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The
Story of N30X
Cornville: January 14th 2002
The
Early Years.
Fournier
RF4D, serial No 4107 started life as “F-OGDO” on
April 24th, 1969 when the logbook was officially
started. The first entry is ? Since this is in French
I don’t know what it is all about. J
The next
log book entry in also in French, is dated March 11,
1969 but here the words “des Antilles” appear, so
I assume that this means that by this time the little bird
had arrived at its first home, which was The French
Antilles in The Caribbean. The airplane’s owner was a
local flying club based in Martinique.
The hours
kept building and by July 1974 a total of 271.48 hrs had
been accumulated.
With the
help of my Senior Technical Advisor and Mentor, Patrick
Faucheron I have obtained a picture of F-OGDO
on the tarmac next to whatever. J
Nothing
else is known about its early life except entries showing
that it was being flown on a regular basis.
F-OGDO
emigrates to the US and becomes N30X
May 16th
1975 the French registry was cancelled, and on June 1st,
1976, an “Application for Airworthiness Certificate “
was made to the American FAA, with a special request for a
short “N” number. The “Bird” had flown the coop and
was applying for US citizenship!
On
July 1st, 1976 a “Special Airworthiness
Certificate” in the “Experimental” category was
issued for “N30X”, and the airplane took up residence
in Florida, USA. The new owner was an A&P mechanic.
The
change in citizenship also involved a major job of repair
and restoration, as the wings needed a complete
rebuild in addition to replacing part of the rear bottom of
the fuselage. All the control surfaces were also recovered.
The engine was overhauled. I found a note that the repair
work took 3 months. I have also found evidence of
additional “repair” work.
After all
this work N30X took to the air again and by March 1980 a
total of 490.26 hours had been logged.
What
happened after the initial emporia of having been rebuilt
and flown, I do not know, but an indication is a picture
from 1988, which shows the little fella minus horizontal
tail and propeller and looking rather faded at an airfield.
New
owner again
At the
end of 1988 N30X changed hands again. The new owner was
also an A&P mechanic, and the residence was still
Florida. Since there are no logbook entries between
1980 and 1988 I have no idea what happened in between, but
obviously life had not been easy. I have obtained some
pictures which shows various stages of repair, but they do
not show any kind of professionalism as I understand it.
The
logbook entry from 1 May 1989 is a full page, and describes
a complete overhaul and rebuild of the wing and also parts
of the cockpit structure, in addition to the horizontal
tail. The flying surfaces was also recovered.
There are
no logbook entries after the overhaul, so I presume the
aircraft was not flown for unknown reasons.
In 1996
N30X was again sold to another A&P, and his job
was to be a complete rebuild of the airframe. Since
he had already done a complete overhaul on another RF4D he
was quite familiar with the type.
Unfortunately
he was only able to complete the rebuild of the wing before
he passed away. His son having all the airplanes he
needed (is that really possible?) decided to sell
N30X.
N30X
moves to Arizona
I found
an ad in “Soaring Magazine” for an RF4D looking for a
home, and having tried unsuccessfully to buy an RF4D some
30 years ago I knew at least what an RF4D looked like. Most
people in the US haven’t a clue what a Fournier or an
RF4D is.
Having
recently retired to Northern Arizona after having spent
over 30 years in the Seattle area working on somewhat
larger airplanes, I was looking for a project, something
with airplanes written all over it. N30X seems to fit
the bill.
N30X
resided in Denver, Colorado, but that was a easy one
day days drive (1,200 KM). Since I was not that
familiar with wooden airplanes, and at the same time being
all psyched up I made an deal to buy N30X.
Part of
the deal was that the seller agreed to deliver the airplane
with the 30’ trailer to my house.
This
is how N30X looked when I first saw her. The landing gear
is a specials version to cover all possibilities, both for
taildragger pilots, or those more comfortable with a nose
gear J.
Actually the extra gear which is attached to the main and
secondary spar fitting makes it very easy to move the
airframe.
The
day after!
Since
the wing had already been rebuilt, and being somewhat naive
I thought the rebuild would be a simple job. There was just
a few things that needed fixing! J
The fuselage restoration had not been started, but the
control surfaces and the fin had been stripped.
After
N30X arrived I stored the wing in a hangar I had rented and
wheeled the fuselage into my two car garage, which doubles
as my workshop. I did already have a drill press, a bandsaw
and a compressor. So I expected that besides buying a
sander and a few hand tools I should be in good
shape. One tool that I also had was a Dremel Rotary
tool with a 3’ snake. This tool has proved to be a
Godsend, without it I would have been in deep dodo!
The
Fuselage
After
checking some suspicious areas I decided to
completely strip the fuselage of paint and fabric, since
what I saw did not inspire much confidence in the various
repairs done earlier.
This
is a picture of the “repair” done to the top LH inboard
longeron. The front “splice” is not quite a 1:12 scarfe
I am afraid J,
and the rear aft “splice” is just a “butt joint”
where the turtledeck starts. Plus plenty of “HobbyPoxy”.
As far as I have been able to establish “HobbyPoxy” is
used for marine and model aircraft applications!
Of the
six top longerons which surrounds the cockpit area, four
had to have the center part(about 50-75 cm long) replaced,
and the inboard one on the LH side, which is about 2 meter
long had to be replaced completely. The inside skin on the
LH side in the cockpit also had to be partially replaced,
as well as the outside skins on both sides of the
cockpit area. The replaced pieces are each about 1 meter
long.
This
caused a potential problem since by cutting all the
structural pieces at the same time, I was concerned about
the structural integrity of the fuselage while I was trying
to repair it. I did not look forward to the possibility of
the airframe suddenly collapsing while I was trying to
repair it! Fortunately I was able to sequence the repair in
such a way that nothing broke.
The “skates”
on the underside of the forward floor showed evidence of
numerous belly landings. The landing gear doors were a
local variations of the originals, plus that the
whole belly was soaked in engine oil.
The tail
cone was another disaster. It had also been “repaired”
with liberal amounts of “HobbyPoxy”. The tail
wheel support was full of rot, so the whole tail section
supporting the tail wheel and the vertical fin has to be
rebuilt. The support for the handle (tube) forward of the
horizontal tail also had rot damage, especially on the LH
side.
The
Horizontal Tail
No
repairs had been done to the horizontal tail except the
paint had been sanded off. After I had completely
stripped paint and fabric of the horizontal stabilizer, I
discovered that the repair done by one of the previous
owners was totally unacceptable. There were plenty of “HobbyPoxy”
all around! It would have been easier to fabricate a
completely new horizontal stabilizer then to repair this
one. After checking with Patrick, I decided to look for a
new/used part. Patrick found a used unit in France, and
that problem was solved.
An
arrangement was made with Jean Michel Daubagna , an
fellow “RF nut” who is also a Air France 747-400
Captain to arrange the transport of the “new”
horizontal tail to me. This was accomplish as far as LAX
with relative ease. In addition to the horizontal
stabilizer I had also bought some parts from EIS in
Germany and Jean Michel carried everything with him
I am not
sure of all that happened at LAX, but the box containing
the horizontal tail and also the additional part were
loaded on a truck for transport to my home. After about a
week with no box of airplane parts I stared to get
concerned. After several calls to the trucking company I
was able to establish that they had in their warehouse
something which they thought was an airplane wing! They
actually had a bet going on about what is was, but NO
paperwork. Since my name and address was on the outside of
the box they were able to established that I was the
recipient. A couple of days later the “box” arrived.
When
I “removed” the horizontal tail the whole box
collapsed, since it was made mostly of cardboard with a few
sticks of wood. The additional parts are still somewhere
between California and Arizona I presume! JThe
tail itself survived with only a few scratches.
Control
Surfaces
With all
the damage to the wood structure I decide that I did not
need any more work that I was not familiar with, so I
farmed out the recovering of the ailerons, the elevators
and the rudder to a local A&P.
Bits
and Pieces
Since I
was not a “wood aircraft guy” before this job,
the learning curve has been rather steep. One thing that I
was concerned about was: how do I scarf
plywood? After some testing I decided that the Dremel
rotary tool with a small sanding disk is the way to go.
I started
the project in late 1999 and so far I have gotten the
cockpit area mostly done and fwd the floor is in. The
cockpit area took a long time since nearly all the pieces
had to be replaced.
I kept
looking at the tail cone for a long time, but since I did
not have a good feeling of how to do it I postponed it as
long as I could .The aft 40 cm had to be replaced. However
it wasn’t a difficult as I imagined when I got started.
The vertical fin interface was a major concern, but it
seems to fit!
Upgrades
etc
In
addition to the repair and restoration I have decided
to upgrade the engine with a Great Plaines 1600 cc which
will give me about 53 HP. The new engine has an accessory
case attached to the rear which houses an alternator in
addition to the starter. I am also replacing the
single ignition magneto with a dual Leburg electronic
ignition system . The umbrella handle brake will be
removed and a hydraulic brake installed. This last
modification is copied after Aiichiro Nakazawa. Haven’t
quite decided on the brake handle location yet, the stick
though is the front runner
As far as
instruments go I am a firm believer in the “KISS”
principle (Keep It Simple Stupid), so except for adding a
CHT and possibly a EGT and upgrading to electric oil
pressure and temp gauges, NO changes.
As far as
a schedule,” I am way ahead of schedule”, since there
are no schedule on this project!
Ed
Bjornrud
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