PFM Logo Fokker Triplane Model T Curtiss Canuck

Volunteer Work Day

July 31, 2010

by Tom Gaylord

Safety-wiring turnbuckles on the Thomas-Morse fuselage

We had a pretty good turn-out last workday, despite weather predictions of triple digit heat! The work seemed divided up into three sections:

  1. HQ Deck
  2. Thomas-Morse fuselages
  3. Model T Racers

Last workday we managed to get most of the HQ deck finished, so steps were the next "step"! Terry Bledsoe led the team, with Lynn doing a lot of the actual work with help from Terry, Al, and Dave Miller. And Bessie the shop dog and Jerry Lee (aka "The Killer"). The dogs seemed to be the ones with the common sense in that they stayed in the shade a great deal of the time!! But at the end of the day the stairs were complete, aside froma little railing work. HQ still needs electrical and water / sewage lines run to it.

Roger recruited the Whitakers to work on the Model T racers - though I think they spent nearly all their time on the Blue Devil vehicle. I could be mistaken about that though. They also spent some time further refining the Maytag Motorbike Runabout.

Tom Miller had spent three days at Kingsbury varnishing the wood on the T-2 fuselage and starting to paint the metal fittings with Rustoleum black enamel paint. Tom got a heck of a lot accomplished!! So various people tried to finish the detail painting on the fittings but we failed to finish the project. I will say the smartest (and one of the more patient) of the folks working on it was Greg Solberg who crafted a paper template to allow painting of the fitting "tulips" without slopping paint on the wooden parts! Don Larson and Ernest ??? spent part of their time making sure all the fuselage turnbuckles were properly safetywired. They did finish that part!

Dave Orloff and a few other helpers who drifted in and out worked on stripping the T-1 fuselage so that in-depth cleaning could take place. The engine was hoisted out and placed on a stand. The cockpit was stripped to provide adequate access to the fuselage structure. Lastly, Rom Marcotte with some help from Ernest worked on the belly formers for T-1. A few puzzlements reared their ugly heads and I'm not sure Ron got them all sorted before it was time to leave for the day!

Art has been working on the Meyers, and has been making slow, but visible progress. The prop for the Meyers had returned from refurb and looked gorgeous!

Team machine gun ran into some roadblocks and didn't get much sorted. We'd like to make 4 replacement Spandau LMG 08/15 German aircrcaft guns to outfit the Triplane and the D.VII before the Fall Fly-In. Mike McCormick's plan set was located and the drawings are under review - but Mike said the resulting guns are greatly simplified and that we really should assemble a prototype to ensure everything fits together good before cutting a lot of materials. So, we are not certain of which direction we will go in, but Mike's drawings will almost certainly make a great starting point, as many of the folks involved feel the existing drawings are too simplified. But we'll keep everyone posted on where we go from here. So stand-by... or sit. Roll over and play dead! Or whatever....