tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
It's a sickness.
Remember when I posted a while back about how my trailer got blown over in the wind? I think that was back in May. Thankfully my glider was OK but the trailer needed some work. I had been planning on storing my glider in the trailer down here in Kansas. I also had been planning on doing some work on the trailer to get it sealed up better and generally a better place for a glider to live.
Well havin a couple 2-3 foot long gashes in the skin of the trailer sort of moved those plans ahead. It seems like I've been spending at least 3 evenings a week on that trailer, plus several weekends.
Stage was was destruction. That part was easy but I still spent too much time on it. Pull the old skins off, pull up the floorboards, drill out all the old rivets. Save what was worth saving (not much). Then we started evaluating the frame. Most of the trailer is made from steel angle pieces. no tubes to rust from the inside out which is nice. Some of the pieces were rusted beyond repair, so the plasma cutter took care of them. Then it was time to clean the rust off. I found a sandblasting outfit in town.
I scheduled the sandblasting for what turned out to be one of our first 100 degree days. My cars cooling system did not appreciate that. so it was a pretty slow drive through town pulling this trailer that was just a frame with no fenders, no tail lights, no nothing. I was hoping to take the interstate and minimize exposure to police. Either way we made it, and later I pulled about 5 handfuls of cottonwood seeds off my radiator, which helped the car run a LOT cooler.
In my free time I'd been working on the glider. I sort of self grounded after my flights before memorial day. I decided I needed to dedicate some time to finish up my new instrument panel. What better time than when I would have the glider in the hangar while I was working on the trailer. I've got the Microair 760 radio to put in, as well as a Garmin transponder that I bought, and an old audio variometer that Pete found for me. I also picked up a cool voltmeter. So I've got a lot of work to do that involves my favorite thing (not!), electrons. I mounted the speaker and mic for the radio, made a new antenna that I think will work great, made a wiring harness for the transponder and bought a bigger battery.
So the trailer gets sandblasted and primed, coming in a few hundred bucks under budget (woohoo!). On the way back out to Harry's house, I stop at Redneck Trailer supply and quickly spend the difference. New leaf springs, new lights, new wire for the lights, a new jack thing for the tounge, a new hitch. new new new new new.
Now cosmic influences come into play. According to the Kansas Soaring Association, the first full moon after the summer solstice has something to do with the sign of kapricorn. Therefore, the first saturday after the first full moon after the summer solstice has been declared the annual date of the Kansas Kowbell Klassic. It's not associated in any way shape or form with that other KKK group, btw.
the Kowbell is a straight out distance contest. Anyone can compete. This is my kind of flying, floating with the wind for as long as possible. Of course in order to compete its advisable to have a glider and a trailer that is roadworthy. So far in my story my trailer needs a lot of work.
Time to kick into high gear. I got a bunch of angle iron and square tube. Leah and I had a priming party, getting all of the new stuff primed and touching up the job done on the trailer. Then we started replacing the pieces that had been removed from the trailer, and running the square tobe along the bottom of the trailer frame to provide extra bending strength and a place to rivet skins to. Oh did I mention that i bought a bunch of surplus aluminum from work to cover this thing?
Letsee the days have been blending together for the last week or so. We had friday before July 4 off work so I spent the day welding. Welded all sorts of things. By the end of the day the frame was basically ready for whatever came next. On july 4 we flew, because we could. Sunday was more work, maybe taking the old leaf springs off and figuring out how to attach the new stuff. From there on out we welded on the new leaf spring brackets, pulled out the old brake lines, put the new springs in and got new Ubolts and put the old axle back on. Painted the whole trailer with Rustoleum White. It looks great now. Oh of course I replaced the hitch with a nice new one. The old one was pretty crooked after a jacknifing incident.
We started to realize this week that it was going to take an incredible effort to get the trailer enclosed by friday night. So we decided it doesnt have to be completely enclosed. If we can get the back ramp on and the front end, it will be good enough to attach the glider in. Plenty of open glider trailers out there. Skins can go on later. So I attached the hardware for mounting the glider to the trailer, and hooked up the trailer lights (they work!)
So two days to go to the Kowbell. 2 days out is important in my soaring, as Dr. Jack's soaring forecast go out 2 days. So this morning I check the forecast and its looking pretty good!! Like it could be great! So now I'm borderline uncontrollably excited.
Tonight I have to get the last elevator attach bracket bolted to the trailer, finish riveting the rear ramp, secure the light wiring, and get the fenders mounted. Then it will be out to the gliderport to solder some fuses and a switch and a few connectors. Then I'll need to button up the rest of the panel and the glider will be more or less ready to go. Tommorow I can do some fitting of the glider to the trailer. Need to drill holes in some new angle for the wing attachments and put in the tailwheel attachment. Actually need to have the wings and fuse in the glider to do that stuff though. I probably should come up with some better control locks too since the glider will be blowing in the breeze.
So anyway, I've been pretty busy with this little project. I've only flown the glider 4 hrs this year (2 flights). I'm pretty sure my hourly operating cost for the season has been something comparable to a Cessna 421 or maybe a VLJ. But man, once I get the aluminum and a paint job on that trailer, its going to be niiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Remember when I posted a while back about how my trailer got blown over in the wind? I think that was back in May. Thankfully my glider was OK but the trailer needed some work. I had been planning on storing my glider in the trailer down here in Kansas. I also had been planning on doing some work on the trailer to get it sealed up better and generally a better place for a glider to live.
Well havin a couple 2-3 foot long gashes in the skin of the trailer sort of moved those plans ahead. It seems like I've been spending at least 3 evenings a week on that trailer, plus several weekends.
Stage was was destruction. That part was easy but I still spent too much time on it. Pull the old skins off, pull up the floorboards, drill out all the old rivets. Save what was worth saving (not much). Then we started evaluating the frame. Most of the trailer is made from steel angle pieces. no tubes to rust from the inside out which is nice. Some of the pieces were rusted beyond repair, so the plasma cutter took care of them. Then it was time to clean the rust off. I found a sandblasting outfit in town.
I scheduled the sandblasting for what turned out to be one of our first 100 degree days. My cars cooling system did not appreciate that. so it was a pretty slow drive through town pulling this trailer that was just a frame with no fenders, no tail lights, no nothing. I was hoping to take the interstate and minimize exposure to police. Either way we made it, and later I pulled about 5 handfuls of cottonwood seeds off my radiator, which helped the car run a LOT cooler.
In my free time I'd been working on the glider. I sort of self grounded after my flights before memorial day. I decided I needed to dedicate some time to finish up my new instrument panel. What better time than when I would have the glider in the hangar while I was working on the trailer. I've got the Microair 760 radio to put in, as well as a Garmin transponder that I bought, and an old audio variometer that Pete found for me. I also picked up a cool voltmeter. So I've got a lot of work to do that involves my favorite thing (not!), electrons. I mounted the speaker and mic for the radio, made a new antenna that I think will work great, made a wiring harness for the transponder and bought a bigger battery.
So the trailer gets sandblasted and primed, coming in a few hundred bucks under budget (woohoo!). On the way back out to Harry's house, I stop at Redneck Trailer supply and quickly spend the difference. New leaf springs, new lights, new wire for the lights, a new jack thing for the tounge, a new hitch. new new new new new.
Now cosmic influences come into play. According to the Kansas Soaring Association, the first full moon after the summer solstice has something to do with the sign of kapricorn. Therefore, the first saturday after the first full moon after the summer solstice has been declared the annual date of the Kansas Kowbell Klassic. It's not associated in any way shape or form with that other KKK group, btw.
the Kowbell is a straight out distance contest. Anyone can compete. This is my kind of flying, floating with the wind for as long as possible. Of course in order to compete its advisable to have a glider and a trailer that is roadworthy. So far in my story my trailer needs a lot of work.
Time to kick into high gear. I got a bunch of angle iron and square tube. Leah and I had a priming party, getting all of the new stuff primed and touching up the job done on the trailer. Then we started replacing the pieces that had been removed from the trailer, and running the square tobe along the bottom of the trailer frame to provide extra bending strength and a place to rivet skins to. Oh did I mention that i bought a bunch of surplus aluminum from work to cover this thing?
Letsee the days have been blending together for the last week or so. We had friday before July 4 off work so I spent the day welding. Welded all sorts of things. By the end of the day the frame was basically ready for whatever came next. On july 4 we flew, because we could. Sunday was more work, maybe taking the old leaf springs off and figuring out how to attach the new stuff. From there on out we welded on the new leaf spring brackets, pulled out the old brake lines, put the new springs in and got new Ubolts and put the old axle back on. Painted the whole trailer with Rustoleum White. It looks great now. Oh of course I replaced the hitch with a nice new one. The old one was pretty crooked after a jacknifing incident.
We started to realize this week that it was going to take an incredible effort to get the trailer enclosed by friday night. So we decided it doesnt have to be completely enclosed. If we can get the back ramp on and the front end, it will be good enough to attach the glider in. Plenty of open glider trailers out there. Skins can go on later. So I attached the hardware for mounting the glider to the trailer, and hooked up the trailer lights (they work!)
So two days to go to the Kowbell. 2 days out is important in my soaring, as Dr. Jack's soaring forecast go out 2 days. So this morning I check the forecast and its looking pretty good!! Like it could be great! So now I'm borderline uncontrollably excited.
Tonight I have to get the last elevator attach bracket bolted to the trailer, finish riveting the rear ramp, secure the light wiring, and get the fenders mounted. Then it will be out to the gliderport to solder some fuses and a switch and a few connectors. Then I'll need to button up the rest of the panel and the glider will be more or less ready to go. Tommorow I can do some fitting of the glider to the trailer. Need to drill holes in some new angle for the wing attachments and put in the tailwheel attachment. Actually need to have the wings and fuse in the glider to do that stuff though. I probably should come up with some better control locks too since the glider will be blowing in the breeze.
So anyway, I've been pretty busy with this little project. I've only flown the glider 4 hrs this year (2 flights). I'm pretty sure my hourly operating cost for the season has been something comparable to a Cessna 421 or maybe a VLJ. But man, once I get the aluminum and a paint job on that trailer, its going to be niiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Maybe after December. Who knows!? 
