Update on Curtiss Robin NC517N: Dick Fischer

Chances are if you have ever flown in an old airplane, it likely had a set of "Fischer Wheels".  You may already know that numerous sets of the 30 X 5, 28 X 4, and other sizes of wheel parts were made available to the antique airplane world during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s through the talents and creativity of Mr. Dick Fischer.  You may not know that Dick is restoring a Curtiss Robin.  Here on BRA, we featured his project back in August of 2011.    His Robin is going back together in the 'J-1' configuration.  Just last week, we got a recent update from Dick.  Here are his comments and photos:

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Hi Terry,

It seems like I’d forgotten to CC you with Robin progress reports.  So attached below are some photos.  Since we last communicated, I have been upholstering and covering the airplane.  At this point the interior upholstery is complete, and there is fabric on the entire airplane.  The wings and control surfaces are completed up through final color.  The fuselage is covered and up through two coats of clear so far.

The cover job is Stits Poly Fiber, with Poly Tone color coats.  The fabric is attached to the frame using CAM 18 as a guide for machine sewing, hand sewing, rib lacing, etc.  No glued attachments except where Curtiss might have doped the fabric down.

Dick Fischer

Interior is wool broadcloth, with cotton headliner

Baggage compartment before upholstery.

Access flap to baggage compartment.

Fuselage with fabric on and two coats of clear.

Fuselage side access panel.  It’s an aluminum frame sewn into 

the basic covering.  The removable panel is also a fabric covered 

aluminum frame.  The panel cover is attached to the fuselage 

with leather shoe lacing on boot hooks.

Horizontal Stabilizers

Vertical fin and rudder.

LH wing panel completed with N- numbers.

Reinforcements around fittings are leather patches, 

with patterns for each patch copied from original covering samples.

Wing inspection panel frame.  The actual panel is clear plexiglas. 

There is a print of this frame in the Robin drawing set.

Hard to see, but there is a stitch pattern around the wing perimeter. 

That’s the hand stitching, covered by a 2” pink tape.  

Hand stitching is on 1/4” spacing with hundreds of inches in an airplane.

Again, copied from original Robin fabric samples. 

LH wing panel during color coats.

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While he isn't setting any records on time, Dick is faithfully plugging away in the day-by-day restoration process.  Along the way, his attention to detail is incredibly wonderful.  To follow all of his steps would be a monumental learning experience for us all.  Dick is certainly in the category of "Master Restorer" in my book.

I wrote him back to inquire about his comments concerning the stitch pattern around the perimeter of the wing.  It was a treat for him to write back and add the following information.  This will certainly be appreciated by future restorers.  Thanks for the education, Dick !


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 Hi Terry,

Thank you for the kind words.  Actually, I don’t believe I’ve made any major progress of late.  It’s just a long, slow, steady grind for more years than I like to think about.

Below are a couple of photos of the hand stitching in progress.  It’s nothing specific to a Robin.  The CAM 18 manual shows all the various sewing details.  I had some miscellaneous fabric scraps that I’m pretty sure were original Robin fabric and just used them to verify that Curtiss was conforming to the CAM 18.  On the fuselage, I didn’t have any original scraps to look at, but all the evidence of how most fuselages were factory covered indicated that machine sewn sleeves were used .  And the pictures of fully assembled (but not yet covered) Robin fuselages in the factory show the fuselages standing on the gear before covering.  The only way I can imagine that they could have put the fabric on at that point was to slide on a sewn sleeve.  By the way, installing a machine sewn sleeve would still entail some hand sewing on at least one longeron in order to get the sleeve past the passenger step.  Also need to leave an open spot at the rear to get the sleeve past the hand holds on the lower longerons.

By the way, you can usually spot original Robin fabric not only by the paint color, but also by the fact that there was no silver dope applied.  Wonder how long that initial factory fabric job lasted ?

I forwarded your email to Lane Tufts, so hopefully he will contact you.

Dick Fischer

Here is a hand stitched wing tip.  The fabric is sewn at the trailing edge and at the wing tip.  The leading edge has no seam, as it is wrapped around the wing and only sewn at the rear.

Here is an aileron.  The trailing edge has been stitched, and the end flap is ready to fold up into position for stitching.  This is typical of all of the surfaces

Kind of a blurry picture, but you can see that the end flap is folded up, then stitched to the upper cover and to the leading edge.

A little clearer picture of what hand sewing looks like.  By the time the cover is fully shrunk and a 2” pink tape applied, the stitching is pretty hard to see.

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Dick Fischer is a rare gem to the vintage aviation community. Keep up the great work and thanks for keeping in touch with us Dick.