2013 Taylorcraft Lover's Calendar

Order your 2013 Taylorcraft Lover's Calendar, available just in time for Christmas! The photos and artwork are finally complete and these nice color matte finished 13-month calendars will be ready for shipment by December 10th.  Great Christmas gift idea.  Get one for the office and another one for the shop.  Check out these sample pages.  Ordering details below.

Order yours today.

$ 18.50 

plus shipping and handling *

Send check or money order to

CERTIFIED AERONAUTICAL PRODUCTS

2457 Texas Highway 236

Moody, TX 76557

- or -

Order via PayPal transaction to

email account barnstmr@aol.com

www.paypal.com

 *NOTE:  Shipping and handling for the first calendar is $5.00, add $1.00 for each additional calendar in the U.S.A.  For overseas or large quantity orders, call 254-715-4773 for special arrangements.

Youth Project Taylorcraft Restoration - AAA of Colorado

Certified Aeronautical Products is proud to support the Antique Airplane Association of Colorado Taylorcraft Rebuild Youth Project.  The airplane is a BC12-D which will sport a Continental C85 upgrade purchased by the AAA of Colorado last year.  CAP has also donated approved paperwork for the airplane to be modified with Luscombe exhaust.  Headed up by long-time antique airplane restorer, Jack Greiner, the program has provided opportunities for young people to get involved in aviation.  Past restorations on which the team has participated include a 1931 Rose Parakeet, a Pietenpol Aircamper, and now a Taylorcraft.  Some of the kids have achieved in pilot training and have gone on to obtain a private pilot's certificate.  We applaud the work of the AAA of Colorado and Jack Greiner.

See more about this project here.http://antiqueaircraftofco.org/index.htm

The A75 Continental Engine Dilemma

The following email is fairly common in my line of work.  It seems there are a number of airplanes (not just Taylorcrafts) out there with Continental A75 engines that have been substituted in place of Continental A65 engines.  This is a logical upgrade and one that for many years was considered a benign change to the aircraft. A lot of the old school mechanics and operators made such upgrades without a lot of attention to the paperwork. But in today's FAA world, we are increasingly held to a higher "paperwork" standard.

So what does one do about the A75 Continental Engine Dilemma??  The following is an example of a Taylorcraft solution.  The same or similar solution can be executed for other airplane makes such as Champs, Cubs, or others as well.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXX
To: barnstmr
Sent: Tue, May 8, 2012 7:58 pm
Subject: Buying a Taylorcraft

Terry,

I’m purchasing a 1946 Taylorcraft. It has a Continental A75, as advertised. I understand there may be some paper work challenges. I’ve asked the A&P seller/dealer to give me some more information regarding the paper work and/or the installation of the A75 (vs. the 65).

If needed, is there a 337 or STC I could purchase that will help my local A&P with the annual. I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting into. Maybe it’s all fine....

XXXXXX

 **************************************

Dear XXXXXX,
Congratulations on your decision to buy a Taylorcraft.  These are great airplanes.  Mine is a 65 horsepower BC12D s/n 7898 (N95598) probably not too far away from yours.  Mine was licensed in April 1946.  I have dealt with the A75 issue on several other Taylorcrafts.  There are two options. But first, here is some basic information about the differences between the A65 and A75.  If you already know this, please excuse my elementary explanation.

The A75 uses all the same parts that are eligible on an A65, but an A65 can have some parts that are not eligible on an A75. Does this make sense?  Basically, the A75 has provisions for better lubrication to the piston pin area and thus Continental allowed operation of the A75 at higher RPMs. (It is legal to use the same parts in an A65 too). So it basically moves you up higher on the power curve. From a certification standpoint, Continental showed that with the added lubrication, the A75 has acceptable durability at the higher RPMs. With fixed pitch propellers, the only way to get to the higher RPMs is by shortening the blades, or flattening the pitch.  So here's your options.

option 1. Retain the 75 horsepower rating:  Because of the changes in the past few years on FAA ORDER 8100.9, an engine horsepower change greater than 10% requires an STC. So here's what we can do.    You can purchase the STC for the C85 upgrade and I will also provide paperwork to allow you to deviate from the STC by installing an A75. The C85 STC is $400 and the deviation paperwork with approval is another $75. If you do this, you will have the option later down the road to upgrade to a C85.   NOTE: one of the major costs you need to consider is your propeller.  In order to rate the engine at 75 hp, we will need to verify your propeller will allow the engine to "turn up" above 2150 RPM (or 2110 with a 71 inch McCauley 1A90) on the ground in a static (stationary) run-up. The 75 hp rating is then allowed with a tachometer red line of 2600 RPM.  There are some other details we need to discuss to cover all the bases and other options, but thats the short answer. 

option 2. De-rate the engine to 65 hp: If you find that your current propeller will not make required RPM in a static run-up, then we can de-rate the A75 engine to 65 hp.  In this case, we would need to verify it will match the propeller static run-up requirements on the 65 horsepower BC12D Type Certificate A-696.  This would not require an STC because we would not have a horsepower increase.In this case, the 65 horsepower rating would have a tachometer red line of 2300 RPM.  I would thus provide a modification specification sheet and an approval for the de-rated A75, which costs $250.


Thanks for contacting me.  Good luck.

Terry

9-GALLON WING TANKS FOR TAYLORCRAFT L-2 / DC

NOW AVAILABLE - FAA Approved paperwork for extended range (9-gallon) wing tanks for Taylorcraft L-2 / DC Tandem series aircraft.

C E R T I F I E D   A E R O N A U T I C A L    P R O D U C T S

FAA-DER APPROVED DRAWING PACKAGE

$ 550.00 

CALL TODAY (254) 715-4773 

C.A.P. has collaborated with FAA Certified Repair Station operator, Craig Gunder of Gunder Restorations and Design, and L-2A owner Mark Watson, to develop details and installation drawings for this worthwhile upgrade.  Gunder and Watson teamed up to fabricate and install the upgrade in Watson's L-2A using FAA-DER approved paperwork from C.A.P.  They have each shared the following photos of their quality workmanship. 

9-GALLON LH FUEL TANK 

FABRICATED BY 

GUNDER RESTORATION & DESIGN

FAA CERTIFIED REPAIR STATION

RED LION, PA - (717) 246-1200

The 9-gallon tank design drawings specify 0.050t Aluminum 5052-H32.  All plumbing connections, including sight tube, are identical to the original 6-gallon factory tanks.  The weight of each aluminum 9-gallon tank assembly is within 1/2 lb. of the original steel/terneplate 6-gallon tanks.     

L-2A UPGRADE WITH 9-GALLON WING TANKS

INSTALLED BY MARK WATSON

The installation requires that the #2 rib be cut between spars and re-located approx 3 inches outboard.  A false rib is attached to spars and bonded to tank top surface.  A false rib is also used at bottom. 

LH installaiton - note false rib bonded to tank

LH installation - note #2 rib re-located.

LH installation underside - note false rib at tank bottom

Optional aluminum leading edge skin section can be added for ease of access.  Although this modification could be accomplished with the wings still mounted on the airframe, it is recommended to remove wings for this job.

RH tank with 9-gallon tank and optional wing leading edge section installed

False ribs are used to maintain airfoil curvature and fabric attachment by rib-stitching. 

View inside RH wing of fabric attachment to false spar via rib-stitches

Mark finished modifying his airplane in March 2012.  We have not yet had a pilot report.  Perhaps he may be too busy flying.  We do hope to hear more feedback from Mark soon.

Both wings finished, ready for installation.

The modification is highly recommended for L-2 and DC-65 airplanes which have had engine upgrade to C-85, C-90, or O-200 per CAP's STC # SA02146LA.  When finished, the total fuel capacity is increased from 14 gallons to 20 gallons.    This means you can extend your aircraft's fuel endurance range by approximately 1 hour, considering the fuel consumption rate of an O-200, a logical trade-off for a fuel weight gain of only 36 pounds. 

Aircraft / People profile: N57504, L-2A is no stranger to this weblog.  Back in 2008, when owned by Mr. Ed O'Brien of Denver, CO, this airplane became one of the first to have a C.A.P. STC engine upgrade to C85-12 installed by Mr. Dave Wiebe in El Dorado, KS.  The airplane had been restored in 2004 by Mr. Jon Frasier in Idaho. Mark Watson acquired the aircraft from Ed sometime after 2008.  Then in 2011, tragedy struck.  While displaying the airplane at the annual Sun-N-Fun fly-in, the airplane was severely damaged in the infamous tornado.  Not letting this adversity get the best of him, Mark went to work repairing his airplane. He decided to install the 9-gallon tanks upgrade in the process.  Our hats are off to Mark, having the airplane airworthy again in less that a year after the tornado incident.

- - - - - - - // - - - - - - -

Credit where credit is due:  C.A.P. can certainly take no credit for the concept employed in the L-2 fuel tank mods.  In fact, other one-off fuel tank installations have been accomplished in the past under various configurations to increase the fuel capacity of L-2's.  C.A.P. was involved in some of these to support individuals with their own designs.  We have seen everything from fiberglass to multiple inter-connected fuel cells.  We have studied all configurations and decided to take the best features from all and incorporate them into one design concept that could be standardized and cleanly packaged for ease of production and simple to install.  Design concept credit really comes from the combined lessons learned from projects by Lane Tufts, Mike Letrello, John Collier, and Jim Calcotte.  Credit for the detail design of the tank itself is rightfully due to the expertise of Craig Gunder.  And much of the details associated with installation design credit must go to Mark Watson.  The Taylorcraft community is indebted to these folks.  C.A.P. exists to help funnel this kind of expertise into the vintage airplane fleet at large, to help preserve these airplanes for years to come

CENTRAL TEXAS TAYLORCRAFT FLY-IN 2012

Make plans now to attend the Central Texas Taylorcraft Fly-in on March 30-31, 2012.

 

Click on images below for larger view.

IMPORTANT LINKS:


Fort Parker Flying Field: FLY-IN Location

Old Fort Parker Accommodations



MORE INFORMATION:

See recent video about the Old Fort