Not exactly stick and tissue, but I simply love those old-timer planes and could not resist.
I finally got the shop straightened around and had to decide which plane to tackle first.
This old Playboy Sr. called out the loudest, so here we go. I have had it for maybe a year now. As I understand it, the plane has passed thru many hands before finally coming to me. I am not sure who built it, but I will try to save as much of the original covering as possible in hopes that someone will recognize it and help me. Sorry that it is not covered in tissue.
The nose was ruined from years of gas engine use. That stuff tried to delaminate the ply used in the nose. I wanted to add a beefier landing gear and larger, softer tires, and add a bit of weight to the nose so I made a noseblock out of pine. The pine block also allows the use of most any camera I decide to use later.
The tires I used are just what I have here. I may go to foam tires, if the weight will allow it. Larger tires do better on the grass that I will be flying from. It does not have a steerable tail wheel, so we just aim for a flat spot and hope for the best.
The old gas engine and fuel tank weighed more than the electric motor and battery that I will be using. The battery will go inside, where the fuel tank used to be.
All this brought the cg closer to where it used to be, I hope. This plane has an under-chambered main wing and a flying tail so I need to research exactly where the cg is supposed to be.
Here is a few pics of me drilling holes for the landing gear. I stacked up some wood to set the block on and this is my homemade drill press.
The rest are pics of the process. Probably not the best way, but I am working with what I have on hand. Now that it is set, I will shape the nose a little bit more and apply epoxy around the edge to further hold it on.
I should mention that after cleaning up the ply nose block, I found it was cracked. I followed along with a knife and managed to peel off the first couple layers. After some surface sanding, the ply was 1/8 instead of the 1/4 it used to be. It looks and feels solid, but not so thick.
Does anybody happen to know where cg is located on a Playboy Sr.? I believe it is back from where most planes balance.