Considering building a Fly Baby

[TerryJ]

I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly good
with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was a master
carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a Fly Baby. Any
advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?

--
Kind regards,
Terry Judkins
http://home.comcast.net/~suptjud

[cavelamb]

TerryJ wrote:

> I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly
> good with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was
> a master carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a
> Fly Baby. Any advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?
>

Best advice I got is, if you want to build it, then build it.

Ron W might try to talk you out of it.
But he won't try real hard...

Have fun, Terry.

You've earned it.

Richard

[Ron Wanttaja]

On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 22:30:25 -0400, "TerryJ" <suptjudatcomcastdotnet> wrote:

> I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly good
> with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was a master
> carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a Fly Baby. Any
> advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?

No! No! For gawd's sake, run away! We want to keep all the fun for
ourselves! :-)

If you haven't yet, I suggest you check out my Fly Baby web page:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/

You should be able to get all the info you'd need, either there or with the
Yahoo discussion group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flybabylist/

The group archives are open to the public.

Ron Wanttaja

[TerryJ]

Thanks! I have read your web site (some of it more than once:)).
My son-in-law is building an RV7 and my nephew is a licensed instructor so I
should have some good support in the endeavor. Just might 'do it'.

"Ron Wanttaja" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 22:30:25 -0400, "TerryJ" <suptjudatcomcastdotnet>
> wrote:
>
>> I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly
>> good
>> with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was a
>> master
>> carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a Fly Baby.
>> Any
>> advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?
>
> No! No! For gawd's sake, run away! We want to keep all the fun for
> ourselves! :-)
>
> If you haven't yet, I suggest you check out my Fly Baby web page:
>
> http://www.bowersflybaby.com/
>
> You should be able to get all the info you'd need, either there or with
> the
> Yahoo discussion group:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flybabylist/
>
> The group archives are open to the public.
>
> Ron Wanttaja

[john smith]

In article >,
"TerryJ" <suptjudatcomcastdotnet> wrote:

> I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly good
> with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was a master
> carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a Fly Baby. Any
> advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?

How tall are you?
How flexible are you?
Find someone that has one and see how easily you can get in and out.
At 6'3", it was too small for me.

[Ron Wanttaja]

On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:30:17 GMT, john smith > wrote:

> In article >,
> "TerryJ" <suptjudatcomcastdotnet> wrote:
>
> > I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly good
> > with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was a master
> > carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a Fly Baby. Any
> > advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?
>
> How tall are you?
> How flexible are you?
> Find someone that has one and see how easily you can get in and out.
> At 6'3", it was too small for me.

Depends on how the person is put together, and what kind of mods are made during
construction. The designer was 6' 2", so you probably are proportionately
longer the legs than he was. Chris Brown is 6' 5" and did a few mods to the
airplane he bought.

For more details, see "Fly Babies for the Big and Tall":

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/room.html

Certainly should find one first, to see how the stock fit is.

Ron Wanttaja

[J.Kahn]

I put about 15 hours on a Flybaby built by a tech college in the 70s and
it was a neat airplane except for the lack of a shock absorbing landing
gear. It depends totally on soft tires for shock absorbtion, so taxing
on the ground it follows every ground contour like a two-wheeled
wheelbarrow. In spite of the lack of spring gear I was successful at
making it bounce about 4 feet in the air during a sloppy full stall
landing one time.

Also if control cable is used for flying wire (as this one did) it
stretches quite a lot under load. In a 2G turn the upper cables would
curve back about an inch or so as they went slack which was somewhat
disconcerting at first. You have to be very confident in your
nicropress skills. If I was building one I would use 1x19 cable instead
of 7x19 with terminal swages instead of nicropress, or better yet
streamline rod.

John

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
> On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:30:17 GMT, john smith > wrote:
>
>
>>In article >,
>> "TerryJ" <suptjudatcomcastdotnet> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I am 65, retired and don't have a license to fly anything. I am fairly good
>>>with woodworking (built a few pieces of furniture and my father was a master
>>>carpenter) and have the basic shop tools so was considering a Fly Baby. Any
>>>advice or opinions from you folks that have 'done it'?
>>
>>How tall are you?
>>How flexible are you?
>>Find someone that has one and see how easily you can get in and out.
>>At 6'3", it was too small for me.
>
>
> Depends on how the person is put together, and what kind of mods are made during
> construction. The designer was 6' 2", so you probably are proportionately
> longer the legs than he was. Chris Brown is 6' 5" and did a few mods to the
> airplane he bought.
>
> For more details, see "Fly Babies for the Big and Tall":
>
> http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/room.html
>
> Certainly should find one first, to see how the stock fit is.
>
> Ron Wanttaja

[Jim Carriere]

J.Kahn wrote:
> nicropress skills. If I was building one I would use 1x19 cable instead
> of 7x19 with terminal swages instead of nicropress, or better yet
> streamline rod.

You absolutely need to read this article about streamline rod and the
Fly Baby on Ron's website:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/safety/hinton.htm

Kinda surprised me too :)

Streamline rod seems like a good idea on the surface, but it's not
always the best solution for all types of aircraft. Well, the article
explains it best.

[J.Kahn]

Jim Carriere wrote:
> J.Kahn wrote:
>
>> nicropress skills. If I was building one I would use 1x19 cable
>> instead of 7x19 with terminal swages instead of nicropress, or better
>> yet streamline rod.
>
>
> You absolutely need to read this article about streamline rod and the
> Fly Baby on Ron's website:
>
> http://www.bowersflybaby.com/safety/hinton.htm
>
> Kinda surprised me too :)
>
> Streamline rod seems like a good idea on the surface, but it's not
> always the best solution for all types of aircraft. Well, the article
> explains it best.

Yeah that's an eye opener all right. Thanks for bringing it up. Guess
the intersection cross tie used on biplanes mainly to reduce noise from
the wires vibrating has a much more important function that people realise!

John