The following attachment will take you to Tail Wheel Pilots Association where I have pictures of my 170A being repaired. I have made some good progress.
The picture of the nearly completed & polished fuselage is in my cluttered shop. I had just had to take all of my shop tools out of my shop van and put in the garage to have body and frame work performed on the van after being hit head on by a hit and run driver.
There are a couple of pictures taken buy the adjuster when the aircraft was ground looped that shows the tragedy and the bent wing. All of this happened to the previous owner. The repair estimate was over what the previous owner had the aircraft insured for.
It works when I go to this attachment. In any case you can see the slides in the gallery at tailwheel.com and looking for the title 170A repair 170 repair progress.
I noticed in one of the pictures the buckled floorboard. It's food for thought looking at that one. I've wondered if the gear leg would come through the floor and take out the pilot or passenger in such circumstances, but it appears that the leg just pivots in the outer gear-box without coming up into the seat.
WOW! The ground loop sure did a lot of damage! Those are great pictures and very educational to view. For such a simple airplane there sure are alot of parts. No wonder it's possible to get where the insurance companies will salvage instead of rebuild. Looks like you are building it back as good as new or better. Is it a project to sell, or are you building it to fly? Know it's a lot of time and work, but it looks like an enjoyable way to make a living.
Is it a project to sell, or are you building it to fly? Know it's a lot of time and work, but it looks like an enjoyable way to make a living.[/quote]
I am building it to fly. The project is going faster than I thought. What is interesting is that the floorboard is buckled but both of the gear leg fittings both inboard and outboard were both ripped completely from the airplane along with the bulkheads they were attached to.
Jim
A&P, IA, New owner C170A N1208D, Have rebuilt some 50 aircraft. So many airplanes, So little time!
That's interesting, I'm curious to know what you think about the failures. Does it look like the outboard fitting ripped out of the plane before the inside fitting let loose? Did the main bolt shear, or did the whole inner mount come loose?
I've been planning on having the P-Ponk mod done to the inner fittings on mine at annual along with a closer look at the outer fittings for corrosion. Since my plane spent approximately 30 years of it's life in Canada with a bunch of time on floats I'm planning for the worst $$ and hoping for the best. My plane also has one new panel of sheet metal on the bottom under the pilot side which makes me wonder if it had a gear collapse at some point in its life. I find it rather amazing how much of these planes can be rebuilt by hand, and also how much hand craftsmanship went into them when they were built. Years ago I became enamored with tube and rag type planes because they could be rebuilt "by hand" now I'm becoming increasingly aware that our aluminum "spam cans" really are just as much rolling/flying examples of old world craftsmanship. To the naive they look like something that rolled off a Detroit assembly line, but they have so little in common with automotive assembly lines. Each one was built by people who were very intimate with what they were building.
[quote="Jr.CubBuilder"]That's interesting, I'm curious to know what you think about the failures. Does it look like the outboard fitting ripped out of the plane before the inside fitting let loose? Did the main bolt shear, or did the whole inner mount come loose?
quote]
I posted a description of the damage in the other thread titled (Watch those gear boxes Folks) along with the drawing from the parts manual posted by Joneb. Find it on page 2 titled (Gear Box Story). Both fittings were still attached to the gear leg. The bolt did not shear. All bolts that attach the fittings to the forward and aft gear bulkheads were still intact. My gear fittings were not damaged by corrosion or the incident. In my opinion The P-Ponk mod would not have prevented this from happening. However I am still installing the P-Ponk mod myself because of what I believe it will provide.
A&P, IA, New owner C170A N1208D, Have rebuilt some 50 aircraft. So many airplanes, So little time!
that looks a heck of a project.