A new Carbon Cub builder has (as usual) a few questions...

[Mark W]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post a new builder.

I have begun reading the manual and planning tool purchases, shop layout and all of the other set up activities.

I have a specific question and a general question.

The specific question is what publications did you find were really useful during your build? The build manual lists four. Are they duplicative or do they all represent different sets of information? Were there others that would also be useful?

My second question is more general. It is "What single thing do you wish you had done differently in your build?". Any and all responses would be welcome.

If there is already a thread about this kind of stuff please lead me to it .

Thanks.

Mark

[Dan L]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post a new builder.

I have begun reading the manual and planning tool purchases, shop layout and all of the other set up activities.

I have a specific question and a general question.

The specific question is what publications did you find were really useful during your build? The build manual lists four. Are they duplicative or do they all represent different sets of information? Were there others that would also be useful?

My second question is more general. It is "What single thing do you wish you had done differently in your build?". Any and all responses would be welcome.

If there is already a thread about this kind of stuff please lead me to it .

Thanks.

Mark

Mark, what are the four publications? I don't remember that in my manual. The one I'd recommend is the Poly Fiber manual. Unless the current manual covers more on fabric than it did when I built mine you'll want the PF manual.

After almost three years of flying mine there isn't much I'd change. I designed my own panel and I'd change a few things on switch and C/B positions. And I might go with a pod rather than an extended baggage.

It it is all fun. Congratulations on starting a great project.

[DRL]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post a new builder.

I have begun reading the manual and planning tool purchases, shop layout and all of the other set up activities.

I have a specific question and a general question.

The specific question is what publications did you find were really useful during your build? The build manual lists four. Are they duplicative or do they all represent different sets of information? Were there others that would also be useful?

My second question is more general. It is "What single thing do you wish you had done differently in your build?". Any and all responses would be welcome.

If there is already a thread about this kind of stuff please lead me to it .

Thanks.

Mark

Hi Mark,

We put the finishing touches on ours today and we plan our first flight on Monday. It took us three years, but that is another story. My recommendation is get as many pictures as possible. Mitch has a great collection in the dropbox, we took pictures of every Carbon Cub we saw that came by Camarillo and while at Oshkosh. There are a few builder's logs on the internet that are very helpful. You just can't have enough pictures.

Don't cut or drill anything unless you are absolutely sure it's the right thing to do, and then don't do it... go to lunch and think about it. Read everything twice and maybe once more just before you make an irrevocable decision. If all else fails call CubCrafters, they have more parts. The windshield should be kept in a cold dark place until you are ready to cut it, we stored ours for two and half years at the top of a hot hangar, it was dried out when we started hacking at it. The second windshield went much better using a dremel multi-saw with a blade for plastic and carefully drilling with a uni-bit. Getting the windshield cut correctly is essential to fitting it to airframe. One other gotcha is pulling the number one rib out of alignment while shrinking the fabric, easy to do, and nothing will fit correctly thereafter, glass, trim etc. This is also the case with the boot cowl, other things you can recover from without too much pain. We had one "save" when we caught an aileron bracket mounted wrong on the spar cap before cover, so every little thing is important.

Probably our number one mistake was painting, wrong paint, wrong place and definitely the wrong painter. There is another post here that documents that odyssey. Organizing parts will save you a lot of time, even though CubCrafters' boxes are great, we found that making kits for a particular task with just the things you need to do it, and then put in "the no one else touch this box" works well. Ours was a group effort, you may not have this problem.

For tools, I would recommend a pneumatic rivet puller, Harbor Freight's will work, a good riv-nut puller not HF and a good set of riveting tools. Even though this is a tube and fabric airplane, there are a lot of rivets. Don't settle for a bad rivet, when in doubt drill it out. Use particular care with the leading edge skins, a dent here will never get better.

If you are creative and decide to customize, figure it will take you three time longer to do it than staying with the plan. We built our own panel with Dynon's 10" Skyview, ADS-B etc. and using My Panel (less radios) for the basic things. We also put in a third set of window comparable to the L21. This gives us good visibility to the rear and as a side benefit we can see all the oily rags and cans on the rear shelf. When you are building with someone else you do not always get it your way.

We were going to limit the weight to 1320, but for a variety of reasons we decided for 1865, the empty weight was 958 which I guess is fairly light for the EX. The DAR was Adam Valdez from the Bakersfield area, he is very thorough, he only found one overtightened pulley and a wire that needed more chafe. So with his autograph we are good to go.

Good luck with your build, ask a lot of questions, read the forums, there are a lot of EX builders with experience and of course Mitch is the guru if we can't help you out

Dave

[clipwingcub]

I agree with Dan on getting a copy of the poly fibre manual, and would download copies of 43.13-1b and 2b from the FAA website if you don't already have. Congratulations and best luck.........tony


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tcwilliams]

I agree with Dan on getting a copy of the poly fibre manual, and would download copies of 43.13-1b and 2b from the FAA website if you don't already have. Congratulations and best luck.........tony


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just got my paint area ready to go. I started mine in mid Dec. and am ready to start spraying. Be happy to talk as everything is pretty fresh at this point. 330-727-0043. Feel free to call.

[Mark W]

Mark, what are the four publications? I don't remember that in my manual. The one I'd recommend is the Poly Fiber manual. Unless the current manual covers more on fabric than it did when I built mine you'll want the PF manual.

After almost three years of flying mine there isn't much I'd change. I designed my own panel and I'd change a few things on switch and C/B positions. And I might go with a pod rather than an extended baggage.

It it is all fun. Congratulations on starting a great project.

Dan,

The four pubs are:

1. AC43.13 Acceptable Methods of Aircraft Repair
2. Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook (AC65.9A)
3. A&P Airframe Handbook by FAA
4. A&P Airframe Textbook by Jeppesen

Thanks for your reply.

Mark

[Mark W]

Just got my paint area ready to go. I started mine in mid Dec. and am ready to start spraying. Be happy to talk as everything is pretty fresh at this point. 330-727-0043. Feel free to call.

Will do as soon as I get set up and going.

Thanks.

Mark

[Mark W]

Hi Mark,

We put the finishing touches on ours today and we plan our first flight on Monday. It took us three years, but that is another story. My recommendation is get as many pictures as possible. Mitch has a great collection in the dropbox, we took pictures of every Carbon Cub we saw that came by Camarillo and while at Oshkosh. There are a few builder's logs on the internet that are very helpful. You just can't have enough pictures.

Don't cut or drill anything unless you are absolutely sure it's the right thing to do, and then don't do it... go to lunch and think about it. Read everything twice and maybe once more just before you make an irrevocable decision. If all else fails call CubCrafters, they have more parts. The windshield should be kept in a cold dark place until you are ready to cut it, we stored ours for two and half years at the top of a hot hangar, it was dried out when we started hacking at it. The second windshield went much better using a dremel multi-saw with a blade for plastic and carefully drilling with a uni-bit. Getting the windshield cut correctly is essential to fitting it to airframe. One other gotcha is pulling the number one rib out of alignment while shrinking the fabric, easy to do, and nothing will fit correctly thereafter, glass, trim etc. This is also the case with the boot cowl, other things you can recover from without too much pain. We had one "save" when we caught an aileron bracket mounted wrong on the spar cap before cover, so every little thing is important.

Probably our number one mistake was painting, wrong paint, wrong place and definitely the wrong painter. There is another post here that documents that odyssey. Organizing parts will save you a lot of time, even though CubCrafters' boxes are great, we found that making kits for a particular task with just the things you need to do it, and then put in "the no one else touch this box" works well. Ours was a group effort, you may not have this problem.

For tools, I would recommend a pneumatic rivet puller, Harbor Freight's will work, a good riv-nut puller not HF and a good set of riveting tools. Even though this is a tube and fabric airplane, there are a lot of rivets. Don't settle for a bad rivet, when in doubt drill it out. Use particular care with the leading edge skins, a dent here will never get better.

If you are creative and decide to customize, figure it will take you three time longer to do it than staying with the plan. We built our own panel with Dynon's 10" Skyview, ADS-B etc. and using My Panel (less radios) for the basic things. We also put in a third set of window comparable to the L21. This gives us good visibility to the rear and as a side benefit we can see all the oily rags and cans on the rear shelf. When you are building with someone else you do not always get it your way.

We were going to limit the weight to 1320, but for a variety of reasons we decided for 1865, the empty weight was 958 which I guess is fairly light for the EX. The DAR was Adam Valdez from the Bakersfield area, he is very thorough, he only found one overtightened pulley and a wire that needed more chafe. So with his autograph we are good to go.

Good luck with your build, ask a lot of questions, read the forums, there are a lot of EX builders with experience and of course Mitch is the guru if we can't help you out

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for your long and informative post.

I am sure that I will have a million questions so it is good that there is a strong forum like this one.

Mark

[Paul]

Hey Mark, congratulations on your purchase. Best kit in the business as far as I'm concerned. Here's some random comments, observations and tips.

1) Manuals...Cubcrafters manuals plus Mitch's videos and CCK pictures are a really good combination. Get the links from Mitch and be sure and always refer to the manuals in Dropbox because he's always editing and improving them and that way you're guaranteed of looking at the most recent instruction and diagrams. As others have said, Poly Fiber's manual is a must have when you get to covering. It's a very easy read and I referred to it many times all the way through covering and painting.

2) Resist the urge to do more work than what's shown on each page. There's a reason for everything particularly when the manual says "don't do this now".

3) With the exception of about 3 rivets it's possible to hand squeeze every solid rivet on the plane. And for the ones I couldn't reach, we got engineering to sign off on pulling some cherry maxes. Unless you're really good with a rivet gun for myself I was much happier with the results squeezing by hand.

4)The wood leading edge clamps produce very good results. Find that thread and put your name in the queue.

5) The accuracy of this CNC cut and drilled kit is excellent so if you come across a part that seems to need a new hole or trimming, step back and take another look at it because you may have picked the wrong part or reversed it.

6) When attaching the fittings to the spars pay very close attention to the orientation of the spars bolts. Heads and nuts are directional for a reason.

And my last comment is to raise a RED FLAG of CAUTION for you and all first time builders.

7) Drilling your spars. When you come to the part of your wing build where you're attaching anything to the spars, be extremely careful that you do not drill outside of the safe zone of the spar. Mitch has added a number of details and some red ink to help you through this process and believe me, it pays to be ultra careful here. There's at least 3 main parts that require new holes in your spars....
- Front spar Pulley bracket (page 90, 91 in the wing manual)
- Rear spar reinforcement (page 92)
- Leading edge skin top edge rivets (page 143)
Be sure to use a drill stop for all these parts and be sure your drill stop is set exactly to the depth of the metal you're drilling AND allow for the range of the compressed drill stop spring.DO NOT DRILL THE SPAR BULB.

And if this sounds like someone with first hand experience, you're right.

Hope this helps.
Paul

[N867SP]

Remember, you can never have too many clamps...




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk