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.

1929 DH.60 Gipsy Moth NC919DH

Here's a bit of Aeronautics sure to meet the tastes of our readers here on our blog.   

Larry and Ilse Harmacinski have recently completed some major refurbishment projects on their 1929 DH.60 Gipsy Moth. Larry first called me in the Fall of 2014.  We've been exchanging emails and phone calls ever since then as he and his wife Ilse have been laboring away on the airplane.  What a beautiful job they've done!  We are honored that they've allowed us to publish these beautiful photos and thier story here.  Enjoy.

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Terry,  thanks again for saving the day and helping us get the Moth back in the air in time for summer. We would have missed the season without all your extra efforts.Below is a short summary of our Moth, and Moths in general, use or discard as you see fit. My most favorite photo is of Ilse as we head into the sunrise.  Lucky shot!

Catch you around the patch sometime.

Cheers,  Larry & Ilse

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by: Larry Harmacinski

"Unfold Your Wings, and Fly Away”, reads the DH.60 advert I am holding, a remnant from what is most often referred to as The Golden Age of Aviation. And it truly was exciting in so many arenas as flying machines transitioned from designs centered around the Great War, to ships intended for personal and commercial use. One of the earliest and very successful designs was the brainchild of Captain Geoffrey de Havilland, who made significant aeronautical contributions serving in WWI. Taking inspiration from his DH.4 and the recently built DH.51, design number 60 came to life and, being a hobbyist lepidopterist, Captain de Havilland christened the design "The Moth", which first emerged from the works at Stag Lane in 1925, and Capt. de Havilland himself made the first test flight Feb. 22, 1925. 

The Moth was powered by the purpose built Cirrus, which borrowed heavily from Renault. The design was an immediate success, and was just what the Empire was looking for in the civilian market to supply to the newly formed flying clubs. As there were very few flying fields, and even fewer hangars, the Cirrus Moth was designed from the start to have folding wings, enabling it to complete the day’s flying, then neatly fold her wings to sleep in a 10’ wide shed. In a brilliant marketing effort, de Havilland even sold sheds, should anyone complain of not having proper storage!

De Havilland’s next brilliant move was to secure a more reliable engine and also ensure parts and support. This led to in house construction of their own engine, something not many aircraft manufacturers can claim. The Gipsy Engine came to be, and thus the DH.60 was re-named the Gipsy Moth.  The winning combination with other minor improvements led the type to perform many record setting flights, and helped to create the Lady Lindbergh of England, when Amy Johnson flew her Gipsy Moth in 1930 from England to Australia, solo no less, and was the first woman to do so. Certainly a good bit of her success on that flight was that she was also the first female licensed mechanic, having learned her trade at The De Havilland School of Flying where she worked on airplanes between lessons. 

 

The Gipsy Moth went on to be built in large numbers in numerous countries around the globe, and some 168 were built in the USA by Moth Aircraft Corporation, the vast majority of which used British built Gipsy engines and propellers. When MAC was bought out late in 1929 by Curtiss, the Wright-Gipsy became available in the last of the Moths built, but by then the depression was catching up, and production dwindled and ceased in 1931. Certainly the most well known of the American built Moths is known today as a screen star in the 1985 film Out of Africa, sporting the UK registration G-AAMY, a tribute to Amy Johnson.  For reasons known only to the producer, the registration was changed to -AAMT for filming. The real life Denys Finch-Hatten (portrayed by Robert Redford) did own and fly a Gipsy Moth, so Hollywood actually got this one right! This aircraft began life at Lowell Mass, at the MAC Factory, as NC585M, was restored by Jack Bucher, who had some experience with MAC, and later owned by Frank Fox prior to being sold to Cliff Lovell in England, where it became G-AAMY. More recently, the airplane was sold at a high profile auction in Paris, and now resides in Kenya at a resort where it gives rides to exclusive guests. 

Our own Moth began life in December 1929 as NC919M, and was sold new by a Curtiss-Wright operator in California. When Gerry Schwam began an extensive restoration, the number was tied up, so he chose NC919DH.  Ilse and I became caretakers of the light and lively Gipsy Moth a few years ago from a fellow who was flying it off his ranch at 6,000’ MSL outside of Durango. 

Not many old airplanes do so well at altitude, but the Moth does quite well with it’s light structure and high lift wing. To pass some mountains and escape some rather nasty downdrafts, we at times climbed to 12,000 with little effort, a feat that my old Cabin Waco or a PT Stearman would find a bit strenuous.  The flight to North Carolina certainly gave me renewed appreciation for the pioneer pilots, and I often thought of the tenacious Amy Johnson, who often carried more than 10 hours worth of fuel, and had to hand pump fuel from the forward fuselage tank by hand to the upper wing quite often. I had no complaints. 

While thousands of the Gipsy Moth were built, the War years were not kind to the type, many of which were used as decoys, a rather sad way for such a beautiful biplane to meet it’s end. While the Gipsy Moth was used by the RAF, it was eclipsed by the Tiger Moth as a military trainer.  According to the Moth Club, today there are some 40 DH.60’s in service, the majority being in England and New Zealand. 

The past 18 months Ilse and I dedicated ourselves to improving our example of The Moth, and upgraded the aging bladder brakes with Grove products, and replaced the low confidence vintage bale gascolator with one from Steve’s Gascolator. New windscreens, fresh mahogany panels, and some new paint were other added details, but of course some of these items need blessings from the FAA, and as most FSDO’s run in the opposite direction when seeking support with your antique biplane, after several false starts, my good friend said that I should call Terry Bowden at CAP. This was the best call I ever made, and as fast as I could accomplish the work and supply the supporting evidence, Terry came thru and I am very indebted to CAP for getting us airworthy in time for summer flying. While I have no plans at this time to fly the Moth to Australia, I do intend to share this delightful little ship with anyone interested, as it provides a glimpse into the past with all the sights and sounds of those interesting years when aviation was truly in it’s Golden Age. 

Maintain Airspeed, 

Larry Harmacinski

Larry's favorite photo - "flying into the sun. we were on the way to VAA 3 fly in, and no, it is not photoshopped!"

Three steps forward... One step BACK???

The project to bring Curtiss Robin NR59H out of retirement has gone well thus far.  Up until September 21, we were making good forward progress toward our goal of returning her back to the air.  Occasionally, we have had small setbacks, but mostly things are moving along nicely. 

That day, on Sept. 21, we finished mounting the engine up to the airframe.  Afterwards, the three of us, Lon, Randall, and I were under the fuselage sitting on the floor... we were half-way resting, but half-way looking things over to decide what our next steps would need to be.  Randall saw it first... and uttered those ugly words..... Uhhhh Ohhhhh! 

With the owner's schedule looming in, the last thing we need is a major set-back.  Of course... that would be living in fantasy land.  So when we ran across this rusted tube on the airframe, it was almost enough to discourage the whole plan.  Evidently, despite the best of care given by Joe Erale over the past forty-some years were not enough to combat the adverse environment of some years of neglect and outdoor storage on Long Island New York in the 1940's and 1950's.

Here's the ugly truth we (Randall) found...

Of course, this prompted a whole 2nd effort to go over the whole airframe again with a tiny ball-peen hammer to tap on all the tubes.  It is hard to be 100% certain, but we think this is the only tube with major rust.  Something has to be done.

It didn't look any better after cleaning off the paint.  But we decided that this might be a candidate for a patch repair.  We tried that first.   It turned out there was just too much rust in the tube to accept a proper weld bead.  The whole tube must come out!

In the old days, this might have been considered a routine field repair by the old school pilot-mechanics.  Of course, they were probably dealing with an airplane of much less value, so they might have just dove right in and not worried so much about cosmetics.  We, on the other hand, are dealing with an Iconic aircraft of significant historical value.  The pressure is on.

As an engineer, I have never liked schedules.  Now, as the business owner and leader of this project, I was faced with some tough decisions.  So, after some discussions with our team here and with my friend and expert airframe weld repair expert, Craig Gunder, I decided that we need to proceed on with assembly of the wings onto the airframe and then to go ahead with the first engine run before we tackle this tube replacement.  That way, we will have the opportunity to identify whether any other major difficulties may crop up with either the fuel system, engine, or the general assembly of the airframe.

So here we are on October 30.  The wings have been installed.  This Saturday we plan to pre-oil this old Challenger engine and fire it off for the first engine run since 1984.  We will then proceed to weigh, rig, and inspect the airplane as though for final inspection.  Once deemed ready, we'll Bring in expert weld repair GURU, Craig Gunder from Red Lion PA. Craig is the operator of Gunder Restoration and Design and has made quite a name for himself repairing and building frames for vintage airplanes. Quite a lot of parts will need to be removed or partially disassembled.  But we're confident that this can be done and and back together pretty quick.  Perhaps we'll be airborne by Mid November.

Oil Hydraulic Struts... Repairs and Reassembly

Previously I posted about the disassembly of the "Oil Hydraulic Struts" as removed from a Curtiss Robin, NR59H.  Well, A few weeks ago we finally finished with the repairs and re-assembly of these strut assemblies.  Here are some photos of the process...I am happy with the results and believe we have a repair that should last for many years of continued service.

Portion of tube insert for repair. 

A decision was made to cut out the badly pitted portions of the upper tube.  We designed and fabricated a replacement tube to be welded in place of the removed portion. We found an "off-the shelf" material that was perfect for the job.  It is a close-tolerance seamless tube made of 1020 steel chrome plating applied during the raw material fabrication process.  This material is commonly used in the manufacture of hydraulic cylinders.  The chrome plating will hopefully resist the kind of pitting that caused us to tear down the oleos in the first place.

To ensure a proper repair, the design concept  for the repair 'insert' tube was to machine a step-down of the outside diameter and to give it a three-inch insertion length to allow the insert to self align to the existing tube. The insert was expertly machined by our friends at Madden Manufacturing, LLC, China Spring TX.  We were a little worried about causing too much stress in the upper tube and the potential for cracking during the press-fit-up operation.  The shop's owner, Dennis Thom, came up with the right approach for this by effecting a taper of the stepped-down OD from a 0.000 inch fit at the insertion point and gradual taper to 0.0025 interference fit at the last 1.5 -inch of tube to the bottom of its shoulder.  The results were spot-on.

At the shoulder, the repair was finished off by welding the interface joint all around.  Then the weld bead was ground and polished down smooth and flush with the tube OD.  Rosette welds were deemed unnecessary due to the interference fit design which pre-loaded beneficial stress into the assembly.

Tube 'insert' welded in place and polished smooth.

Re-assembly of piston on upper tube with spring-lock clip in place.

The original design of this oleo assembly did not utilize a rubber o-ring seal as would be expected in a similar/more modern oleo.  Instead, a packing material was used. Originally, this packing was most likely a degradable cotton or linen rope material of a round cross-section with graphite flake coating.  We found that the modern materials used in water pump packing applications are far better than that of the old-days.   We managed to find a synthetic graphite impregnated rope material with 1/4" x 1/4" square cross-section. This seemed perfect for the job (short of a re-design for o-rings).  We used 24 inch lengths of this material to seal each oleo. The slight compression of the packing material riding against the smooth chrome OD should be an ideal seal and wear-resistant surface.

Installing 'packing' seal.

 

Repaired oleo assemblies with removed portions of upper tube that were replaced.

New paint for the re-built oleo struts

 

New Lester tires being installed

 

Leann Bowden doing paint touch-ups on the Fischer 28" x 4" wheels

The Majestic Curtiss Robin proudly sits on its repaired landing gear