are shorter and more squat. This is because of the location further aft on the fuselage in the tricycle design.

The nose gear is an air-oil oleo strut. So it was built the same as the Piper 140 nose gear with scissor links with addition of a fitting above the nose fork.

There was a modification for the 150 that allowed for the nose strut to be removed and the main gear legs located forward plus a tail wheel bracket added to the tail cone. This was called a Texas taildragger conversion. It was cool looking and if it was an early straight tail 150, it looked like a baby 185. Only problem was the short gear allowed the prop tips to get close to the ground when the tail was lifted on takeoff.  Aftre flying Fleet Canuks for tail wheel experience, I had a chance to fly the Clubs 150 taildragger. The instructor neglected to tell me about this little issue until I gave a good push on the controls to get the tail up. And no, I did not strike the prop, but the instructor certainly made this clear on further take offs not to treat the take off like a Fleet. Of course a wheelie landing was also discouraged to do this and three point landings were preferred. 

Showing the completed gear for the Cessna 140A

A .020" wire was run into a 1/8" copper tube as in the Piper main gear, and squashed down. The aircraft is a flat spring steel gear leg, so this worked well. The .062 axel was slipped onto the protruding wire and bent to the correct angle. A solder blob on the joint made for a very strong gear. 

The tail wheel bracket was made from 1/4" brass tube squashed to make it flatter then shaped on the belt sander. It took a few tries to get the geometry right and the piece is only 1/4" long. The tail spring was soldered and will be trimmed later. For scale the tail spring rod shown is .062" diameter.