On Dec 28, 3:18*pm, Stealth Pilot
wrote:


if you build all of your ribs first, and honestly they are a little
tedious, you still have the fuselage to go so the project has an
exciting bit ahead.this helps you get through the tedious bit.
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Dear Stealth,

I hate to pee in your campfire but to build ALL of your ribs first is
to fly in the face of proven wisdom (as opposed to Conventional
Wisdom, which I believe is the package you are trying to tie on your
pony). And just to prove it, if you'll kindly take a seat, I will
showz you how it's SUPPOSED to be done.

See that big balk of timber over there? (Of course you can't, but
work with me here.) You wanna build a plane. So you go looking for
some WOOD, as in Sitka Spruce wood or Western Hemlock Wood or Red Wood
Wood. (Red can't. But he would if he could.)

Sometimes your ideal piece of wood is growing right up outta the
ground! Yeah! Like that tree-thing over there. So before you build
your aeroplane you gotta chop a notch in the side of that three,
making sure the center of the notch is perfectly perpendicular to the
line upon which you wish the tree to FALL. And here is a trick that
will serve you all your life here in the Gulag. See that notch? All
the eggheaded boys sent to the gulag think the notch must proscribe 90
degrees, and they are correct, but their failure as a Forester is in
that seemingly simple supposition, because if you want the tree to
fall where you are hoping it will, which is precisely atop the head of
Mikhail, the trustee and a rotten ******* if ever there was one...

So yes, a 90 degree notch is good. But No! The notch must NOT be 45
degrees below and 45 degrees above. The notch must be only 35 degrees
below and 55 degrees above! Or even more, if the diameter of the tree
is greater than one meter... or if its height is greater than thirty
meters. But you are what, an accountant? To preserve your innocence
you may make it 45/45 if you wish and hope God (or your friend Ivan)
will nudge Mikhail at the proper time.

Look at the earth upon which your tree will fall. Is it flat? Does
it slope up or down? Are there boulders? Does it span a gully? Are
there other trees of substantial size in the way? If so, you must
take those things into account or your tree will contain an unfaithful
heart; it will suffer Compression Fractures when it strikes the
ground. The fall has given your tree a considerable amount of
energy. As the branches touch the ground the truck of your tree will
tend to bend like an archers bow, generating a curve that would hold
water if it could. But since it can't, the end nearest you will TRY
to spring into the air, but if it can't do that, because of improper
notching OR because the trunk represents substantial mass, or because
the terrain upon which Your tree will fall is below the horizontal,
thus pumping more energy into the tree... because it's falling, you
stupid person you! It is accelerating by the SQUARE of the TIME. You
have given it more time, IF the ground is sloping downward.

But enough of that. Odds are you'll forget it anyway by the time you
get to the tree and talk Mikhail into position and find the fellow
with the saw (yes, the SAW. We are Foresters here, not Accountants).
SO IF... IF any of those things are present, you must put the brakes
onto your tree. You must prevent it from falling too fast. How? Yea
gods, man! You're in a forest! How do you think we'll slow it down?
(With... trees? He asks. Of COURSE WITH TREES! [and me with still
forty years to go...]) You must build a cradle for your baby of a
tree. A beautiful bed into which your love may fall with a smile and
extended limbs.

Do all those things and your beautiful tree will NOT suffer the
Compression Fractures to lie hidden in its heart of wood.

Cut the notch. Then take up the saw (and weld two together if one is
not long enough). And just ABOVE the apex of your notch, begin your
cut, keeping it even and true. That is, even meaning each side will
progress at the same rate as the other, and true in that however it
starts out, it continues. Level is good but the ground is often
crooked and your cut may be up or down but whatever it is, keep it
that way for its entire length. Otherwise your tree will think it's a
member of the Bolshoi and spin around and turn you into a bloody pulp
before you can "Jack Robinson." (Don't ask! It could cost you twenty
more years.)

The part of the tree that flys the best begins the height of a tall
man above the ground. NOT above the felling cut, but above the earth
which nurtured your beautiful tree. You may cut the fallen tree
there. The flying portion of the tree will extend to about two meters
BELOW the first limb of substantial size. The resulting stick may be
as long as twenty meters or more but if you have such a tall
candidate, select your flying portion from that nearest the ground.
How LONG that piece may be is determined by which Camp you are in.
See if you can find Mikhail and ask him (the silly ******* seems to
have disappeared again).

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Got your balk of timber? Try to. It works best.

A good balk is a Bridge Timber that is a Quarter-sawn cut. And you
may have to bribe someone to get that. Or go over to the Flybaby
Group and ask around amongst the builders who know Vancouver Island.

Get a balk of timber that has been properly cut then allowed to dry,
well supported, for as many years as it takes. (Stop your
complaining! You'll be here until you die anyway so what's a few
years?)

A Useful size is seven meters in length, 20centimeters in thickness
and 30centimeters in width. Or if you are in a Canadian Gulag, about
22'x 8"x12"

What you want first are your Spars. There will four of them in a Real
airplane. Then comes your Fuselage stringers and finally your smaller
stringers.

Somewhere along the line you will have built jigs for your ribs and
your tail group. As you cut the longer pieces out of your balk of
timber the cuts will yield some Waste. Set your saw to produce Rib
Stock from the waste.

Your ribs will have two long pieces and a myriad of shorter pieces.
Your task is to know the length of all of these pieces and whenever
the opportunity presents its self, to cut your Rib Stock into the
sizes you will need to produce your ribs. Sort the pieces. If you
put them in tin cans, be sure to poke holes in the BOTTOM of the
cans. If you don't, you'll find out why you should.

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And now we have finally arrived at Making of the Ribs.

Do NOT tackle this job as a Death Race. (Yeah, I know, but that was
a Varriviggen or whatever so it doesn't count.)

In producing your spars and stringers and diagonals and intercostals
and all the OTHER pieces of wood needed to build your airplane, you
will have AUTOMATICALLY produced enough pieces to fabricate all of the
ribs in your airplane! (In effect, your ribs are free!!) But you
will only produce those ribs as time permits; when you have finished a
More Important task. That's when you will REWARD YOURSELF by making a
rib. One at a time. Each one a perfect example of the wood-workers
art. Building ribs is NOT a chore nor task to be avoided; building a
rib is a REWARD for doing all the millions of other ****ty Little
Details that insist on being done before the airplane can fly. Why is
that so? Because the Secret is in the Wing.

You'll need to ponder on that so I'll leave you to it. Ponder away.
It is because your Life -- and the Life of anyone else who flys in
your machine depends upon your skill and dedication in making a
Perfect Wing, which itself depends upon a whole ****-pot full of
Perfect Ribs, made one at a time.

Why such emphasis? You will answer that question yourself as your
SKILLS accumulate. And because you would not believe me NOW no matter
how skillful you think you are.

-Bob