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This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
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Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:44 pm

Wow...great work!!!!! Where are you based out?

Just a small suggestion......a few of those under would look sharp also :)

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Even if just a model
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Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Wed Jul 31, 2013 6:20 pm

Hey thanks for the kind words :D
We're pretty happy with how she looks too!
This was a big milestone for us. We still have a fair bit of work to do. Air to air shots are definitely in the cards. Formation air to air shots :twisted:

As far as where we are based, well..... ...... we have a few options. Mr Wat Martins field is not one of them. He was gracious enough to help us with assembly (and other things). We may not, however, stay. There is not room. Too many moths :lol:

Once we get her flying we will figure out where to keep her. As far as coming to check her out, P.M. me and I'll try to work something out. Part of being the custodian of a piece of history is sharing that history :wink:

Don't think we haven't thought of bomb racks :D . How cool would that look at a display or a fly in? I've heard tell of a set in Canada. I'd love to find some, or even drawings. Cool! This is a real fun and exciting time. Thanks again for the interest. I'll keep you posted.

Andy Scott

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:56 pm

Nice! Looks great now that you have the wings on. I live close-by in Mono Township, I'd love to see it sometime..

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:56 pm

Nice! Looks great now that you have the wings on. I live close-by in Mono Township, I'd love to see it sometime..

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Tue Aug 06, 2013 8:16 am

Rigging a Tiger moth.
Well, let me tell you. If you think you are good at spatial geometry then this is the job for you :shock:
First step is to level the aeroplane in pitch and roll.

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Then you can start measuring. Lots of measuring!
The dihedral is adjusted using the front landing wire, but, you have to make darn sure that the rest of the wires are loose because one adjustment affects everything else. We thought one of the incidence wires was too long. Wat just kind of chuckled to himself. As we continued through the steps to adjust the incidence and therefore the stagger :? the wire that we thought was too long was suddenly looking like it might be too short :rolleyes: .
Eventually we started to figure out the relationships between the give and take of each set of wires. The wires work in pairs (you can't push a string remember?).
We were able to get all of the required figures within the allowable limits. There has to be a range because a sixteenth of an inch at the centre section will translate into a much bigger number out at the interplane struts (does your head hurt yet? :hide: ) What a mental workout!

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Other stuff that got done today was aileron rigging and the installation of inspection caps. That makes her look more complete :D You can just see Wats foot in this shot. He was giving us pointers and advice, otherwise this would have taken forever!! Thanks again Wat.

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Wat left us to put things away.We were mentally spent, but I couldn't help but take a few shots of T-5414 with some friends, tucked away for the night. :union:

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When we have her flying and have decided where we are going to keep her, I'd be happy to arrange, for anyone that is interested, to come check her out.
My E-mail is "andyscottis(at)hotmail.com"

Andy

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Tue Aug 06, 2013 10:02 am

Did you use the 'tuning fork' method to confirm wire tension?
Tap the wires in turn, listening for a bad note. "ting, ting, ting, tonk" - Hmm last one is a little loose.

It sounds primitive, but if you have an ear at all, it's surprisingly effective.
Or you could give it a fancy name like 'Acoustic harmonic frequency tension comparison'

It's really handy on preflight - especially since no one carries a tensiometer around in their flight bag. A suddenly off-key wire bears investigation

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:37 pm

That's terrific, Andy. I helped rig CF-STP there last year, and I know what a head-scratcher it is.

Please pass along my congrats to Danny and Mike, and let me know if I can be of any help.

Dave

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:36 pm

Awesome stuff, Andy et al! Looking forward to seeing her in the air!

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Wed Aug 07, 2013 5:27 am

Thanks guys.
Hey Austin. One of the first destinations (after we do a little local flying to shake everything down) will be Geneseo. I will be sure to P.M. you as the time approaches. It was good to see you, if only briefly, it looked like a successful airshow turnout.

Today will be "split-pin" day :lol: lots of split-pins. My fingertips are hurting just thinking about it. Ownership has its privileges!

Andy Scott

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:20 am

Why is Danny the only one working in all the photos?

Great job so far. Another one brought back from the brink!

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Thu Aug 08, 2013 1:47 pm

[quote="PropsRule"]Why is Danny the only one working in all the photos?
:butthead: :mrgreen:

When Danny takes pictures they are never seen again! :D



Vic and I spent the better part of a rainy day installing split pins and tidying up a few loose ends here and there.
If I do say so myself, she looks pretty smart!

Too bad the lunkhead standing in the way doesn't :lol:

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Next stop is a visit with the weigh scales. I have to go back to work for a few days so that won't be 'til after that.
Man she's getting close!!

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Thu Aug 08, 2013 1:58 pm

She sure looks close! Can't way to see her in the air! Congrats!

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:42 pm

Can you provide some back story about how you acquired your Tiger Moth and what kind of shape it was in Andy? Would love to hear more about it.

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Thu Aug 08, 2013 4:35 pm

Hey Chris, like my T-shirt? :D

Thomas, I joined a club near my home. Edenvale Classic aircraft Foundation. They operate an English Tiger C-GSTP. Long story short I learned to fly tailwheel there on their Fleet Canuck and then learned to fly STP.
After soloing their Tiger I decided to join the Moth club in the U.K. Two weeks later I received the first issue of "The Moth".
Jokingly, and I do mean jokingly, I thought to myself "they have a classified section in the back of this thing (yeah, right, like I'm ever gonna own a Tiger).
I spotted this machine advertised in Pennsylvania at what seemed like a not astronomical price. I immediately picked up the phone and called Danny. "Hey Dan, have you seen this months Stockbox?" "Well look it up online, I'll wait" I heard the keyboard clacking away and helped him navigate through. After a moment to read the advert he said "I'll make that phone call right now!".
We arranged to go inspect her and basically she hadn't flown for a few years. Before that she had been leased to a flying club. Until 2009 she flew with this club and was even available for solo rental!
We decided that she did indeed need a fair bit of work, but nothing that we couldn't handle. We brought a third partner on board, Mike.
We came up with an offer that was acceptable to the owner and Mike, Danny and myself headed back to Van Sant with a trailer.

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This is us at Geneseo with our prize on the trailer. Anyone can fly to an airshow :wink:

The fabric on the wings and fuselage passed the punch test. The tail feathers were a different matter. As Mike said "they look like a maple key" :shock:
They had evidence of a fair number of repairs and just looked tired. We stripped, inspected and re-covered the tail feathers. The wood was in great condition, although a little warped from age. All of the original British hardware was also in good condition and free of corrosion.
The top left wing had a previous repair that we were not happy with. We opened the trailing edge and re-did that repair to our satisfaction. This also gave us an opportunity to see everything inside this wing. The condition of the wood was excellent. Kinda gives us the warm fuzzies about the rest :wink:
We decide to just do some spot repairs on the fuselage. We figured we'd just touch it up :lol:

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Well, you can see how that worked out. Mike and I came up with the bright idea to rejuvenate and respray the camouflage. We masked off the yellow fuselage band and left it as is (we wanted an aeroplane, not a project!)
After the fuselage got sprayed, it looked so good that we had to do the camo on the wings too. The result is what you see.
Don't look too close at the yellow though. There is about four different shades :shock:
We decided that the bottom of a Tiger moth is always covered with oil and bugs anyway so we don't really care :D We'll be having too much fun flying our Tiger :wink:

Thanks for your interest Thomas. As I mentioned previously, wait 'til we get her flying, decide where she's gonna live, then shoot me an E-mail and I'd be happy to introduce her to you!

Our registration letters are, of course, the first initials of Mike, Andy & Dan :wink:

Re: Tiger moth T-5414 CF-MAD

Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:53 pm

Fantastic post! What a great story, thank you for taking the time to put that together. I was actually thinking your Tiger would look pretty sharp next to the one in Edenvale since they have a similar scheme.
Are you going to the Gathering of Classics on Saturday? I was torn between that or the CWH on Sunday for the car show with my Chevelle, decided on the CWH show since there is a few project trucks I want to check out afterwards just down the road 8)
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