Crazy Eight

Merry Christmas!

Well, between a nasty cold and the NASTY cold wet weather, very little has been done on the airplane. SO, it's time to move it into the garage.

Today was gorgeous and I felt great! I installed the casters that I made up a week ago. Very affordable, $10 a piece? I used a pry bar and a 2 x 4 to jack the frame up, drilled and tapped the frame for a 5/16-18 bolt, done. Now how to get it up the driveway and into my garage. Someday I will need a towing device, but I think I can get by using rope and pulleys to just get it into the garage for the winter.

Tried out my new rivet remover tool, works great, I think I need to buy one for each of the different sized rivets to save time. I'm secretly afraid that I am going to be able to work faster than the budget for new parts, utt ohh. I took out the broken roll bar behind the pilots seat, also removed the data plates for safe keeping, they maybe the last parts to put back on when I'm finished?

Next time we should be indoors. Also need to get the engine off the other plane, got the manual for Christmas!

Changing address to T28A.com !

Hello eveyone, I am changing the address from Crazyeight.typepad.com over to a simple address

t28a.com

I will change it over in a couple weekends.

COLD! canopy work

30 degrees and windy! But no rain makes it ok, I can't wait to get the project moved into the garage. I just want to get the rear canopy frame off. I got the two front bolts out then I decided to remove all the rusty screws that hold the plastic canopy on, What a job. The Sears screw remover didn't work, so the good old Dremel Tool came to the rescue. I cut flats on each side of the head and out they came. But, not without a wrist workout since the rust builds up down in the nut. Took me all day to take off one side, broke off two screws and one nut plate. Looks like I will be resheeting at least part of the canopy frame, on a bench!

And when putting the canopy back together, there has to be a better way than using steel screws.

Frosty Oregon morning!

The Willamette Valley has it's first frosty morning, funny that it takes until December here to get cold, two more months with the potential to snow and then back to warm weather!

Today I will focus on removing the rear canopy frame from the Mexican frame. If I have time I will start removing spare parts off the Desert frame to make ready to sell. Also need to get ready to remove the engine off of that airplane as well, remove the cowls at least.

Daphne loves the fresh cold air! And we can hear the holiday steam train whistle blowing as it runs through downtown Portland, 15 miles away? there is an east wind.